Robert Torrelson sat at the aging rolltop desk in his liv-ing room, listening as his son boarded up the windows at the back of the house. In his hand was the note from Paul Flanner, and he was absently folding and unfolding it, still wondering at the fact that he had come.
He hadn’t expected it. Though he’d written the request, he’d been sure that Paul Flanner would ignore it. Flanner was a high-powered doctor in the city, represented by at-torneys who wore flashy ties and fancy belts, and none of them had seemed to give a damn about him or his family for over a year now. Rich city folk were like that; as for him, he was glad that he’d never had to live near people who pushed paper for a living and weren’t comfortable if the temperature at work wasn’t exactly seventy-two de-grees. Nor did he like dealing1 with people who thought they were better than others because they had better schooling2 or more money or a bigger house. Paul Flanner, when he’d met him after the surgery, had struck him as that type of person. He was stiff and distant, and though he’d explained himself, the clipped way he’d spoken the words had left Robert with the feeling that he wouldn’t lose a minute’s sleep because of what had happened.
And that wasn’t right.
Robert had lived a life with different values, values that had been honored by his father and grandfather and their grandfather before that. He could trace his family’s roots in the Outer Banks back nearly two hundred years. Genera-tion after generation, they’d fished the waters of Pamlico Sound since the times when the fish were so plentiful3 that a person could cast a single net and pull in enough fish to fill the bow. But all that had changed. Now there were quotas4 and regulations and licenses5 and big companies, all chasing fewer fish than there’d ever been. These days, when Robert went down to the boat, half the time he con-sidered himself lucky if he caught enough to pay for the gas he’d needed.
Robert Torrelson was sixty-seven but looked ten years older. His face was weathered and stained, and his body was slowly losing the battle with time. There was a long scar that ran from his left eye to his ear. His hands ached with arthritis6, and the ring finger on his right hand was missing from the time he’d got it caught in a winch while dragging in the nets.
But Jill hadn’t cared about any of those things. And now Jill was gone.
On the desk was a picture of her, and Robert still found himself staring at it whenever he was alone in the room.
He missed everything about her; he missed the way she rubbed his shoulders after he came in on cold winter evenings, he missed the way they used to sit together and listen to music on the radio while they sat on the porch out back, he missed the way she smelled after dabbing7 her chest with powder, an odor that was simple and clean, fresh like a newborn.
Paul Flanner had taken all that away from him. Jill, he knew, would still have been with him had she never gone to the hospital that day.
His son had had his turn. And now the time had come for his.
Adrienne made the short drive to town and pulled into the small gravel8 parking lot of the general store, breathing a sigh of relief to find that it was still open.
There were three cars out front parked haphazardly9, each coated with a thin layer of salt. A couple of older men wearing baseball hats were standing10 out front, smoking and drinking coffee. They watched Adrienne as she got out of the car, and they stopped speaking; as she passed them on her way into the store, they nodded a greeting. The store was typical of those in rural areas: a scuffed12 wooden floor, ceiling fans, shelves with thousands of vari-ous items packed close together. Near the register was a small barrel offering dill pickles13 for sale; next to that was another barrel containing roasted peanuts. In the rear was a small grill14 offering fresh cooked burgers and fish sand-wiches, and though no one was behind the counter, the odor of fried food lingered in the air.
The ice machine was in the far rear corner, next to the refrigerated compartments15 containing beer and soda16, and Adrienne headed that way. As she reached for the handle of the ice machine door, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirrored door panel. She stopped for a moment, as if seeing herself through different eyes.
How long had it been, she wondered, since someone had found her attractive? Or someone she’d just met had wanted to kiss her? If someone had asked her those ques-tions before she’d come here, she would have answered that neither of those things had happened since the day Jack17 had moved out. But that wasn’t exactly true, was it? Not like this, anyway. Jack had been her husband, not a stranger, and since they’d dated for two years before they walked down the aisle18, it was closer to twenty-three years since she’d encountered something like this.
