CHAPTER ONE

Memory was slow to return. At first there was only pain. The pain was total, everywhere, so that there was no room for memory. Then he remembered that before the pain there was a cloud. He could let himself go into that cloud and there would be no pain. He needed only to stop breathing. It was so easy. Breathing only brought pain, anyway. But the peace of the cloud was spoiled by the voice. The voice - which was a woman's voice - said, 'Breathe! You must breathe, Paul!' Something hit his chest hard, and then foul¹ breath was forced into his mouth by unseen lips. The lips were dry and the breath smellcd of the stale² wind in the tunnel of an underground railway; it smelled of old dust and dirt. He began to breathe again so that the lips would not return with their foul breath. Along with the pain, there were sounds. When the pain covered the shore of Ins mind, like a high tide, the sounds had no meaning: 'Bree! Ooo mus bree Pul!' When the tide went out, the sounds became words. Me already knew that something bad had happened to him; now he began to remember. He was Paul Sheldon. He smoked too much. He had married twice, but both marriages had ended in divorce³. He was a famous writer. He was also a good writer. But he was not famous as a good writer; he was famous as the creator of Misery⁴ Chastain, a beautiful woman front nineteenth-century England, whose adventures and love life now filled eight volumes and had sold many millions of copies. He felt trapped by Misery Chastain, so he wrote Misery's Child. In the final pages of this book Misery died while giving birth to a daughter. Her death made Paul free, and he immediately started to write a serious novel, about the life of a young car-thief in New York. He finished the novel late in January 1987. As usual he 1 finished it in a hotel in the mountains of Colorado; he finished all his books in the same room, in the same hotel. Now he could drive to the airport and fly to New York for the publication⁵ of Misery's Child, and at the same time he could deliver the typescript of the new novel, which was called Fast Cars. The weatherman on the radio said that the storm would pass to the south of Colorado. The weatherman was wrong. Paul was driving along a mountain road, surrounded by pine forest, when the storm struck. Within minutes a thick layer of snow covered the road. The car's wipers were unable to keep the windows clear and the tyres couldn't grip⁶ the surface of the road. Paul had to fight to keep the car on the slippery⁷ road . . . then on a particularly steep corner he couldn't control it. He had time to notice that the sky and the ground changed places in an unbelievable way. Then the dark cloud descended⁸ over his mind. He remembered all this before he opened his eyes. He was aware of the woman sitting next to his bed. When he opened his eyes he looked in her direction. At first he couldn't speak; his lips were too dry. Then he managed to ask, 'Where am I?' 'Near Sidewinder, Colorado,' she said. 'My name is Annie Wilkes.' She smiled. 'You know, you're my favourite author.'

1 foul   

adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规

参考例句：

• Take off those foul clothes and let me wash them.脱下那些脏衣服让我洗一洗。
• What a foul day it is!多么恶劣的天气！

2 stale   

adj.因陈旧而乏味的，过时的；没有新意的

参考例句：

• The room smelled musty and stale.这个房间闻起来有股发霉的陈味儿。
• The bread is too stale to eat.面包太陈不能吃了。

3 divorce   

n.离婚；分离；vi.离婚；vt.离婚；脱离

参考例句：

• Did he divorce his wife or did she divorce him?是他要和妻子离婚，还是妻子要和他离婚？
• None of us like the divorce of word and deed.我们都不喜欢言行不一。

4 misery   

n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦

参考例句：

• Business depression usually causes misery among the working class.商业不景气常使工薪阶层受苦。
• He has rescued me from the mire of misery.他把我从苦海里救了出来。

5 publication   

n.出版，发行；出版；公布，发表

参考例句：

• They don't think this article is suitable for publication.他们认为这篇文章不宜发表。
• The government has delayed publication of the trade figures.政府已将贸易统计数字延后公布。

6 grip   

v.握紧，紧握；吸引；引起；n.紧握，控制

参考例句：

• He keeps a firm grip on his children.他对孩子们管得很严。
• The brake doesn't grip properly.煞车不灵。

7 slippery   

adj.滑的；油滑的，狡猾的，不可靠的

参考例句：

• We found it very slippery under foot.我们感到地上很滑。
• Mind out,the steps are slippery!注意，台阶很滑！

8 descended   

a.为...后裔的，出身于...的

参考例句：

• A mood of melancholy descended on us. 一种悲伤的情绪袭上我们的心头。
• The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。