The thready lawn behind their little limestone1 house at 14Vz Franklin Drive has the dry kiss of autumn on it: brown patches and the first few fallen leaves, cast off by the weeping cherry, his neighbor's black walnut2, the sweet cherry that leans close to the house so he can watch the squirrels scrabble along its branches, and the willow3 above the empty cement fish pond with the bluepainted bottom and rim4 of real seashells. These trees still seem green and growing but their brown leaves are accumulating in the grass. Even the hemlock5 toward the neighboring house of thin yellow bricks, and the rhododendrons along the palisade fence separating the Angstroms' yard from the property of the big mockTudor house of clinker bricks, and the shaggy Austrian pines whose cast?off needles clutter7 the cement pond, though all evergreen8, are tinged9 by summer's end, dusty and sweetly dried?out like the smell that used to come from the old cedar10 hope chest where Mom kept spare blankets and their good embroidered11 linen12 tablecloth13 for Thanksgiving and Christmas and the two old crazy quilts she had inherited from the Renningers. It was family legend that these quilts were fabulously14 valuable but when, in some family crunch15 when Harry16 was in his early teens, they tried to sell them, the best offer they could get was sixty dollars apiece. After much talk around the porcelain17 kitchen table, they took the offer, and now authentic18 old quilts like that bring thousands if in good condition. When he thinks about those old days and the amounts of money they considered important it's as if they were being cheated, getting by on slave wages, eating bread that cost eleven cents a loaf. They were living in a financial dungeon19, back there on Jackson Road, and the fact that everybody else was in it too only makes it sadder. Just thinking about those old days lately depresses him; it makes him face life's constant depreciation20. Lying awake at night, afraid he will never fall asleep or will fall asleep forever, he feels a stifling21 uselessness in things, a kind of atomic decay whereby the precious glowing present turns, with each tick of the clock, into the leaden slag22 of history.
The forsythia and beauty bush both have been getting out of hand during this wet summer and Harry, on this cloudy cool Thursday before the Labor23 Day weekend, has been trying to prune24 them back into shape for the winter. With the forsythia, you take out the oldest stem from the base, making the bush younger and thinner and more girlish suddenly, and then cut back the most flagrant skyward shoots and the down?drooping25 branches on their way to reroot in among the day lilies. It doesn't do to be tenderhearted; the harder you cut back now, the more crammed26 with glad yellow blossoms the stubby branches become in the spring. The beauty bush poses a tougher challenge, an even tighter tangle27. Any attempt to follow the tallest stems down to their origin gets lost in the net of interwoven branchlets, and the bottom thicket28 of small trunks is so dense29 as to repel30 a clipper or pruning31 saw; there is not a knife's?width of space. The bush in this season of neglect has grown so tall he really should go to the garage for the aluminum32 stepladder. But Rabbit is reluctant to face the garage's grimy tumble of cast?aside tires and stiff hoses and broken flowerpots and rusted33 tools inherited from the previous owners, who failed to clean out the garage the same way they left a stack of Playboys in an upstairs closet. In ten years he and Janice have added their own stuff to the garage, so that gradually there wasn't space for one car let alone two in it; it has become a cave of deferred34 decisions and sentimentally35 cherished junk so packed that if he tries to extract the ladder several old paint cans and a lawn sprinkler bereft36 of its washers will come clattering37 down. So he stretches and reaches into the beauty bush until his chest begins to ache, with the sensation of an inflexible38 patch stitched to the inner side of his skin. His nitroglycerin pills got left in the sweat?rimmed39 pocket of his plaid golf slacks last night when he went to bed early, alone, having fed himself a beer and some Corn Chips after that match with Ronnie ended so sourly.
To placate40 the pain, he switches to weeding the day lilies and the violet hosta. Wherever a gap pennits light to activate41 the sandy soil, chickweed and crabgrass grow, and purslane with its hollow red stems covers the earth in busy round?leaved zigzags42. Weeds too have their styles, their own personalities43 that talk back to the gardener in the daze44 of the task. Chickweed is a good weed, soft on the hands unlike thistles and burdock, and pulls easily; it knows when the jig45 is up and comes willingly, where wild cucumber keeps breaking off at one of its many joints46, and grass and red sorrel and poison ivy47 spread underground, like creeping diseases that cannot be cured. Weeds don't know they're weeds. Safe next to the trunk of the weeping cherry a stalk of blue lettuce48 has grown eight feet tall, taller than he. Those days he spent ages ago being Mrs. Smith's gardener among her rhododendrons, the one time he ever felt rooted in a job. Fine strong young man, she had called him at the end, gripping him with her claws.
