THE PHELAN FAMILY stands tense, waiting on the brick steps of State Senator Whitworth’s house. The house is in the center of town, on North Street. It is tall and white-columned, appropriately azalea-ed. A gold plaque1 declares it a historical landmark2. Gas lanterns flicker3 despite the hot six o’clock sun.
“Mother,” I whisper because I cannot repeat it enough times. “Please, please don’t forget the thing we talked about.”
“I said I wouldn’t mention it, darling.” She touches the pins holding up her hair. “Unless it’s appropriate.”
I have on the new light blue Lady Day skirt and matching jacket. Daddy has on his black funeral suit. His belt is cinched too tight to be comfortable much less fashionable. Mother is wearing a simple white dress—like a country bride wearing a hand-me-down, I suddenly think, and I feel a rush of panic that we have overdressed, all of us. Mother’s going to bring up the ugly girl’s trust fund and we look like countryfolk on a big damn visit to town.
“Daddy, loosen your belt, it’s hitching4 your pants up.”
He frowns at me and looks down at his pants. Never once have I told my daddy what to do. The door opens.
“Good evening.” A colored woman in a white uniform nods to us. “They expecting y’all.”
We step into the foyer and the first thing I see is the chandelier, sparkling, gauzy with light. My eyes rise up the hollow twirl of the staircase and it is as if we are inside a gigantic seashell.
“Why, hello there.”
I look down from my lollygagging. Missus Whitworth is clicking into the foyer, hands extended. She has on a suit like mine, thankfully, but in crimson5. When she nods, her graying-blond hair does not move.
“Hello, Missus Whitworth, I am Charlotte Boudreau Cantrelle Phelan. We thank you so much for having us.”
“Delighted,” she says and shakes both my parents’ hands. “I’m Francine Whitworth. Welcome to our home.”
She turns to me. “And you must be Eugenia. Well. It is so nice to finally meet you.” Missus Whitworth grasps my arms and looks me in the eyes. Hers are blue, beautiful, like cold water. Her face is plain around them. She is almost my height in her peau de soie heels.
“So nice to meet you,” I say. “Stuart’s told me so much about you and Senator Whitworth.”
She smiles and slides her hand down my arm. I gasp6 as a prong of her ring scratches my skin.
“There she is!” Behind Missus Whitworth, a tall, bull-chested man lumbers7 toward me. He hugs me hard to him, then just as quickly flings me back. “Now I told Little Stu a month ago to get this gal8 up to the house. But frankly,” he lowers his voice, “he’s still a little gun-shy after that other one.”
I stand there blinking. “Very nice to meet you, sir.”
The Senator laughs loudly. “You know I’m just teasing you,” he says, gives me another drastic hug, clapping me on the back. I smile, try to catch my breath. Remind myself he is a man with all sons.
He turns to Mother, solemnly bows and extends his hand.
“Hello, Senator Whitworth,” Mother says. “I’m Charlotte.”
“Very nice to meet you, Charlotte. And you call me Stooley. All my friends do.”
“Senator,” Daddy says and pumps his hand hard. “We thank you for all you did on that farm bill. Made a heck of a difference.”
“Shee-oot. That Billups tried to wipe his shoes on it and I told him, I said, Chico, if Mississippi don’t have cotton, hell, Mississippi don’t have nothing.”
He slaps Daddy on the shoulder and I notice how small my father looks next to him.
“Y’all come on in,” the Senator says. “I can’t talk politics without a drink in my hand.”
The Senator pounds his way out of the foyer. Daddy follows and I cringe at the fine line of mud on the back of his shoe. One more swipe of the rag would’ve gotten it, but Daddy’s not used to wearing good loafers on a Saturday.
Mother follows him out and I give one last glance up at the sparkling chandelier. As I turn, I catch the maid staring at me from the door. I smile at her and she nods. Then she nods again, and drops her eyes to the floor.
Oh. My nervousness rises like a trill in my throat as I realize, she knows. I stand, frozen by how duplicitous my life has become. She could show up at Aibileen’s, start telling me all about serving the Senator and his wife.
“Stuart’s still driving over from Shreveport,” the Senator hollers. “Got a big deal brewing9 over there, I hear.”
