CHAPTER TWELVE

The beginning of April was fine. The sun shone from a clear blue sky and it was warm enough to melt some of the snow. Mud and grass began to appear in Annie's field. Annie sometimes look Paul in his wheelchair out of the house at the back, and let him sit in the sunshine and read a book. She sang while she worked around the house, and laughed at jokes she heard on the TV. She left his door unlocked¹ and open while she was in the house. Paul tried not to think of the snow melting and uncovering² his car. The morning of the fifteenth, however, was windy and dull, and Annie changed. She didn't come into his room with his tablets³ until nine o'clock, and by then he needed them quite badly - so badly that he nearly got some from under the mattress⁴. Then, when she came, she was still in her night-clothes and she brought him only the tablets, no breakfast. There were red marks on her arms and cheeks, and her clothes were messy with spilled food. She dragged her feet along the corridor⁵. Her hair was untidy and her eyes were dull. 'Here.' She threw the pills at him and they fell into his lap. She turned to go, dragging her feet. 'Annie?' She stopped without turning round. 'Annie, are you all right?' 'No,' she said carelessly, and turned to face him. She looked at him in that same dull way. She began to pinch⁶ her lower lip between her finger and thumb. She pulled it out and twisted it, while pinching⁷ it hard. Drops of blood began to fall down her 34 chin. She turned and left without speaking another word, before his astonished mind could persuade itself that he had really seen her do that. She closed the door and locked it. He heard her sit down in her favourite chair. There was silence. She didn't switch on the TV as usual. She was just sitting there --just sitting there being not all right. Then there was a sound - a single, sharp sound which was unmistakable: she had hit herself, hard, in the face. He remembered reading that when mad people start to become deeply, seriously depressed⁸, they hurt themselves. This signals the start of a long period of depression. He was suddenly very frightened. She hadn't returned by eleven that morning, so Paul decided⁹ to try to get into the wheelchair by himself; he wanted to try to work. He succeeded, although it hurt him a lot, and lie rolled himself over to the table. He heard the key in the lock. Annie was looking in at him and her eyes burned black holes in her face. Her right cheek was swelling¹⁰ up and she had been eating jam with her hands. She looked at him and Paul looked back at her. Neither of them said anything for a while. Outside, the first drops of rain hit the window. 'If you can get into that chair by yourself, Paul,' she said at last, 'then 1 think you can fill in your own stupid "n"s.' She closed the door and locked it again. Paul sat looking at it for a long time, as if there was something to see. He was too surprised to do anything else. He didn't see her again until late in the afternoon. After her visit work was impossible. At two in the afternoon the pain was bad enough for him to take two tablets from under the mattress. Then he slept on the bed. When he woke up he thought at first that he was still dreaming; what he saw was too strange for real life. Annie was sitting on the side of his bed. In one hand she held a glass full of Novril tablets, which she placed on the table next to his bed. In 35 In her other hand was a rat-trap. There was a large grey rat in it. The trap had broken the rat's back. her other hand was a rat-trap. There was a large grey rat in it. The trap had broken the rat's back. There was blood around its mouth, but it was still alive. It was struggling and squeaking¹¹. This was no dream. He realized that now he was seeing the real Annie. She looked terrible. Whatever had been wrong with her this morning was much worse by now. The flesh on her face seemed to hang as loosely as the clothes on her body. Her eyes were blank. There were more red marks on her arms and hands, and more food spread here and there on her clothes. She held up the trap. 'They come into the cellar¹² when it rains,' she explained. 'I put down traps. I always catch eight or nine of them. Sometimes I find others —' She went blank then. She just stopped and went blank for nearly three minutes, holding the rat in the air. The only sounds were the rat's squeaks¹³. You thought things couldn't get worse, didn't you? You were WRONG! '- drowned in the corners. Poor things!' She looked down at the rat and a tear fell on to its fur. 'Poor, poor things.' She closed one of her strong hands around the rat and began to squeeze¹⁴. The rat struggled and whipped¹⁵ its tail from side to side. Annie's eyes never lost that blank, distant look. Paul wanted to look away, but couldn't; it was disgusting, but fascinating. Annie's hand closed into a fist. Paul heard the rat's bones break and blood ran out of its mouth. Annie threw the crushed¹⁶ body into a corner of the room. Some of the rat's blood was on her hand. 'Now it's at peace,' she said, and laughed. 'Shall I get my gun, Paul? Maybe the next world is better for people as well as for rats - and people are almost the same as rats anyway.' 'Wait for me to finish,' he said. It was hard to speak; his mouth felt thick and heavy. I'm closer to death than I've ever been in my life, he thought, because she means it. She's as insane¹⁷ as the husband who murders his whole family before killing¹⁸ himself - and who thinks he is being a good husband and father. 'Misery¹⁹?' she asked, and Paul thought - or hoped - that there was a tiny sign of life in her eyes. 37 'Yes.' What should he say next? How could he stop her killing him? 'I agree that the world's an awful place. I mean, I've been in so much pain these last few weeks, but -' 'Pain?' She interrupted him. 'You don't know what pain is, Paul. You haven't any idea at all.' She looked at him with contempt²⁰. 'No, I suppose not — not compared with you, anyway.' 'That's right.' 'But I want to finish this book. I want to see what happens to Misery. And I'd like you to be here too. Don't you want to find out what happens?' There was a pause, a terrible silence for a few seconds, and then she sighed. 'Yes, I suppose I do want to know what happens. That's the only thing left in the world that I still want.' Without realizing what she was doing she began to suck the rat's blood off her fingers. 'I can still do it, Paul. I can still go and get my gun. Why not now, both of us together; You're not stupid. You know I can never let you leave here. You've known that for some time, haven't you? I suppose you think of escape, like a rat in a trap. But you can't escape. You can't leave here . . . but 1 could go with you.' Paul forced himself to keep his eyes looking straight into hers. 'We all go eventually, don't we, Annie? But I'd like to finish what I've started first.' She sighed and stood up. 'All right. 1 must have known that's what you'd want, because I've brought you your pills. I don't remember bringing them, but here they are. I have to go away for a while. If I don't, what you or I want won't make any difference. I do things, you see . . . I go somewhere when I feel like this - a place in the hills. I call it my Laughing Place. Do you remember that I told you I was coming back from Sidewinder when I found you in the storm? I lied. I was coming back from my Laughing Place, in fact. Sometimes I do laugh when I'm there, but usually I just scream.' 38 'How long will you be away, Annie?' 'I don't know. I've brought you plenty of pills.' But what about food? Am I supposed to eat that rat? She left the room and he listened to her walking around the house, getting ready to go. He still half expected her to come back with her gun, and he didn't relax until he heard the car disappearing up the road outside,