A block and a half away, the traffic on Penn Boulevard murmurs49 and hisses50, its purr marred51 by the occasional sudden heave and grind of a great truck shifting gears, or by an angry horn, or the wop?wop?wopping bleat52 of an ambulance rushing some poor devil to the hospital. You see them now and then, driving down a side street, these scenes: some withered53 old lady being carried in a stretcher down her porch stairs in a slow?motion sled ride, her hair unpinned, her mouth without its dentures, her eyes staring skyward as if to disown her body; or some red?faced goner being loaded into the double metal doors while his abandoned mate in her bathrobe snivels on the curb54 and the paramedics close around his body like white vultures feeding. Rabbit has noticed a certain frozen peacefulness in such terminal street tableaux55. A certain dignity in the doomed56 one, his or her moment come round at last; a finality that isolates57 the ensemble58 like a spotlit créche. You would think people would take it worse than they do. They don't scream, they don't accuse God. We curl into ourselves, he supposes. We become numb59 bundles of used?up nerves. Earthworms on the hook.
From far across the river, a siren wails60 in the heart of Brewer61. Above, in a sky gathering62 its fishscales for a rainy tomorrow, a small airplane rasps as it coasts into the airport beyond the old fairgrounds. What Harry instantly loved about this house was its hiddenness: not so far from all this traffic, it is yet not easy to find, on its macadamized dead end, tucked with its fractional number among the more conspicuous63 homes of the Penn Park rich. He always resented these snobs64 and now is safe among them. Pulling into his dead?end driveway, working out back in his garden, watching TV in his den6 with its wavery lozenge?paned windows, Rabbit feels safe as in a burrow66, where the hungry forces at loose in the world would never think to find him.
Janice pulls in in the pearl?gray Camry wagon67. She is fresh from the afternoon class at the Penn State extension on Pine Street: "Real Estate Mathematics ?Fundamentals and Applications." In a student outfit68 of sandals and wheat?colored sundress, with a looseknit white cardigan thrown over her shoulders, her forehead free of those Mamie Eisenhower bangs, she looks snappy, and brushed glossy69, and younger than her age. Everything she wears these days has shoulders; even her cardigan has shoulders. She walks to him over what seems a great distance in the little quarter?acre yard, their property expanded by what has become a mutual70 strangeness. Unusually, she presents her face to be kissed. Her nose feels cold, like a healthy puppy's. "How was class?" he dutifully asks.
"Poor Mr. Lister seems so sad and preoccupied71 lately," she says. "His beard has come in all full of gray. We think his wife is leaving. him. She came to class once and acted very snooty, we all thought."
"You all are getting to be a mean crowd. Aren't these classes about over? Labor Day's coming."
"Poor Harry, do you feel I've deserted72 you this summer? What are you going to do with all this mess you've pruned73 away? The beauty bush looks absolutely ravaged74."
He admits, "I was getting tired and making bad decisions. That's why I stopped."
"Good thing," she says. "There wouldn't have been anything left but stumps75. We'd have to call it the ugliness bush."
"Listen, you, I don't see you out here helping76. Ever."
"The outdoors is your responsibility, the indoors is mine ? isn't that how we do it?"
"I don't know how we do anything any more, you're never here. In answer to your question, I'd planned to stack what I cut over behind the fish pond to dry out and then burn it next spring when we're back from Florida."
"You're planning ahead right into 1990; I'm impressed. That year is still very unreal to me. Won't the yard look ugly all winter then, though?"
"It won't look ugly, it'll look natural, and we won't be here to see it anyway."
Her tongue touches the upper lip of her mouth, which has opened in thought. But she says nothing, just "I guess we won't, if we do things as normal."
"If ? "
She doesn't seem to hear, gazing at the fence?high heap of pruned branches.