I try not to think about the maid and take a deep breath. I smile like this is fine, just fine. Like I’ve met so many boyfriends’ parents before.
We move into a formal living room with ornate molding and green velvet10 settees, so full of heavy furniture I can hardly see the floor.
“What can I get y’all to drink?” Mister Whitworth grins like he’s offering children candy. He has a heavy, broad forehead and the shoulders of an aging linebacker. His eyebrows11 are thick and wiry. They wiggle when he talks.
Daddy asks for a cup of coffee, Mother and I for iced tea. The Senator’s grin deflates and he looks back at the maid to collect these mundane12 drinks. In the corner, he pours himself and his wife something brown. The velvet sofa groans13 when he sits.
“Your home is just lovely. I hear it’s the centerpiece of the tour,” Mother says. This is what Mother’s been dying to say since she found out about this dinner. Mother’s been on the dinky Ridgeland County Historic Home Council forever, but refers to Jackson’s home tour as “high cotton” compared to theirs. “Now, do y’all do any kind of dress-up or staging for the tours?”
Senator and Missus Whitworth glance at each other. Then Missus Whitworth smiles. “We took it off the tour this year. It was just . . . too much.”
“Off ? But it’s one of the most important houses in Jackson. Why, I heard Sherman said the house was too pretty to burn.”
Missus Whitworth just nods, sniffs14. She is ten years younger than my mother but looks older, especially now as her face turns long and prudish15.
“Surely you must feel some obligation, for the sake of history . . .” Mother says, and I shoot her a look to let it go.
No one says anything for a second and then the Senator laughs loudly. “There was kind of a mix-up,” he booms. “Patricia van Devender’s mother is head of the council so after all that . . . ruck-a-muck with the kids, we decided16 we’d just as soon get off the tour.”
I glance at the door, praying Stuart will get here soon. This is the second time she has come up. Missus Whitworth gives the Senator a deafening17 look.
“Well, what are we gonna do, Francine? Just never talk about her again? We had the damn gazebo built in the backyard for the wedding.”
Missus Whitworth takes a deep breath and I am reminded of what Stuart said to me, that the Senator only knows part of it, but his mother, she knows all. And what she knows must be much worse than just “ruck-a-muck.”
“Eugenia”—Missus Whitworth smiles—“I understand you aim to be a writer. What kinds of things do you like to write?”
I put my smile back on. From one good subject to the next. “I write the Miss Myrna column in the Jackson Journal. It comes out every Monday.”
“Oh, I think Bessie reads that, doesn’t she, Stooley? I’ll have to ask her when I go in the kitchen.”
“Well, if she doesn’t, she sure as hell will now.” The Senator laughs.
“Stuart said you were trying to get into more serious subjects. Anything particular?”
Now everyone is looking at me, including the maid, a different one from the door, as she hands me a glass of tea. I don’t look at her face, terrified of what I’ll see there. “I’m working on a . . . a few—”
“Eugenia is writing about the life of Jesus Christ,” Mother pops in and I recall my most recent lie to cover my nights out, calling it “research.”
“Well,” Missus Whitworth nods, looks impressed by this, “that’s certainly an honorable subject.”
I try to smile, disgusted by my own voice. “And such an... important one.” I glance at Mother. She’s beaming.
The front door slams, sending all the glass lamps into a furious tinkle18.
“Sorry I’m so late.” Stuart strides in, wrinkled from the car, pulling on his navy sportscoat. We all stand up and his mother holds out her arms to him but he heads straight for me. He puts his hands on my shoulders and kisses my cheek. “Sorry,” he whispers and I breathe out, finally relax half an inch. I turn and see his mother smiling like I just snatched her best guest towel and wiped my dirty hands all over it.
“Get yourself a drink, son, sit down,” the Senator says. When Stuart has his drink, he settles next to me on the sofa, squeezes my hand and doesn’t let go.
Missus Whitworth gives one glance at our hand-holding and says, “Charlotte, why don’t I give you and Eugenia a tour of the house?”
