CHAPTER TEN

It was surprisingly easy to start writing about Misery¹ again. It had been a long time and these were hardly ideal² circumstances³; but Misery's word was cheap, and returning to it felt like putting on an old, familiar glove. Annie put down the first three pages of the new typescript. 'What do you think?' Paul asked. 'It's not right,' she said. 'What do you mean? Don't you like it?' 'Oh, yes, I love it. When Ian kissed her . . . And it was very sweet of you to name the baby after me.' Clever, he thought. Not sweet, hut⁴ maybe clever. 'Then why is it not right?' 'Because you cheated,' she explained. 'The doctor comes, when he couldn't have conic. At the end of Misery's Child Geoffrey rode to fetch the doctor, but his horse fell and broke a leg, and Geoffrey broke his shoulder and lay in the rain all night until the morning, when that boy found him. And by then Misery was dead. Do you see?' 'Yes.' How am I going to please her? How can I bring Misery back to life without cheating? 'When I was a child,' Annie was saying, 'I used to go to the cinema every week. We lived in Bakersfield, California⁵. They used to show short films and at the end the hero - Rocket Man or somebody - was always in trouble. Perhaps the criminals⁶ had tied him to a chair in a burning house, or he was unconscious⁷ in an aeroplane⁸. The hero always escaped, but you had to wait until the next week to find out exactly what happened. I loved those films. If I was bored, or if I was looking after those horrible⁹ children downstairs, I used to try to guess what happened next. God, I hated those children. Anyway, sometimes I was right and sometimes I was wrong. That didn't matter, as long as the hero escaped in a fair way.' Paul tried to stop himself laughing at the picture in his mind of young Annie Wilkes in the cinema. 20 'Are you all right, Paul? Are you going to sneeze? Anyway, what I'm saying is that the way the hero escaped was often unlikely¹⁰, but always fair. Then one week Rocket Man was in a car. He was tied up and the car had no brakes¹¹. He didn't have any special equipment. We saw him in the film struggling to get free; we saw him still struggling while the car went off the edge¹² of a mountain and burst¹³ into flames. I spent the whole week trying to guess what would happen, but I couldn't. How could he escape? It was really exciting. I was the first in the queue¹⁴ at the cinema the next week. And what do you think happened, Paul?' Paul didn't know the answer to her question, but she was right, of course, He had cheated. And the writing had been wooden, too. 'The story always started by showing the ending from last week. So we saw Rocket Man in the car again, but this time, just before the car reached the edge, the side-door flew open and Rocket Man fell out on to the road. Then the car went over the edge. All the other children in the cinema were cheering because Rocket Man was safe, but I wasn't cheering. No! I stood up and shouted, "This is wrong! Are you all stupid? This isn't what happened last week! They cheated!" I went on and on, and then the manager ct the cinema came and asked me to leave. "All right. I'll leave," I told him, "and I'm never corning back, because this is just a dirty cheat."' She looked at Paul, and Paul saw clear murder in her eyes. Although she was being childish¹⁵, the unfairness she felt was absolutely real for her. 'The car went over the edge and he was still in it. Do you understand that, Paul? Do you understand?' She jumped up and Paul thought she was going to hurt him because he was another writer who had cheated in his story. 'Do you?' She seized the front of his shirt and pulled him forward so that their faces were almost touching¹⁶. 'Yes, Annie, yes, I do.' 27 She stared at him with that angry, black stare. She must have seen in his eyes that he was telling the truth, because she let go of him, quietened down and sat back in her chair. Then you know what to do,' she said, and left the room. How could he bring Misery back to life? When he was a child he used to play a game called 'Can Your?' with a group of other children. An adult would start a story about a man called Careless Corrigan. Within a few sentences Careless Corrigan would be in a hopeless situation - surrounded by hungry lions perhaps. Then the adult would pass the story on to one of the children. He would say, 'Daniel, can you?' And then Daniel - or one of the other children - had to start the story again within ten seconds or he had failed. Once Daniel had told his story, explaining how Careless Corrigan escaped from the lions, the adult asked the other question: 'Did he?' And if most of the children put their hands in the air and agreed that Careless Corrigan did - that what Daniel had said was all right - then Daniel was allowed to stay in the game. The rules of the game were exactly the same as Annie's rules. The story didn't have to be likely, but it did have to be fair. As a child, Paul had always been good at the game. So can you, Paul? Yes, I can. I'm a writer. I live and earn money because I can. I have homes in New York and Los Angeles because I can. There are plenty of people who ran write better than I can, but when the question is 'Did he?', sometimes only a few hands go up for those people. Hut the hands go up for me, or for Misery, which is the same thing I suppose. Can I? Yes, you bet¹⁷ 1 an, I can't mend ears or taps, I can't he an electrician¹⁸; but if you want me to take you away, to frighten you, to make you cry or make you smile, then yes, I can. Two hours later Annie came and stood at the entrance to his room. She stood for a long time, watching him work. He was typing fast and he didn't even notice her standing¹⁹ there. He was too busy dreaming Misery back to life. When he was working well a hole seemed to open in the paper in front of him; he 28 would fall through the hole into the world of Misery Chastain and her lovers²⁰.