He says, "If you're so in charge of the indoors, what are we having for dinner?"
"Damn," she says. "I meant to stop by at the farm stand there at the end of the bridge and pick up some sweet corn, but then I had so much else on my mind I sailed right by. I thought we'd have the corn with what's left of Tuesday's meatloaf and those dinner rolls in the breadbox before they get moldy77. There was a wonderful tip in the Standard about how to freshen stale bread in the microwave, I forget what exactly, something to do with water. There must be a frozen veg in the freezer part we can have instead of sweet corn."
"Or else we could sprinkle salt and sugar on ice cubes," he says. "One thing I know's in the fridge is ice cubes."
"Harry, it's been on my mind to go shopping, but the IGA is so far out of the way and the prices at the Turkey Hill are ridiculous, and the convenience store over on Penn Boulevard has those surly kids behind the counter who I think punch extra figures into the cash register."
"You're a shrewd shopper, all right," Harry tells her. The mackerel sky is forming a solid gray shelf in the southwest; they move together toward the house, away from the shadow of coming dark.
Janice says, "So." Saying "so" is something she's picked up recently, from her fellow?students or her teachers, as the word for beginning to strike a deal. "You haven't asked me how I did on my last quiz. We got them back."
"How did you do?"
"Beautifully, really. Mr. Lister gave me a B minus but said it would have been a B plus if I could organize my thoughts better and clean up my spelling. I know it's `i' before `e' sometimes and the other way around some other times, but when?"
He loves her when she talks to him like this, as if he has all the answers. He leans the long?handled clippers in the garage against the wall behind a dented78 metal trash can and hangs the pruning saw on its nail. Shadowy in her sundress, she moves ahead of him up the back stairs and the kitchen light comes on. Inside the kitchen, she rummages79, with that baffled frowning expression of hers, biting her tongue tip, in the refrigerator for edible80 fragments. He goes and touches her waist in the wheat?colored dress, lightly cups her buttocks as she bends over looking. Tenderly, he complains, "You didn't come home until late last night."
"You were asleep, poor thing. I didn't want to risk waking you so I slept in the guest room."
"Yeah, I get so groggy81, suddenly. I keep wanting to finish that book on the American Revolution but it knocks me out every time."
"I shouldn't have given it to you for Christmas. I thought you’d enjoy it."
"I did. I do. Yesterday was a hard day. First Ronnie tied me on the last hole when I had the bastard82 all but beaten, and then he snubbed my invitation to play again. And then Nelson called all jazzed up with some crazy scheme about water scooters and Yamaha."
"I'm sure Ronnie has his reasons," Janice says. "I'm surprised he played with you at all. How do you feel about Brussels sprouts83?"
"I don't mind them."
"To me, they always taste spoiled; but they're all we have. I promise to get to the IGA tomorrow and stock up for the long weekend."
"We going to have Nelson and his tribe over?"
"I thought we might all meet at the club. We've hardly used it this summer."
"He sounded hyper on the phone ? do you think he's back on the stuff already?"
"Harry, Nelson is very straight now. That place really has given him religion. But I agree, Yamaha isn't the answer. We must raise some capital and put ourselves on a solvent84 basis before we start courting another franchise85. I've been talking to some of the other women getting their licenses86 -"
"You discuss our personal financial problems?"
"Not ours as such, just as a case study. It's all purely87 hypothetical. In real?estate class we always have a lot of case studies. And they all thought it was grotesque88 to be carrying a mortgage amounting to over twenty?five hundred a month on the lot when we have so much other property."
Rabbit doesn't like the trend here. He points out, "But this place is already mortgaged. What do we pay? Seven hundred a month."
"I know that, silly. Don't forget, this is my business now." She has stripped the Brussels sprouts of their waxpaper box and put them in the plastic safe dish and put it in the microwave and punches out the time ? three blips, a peep, and then a rising hum. "We bought this place ten years ago," she tells him, "for seventyeight thousand and put fifteen down and have about ten or fifteen more in equity89 by now, it doesn't accumulate very fast in the first half of payback, there's a geometric curve they tell you about, so let's say there's still fifty outstanding; in any case, housing prices have gone way up in this area since 1980, it's been flattening90 out but hasn't started to go down yet, though it might this winter, you'd begin by asking two twenty, two thirty let's say, with the Penn Park location, and the seclusion91, the fact that it has real limestone walls and not just facing, it has what they call historic value; we certainly wouldn't settle for less than two hundred, which minus the fifty would give us one fifty, which would wipe out two?thirds of what we owe Brewer Trust!"
