Chapter 3

 The painter thumbed his nose at the orderly. "When I decide it's time to go," he said, "it won't be at the Sheepdip."

 

"A do-it-yourselfer, eh?" said the orderly. "Messy business, Grandpa. Why don't you have a little consideration for the people who have to clean up after you?"

 

The painter expressed with an obscenity his lack of concern for the tribulations¹ of his survivors². "The world could do with a good deal more mess, if you ask me," he said.

 

The orderly laughed and moved on.

 

Wehling, the waiting father, mumbled³ something without raising his head. And then he fell silent again.

 

A coarse, formidable woman strode into the waiting room on spike⁴ heels. Her shoes, stockings, trench⁵ coat, bag and overseas cap were all purple, the purple the painter called "the color of grapes on Judgment⁶ Day."

 

The medallion on her purple musette bag was the seal of the Service Division of the Federal Bureau of Termination, an eagle perched on a turnstile.

 

The woman had a lot of facial hair—an unmistakable mustache, in fact. A curious thing about gas-chamber⁷ hostesses was that, no matter how lovely and feminine they were when recruited, they all sprouted⁸ mustaches within five years or so.

 

"Is this where I'm supposed to come?" she said to the painter.

 

"A lot would depend on what your business was," he said. "You aren't about to have a baby, are you?"

 

"They told me I was supposed to pose for some picture," she said. "My name's Leora Duncan." She waited.

 

"And you dunk people," he said.

 

"What?" she said.

 

"Skip it," he said.

 

"That sure is a beautiful picture," she said. "Looks just like heaven or something."

 

"Or something," said the painter. He took a list of names from his smock pocket. "Duncan, Duncan, Duncan," he said, scanning the list. "Yes—here you are. You're entitled to be immortalized. See any faceless body here you'd like me to stick your head on? We've got a few choice ones left."

 

She studied the mural bleakly⁹. "Gee," she said, "they're all the same to me. I don't know anything about art."

 

"A body's a body, eh?" he said. "All righty. As a master of fine art, I recommend this body here." He indicated a faceless figure of a woman who was carrying dried stalks to a trash-burner.

 

"Well," said Leora Duncan, "that's more the disposal people, isn't it? I mean, I'm in service. I don't do any disposing."

 

The painter clapped his hands in mock delight. "You say you don't know anything about art, and then you prove in the next breath that you know more about it than I do! Of course the sheave-carrier is wrong for a hostess! A snipper, a pruner—that's more your line." He pointed¹⁰ to a figure in purple who was sawing a dead branch from an apple tree. "How about her?" he said. "You like her at all?"

 

"Gosh—" she said, and she blushed and became humble—"that—that puts me right next to Dr. Hitz."

 

"That upsets you?" he said.

 

"Good gravy¹¹, no!" she said. "It's—it's just such an honor."

 

"Ah, You... you admire him, eh?" he said.

 

"Who doesn't admire him?" she said, worshiping the portrait of Hitz. It was the portrait of a tanned, white-haired, omnipotent¹² Zeus, two hundred and forty years old. "Who doesn't admire him?" she said again. "He was responsible for setting up the very first gas chamber in Chicago."

 

"Nothing would please me more," said the painter, "than to put you next to him for all time. Sawing off a limb—that strikes you as appropriate?"

 

"That is kind of like what I do," she said. She was demure¹³ about what she did. What she did was make people comfortable while she killed them.

 

1 tribulations   

n.苦难( tribulation的名词复数 )；艰难；苦难的缘由；痛苦

参考例句：

• the tribulations of modern life 现代生活的苦恼
• The film is about the trials and tribulations of adolescence. 这部电影讲述了青春期的麻烦和苦恼。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

3 mumbled   

含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He mumbled something to me which I did not quite catch. 他对我叽咕了几句话，可我没太听清楚。
• George mumbled incoherently to himself. 乔治语无伦次地喃喃自语。

4 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。

5 trench   

n./v.(挖)沟，(挖)战壕

参考例句：

• The soldiers recaptured their trench.兵士夺回了战壕。
• The troops received orders to trench the outpost.部队接到命令在前哨周围筑壕加强防卫。

6 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

7 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

8 sprouted   

v.发芽( sprout的过去式和过去分词 )；抽芽；出现；（使）涌现出

参考例句：

• We can't use these potatoes; they've all sprouted. 这些土豆儿不能吃了，都出芽了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The rice seeds have sprouted. 稻种已经出芽了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

9 bleakly   

无望地，阴郁地，苍凉地

参考例句：

• The windows of the house stared bleakly down at her. 那座房子的窗户居高临下阴森森地对着她。
• He stared at me bleakly and said nothing. 他阴郁地盯着我，什么也没说。

10 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

11 gravy   

n.肉汁；轻易得来的钱，外快

参考例句：

• You have spilled gravy on the tablecloth.你把肉汁泼到台布上了。
• The meat was swimming in gravy.肉泡在浓汁之中。

12 omnipotent   

adj.全能的，万能的

参考例句：

• When we are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science.我们达到万能以后就不需要科学了。
• Money is not omnipotent,but we can't survive without money.金钱不是万能的，但是没有金钱我们却无法生存。

13 demure   

adj.严肃的；端庄的

参考例句：

• She's very demure and sweet.她非常娴静可爱。
• The luscious Miss Wharton gave me a demure but knowing smile.性感迷人的沃顿小姐对我羞涩地会心一笑。