1 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。

2 ideal   

adj.理想的，完美的；空想的，观念的；n.理想

参考例句：

• The weather at the seaside was ideal—bright and breezy.海边的天气最宜人，风和日丽的。
• They promised to be faithful to their ideal for ever. 他们保证永远忠于自己的理想。

3 circumstances   

n.境况；境遇；（尤指）经济状况；命运；环境( circumstance的名词复数 )；事件；境遇；机遇

参考例句：

• The company reserves the right to cancel this agreement in certain circumstances. 本公司保留在一定条件下取消这项协议的权利。
• There were extenuating circumstances and the defendant did not receive a prison sentence. 因有可减轻罪行的情节被告未被判刑。

4 hut   

n.棚子；简陋的小房子

参考例句：

• The hut is in the midst of the forest.小屋在森林深处。
• The poor old man lived in a little wooden hut.那个贫穷的老人住在一间小木屋内。

5 California   

n.加利福尼亚(美国)

参考例句：

• He was elected governor of the state of California.他当选为加州州长。
• We were driving on a California freeway.我们正沿着加利福尼亚的一条快车道驾车行驶。

6 criminals   

n.罪犯，犯人( criminal的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He is not one of your garden-variety criminals. 他不是个普通的罪犯。
• All citizens should help the police in tracking the criminals down. 所有市民都应该帮助警察追捕罪犯。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 unconscious   

adj.失去知觉的，不省人事的；无意识的，不知不觉的

参考例句：

• She was unconscious but her heart was still beating.她已经不省人事，但脉搏还在跳。
• He was unconscious of his mistake.他没意识到自已的错误。

8 aeroplane   

n.(英)飞机 (=airplane)

参考例句：

• I can see that aeroplane,but I can't see a bird.我能看见那架飞机，但是小鸟我就看不见了。
• The aeroplane was flying a few feet above the sea.飞机正在距海面几英尺的低空飞行。

9 horrible   

adj.可怕的，极可憎的，极可厌的

参考例句：

• This is a horrible monster.这是一个可怕的怪物。
• That is a horrible accident.那是一次可怕的事故。

10 unlikely   

adj.未必的，多半不可能的；不大可能发生的

参考例句：

• It was very unlikely that he would do that.他不见得会做那种事。
• It is unlikely that she will come. 她不大可能来了。

11 brakes   

动词brake的第三人称单数形式

参考例句：

• He slammed on the brakes and the car juddered to a halt. 他猛踩刹车，汽车在剧烈震动中停下来。
• It's no joke when your brakes fail on the motorway. 在快车道上行驶时刹车失灵的后果是非常严重的。

12 edge   

n.边(缘)；刃；优势；v.侧着移动，徐徐移动

参考例句：

• Sight along the edge to see if it's straight.顺着边目测，看看直不直。
• She lived on the extreme edge of the forest.她住在森林的最边缘。

13 burst   

vi.（burst，burst）爆炸；爆破；爆裂；爆发；vt.使…破裂；使…炸破；n.突然破裂；爆发

参考例句：

• We all held our breath till the bomb burst.我们屏住呼吸直到炸弹爆炸。
• She suddenly burst into song.她突然唱起歌来。

14 queue   

n.队列；辫子；长队；vt.梳成辫子；vi. 排队

参考例句：

• To what window are you standing in a queue?你在排哪个窗口的队？
• I had to queue for quite a while.我不得不排一会儿队。

15 childish   

adj.孩子的，孩子气的，幼稚的

参考例句：

• The little girl spoke in a high childish voice.这个小女孩用尖尖的童声讲话。
• We eventually ran out of patience with his childish behaviour.我们终于对他幼稚的行为忍无可忍。

16 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

17 bet   

v.打赌，以(与)...打赌；n.赌注，赌金；打赌

参考例句：

• I bet you can't do this puzzle.我敢说，你解决不了这个难题。
• I offered to bet with him.我提出与他打赌。

18 electrician   

n.电工，电气技师

参考例句：

• She said she would find an electrician for us.她说她要给我们找一个电工技师。
• We need an electrician to mend the iron.我们要请电工修理熨斗。

19 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

20 lovers   

爱好者( lover的名词复数 )； 情人； 情夫； 情侣

参考例句：

• They were off-screen lovers. 他们是真实生活中的情侣。
• Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliet 罗密欧和朱丽叶这一对莎士比亚笔下命运多舛的恋人