Rabbit has rarely heard this long an utterance92 from Janice, and it takes him a few seconds to understand what she has been saying. "You'd sell this place?"
"Well, Harry, it is very extravagant93 to keep it just for the summer essentially94, especially when there's all that extra room over at Mother's."
"I love this place," he tells her. "It's the only place I've ever lived where I felt at home, at least since Jackson Road. This place has class. It's us."
"Honey, I've loved it too, but we must be practical, that's what you've always been telling me. We don't need to own four prop-erties, plus the lot."
"Why not sell the condo, then?"
"I thought of that, but we'd be lucky to get out of it what we paid for it. In Florida, places are like cars ? people like them brand new. The new malls and everything are to the east."
"What about the Poconos place?"
"There's not enough money there either. It's an unheated shack95. We need two hundred thousand, honey."
"We didn't roll up that debt to Toyota ? Nelson did it, Nelson and his faggy boyfriends."
"Well, you can say that, but he can't pay it back, and he was acting96 as part of the company."
"What about the lot? Why can't you sell the lot? That much frontage on Route 111 is worth a fortune; it's the real downtown, now that people are scared to go into the old downtown because of the spics."
A look of pain crosses Janice's face, rippling97 her exposed fore-head; for once, he realizes, he is thinking slower than she is. "Never," she says curtly98. "The lot is our number?one asset. We need it as a base for Nelson's future, Nelson's and your grand-children's. That's what Daddy would want. I remember when he bought it after the war, it had been a country gas station, with a cornfield next to it, that had closed during the war when there were no cars, and he took Mother and me down to look at it, and I found this dump out back, out in that brambly part you call Paraguay, all these old auto99 parts and green and brown soda100 bot-tles that I thought were so valuable, it was like I had discovered buried treasure I thought, and I got my school dress all dirty so that Mother would have been mad if Daddy hadn't laughed and told her it looked like I had a taste for the car business. Springer Motors won't sell out as long as I'm alive and well, Harry. Anyway," she goes on, trying to strike a lighter101 note, "I don't know anything about industrial real estate. The beauty of selling this place is I can do it myself and get the salesperson's half of the broker102's commission. I can't believe we can't get two for it; half of six per cent of two hundred thousand is six thousand dollars ?all mine!"
He is still playing catch?up. "You'd sell it ? I mean, you per-sonally?"
"Of course, you big lunk, for a real?estate broker. It would be my entrée, as they call it. How could Pearson and Schrack, for instance, or Sunflower Realty, not take me on as a rep if I could bring in a listing like that right off the bat?"
"Wait a minute. We'd live in Florida most of the time -"
"Some of the time, honey. I don't know how much I could get away at first, I need to establish myself. Isn't Florida, honestly, a little boring? So flat, and everybody we know so old."
"And the rest of the time we'd live in Ma's old house? Where would Nelson and Pru go?"
"They'd be there, obviously. Harry, you seem a little slow. Have you been taking too many pills? Just the way we and Nelson used to live with Mother and Daddy. That wasn't so bad, was it? In fact, it was nice. Nelson and Pru would have built?in baby-sitters, and I wouldn't have to do all this housekeeping by myself."
"What housekeeping?"
"You don't notice it, men never do, but there's an awful lot of simple drudgery103 to keeping two separate establishments going. You know how you always worry about one place being robbed while we're in the other. This way, we'd have one room at Mother's, I mean Nelson's ? I'm sure they'd give us our old room back ? and we'd never have to worry!"
Those bands of constriction104, with their edges pricked105 out in pain, have materialized across Harry's chest. His words come out with difficulty. "How do Nelson and Pru feel about us moving in?"
"I haven't asked yet. I thought I might this evening, after I ran it by you. I really don't see how they can say no; it's my house, legally. So: what do you think?" Her eyes, which he is used to as murky106 and careful, often blurred107 by sherry or Campari, shine at the thought of her first sale.