For the next fifteen minutes, I follow Mother and Missus Whitworth from one ostentatious room to the next. Mother gasps19 over a genuine Yankee bullethole in the front parlor20, the bullet still lodged21 in the wood. There are letters from Confederate soldiers lying on a Federal desk, strategically placed antique spectacles and handkerchiefs. The house is a shrine22 to the War Between the States and I wonder what it must’ve been like for Stuart, growing up in a home where you can’t touch anything.
On the third floor, Mother gaggles over a canopy23 bed where Robert E. Lee slept. When we finally come down a “secret” staircase, I linger over family pictures in the hallway. I see Stuart and his two brothers as babies, Stuart holding a red ball. Stuart in a christening gown, held by a colored woman in white uniform.
Mother and Missus Whitworth move down the hall, but I keep looking, for there is something so deeply dear in Stuart’s face as a young boy. His cheeks were fat and his mother’s blue eyes shone the same as they do now. His hair was the whitish-yellow of a dandelion. At nine or ten, he stands with a hunting rifle and a duck. At fifteen, next to a slain24 deer. Already he is good-looking, rugged25. I pray to God he never sees my teenage pictures.
I walk a few steps and see high school graduation, Stuart proud in a military school uniform. In the center of the wall, there is an empty space without a frame, a rectangle of wallpaper just the slightest shade darker. A picture has been removed.
“Dad, that is enough about—” I hear Stuart say, his voice strained. But just as quickly, there is silence.
“Dinner is served,” I hear a maid announce and I weave my way back into the living room. We all trail into the dining room to a long, dark table. The Phelans are seated on one side, the Whitworths on the other. I am diagonal from Stuart, placed as far as possible from him. Around the room, the wainscoting panels have been painted to depict26 scenes of pre-Civil War times, happy Negroes picking cotton, horses pulling wagons27, white-bearded statesmen on the steps of our capitol. We wait while the Senator lingers in the living room. “I’ll be right there, y’all go ahead and start.” I hear the clink of ice, the clop of the bottle being set down two more times before he finally comes in and sits at the head of the table.
Waldorf salads are served. Stuart looks over at me and smiles every few minutes. Senator Whitworth leans over to Daddy and says, “I came from nothing, you know. Jefferson County, Mississippi. My daddy dried peanuts for eleven cents a pound.”
Daddy shakes his head. “Doesn’t get much poorer than Jefferson County.”
I watch as Mother cuts off the tiniest bite of apple. She hesitates, chews it for the longest time, winces28 as it goes down. She wouldn’t allow me to tell Stuart’s parents about her stomach problem. Instead, Mother ravishes Missus Whitworth with degustationary compliments. Mother views this supper as an important move in the game called “Can My Daughter Catch Your Son?”
“The young people so enjoy each other’s company.” Mother smiles. “Why, Stuart comes out to see us at the house nearly twice a week.”
“Is that right?” says Missus Whitworth.
“We’d be delighted if you and the Senator could drive out to the plantation29 for supper sometime, take a walk around the orchard30?”
I look at Mother. Plantation is an outdated31 term she likes to use to gloss32 up the farm, while the “orchard” is a barren apple tree. A pear tree with a worm problem.
But Missus Whitworth has stiffened33 around the mouth. “Twice a week? Stuart, I had no idea you came to town that often.”
Stuart’s fork stops in midair. He casts a sheepish look at his mother.
“Y’all are so young.” Missus Whitworth smiles. “Enjoy yourselves. There’s no need to get serious so quickly.”
The Senator leans his elbows on the table. “From a woman who practically proposed to the other one herself, she was in such a hurry.”
“Dad,” Stuart says through gritted34 teeth, banging his fork against his plate.
The table is silent, except for Mother’s thorough, methodical chewing to try to turn solid food into paste. I touch the scratch, still pink along my arm.
The maid lays pressed chicken on our plates, tops it with a perky dollop of mayonnaisey dressing35, and we all smile, glad for the mood breaker. As we eat, Daddy and the Senator talk about cotton prices, boll weevils. I can still see the anger on Stuart’s face from when the Senator mentioned Patricia. I glance at him every few seconds, but the anger doesn’t seem to be fading. I wonder if that’s what they’d argued about earlier, when I was in the hall.
