CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

He called her five minutes later. He heard her heavy steps coming down the stairs. The room smelled strongly of fuel. 79 She stopped at the end of the hall and shouted out, 'Paul, are you really finished?' Paul looked at the huge pile of paper in front of him on the table. It was wet with fuel. 'Well,' he shouted back, 'I did the best I could, Annie.' 'I can hardly believe it!' she said. 'After all this time! I'm so excited. I'll go and get the champagne¹. I won't be a minute!' She sounded like a little girl. He heard her crossing the kitchen floor. The fridge door squeaked² open and then shut again. She started down the hall. He reached for the box of matches and took out the single match. He scratched it against the side, but it didn't light. She was nearly at his door. The third time, the match lit and he watched the yellow flame carefully. 'I just hope t h i s - ' She stopped. Paul was holding the burning match just above the pile of paper. Paul had turned the top page around so that Annie could see it when she came into the room: MISERY³'S RETURN, by Paul Sheldon. Annie's mouth dropped open. 'Paul, what are you going?' 'I've finished,' he said. 'And it's good. In fact, Annie, I think it's the best thing I've ever written. Now I'm going to do a little trick with it. It's a good trick. I learned⁴ it from you.' 'Paul, no!' Her voice was full of pain and understanding. Her hands reached out and she dropped the champagne bottle and the glasses on to the floor. They broke: there were pieces of glass and champagne everywhere. 'It's a pity that you'll never read it,' Paul said, and smiled at her. It was his first real smile for months. 'Actually, I think it's better than a good novel: I think it was a great novel, Annie.' The match was starting to burn his fingers. He dropped it on to the pile of paper. For one awful moment he thought it had gone out, but then pale blue fire rushed across the top page and down the sides of the typescript. The flames grew taller and 80 stronger when they met the little pools of fuel which lay on the table on both sides of the typescript. 'OH, GOD, NO!' Annie screamed. 'NO! NOT MISERY! NOT HER! NO!' Paul could now feel the heat of the flames on his face. 'PAUL, WHAT ARE YOU DOING? YOU CAN'T BURN MISERY, YOU DIRTY BIRD, YOU!' And then she did exactly what he had known she would do; she seized the burning pile of paper. Then she turned round, intending to run to the bathroom with it and put it under the tap. As soon as she turned her back on Paul he picked up the heavy old typewriter and lifted it over his head. The side of the typewriter was hot and blisters⁵ sprang up on his hand. He ignored the pain and threw the typewriter at her. It hit her in the middle of her back. 'OO-OW!' Annie fell forward on to the floor, on top of the burning pile of paper. Paul stood up on his one good leg. Tongues of flame began to play at the edges of Annie's clothes and he could already smell burning skin. She screamed in pain. She rolled over and struggled to her knees. Now he could see broken glass in her arms and face, too. Some of her clothes had melted on to her skin. He did not feel at all sympathetic⁶ or sorry. 'I'm going to kill you,' she said, and started to get to her feet. Paul let himself fall on top of her. This pushed her down on to the hard typewriter. She screamed in pain again and tried to push him off. She rolled over on to her back. He grabbed⁷ some paper, which was lying in a pool of champagne, and squashed⁸ it into a ball, 'Get off me!' she shouted, and her mouth opened wide. Paul pushed the ball of paper into her mouth. 'Here's your book, Annie,' he gasped⁹, and he grabbed some more paper. She struggled under him and his left knee hit the ground. The pain was terrible, but he kept his position on top of her and fiercely punched¹⁰ more paper into her mouth . . . and 81 more and more, until the first balls of paper were deep in her throat, making it impossible for her to breathe. She fought back with all her strength and managed to push him off her. Her hands reached for her swollen¹¹ throat. There was little left of her clothes at the front of her body and he could see that her flesh was red and covered with blisters. 'Mumpf! Mark! Mark!' Annie said. She struggled to her feet. Paul pushed himself backwards¹² along the floor, his legs straight out in front of him. He watched her carefully. She took one step towards him, choking on the paper. Drops of champagne from the paper ran down her chin. Her eyes looked at him with a question: Paul, what happened? I was bringing you champagne. Why did you do this to me? She took another step and fell over the typewriter again. Her head hit the wall hard as she fell down and she landed heavily on the ground like a loose sack¹³ of bricks¹⁴.

1 champagne   

n.香槟酒；微黄色

参考例句：

• There were two glasses of champagne on the tray.托盘里有两杯香槟酒。
• They sat there swilling champagne.他们坐在那里大喝香槟酒。

2 squeaked   

v.短促地尖叫( squeak的过去式和过去分词 )；吱吱叫；告密；充当告密者

参考例句：

• The radio squeaked five. 收音机里嘟嘟地发出五点钟报时讯号。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Amy's shoes squeaked on the tiles as she walked down the corridor. 埃米走过走廊时，鞋子踩在地砖上嘎吱作响。 来自辞典例句

3 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。

4 learned   

adj.有学问的，博学的；learn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He went into a rage when he learned about it.他听到这事后勃然大怒。
• In this little village,he passed for a learned man.在这个小村子里，他被视为有学问的人。

5 blisters   

n.水疱( blister的名词复数 )；水肿；气泡

参考例句：

• My new shoes have made blisters on my heels. 我的新鞋把我的脚跟磨起泡了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• His new shoes raised blisters on his feet. 他的新鞋把他的脚磨起了水疱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 sympathetic   

adj.有同情心的；表示好感或赞同的

参考例句：

• He is a sympathetic person.他是一个有同情心的人。
• They were quite sympathetic to our proposals.他们很赞同我们的建议。

7 grabbed   

v.抢先，抢占( grab的过去式和过去分词 )；（尤指匆忙地）取；攫取；（尤指自私、贪婪地）捞取

参考例句：

• He was grabbed by two men and frogmarched out of the hall. 他被两个男人紧抓双臂押出大厅。
• She grabbed the child's hand and ran. 她抓住孩子的手就跑。

8 squashed   

压碎的，压扁的

参考例句：

• The tomatoes at the bottom of the bag had been squashed. 袋底的西红柿给压烂了。
• I squashed a few more clothes into my case. 我往箱里多塞了几件衣服。

9 gasped   

v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要

参考例句：

• She gasped at the wonderful view. 如此美景使她惊讶得屏住了呼吸。
• People gasped with admiration at the superb skill of the gymnasts. 体操运动员的高超技艺令人赞叹。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

10 punched   

v.用拳猛击( punch的过去式和过去分词 )；打孔

参考例句：

• He punched me with his fist. 他用拳头猛击我。
• She was punched and kicked by her attackers. 她遭到袭击者的拳打脚踢。

11 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。

12 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。

13 sack   

n.袋子，劫掠；vt.解雇，劫掠，把...装入袋子

参考例句：

• They made him pay for his offence by giving him the sack.他们解雇了他，从而使他因自己的过错而受到了惩罚。
• If you're late again tomorrow,you'll get the sack!如果你明天再迟到，那就卷铺盖走吧！

14 bricks   

n.砖( brick的名词复数 )；砖块；积木；可靠的朋友

参考例句：

• He compounded water, sand and soil and formed bricks. 他用水拌和沙和泥土做成砖块。
• The United Auto Workers hit the bricks against General Motors. 联合汽车工人工会举行罢工，反对通用汽车公司。