He isn't sure. There was a time, when he was younger, when the thought of any change, even a disaster, gladdened his heart with the possibility of a shake?up, of his world made new. But at present he is aware mostly of a fluttering, binding108 physical resistance within him to the idea of being uprooted109. "I hate it, offhand," he tells her. "I don't want to go back to living as somebody's tenant110. We did that for ten years and finally got out of it. People don't live all bunched up, all the generations, any more."
"But they do, honey ? that's one of the trends in living, now that homes have become so expensive and the world so crowded."
"Suppose they have more children."
"They won't."
"How do you know?"
"I just do. Pru and I have discussed it."
"Does Pru ever feel crowded, I wonder, by her mother?in?law?"
"I wouldn't know why. We both want the same thing ? a happy and healthy Nelson."
Rabbit shrugs111. Let her stew112 in her own juice, the cocky little mutt. Going off to school and thinking she's learned everybody's business. "You go over after supper and see how they like your crazy plan. I'm dead set against it, if my vote counts. Sell off the lot and tell the kid to get an honest job, is my advice."
Janice stops watching the microwave tick down its numbers and comes close to him, unexpectedly, touching113 his face again with that ghostly searching gesture, tucking her body against his to remind him sexually of her smallness, her smallness fitting his bigness, when they first met and still now. He smells her brushedback salt?and?pepper hair and sees the blood?tinged whites of her dark eyes. "Of course your vote counts, it counts more than anybody's, honey." When did Janice start calling him honey? When they moved to Florida and got in with those Southerners and Jews. The Jewish couples down there had this at?rest quality, matched like pairs of old shoes, the men accepting their life as the only one they were going to get, and pleased enough. It must be a great religion, Rabbit thinks, once you get past the circumcision.
He and Janice let the house issue rest as a silent sore spot between them while they eat. He helps her clear and they add their plates to those already stacked in the dishwasher, waiting to be run through. With just the two of them, and Janice out of the house so much, it takes days for a sufficient load to build up on the racks. She telephones Nelson to see if they're going to be in and puts her white cardigan back on and gets back into the Camry and drives off to Mt. Judge. Wonder Woman. Rabbit catches the tail end of Jennings, a bunch of twitchy old black?and?white clips about World War II beginning with the invasion of Poland fifty years ago tomorrow, tanks versus114 cavalry115, Hitler shrieking116, Chamberlain looking worried; then he goes out into the dusk and the mosquitoes to stack the already wilting117 brush more neatly118 in the corner behind the cement pond with its fading blue bottom and widening crack. He gets back into the house in time for the last ten minutes of Wheel of Fortune. That Vanna! Can she strut119! Can she clap her hands when the wheel turns! Can she turn those big letters around! She makes you proud to be a two?legged mammal.
By the end of the Cosby summer rerun, one of those with too much Theo in it, Harry is feeling sleepy, depressed120 by the idea of Janice selling the house but soothed121 by the thought that she'll never do it. She's too scatterbrained, she and the kid will just drift along deeper and deeper into debt like the rest of the world; the bank will play ball as long as the lot has value. The Phillies are out in San Diego and in sixth place anyway. He turns the TV sound way down and by the comforting shudder122 of the silenced imagery stretches out his feet on the Turkish hassock they brought from Ma Springer's house when they moved and slumps123 down deeper into the silvery?pink wing chair he and Janice bought at Schaechner's ten years ago. His shoulders ache from all that pruning. He thinks of his history book but it's upstairs by the bed. There is a soft ticking at the lozenge?pane65 windows: rain, as on that evening at the beginning of summer, when he'd just come out of the hospital, the narrow room with the headless sewing dummy124, another world, a dream world. The phone wakes him when it rings. He looks at the thermostat125 clock as he goes to the hall phone. 9:20. Janice has been over there a long time. He hopes it isn't one of those coke dealers126 that still now and then call, about money they are owed or a new shipment of fresh "material" that has come in. You wonder how these dealers get so rich, they seem so disorganized and hit?or?miss. He was having a dream in the wing chair, some intense struggle already fading and unintelligible127, with an unseen antagonist128, but in a vivid domed129 space, like an old?time railroad terminal only the ceiling was lower and paler, a chapel130 of some kind, a tight space that clings to his mind, making his hand look ancient and strange ? the back swollen131 and bumpy132, the fingers withered ? as it reaches for the receiver on the wall.