The Senator leans back in his chair. “Did you see that piece they did in Life magazine? One before Medgar Evers, about what’s-’is-name—Carl . . . Roberts?”
I look up, surprised to find the Senator is aiming this question at me. I blink, confused, hoping it’s because of my job at the newspaper. “It was . . . he was lynched. For saying the governor was . . .” I stop, not because I’ve forgotten the words, but because I remember them.
“Pathetic,” the Senator says, now turning to my father. “With the morals of a streetwalker.”
I exhale36, relieved the attention is off me. I look at Stuart to gauge37 his reaction to this. I’ve never asked him his position on civil rights. But I don’t think he’s even listening to the conversation. The anger around his mouth has turned flat and cold.
My father clears his throat. “I’ll be honest,” he says slowly. “It makes me sick to hear about that kind of brutality38.” Daddy sets his fork down silently. He looks Senator Whitworth in the eye. “I’ve got twenty-five Negroes working my fields and if anyone so much as laid a hand on them, or any of their families . . .” Daddy’s gaze is steady. Then he drops his eyes. “I’m ashamed, sometimes, Senator. Ashamed of what goes on in Mississippi.”
Mother’s eyes are big, set on Daddy. I am shocked to hear this opinion. Even more shocked that he’d voice it at this table to a politician. At home, newspapers are folded so the pictures face down, television channels are turned when the subject of race comes up. I’m suddenly so proud of my daddy, for many reasons. For a second, I swear, I see it in Mother’s eyes too, beneath her worry that Father has obliterated39 my future. I look at Stuart and his face registers concern, but in which way, I do not know.
The Senator has his eyes narrowed on Daddy.
“I’ll tell you something, Carlton,” the Senator says. He jiggles the ice around in his glass. “Bessie, bring me another drink, would you please.” He hands his glass to the maid. She quickly returns with a full one.
“Those were not wise words to say about our governor,” the Senator says.
“I agree one hundred percent,” Daddy says.
“But the question I’ve been asking myself lately is, are they true?”
“Stooley,” Missus Whitworth hisses40. But then just as quickly she smiles, straightens. “Now, Stooley,” she says like she’s talking to a child, “our guests here don’t want to get into all your politicking41 during—”
“Francine, let me speak my mind. God knows I can’t do it from nine to five, so let me speak my mind in my own home.”
Missus Whitworth’s smile does not waver, but the slightest bit of pink rises in her cheeks. She studies the white Floradora roses in the center of the table. Stuart stares at his plate with the same cold anger as before. He hasn’t looked at me since the chicken course. Everyone is quiet and then someone changes the subject to the weather.
WHEN SUPPER is FINALLY OVER, we’re asked to retire out on the back porch for after-dinner drinks and coffee. Stuart and I linger in the hallway. I touch his arm, but he pulls away.
“I knew he’d get drunk and start in on everything.”
“Stuart, it’s fine,” I say because I think he’s talking about his father’s politics. “We’re all having a good time.”
But Stuart is sweating and feverish-looking. “It’s Patricia this and Patricia that, all night long,” he says. “How many times can he bring her up?”
“Just forget about it, Stuart. Everything’s okay.”
He runs a hand through his hair and looks everywhere but at me. I start to get the feeling that I’m not even here to him. And then I realize what I’ve known all night. He is looking at me but he is thinking about . . . her. She is everywhere. In the anger in Stuart’s eyes, on Senator and Missus Whitworth’s tongues, on the wall where her picture must’ve hung.
I tell him I need to go to the bathroom.
He steers42 me down the hall. “Meet us out back,” he says, but does not smile. In the bathroom, I stare at my reflection, tell myself that it’s just tonight. Everything will be fine once we’re out of this house.
After the bathroom, I walk by the living room, where the Senator is pouring himself another drink. He chuckles43 at himself, dabs44 at his shirt, then looks around to see if anyone’s seen him spill. I try to tiptoe past the doorway45 before he spots me.
“There you are!” I hear him holler as I slip by. I back up slowly into the doorway and his face lights up. “Wassa matter, you lost?” He walks out into the hallway.
“No sir, I was just . . . going to meet everybody.”
“Come here, gal.” He puts his arm around me and the smell of bourbon burns my eyes. I see the front of his shirt is saturated46 with it. “You having a good time?”