Of course, had Jack not left, she could have lived with that knowledge and never thought twice about it; but here and now, she found that impossible. More than half her life had passed without the interest of an attractive man, and no matter how much she wanted to convince herself that her reasons for turning away had been based on common sense, she couldn’t help but think that being out of prac-tice for twenty-three years had something to do with it as well.
She was drawn19 to Paul, she couldn’t deny that. It wasn’t just that he was handsome and interesting, or even charm-ing in his own quiet way. Nor was it just the fact that he’d made her feel desirable. No, it was his genuine desire to change—to be a better person than he had been—that she found most compelling. She’d known people like him be-fore in her life—like physicians, attorneys were often no-torious workaholics—but she had yet to come across someone who’d not only made the decision to change the rules that he’d always lived by, but was doing so in a way that most people would be terrified to contemplate20.
There was, she decided21, something noble in that. He wanted to fix the flaws he recognized in himself, he wanted to forge a relationship with his estranged22 son, he had come here because a stranger seeking redress23 from him had sent a note requesting it.
What kind of person did those things? What kind of strength would that take? Or courage? More than she had, she thought. More than anyone she knew, and as much as she wanted to deny it, she was gratified that some-one like him had found her attractive.
As she reflected on these things, Adrienne grabbed the last two bags of ice and a Styrofoam cooler and carried it all to the register. After paying, she left the store and headed for the car. One of the elderly men was still sitting on the porch as she left, and as she nodded to him, she wore the odd expression of someone who had attended a wedding and a funeral on exactly the same day.
In her brief absence the sky had grown darker, and the wind cut past her as she stepped out of the car. It had begun to whistle as it moved around the Inn, sounding almost ghostlike, a spectral24 flute25 playing a single note. Clouds swirled26 and banded together, shifting in clumps27 as they passed overhead. The ocean was a sea of white tips, and the waves were rolling heavily past the high-water mark from the day before.
As she was reaching for the ice, Adrienne saw Paul come out from behind the gate.
“Did you get started without me?” she called out.
“No, not really. I was just making sure I could find every-thing.” He motioned to the load. “Do you need a hand with that ?”
Adrienne shook her head. “I’ve got it. It’s not that heavy.” She nodded toward the door. “But let me get started in there. Would you mind if I went into your room to close up the shutters28 ?”
“No, go ahead. I don’t mind.”
Inside, Adrienne set the cooler next to the refrigerator, cut open the bags of ice with a steak knife, and poured them in. She pulled out some cheese, the fruit that had been left over from breakfast, and the chicken from the night before, stacking it with the ice, thinking it wasn’t a gourmet29 meal, but good enough in case nothing else was available. Then, noting that there was still room, she grabbed one of the bottles of wine and put it on top, feel-ing a forbidden thrill at the thought of sharing the wine with Paul later.
Forcing the feeling away, she spent the next few minutes making sure all the windows were closed and latching30 the shutters from the inside on the bottom floor. Upstairs, she took care of the empty guest rooms first then made her way to the room where he’d slept.
After unlocking the door, she stepped in, noticing that Paul had made his own bed. His duffel bags were folded be-side the chest of drawers; the clothes he’d worn earlier that morning had already been put away, and his loafers were on the floor near the wall, toes together and facing out. Her children, she thought to herself, could learn something from him about the virtues31 of keeping things neat in their rooms.
In his bathroom, she closed up a small window, and as she did, she spied the soap dish and brush he used to create lather32 lying next to his razor. Both were near the sink, next to a bottle of aftershave. Unbidden, an image came to her of him standing over the sink that morning; and as she pic-tured him there, some instinct told her that he’d wanted her beside him.
She shook her head, feeling strangely like a teenager poking33 through a parent’s bedroom, and headed to the win-dow beside his bed. As she was closing it up, she saw Paul carrying one of the rockers off the porch to store beneath the house.
