Chapter 1

 Ron Carver's day was beginning strangely.

For one thing, the legs he swung off the narrow bed wouldn't touch the floor. And his hands, whose ten strong fingers could manipulate the controls of any ship ever launched into space, were weak and clumsy.

He looked at the hands first, looked at them for a long time. Then he screamed.

He screamed until footsteps were loud in the corridor outside his room; shrill¹, piping screams that didn't stop even when the giant woman-face was bending over him, speaking gentle, soothing² words, stroking his thin shoulders with giant, comforting gestures.

"There, there, now," the woman was saying. "You're all right, Ronnie. You're all right. It was only a nightmare... a bad old nightmare...."

She was right. Only the nightmare hadn't ended. The nightmare was before his face, in her gargantuan³ features, in her motherly touch on his frail⁴ body, in the sight of the small, soft appendages⁵ that were his hands.

They were the hands of a boy of twelve. And Ron Carver was thirty years old.

Two men giants joined the woman at his bedside, and one of them forced a small speckled capsule past his resisting lips. Then his viewpoint became detached and distant, and a pleasurable drowsiness⁶ overcame him. He stretched out and shut his eyes, but he could still hear the worried tones of their speech.

"Dr. Minton warned us," one of the men said, lifting Ron's bony wrist and feeling for the pulse. "The boy has suffered some severe traumatic shock..."

Dr. Minton! Ron Carver's mind grasped the familiar name—the name of his own physician—gratefully. But his body gave no sign.

"Maybe we better call him," the woman said nervously⁷. "I think he's still in the sick bay."

"Good idea."

In another moment, a familiar hairy face was floating over Ron's head like a captive balloon, a face grown grotesque⁸ in size.

"Doctor..." he said with his lips.

"There." Dr. Minton patted his shoulder. "You're all right now, Ronnie. You're perfectly⁹ all right. Just relax and try to sleep." The balloon came closer, and the scraggly ends of the doctor's beard brushed his cheek. Then the doctor's mouth was covering his small ear.

"Play the game," the doctor whispered. "For your own sake. Play the game, Ron..."

Then he was asleep.

1 shrill   

adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫

参考例句：

• Whistles began to shrill outside the barn.哨声开始在谷仓外面尖叫。
• The shrill ringing of a bell broke up the card game on the cutter.刺耳的铃声打散了小汽艇的牌局。

2 soothing   

adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的

参考例句：

• Put on some nice soothing music.播放一些柔和舒缓的音乐。
• His casual, relaxed manner was very soothing.他随意而放松的举动让人很快便平静下来。

3 gargantuan   

adj.巨大的，庞大的

参考例句：

• My gargantuan,pristine machine was good for writing papers and playing solitaire,and that was all.我那庞大的、早期的计算机只适合写文章和玩纸牌游戏，就这些。
• Right away,I realized this was a mistake of gargantuan proportions.我立刻意识到这是一个巨大的错误。

4 frail   

adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的

参考例句：

• Mrs. Warner is already 96 and too frail to live by herself.华纳太太已经九十六岁了，身体虚弱，不便独居。
• She lay in bed looking particularly frail.她躺在床上，看上去特别虚弱。

5 appendages   

n.附属物( appendage的名词复数 )；依附的人；附属器官；附属肢体（如臂、腿、尾等）

参考例句：

• The 11th segment carries a pair of segmented appendages, the cerci. 第十一节有一对分节的附肢，即尾须。 来自辞典例句
• Paired appendages, with one on each side of the body, are common in many animals. 很多动物身上有成对的附肢，一侧一个，这是很普遍的现象。 来自辞典例句

6 drowsiness   

n.睡意；嗜睡

参考例句：

• A feeling of drowsiness crept over him. 一种昏昏欲睡的感觉逐渐袭扰着他。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This decision reached, he finally felt a placid drowsiness steal over him. 想到这，来了一点平安的睡意。 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子

7 nervously   

adv.神情激动地，不安地

参考例句：

• He bit his lip nervously,trying not to cry.他紧张地咬着唇，努力忍着不哭出来。
• He paced nervously up and down on the platform.他在站台上情绪不安地走来走去。

8 grotesque   

adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物）

参考例句：

• His face has a grotesque appearance.他的面部表情十分怪。
• Her account of the incident was a grotesque distortion of the truth.她对这件事的陈述是荒诞地歪曲了事实。

9 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。