“Yessir. Thank you.”
“Now, Stuart’s mama, don’t you let her scare you off. She’s just protective, is all.”
“Oh no, she’s been . . . very nice. Everything’s fine.” I glance down the hall, where I can hear their voices.
He sighs, stares off. “We’ve had a real hard year with Stuart. I guess he told you what happened.”
I nod, feeling my skin prickle.
“Oh, it was bad,” he says. “So bad.” Then suddenly he smiles. “Look a here! Look who’s coming to say hello to you.” He scoops47 up a tiny white dog, drapes it across his arm like a tennis towel. “Say hello, Dixie,” he croons, “say hello to Miss Eugenia.” The dog struggles, strains its head away from the reeking48 smell of the shirt.
The Senator looks back at me with a blank stare. I think he’s forgotten what I’m doing here.
“I was just headed to the back porch,” I say.
“Come on, come in here.” He tugs49 me by the elbow, steers me through a paneled door. I enter a small room with a heavy desk, a yellow light shining sickishly on the dark green walls. He pushes the door shut behind me and I immediately feel the air change, grow close and claustrophobic.
“Now, look, everybody says I talk too much when I’ve had a few but . . .” the Senator narrows his eyes at me, like we are old conspirators50, “I want to tell you something.”
The dog’s given up all struggle, sedated51 by the smell of the shirt. I am suddenly desperate to go talk to Stuart, like every second I’m away I’m losing him. I back away.
“I think—I should go find—” I reach for the door handle, sure I’m being terribly rude, but not able to stand the air in here, the smell of liquor and cigars.
The Senator sighs, nods as I grip the handle. “Oh. You too, huh.” He leans back against the desk, looking defeated.
I start to open the door but it’s the same lost look on the Senator’s face as the one Stuart had when he showed up on my parents’ porch. I feel like I have no choice but to ask, “Me too what . . . sir?”
The Senator looks over at the picture of Missus Whitworth, huge and cold, mounted on his office wall like a warning. “I see it, is all. In your eyes.” He chuckles bitterly. “And here I was hoping you might be the one who halfway52 liked the old man. I mean, if you ever joined this old family.”
I look at him now, tingling53 from his words . . . joined this old family.
“I don’t . . . dislike you, sir,” I say, shifting in my flats.
“I don’t mean to bury you in our troubles, but things have been pretty hard here, Eugenia. We were worried sick after all that mess last year. With the other one.” He shakes his head, looks down at the glass in his hand. “Stuart, he just up and left his apartment in Jackson, moved everything out to the camp house in Vicksburg.”
“I know he was very . . . upset,” I say, when truthfully, I know almost nothing at all.
“Dead’s more like it. Hell, I’d drive out to see him and he’d just be sitting there in front of the window, cracking pecans. Wasn’t even eating em, just pulling off the shell, tossing em in the trash. Wouldn’t talk to me or his mama for . . . for months.”
He crumples54 in on himself, this gigantic bull of a man, and I want to escape and reassure55 him at the same time, he looks so pathetic, but then he looks up at me with his bloodshot eyes, says, “Seems like ten minutes ago I was showing him how to load his first rifle, wring56 his first dove-bird. But ever since the thing with that girl, he’s . . . different. He won’t tell me anything. I just want to know, is my son alright?”
“I . . . I think he is. But honestly, I don’t . . . really know.” I look away. Inside, I’m starting to realize that I don’t know Stuart. If this damaged him so much, and he can’t even speak to me about it, then what am I to him? Just a diversion? Something sitting beside him to keep him from thinking about what’s really tearing him up inside?
I look at the Senator, try to think of something comforting, something my mother would say. But it’s just a dead silence.
“Francine would have my hide if she knew I was asking you this.”
“It’s alright, sir,” I say. “I don’t mind that you did.”
He looks exhausted57 by it all, tries to smile. “Thank you, darlin’. Go on and see my son. I’ll see y’all out there in a while.”
I ESCAPE TO THE back PORCH and stand next to Stuart. Lightning bursts in the sky, giving us a flash of the eerily58 brilliant gardens, then the darkness sucks it all back in. The gazebo, skeleton-like, looms59 at the end of the garden path. I feel nauseous from the glass of sherry I drank after supper.
