ETHAN OPENED HIS EYES. Traveling far too fast for a residential1 street, a cherry-red Ferrari Testarossa exploded past, casting up a plume2 of dirty water from the puddled pavement.
Through the side window of the Expedition, the apartment house blurred3 and tweaked into strange geometry, like a place in a nightmare.
As if he’d sustained an electrical shock, he twitched4 violently, and inhaled5 with the desperation of a drowning man. The air tasted sweet, fresh and sweet and clean. He exhaled6 explosively.
No gut7 wound. No chest wound. His hair wasn’t wet with rain.
His heart knocked, knocked like a lunatic fist on the padded door of a padded room.
Never in his life had Ethan Truman experienced a dream of such clarity, such intensity8, nor any nightmare so crisply detailed9 as the experience in Reynerd’s apartment.
He consulted his wristwatch. If he’d been asleep, he had been dreaming for no more than a minute.
He couldn’t have explored the convolutions of such an elaborate dream in a mere10 minute. Impossible.
[32] Rain washed the last of the murky11 residue12 off the glass. Beyond the dripping fronds13 of the phoenix14 palms, the apartment house waited, no longer distorted, but now forever strange.
When he’d leaned back against the headrest and closed his eyes, the better to formulate15 his approach to Rolf Reynerd, Ethan had not been in the least sleepy. Or even tired.
He was certain that he had not taken a one-minute nap. He had not taken a five-second nap, for that matter.
If the first Ferrari had been a figment of a dream, the second sports car suggested that reality now followed precisely16 in the path of the nightmare.
Although his explosive breathing had quieted, his heart clumped17 with undiminished speed, galloping18 after reason, which set an even faster pace, steadily19 receding20 beyond reach.
Intuition told him to leave now, to find a Starbucks and have a large cup of coffee. Order a blend strong enough to dissolve the swizzle stick.
Given time and distance from the event, he would discover the key that unlocked the mystery and allowed understanding. No puzzle could resist solution when enough thought and rigorous logic21 were applied22 to it.
Even though years of police work had taught him to trust his intuition as a baby trusts its mother, he switched off the engine and got out of the Expedition.
No argument: Intuition was an essential survival tool. Honesty with himself, however, was more important than heeding23 intuition. In a spirit of honesty, he had to admit that he wanted to drive away not to find a place and time for quiet reflection, not to engage in Sherlockian deduction24, but because fear had him in a pincer grip.
Fear must never be allowed to win. Surrender to it once, and you were finished as a cop.
Of course he wasn’t a cop anymore. He had left the force more [33] than a year ago. The work that had given his life meaning while Hannah was alive had meant steadily less to him in the years after her death. He had ceased to believe that he could make a difference in the world. He had wanted to withdraw, to turn his back on the ugly reality of the human condition so evident in the daily work of a homicide detective. Channing Manheim’s world was as far as he could get from reality and still earn a living.
Although he didn’t carry a badge, although he might not be a cop in any official sense, he remained a cop in essence. We are what we are, no matter what we might wish to be, or pretend to be.
Hands shoved in the pockets of his leather jacket, shoulders hunched25 as if the rain were a burden, he dashed across the street to the apartment house.
Dripping, he entered the foyer. Mexican-tile floor. Elevator. Stairs. As it should be. As it had been.
Stale with the greasy26 scent27 of cooked breakfast meat and pot smoke, the air felt thick, seemed to cloy28 like mucus in his throat.
Two magazines lay in the tray. On each mailing label was the name George Keesner.
Ethan climbed the stairs. His legs felt weak, and his hands trembled. At the landing, he paused to take a few deep breaths, to knit the raveled fabric29 of his nerve.
The apartment house lay quiet. No voices muffled30 by the walls, no music for a melancholy31 Monday.
He imagined that he heard the faint tick and scrape of crow claws on an iron fence, the flap and rustle32 of pigeons taking flight, the tick-tick-tick of insistently33 pecking beaks34, in truth, he knew that these were only the many voices of the rain.
Although he could feel the weight of the pistol in his shoulder holster, he reached under his coat and placed his right hand on the weapon to be certain that he had brought it. With one fingertip, he traced the checking on the grip.
[34] He withdrew his hand from under his jacket, leaving the pistol in the holster.
Having collected hair by hair along the back of his head, rain reached a trickling35 finger down the nape of his neck, teasing a shudder36 from him.
When Ethan reached the second-floor hallway, he barely glanced at Apartment 2E, where George Keesner would fail to respond to either the bell or a knock, and he went directly to the door of 2B, where he lost his nerve, but only briefly37.
The apple man answered the bell almost at once. Tall, strong, self-confident, he didn’t bother engaging the security chain.
He didn’t seem to be in the least surprised to see Ethan again or alive, as if their first encounter had never happened.
“Is Jim here?” Ethan asked.
“You’ve got the wrong apartment,” Reynerd said.
“Jim Briscoe? Really? I’m sure this was his place.”
“I’ve been here more than six months.”
Beyond Reynerd lay a black-and-white room.
“Six months? Has it been that long since I was here?” Ethan sounded false to himself, but he pressed forward. “Yeah, I guess that’s what it’s been, six or seven.”