"Harry." He has never heard Janice's voice sound like this, so stony133, so dead.
"Hi. Where are you? I was getting afraid you'd had an accident."
"Harry, I -" Something grabs her throat and will not let her speak.
"Yeah?"
Now she is speaking through tears, staggering over gulps134, suppressed sobs136, lumps in her throat. "I described my idea to Nelson and Pru, and we all agreed we shouldn't rush into it, we should discuss it thoroughly137, he seemed more receptive than she, maybe because he understands the financial problems -"
"Yeah, yeah. Hey, it doesn't sound so bad so far. She's used to considering the house as hers, no woman likes to share a kitchen."
"After she'd put the children to bed, she came down with this look on her face and said there was something then that Nelson and I should know, if we were all going to live together."
"Yeah?" His own voice is still casual but he is no longer sleepy; he can see what is coming like a tiny dot in the distance that becomes a rocket ship in a space movie.
Janice's voice firms up, goes dead and level and lower, as if others might be listening outside the door. She would be in their old bedroom, sitting on the edge of the bed, Judy asleep beyond one wall and Roy behind the wall opposite. "She said you and she slept together that night you stayed here your first night out of the hospital."
The spaceship is upon him, with all its rivets138 and blinking lights. "She said that?"
"Yes she did. She said she doesn't know how it happened, except there'd always been this little attraction between you two and that night everything seemed so desperate."
A little attraction. He supposes that was fair, though tough. It had felt like more than that from his side. It had felt like he was seeing himself reflected, mirrored in a rangy young long?haired left?handed woman.
"Well? Is she telling the truth?"
"Well, honey, what can I say, I guess in a way -"
A big sob135: he can picture Janice's face exactly, twisted and helpless and ugly, old age collapsing139 in upon her.
"? but at the time," Rabbit goes on, "it seemed sort of natural, and we haven't done anything since, not even said a word. We've been pretending it didn't happen."
"Oh, Harry. How could you? Your own daughter?in?law. Nelson's wife."
He feels she is beginning to work from a script, saying standard things, and into the vault140 of his shocked and shamed consciousness there is admitted a whiff of boredom141.
"This is the worst thing you've ever done, ever, ever," Janice tells him. "The absolute worst. That time you ran away, and then Peggy, my best friend, and that poor hippie girl, and Thelma don't think for one moment I didn't know about Thelma ? but now you've done something truly unforgivable."
"Really?" The word comes out with an unintended hopeful lilt.
"I will never forgive you. Never," Janice says, returning to a dead?level tone.
"Don't say that," he begs. "It was just a crazy moment that didn't hurt anybody. Whajou put me and her in the same house at night for? Whajou think I was, dead already?"
"I had to go to class, there was a quiz, I wouldn't have gone ordinarily, I felt so guilty. That's a laugh. I felt guilty. I see now why they have gun laws. If I had a gun, I'd shoot you. I'd shoot you both."
"What else did Pru say?" Answering, he figures, will bring her down a bit from this height of murderous rage.
Janice answers, "She didn't say much of anything. Just the flat facts and then folded her hands in her lap and kept giving me and Nelson that defiant142 stare of hers. She didn't seem repentant143, just tough, and obviously not wanting me to come live in the house. That's why she told."
He feels himself being drawn144 into alignment145 with Janice, against the others, with a couple's shared vision, squinting146 this way at Pru. He feels relieved, beginning already to be forgiven, and faintly disappointed.
"She is tough," he agrees, soothingly147. "Pru. Whaddeya expect, from an Akron steamfitter's daughter?" He decides against telling Janice, now at least, how in making their love Pru had come twice, and he had faintly felt used, expertly.
His reprieve148 is only just beginning. It will take weeks and months and years of whittling149 at it. With her new business sense Janice won't give anything away cheap. "We want you over here, Harry," she says.