He moved as if he were twenty years younger. Jack wasn’t like that. Over the years, Jack had grown heavy around the midsection from one too many cocktails34, and his belly35 tended to shimmy if he engaged in any sort of physical activity. But Paul was different. Paul, she knew, wasn’t like Jack in any way, and it was there, while upstairs in his room, that Adrienne first felt a vague sense of anxious anticipa-tion, something akin11 to what a high roller might feel when hoping for a lucky roll of the dice36.
Beneath the house, Paul was getting things ready.
The hurricane guards were corrugated37 aluminum38, two and a half feet wide and six feet high, and all had been la-beled with a permanent marker as to which window they protected on the house. Paul began lifting them from the stack and setting them aside, putting each group together, mentally outlining what he needed to do.
He was finishing up just as Adrienne came back down. Thunder sounded in the distance, rumbling39 long and low over the water. The temperature, she noticed, was begin-ning to drop. “How’s it going?” she asked. Her tone, she thought, was unfamiliar40, like another woman was speaking the words.
“It’s easier than I thought it would be,” he said. “All I have to do is match up the grooves41 and slip them into the braces42, then drop these clips in.”
“What about the wood to hold it in place?”
“That’s not too bad, either. The joints43 are already up, so all I have to do is put the two-by-fours in their supports and hammer a couple of nails. Like Jean said, it’s a one-person job.”
“Do you think it’ll take long?”
“Maybe an hour. You can wait inside if you’d like.”
“Isn’t there something I can do? To help, I mean?”
“Not really. But if you’d like, you could keep me com-pany.”
Adrienne smiled, liking44 the invitation in his voice. “You’ve got yourself a deal.”
For the next hour or so, Paul moved from one window to the next, slipping the guards into place as Adrienne kept him company. As he worked, he could feel Adrienne’s eyes on him, and he felt the same awkwardness he’d felt after she’d let go of his hand earlier that morning.
Within a few minutes a light rain started, then it began to fall with more intensity45. Adrienne moved closer to the house to keep from getting wet, but she found that it didn’t help much in the swirling46 wind. Paul neither sped up nor slowed down; the rain and wind didn’t seem to affect him at all.
Another window covered, then the next. Sliding in the guards, dropping the hooks, moving the ladder. By the time the windows were done and Paul had started on the braces, there was lightning over the water and the rain was driving hard. And still Paul worked. Each nail was sunk with four blows, coming regularly, as if he’d worked in carpentry for years.
Despite the rain, they talked; Adrienne noticed that he kept the conversation light, far from anything that could be construed47 the wrong way. He told her about some of the repairs he and his father had done on the farm and that he might he doing a bit of this in Ecuador as well, so that it was good to get the feel of it again.
As Adrienne listened to him talk of this and that, she could tell that Paul was giving her the space he thought she needed, that he thought she wanted. But as she watched him, she suddenly knew that keeping her distance was the furthest thing from her mind.
Everything about him made her long for something she had never known: the way he made what he was doing look easy, the shape of his hips48 and legs in his jeans as he stood on the ladder above her, those eyes that always reflected what he was thinking and feeling. Standing in the pouring rain, she felt the pull of the person he was, and the person she realized she wanted to be.
By the time he finished, his sweatshirt and jacket were soaked and his face had paled with the cold. After storing the ladder and the tools beneath the house, he joined Adri-enne on the porch. She’d run her hand through her hair, pulling it back from her face. The soft curls were gone, and so was any evidence of makeup49. In their place was a natural beauty, and despite the heavy jacket she was wearing, Paul could sense the warm, feminine body beneath it.
It was then, as they were standing under the overhang, that the storm unleashed50 its full fury. A long, streaking51 lightning bolt connected sea to sky, and thunder echoed as if two cars had collided on the highway. The wind gusted52, bending the limbs of trees in a single direction. Rain blew sideways, as if trying to defy gravity.