On the wall opposite the door, an owl38 stared with immense eyes, in expectation of a gunshot.
Ethan said, “Hey, did Jim leave a forwarding address?”
“I never met the previous tenant39.”
The hard shine in Reynerd’s eyes, the quick throbbing40 in his temple, the tightness at the corners of his mouth this time warned Ethan off.
“Sorry to have bothered you,” he said.
When he heard Reynerd’s television at low volume, the soft roar of the MGM lion, he hesitated no longer and headed directly for the stairs. He realized that he was retreating with suspicious haste, and he tried not to run.
[35] Halfway41 down the stairs, at the landing, Ethan trusted instinct, turned, looked up, and saw Rolf Reynerd at the head of the stairs, silently watching him. The apple man had in his hand neither a gun nor a bag of potato chips.
Without another word, Ethan descended42 the last flight to the foyer. Opening the outer door, he glanced back, but Reynerd had not followed him to the lower floor.
Lazy no more, rain chased rain along the street, and cold wind blustered43 in the palms.
Behind the steering44 wheel of the Expedition again, Ethan started the engine, locked the doors, switched on the heater.
A strong double coffee at Starbucks no longer seemed adequate. He didn’t know where to go.
Premonition. Precognition. Psychic45 vision. Clairvoyance46. The Twilight47 Zone Dictionary turned its own pages in the library of his mind, but no possibility that it presented to him seemed to explain his experience.
According to the calendar, winter would not officially arrive for another day, but it entered early in his bones. He contained a coldness unknown in southern California.
He raised his hands to look at them, never having known them to shake like this. His fingers were pale, each nail as entirely48 white as the crescent at its base.
Neither the paleness nor the tremors49 troubled Ethan half as much as what he saw beneath the fingernails of his right hand. A dark substance, reddish-black.
He stared at this material for a long time, reluctant to take steps to determine if it was real or hallucinated.
Finally he used the thumbnail of his left hand to scrape out a small portion of the matter that was trapped under the nail of his right thumb. The stuff proved slightly moist, gummy.
Hesitantly, he brought the smear50 to his nose. He sniffed51 it once, [36] twice, and though the scent was faint, he didn’t need to smell it again.
Ethan had blood under all five nails of his right hand. With a certainty seldom given to any man who understood the world to be a most uncertain place, he knew that this would prove to be his own blood.
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residential
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| adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的 | |
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plume
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| n.羽毛；v.整理羽毛，骚首弄姿，用羽毛装饰 | |
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blurred
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| v.（使）变模糊( blur的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）难以区分；模模糊糊；迷离 | |
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twitched
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| vt.& vi.（使）抽动，（使）颤动（twitch的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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inhaled
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| v.吸入( inhale的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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exhaled
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| v.呼出，发散出( exhale的过去式和过去分词 )；吐出（肺中的空气、烟等），呼气 | |
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gut
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| n.[pl.]胆量；内脏；adj.本能的；vt.取出内脏 | |
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intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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detailed
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| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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murky
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| adj.黑暗的，朦胧的；adv.阴暗地，混浊地；n.阴暗；昏暗 | |
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residue
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| n.残余，剩余，残渣 | |
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fronds
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| n.蕨类或棕榈类植物的叶子( frond的名词复数 ) | |
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phoenix
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| n.凤凰，长生(不死)鸟；引申为重生 | |
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formulate
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| v.用公式表示；规划；设计；系统地阐述 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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clumped
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| adj.[医]成群的v.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的过去式和过去分词 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声 | |
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galloping
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| adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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receding
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| v.逐渐远离( recede的现在分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题 | |
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logic
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| n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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heeding
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| v.听某人的劝告，听从( heed的现在分词 ) | |
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deduction
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| n.减除，扣除，减除额；推论，推理，演绎 | |
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hunched
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| （常指因寒冷、生病或愁苦）耸肩弓身的，伏首前倾的 | |
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greasy
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| adj. 多脂的，油脂的 | |
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scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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cloy
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| v.（吃甜食）生腻，吃腻 | |
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fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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32
rustle
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| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
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insistently
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| ad.坚持地 | |
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34
beaks
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| n.鸟嘴( beak的名词复数 )；鹰钩嘴；尖鼻子；掌权者 | |
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35
trickling
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| n.油画底色含油太多而成泡沫状突起v.滴( trickle的现在分词 )；淌；使)慢慢走；缓慢移动 | |
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36
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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owl
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| n.猫头鹰，枭 | |
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39
tenant
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| n.承租人；房客；佃户；v.租借，租用 | |
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40
throbbing
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| a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
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41
halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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42
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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43
blustered
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| v.外强中干的威吓( bluster的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮；（风）呼啸；狂吹 | |
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44
steering
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| n.操舵装置 | |
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45
psychic
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| n.对超自然力敏感的人；adj.有超自然力的 | |
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46
clairvoyance
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| n.超人的洞察力 | |
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47
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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48
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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49
tremors
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| 震颤( tremor的名词复数 )； 战栗； 震颤声； 大地的轻微震动 | |
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50
smear
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| v.涂抹；诽谤，玷污；n.污点；诽谤，污蔑 | |
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51
sniffed
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| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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