1 unlocked   

v.开锁( unlock的过去式和过去分词 )；开启；揭开；开着，解开

参考例句：

• Don't leave your desk unlocked. 请不要忘记锁好办公桌。
• On no account should you leave the door unlocked. 你无论如何也不应该不锁门。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 uncovering   

n.剥离adj.未覆盖的，露出的v.揭开…的盖子( uncover的现在分词 )；揭露，发现

参考例句：

• He was a shrewd lawyer with a talent for uncovering paper trails of fraud. 他是个精明强干的律师，能从一连串文件中找出诈骗的蛛丝马迹。
• The picture had fallen to the floor uncovering the telescreen behind it. 画片掉到了地上，原来挂画片的地方露出了一个电幕。 来自英汉文学

3 tablets   

n.药片( tablet的名词复数 )；（木、竹）简；碑；一块肥皂

参考例句：

• The tablets may make you feel drowsy. 这药片可能会使你昏昏欲睡。
• Take two tablets with water before meals. 每次两片，饭前用水冲服。

4 mattress   

n.床垫，床褥

参考例句：

• The straw mattress needs to be aired.草垫子该晾一晾了。
• The new mattress I bought sags in the middle.我买的新床垫中间陷了下去。

5 corridor   

n.走廊，回廊，通路

参考例句：

• The corridor opens into Mr.Brown's office.这条走廊通到布朗先生的办公室。
• There was a ring of laughter in the corridor.走廊里传来响亮的笑声。

6 pinch   

n.捏，撮，困苦，偷窃；vt.掐，使...困苦，偷窃

参考例句：

• She would pinch on food in order to spend on clothing.她过去常把伙食费省下来买衣服。
• He put a pinch of salt on his food.他在自己的食物上撒了一撮盐。

7 pinching   

v.收聚；夹痛( pinch的现在分词 )；逮捕；盗窃；使入不敷出adj.引起痛苦[拮据]的，吝啬的

参考例句：

• My sister's always pinching me and it really hurts. 我姐姐老拧我，好痛喔。
• He led his life, pinching and scraping. 他省吃俭用地过日子。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

8 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

9 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

10 swelling   

n.肿胀

参考例句：

• Use ice to reduce the swelling. 用冰敷消肿。
• There is a marked swelling of the lymph nodes. 淋巴结处有明显的肿块。

11 squeaking   

v.短促地尖叫( squeak的现在分词 )；吱吱叫；告密；充当告密者

参考例句：

• Squeaking floorboards should be screwed down. 踏上去咯咯作响的地板应用螺钉钉住。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Can you hear the mice squeaking? 你听到老鼠吱吱叫吗？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 cellar   

n.地窖，地下室，酒窖

参考例句：

• He took a bottle of wine from the cellar.他从酒窖里拿出一瓶酒。
• The little girl hid away in the cellar.小姑娘藏在地下室里。

13 squeaks   

n.短促的尖叫声，吱吱声( squeak的名词复数 )v.短促地尖叫( squeak的第三人称单数 )；吱吱叫；告密；充当告密者

参考例句：

• The upper-middle-classes communicate with each other in inaudible squeaks, like bats. 那些上中层社会的人交谈起来象是蚊子在哼哼，你根本听不见。 来自辞典例句
• She always squeaks out her ideas when she is excited. 她一激动总是尖声说出自己的想法。 来自互联网

14 squeeze   

vt.硬塞，硬挤；挤压；n.榨；经济困难；拮据

参考例句：

• This machine helps you to squeeze more juice out.这台机器能挤出更多的果汁。
• It was a tight squeeze in the crowded bus.公共汽车上载客太多，挤得很。

15 whipped   

adj. 受到鞭打的 动词whip的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• a dollop of whipped cream 一团搅打的奶油
• a non-dairy whipped topping 打好的非奶制糕点配料

16 crushed   

a.压碎的，倒碎的

参考例句：

• The car was completely crushed under the truck. 小轿车被卡车压得完全变形了。
• The box was crushed when the car ran over it. 汽车辗过箱子时把它给压碎了。

17 insane   

adj.蠢极的，荒唐的，精神错乱的，疯狂的

参考例句：

• Insane people are sometimes dangerous.精神病人有时非常危险。
• The letter made her insane with jealousy.那封信使她妒忌得发疯。

18 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

19 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。

20 contempt   

n.轻视，藐视，受辱，丢脸

参考例句：

• She looked at him with immediate and undisguised contempt.她用毫不掩饰的轻蔑眼光看着他。
• He refused to answer in contempt of the rules of the court.他藐视法院规章，拒绝回答。