The Senator comes out, looking curiously60 more sober, in a fresh shirt, plaid and pressed, exactly the same as the last one. Mother and Missus Whitworth stroll a few steps, pointing at some rare rose winding61 its neck up onto the porch. Stuart puts his hand on my shoulder. He is somehow better, but I am growing worse.
“Can we . . . ?” I point inside and Stuart follows me inside. I stop in the hallway with the secret staircase.
“There’s a lot I don’t know about you, Stuart,” I say.
He points to the wall of pictures behind me, the empty space included. “Well, here it all is.”
“Stuart, your daddy, he told me . . .” I try to find a way to put it.
He narrows his eyes at me. “Told you what?”
“How bad it was. How hard it was on you,” I say. “With Patricia.”
“He doesn’t know anything. He doesn’t know who it was or what it was about or . . .”
He leans back against the wall and crosses his arms and I see that old anger again, deep and red. He is wrapped in it.
“Stuart. You don’t have to tell me now. But sometime, we’re going to have to talk about this.” I’m surprised by how confident I sound, when I certainly don’t feel it.
He looks me deep in the eyes, shrugs62. “She slept with someone else. There.”
“Someone . . . you know?”
“No one knew him. He was one of those leeches63, hanging around the school, cornering the teachers to do something about the integration64 laws. Well, she did something alright.”
“You mean . . . he was an activist65? With the civil rights . . . ?”
“That’s it. Now you know.”
“Was he . . . colored?” I gulp66 at the thought of the consequences, because even to me, that would be horrific, disastrous67.
“No, he wasn’t colored. He was scum. Some Yankee from New York, the kind you see on the T.V. with the long hair and the peace signs.”
I am searching my head for the right question to ask but I can’t think of anything.
“You know the really crazy part, Skeeter? I could’ve gotten over it. I could’ve forgiven her. She asked me to, told me how sorry she was. But I knew, if it ever got out who he was, that Senator Whitworth’s daughter-in-law got in bed with a Yankee goddamn activist, it would ruin him. Kill his career like that.” He snaps his fingers with a crack.
“But your father, at the table. He said he thought Ross Barnett was wrong.”
“You know that’s not the way it works. It doesn’t matter what he believes. It’s what Mississippi believes. He’s running for the U.S. Senate this fall and I’m unfortunate enough to know that.”
“So you broke up with her because of your father?”
“No, I broke up with her because she cheated.” He looks down at his hands and I can see the shame eating away at him. “But I didn’t take her back because of . . . my father.”
“Stuart, are you . . . still in love with her?” I ask, and I try to smile as if it’s nothing, just a question, even though I feel all my blood rushing to my feet. I feel like I will faint asking this.
His body slumps68 some, against the gold-patterned wallpaper. His voice softens69.
“You’d never do that. Lie that way. Not to me, not to anybody.”
He has no idea how many people I’m lying to. But it’s not the point. “Answer me, Stuart. Are you?”
He rubs his temples, stretching his hand across his eyes. Hiding his eyes is what I’m thinking.
“I think we ought to quit for a while,” he whispers.
I reach over to him out of reflex, but he backs away. “I need some time, Skeeter. Space, I guess. I need to go to work and drill oil and . . . get my head straight awhile.”
I feel my mouth slide open. Out on the porch, I hear the soft calls of our parents. It is time to leave.
I walk behind Stuart to the front of the house. The Whitworths stop in the spiraling foyer while we three Phelans head out the door. In a cottony coma70 I listen as everyone pledges to do it again, out at the Phelans next time. I tell them all goodbye, thank you, my own voice sounding strange to me. Stuart waves from the steps and smiles at me so our parents can’t tell that anything has changed.
