Could you please tell me what the relationship is between the phrase:
"How'd you manage that?"
and the next sentences:
"I felt stupid. I should have been able to do it, I thought. It’s a
simple thing."
Here is the full text:
My back struck iron: the trailer’s wall. My feet snapped over my head and
I continued my graceless plunge to the ground. The first fall was seven or
eight feet, the second perhaps ten. I was relieved to taste dirt.
I lay on my back for perhaps fifteen seconds before the engine growled to
silence and I heard Dad’s heavy step.
“What happened?” he said, kneeling next to me.
“I fell out,” I wheezed. The wind had been knocked out of me, and there
was a powerful throbbing in my back, as if I’d been cut in two.
“How’d you manage that?” Dad said. His tone was sympathetic but
disappointed. I felt stupid. I should have been able to do it, I thought. It’s a
simple thing.
Best Answer
The father asks how the speaker managed to fall, implying that falling would have been something difficult or out of the ordinary to do under the circumstances. When the speaker says that the father looked disappointed he is recognizing that the father thinks it was a mistake to fall. The speaker then agrees with the father. He also feels that he shouldn't have fallen. He should have been able to 'do it', meaning he should have been able to finish whatever he was doing before the fall.