For a moment they simply watched, knowing that an-other minute in the rain wouldn’t matter. And then, finally giving in to the possibility of what might come next, they turned and headed back into the house without a word.
收听单词发音 |
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dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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schooling
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| n.教育；正规学校教育 | |
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plentiful
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| adj.富裕的，丰富的 | |
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quotas
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| （正式限定的）定量( quota的名词复数 )； 定额； 指标； 摊派 | |
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licenses
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| n.执照( license的名词复数 )v.批准，许可，颁发执照( license的第三人称单数 ) | |
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arthritis
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| n.关节炎 | |
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dabbing
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| 石面凿毛，灰泥抛毛 | |
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gravel
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| n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石 | |
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haphazardly
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| adv.偶然地，随意地，杂乱地 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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akin
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| adj.同族的，类似的 | |
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scuffed
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| v.使磨损( scuff的过去式和过去分词 )；拖着脚走 | |
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pickles
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| n.腌菜( pickle的名词复数 )；处于困境；遇到麻烦；菜酱 | |
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grill
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| n.烤架，铁格子，烤肉；v.烧，烤，严加盘问 | |
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compartments
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| n.间隔( compartment的名词复数 )；（列车车厢的）隔间；（家具或设备等的）分隔间；隔层 | |
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soda
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| n.苏打水；汽水 | |
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jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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aisle
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| n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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contemplate
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| vt.盘算，计议；周密考虑；注视，凝视 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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estranged
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| adj.疏远的，分离的 | |
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redress
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| n.赔偿，救济，矫正；v.纠正，匡正，革除 | |
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spectral
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| adj.幽灵的，鬼魂的 | |
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flute
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| n.长笛；v.吹笛 | |
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swirled
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| v.旋转，打旋( swirl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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clumps
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| n.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的名词复数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声v.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的第三人称单数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声 | |
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shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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gourmet
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| n.食物品尝家；adj.出于美食家之手的 | |
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latching
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| n.闭塞；闭锁；关闭；闭塞装置v.理解( latch的现在分词 )；纠缠；用碰锁锁上（门等）；附着（在某物上） | |
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virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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lather
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| n.(肥皂水的)泡沫，激动 | |
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poking
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| n. 刺，戳，袋 vt. 拨开，刺，戳 vi. 戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢 | |
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cocktails
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| n.鸡尾酒( cocktail的名词复数 )；餐前开胃菜；混合物 | |
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belly
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| n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛 | |
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dice
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| n.骰子；vt.把（食物）切成小方块，冒险 | |
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corrugated
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| adj.波纹的；缩成皱纹的；波纹面的；波纹状的v.（使某物）起皱褶(corrugate的过去式和过去分词) | |
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aluminum
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| n.(aluminium)铝 | |
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rumbling
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| n. 隆隆声, 辘辘声 adj. 隆隆响的 动词rumble的现在分词 | |
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unfamiliar
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| adj.陌生的，不熟悉的 | |
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grooves
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| n.沟( groove的名词复数 )；槽；老一套；（某种）音乐节奏v.沟( groove的第三人称单数 )；槽；老一套；（某种）音乐节奏 | |
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braces
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| n.吊带，背带；托架( brace的名词复数 )；箍子；括弧；（儿童）牙箍v.支住( brace的第三人称单数 )；撑牢；使自己站稳；振作起来 | |
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43
joints
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| 接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语） | |
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liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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swirling
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| v.旋转，打旋( swirl的现在分词 ) | |
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construed
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| v.解释（陈述、行为等）( construe的过去式和过去分词 )；翻译，作句法分析 | |
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48
hips
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| abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的 | |
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makeup
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| n.组织；性格；化装品 | |
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unleashed
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| v.把（感情、力量等）释放出来，发泄( unleash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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51
streaking
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| n.裸奔（指在公共场所裸体飞跑）v.快速移动( streak的现在分词 )；使布满条纹 | |
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gusted
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| n. 突然一阵 n. 风味 vi. 猛吹 | |
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