CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Next day the police came. Paul heard the car and then heard Annie running down the corridor¹ to his room. He put the pencil carefully down on the paper he was covering in his untidy handwriting. Annie ran into the room. 'Get out of sight.' Her face was tight. She already had the bag with the gun around her shoulder. 'Get out of s-' She paused and saw that he had already rolled the wheelchair away from the window. 'Are you going to be good, Paul?' 'Yes,' he said. Her eyes searched his face. 'I'm going to trust you,' she said. She left the room and went outside to meet the policemen. Paul moved so that he could sec out of the window without being seen himself. The policeman who had come three days ago had been hardly 76 more than a child; these two were completely different. One was in uniform and one was a detective. Both were old and experienced². The detective looked tired, but his eyes were watching everything. The other policeman was large and obviously³ extremely strong. They got out of the car and stood close to Annie while they asked her some questions which Paul could not hear, He thought about breaking the window again, but two things stopped him. First, the detective had his coat buttoned, so he would not be able to get his gun quickly. If he had noticed that, then Annie certainly had too. She would shoot the other policeman first and then the detective. The second thing that stopped him was his desire for revenge⁴. The police would only put Annie in prison. He himself could hurt her, and he wanted to do that. The big policeman pointed⁵ towards the house and Annie led them in through the kitchen door. Paul could now hear the conversation. The policemen were asking her about Officer Kushner, which was the young man's name, and Annie was telling them her story. She sounded very calm, but Paul thought he noticed some signs of suspicion⁶ in the policemen's voices. They left and Annie came into Paul's room. She stared at him for a full minute. 'Why didn't you shout?' she asked. She couldn't understand it. In her world everyone was against her, so why hadn't he shouted? 'Because I want to finish the book,' he said. 'Because I want to finish it for you, Annie.' She looked at him uncertainly, wanting to believe. Finally she did believe him. It was the truth, anyway. Three days later the local TV news programme sent a crew to Annie's farm. Annie refused to let them on to her laud⁷ and fired a shot into the air to warn them off. Afterwards she said, 'You know what they want, Paul? This is what they want.' She scratched her forehead viciously⁸ with her fingernails, so that blood flowed down her face. 77 'Annie, stop it!' ''This is what they want too.' She hit herself on the cheek. 'And this.' She hit her other cheek, hard. 'STOP IT!' he screamed. 'It's what they want!' she screamed back. She pressed her hands against the wounds on her forehead and then held her hands out to him so that he could see the blood. Then she left the room and he took up his pencil and fell through the hole in the paper again. The next day two different policemen came, to take a statement from her. She told them the story about Kushner and the Pepsi-Cola bottle. They asked her about the scratches on her forehead. 'How did you get those?' 'I had a bad dream last night.' 'What?' 'I dreamed that people remembered me after all this time and started coming out here again,' Annie said. When they had gone Annie came into his room. Her face was distant and she looked ill. 'How much longer. Paul? When will you finish the book?' 'Tomorrow,' he said. 'Next time they'll have permission to search the house,' she said, and left before he could reply. It didn't take him long to get back to work. His swollen⁹ fingers were still locked tightly¹⁰ on to the pencil. Now more than ever he needed to finish the book.

1 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。

2 experienced   

adj.有经验的；经验丰富的，熟练的

参考例句：

• Experienced seamen will advise you about sailing in this weather.有经验的海员会告诉你在这种天气下的航行情况。
• Perhaps you and I had better change over;you are more experienced.也许我们的工作还是对换一下好，你比我更有经验。

3 obviously   

adv.显然；明白地

参考例句：

• Obviously they were putting him to a severe test.显然他们是在给他以严峻的考验。
• Obviously he was lying.显然他是在撒谎。

4 revenge   

v.报...之仇，为...报仇 ；n.报仇，复仇

参考例句：

• She poisoned his mind with ideas of hate and revenge.她用复仇的思想来毒害他的心灵。
• There was anger in his eyes and revenge in his heart.他两眼闪现怒火，一心只想复仇。

5 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。

6 suspicion   

n.猜疑，怀疑；怀疑，嫌疑

参考例句：

• There was just a suspicion of light in the east. 东方刚刚泛白。
• I confess to some suspicion of your honesty.我承认对你的诚实有所怀疑。

7 laud   

n.颂歌；v.赞美

参考例句：

• Kathy was very pleased to have graduated cum laud in her class.凯西在班上以优等成绩毕业，她为此而非常高兴。
• We laud him a warmhearted man.我们称赞他是个热心人。

8 viciously   

ad.邪恶地；恶毒地

参考例句：

• He sized me up viciously. 他不怀好意地打量我。
• 'Of course it's mine,'said Soapy, viciously. “当然是我的，”索比恶狠狠地说。 来自英汉文学 - 欧亨利

9 swollen   

adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀

参考例句：

• Her legs had got swollen from standing up all day.因为整天站着，她的双腿已经肿了。
• A mosquito had bitten her and her arm had swollen up.蚊子叮了她，她的手臂肿起来了。

10 tightly   

adv.紧紧地，坚固地，牢固地

参考例句：

• My child holds onto my hand tightly while we cross the street.横穿马路时，孩子紧拉着我的手不放。
• The crowd pressed together so tightly that we could hardly breathe.人群挤在一起，我们几乎喘不过气来。