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plaque
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landmark
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flicker
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| vi./n.闪烁，摇曳，闪现 | |
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hitching
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| 搭乘； （免费）搭乘他人之车( hitch的现在分词 )； 搭便车； 攀上； 跃上 | |
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crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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lumbers
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gal
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brewing
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velvet
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eyebrows
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mundane
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| adj.平凡的；尘世的；宇宙的 | |
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groans
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| n.呻吟，叹息( groan的名词复数 )；呻吟般的声音v.呻吟( groan的第三人称单数 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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sniffs
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| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的第三人称单数 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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prudish
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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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deafening
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| adj. 振耳欲聋的, 极喧闹的 动词deafen的现在分词形式 | |
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tinkle
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| vi.叮当作响；n.叮当声 | |
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gasps
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| v.喘气( gasp的第三人称单数 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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parlor
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| n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅 | |
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lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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shrine
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| n.圣地，神龛，庙；v.将...置于神龛内，把...奉为神圣 | |
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canopy
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| n.天篷，遮篷 | |
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slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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depict
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| vt.描画，描绘；描写，描述 | |
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wagons
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| n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车 | |
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winces
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| 避开，畏缩( wince的名词复数 ) | |
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plantation
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| n.种植园，大农场 | |
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orchard
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| n.果园，果园里的全部果树，(美俚)棒球场 | |
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outdated
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| adj.旧式的，落伍的，过时的；v.使过时 | |
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gloss
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| n.光泽，光滑；虚饰；注释；vt.加光泽于；掩饰 | |
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stiffened
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| 加强的 | |
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gritted
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| v.以沙砾覆盖（某物），撒沙砾于( grit的过去式和过去分词 )；咬紧牙关 | |
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dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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exhale
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| v.呼气，散出，吐出，蒸发 | |
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gauge
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| v.精确计量；估计；n.标准度量；计量器 | |
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brutality
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| n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮 | |
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obliterated
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| v.除去( obliterate的过去式和过去分词 )；涂去；擦掉；彻底破坏或毁灭 | |
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hisses
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| 嘶嘶声( hiss的名词复数 ) | |
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politicking
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| n.政治活动，竞选活动v.从政( politic的现在分词 ) | |
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steers
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| n.阉公牛，肉用公牛( steer的名词复数 )v.驾驶( steer的第三人称单数 )；操纵；控制；引导 | |
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chuckles
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的名词复数 ) | |
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dabs
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| 少许( dab的名词复数 )； 是…能手； 做某事很在行； 在某方面技术熟练 | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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saturated
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| a.饱和的，充满的 | |
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scoops
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| n.小铲( scoop的名词复数 )；小勺；一勺[铲]之量；（抢先刊载、播出的）独家新闻v.抢先报道( scoop的第三人称单数 )；（敏捷地）抱起；抢先获得；用铲[勺]等挖（洞等） | |
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reeking
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| v.发出浓烈的臭气( reek的现在分词 )；散发臭气；发出难闻的气味 (of sth)；明显带有（令人不快或生疑的跡象） | |
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tugs
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| n.猛拉( tug的名词复数 )；猛拖；拖船v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的第三人称单数 ) | |
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conspirators
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| n.共谋者，阴谋家( conspirator的名词复数 ) | |
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sedated
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| v.使昏昏入睡，使镇静( sedate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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tingling
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| v.有刺痛感( tingle的现在分词 ) | |
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crumples
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| 压皱，弄皱( crumple的第三人称单数 )； 变皱 | |
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reassure
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| v.使放心，使消除疑虑 | |
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wring
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| n.扭绞；v.拧，绞出，扭 | |
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exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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eerily
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| adv.引起神秘感或害怕地 | |
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looms
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| n.织布机( loom的名词复数 )v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的第三人称单数 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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shrugs
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| n.耸肩（以表示冷淡，怀疑等）( shrug的名词复数 ) | |
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leeches
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| n.水蛭( leech的名词复数 )；蚂蟥；榨取他人脂膏者；医生 | |
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integration
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| n.一体化，联合，结合 | |
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activist
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| n.活动分子，积极分子 | |
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66
gulp
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| vt.吞咽，大口地吸（气）；vi.哽住；n.吞咽 | |
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67
disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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68
slumps
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| 萧条期( slump的名词复数 )； （个人、球队等的）低潮状态； （销售量、价格、价值等的）骤降； 猛跌 | |
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softens
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| （使）变软( soften的第三人称单数 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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coma
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| n.昏迷，昏迷状态 | |
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