"Me? Why? It's late," he says. "I'm bushed150 from all those bushes."
"Don't think you're out of this and can be cute. This is a hideous151 thing. None of us will ever be the same."
"We never are," he dares say.
"Think of how Nelson feels."
This hurts. He hadn't wanted to think about it.
She tells him, "Nelson is being very calm and using all that good psychological work they did at the treatment center. He says this will need a lot of processing and we must begin right now. If we don't start right in we'll all harden in our positions."
Rabbit tries to conspire152 again, to elicit153 another wifely description. "Yeah ?how did the kid take it?"
But she only says, "I think he's in shock. He himself said he hasn't begun to get in touch with his real feelings."
Harry says, "He can't be on too high a horse after all the stunts154 he's been pulling all these years. Coke whores all over Brewer, and if you ask me that Elvira over at the lot is more than just a token skirt. When she's around he sounds like he's been given a shot of joy juice."
But Janice doesn't relent. "You have hurt Nelson incredibly much," she says. "Anything he does from now on you can't blame him. I mean, Harry, what you've done is the kind of perverted155 thing that makes the newspapers. It was monstrous156."
"Honey -"
"Quit it with the 'honey."'
"What's this `perverted'? We aren't at all blood?related. It was just like a normal one?night stand. She was hard?up and I was at death's door. It was her way of playing nurse."
More sobbing157, he never knows what will trigger it. "Harry, you can't make jokes."
"Those weren't jokes." But he feels chastised158, dry?mouthed, spanked159.
"You get right over here and help undo160 some of the damage you've done for once in your life." And she hangs up, having sounded comically like her mother in the juicy way she pronounced "for once."
收听单词发音 |
1
limestone
|
|
| n.石灰石 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
walnut
|
|
| n.胡桃，胡桃木，胡桃色，茶色 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
willow
|
|
| n.柳树 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
rim
|
|
| n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
hemlock
|
|
| n.毒胡萝卜，铁杉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
den
|
|
| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
clutter
|
|
| n.零乱，杂乱；vt.弄乱，把…弄得杂乱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
evergreen
|
|
| n.常青树；adj.四季常青的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
tinged
|
|
| v.（使）发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
cedar
|
|
| n.雪松，香柏(木) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
embroidered
|
|
| adj．绣花的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
linen
|
|
| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
tablecloth
|
|
| n.桌布，台布 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
fabulously
|
|
| 难以置信地，惊人地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
crunch
|
|
| n.关键时刻；艰难局面；v.发出碎裂声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
harry
|
|
| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
porcelain
|
|
| n.瓷；adj.瓷的，瓷制的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
authentic
|
|
| a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
dungeon
|
|
| n.地牢，土牢 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
depreciation
|
|
| n.价值低落，贬值，蔑视，贬低 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
stifling
|
|
| a.令人窒息的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
slag
|
|
| n.熔渣，铁屑，矿渣；v.使变成熔渣，变熔渣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
labor
|
|
| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
prune
|
|
| n.酶干；vt.修剪，砍掉，削减；vi.删除 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
drooping
|
|
| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
crammed
|
|
| adj.塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
tangle
|
|
| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
thicket
|
|
| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
dense
|
|
| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
repel
|
|
| v.击退，抵制，拒绝，排斥 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
pruning
|
|
| n.修枝，剪枝，修剪v.修剪（树木等）( prune的现在分词 )；精简某事物，除去某事物多余的部分 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
aluminum
|
|
| n.(aluminium)铝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
rusted
|
|
| v.（使）生锈( rust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
deferred
|
|
| adj.延期的，缓召的v.拖延，延缓，推迟( defer的过去式和过去分词 )；服从某人的意愿，遵从 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
sentimentally
|
|
| adv.富情感地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
bereft
|
|
| adj.被剥夺的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
clattering
|
|
| 发出咔哒声（clatter的现在分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
inflexible
|
|
| adj.不可改变的，不受影响的，不屈服的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
rimmed
|
|
| adj.有边缘的，有框的v.沿…边缘滚动；给…镶边 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
placate
|
|
| v.抚慰，平息(愤怒) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
activate
|
|
| vt.使活动起来，使开始起作用 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
zigzags
|
|
| n.锯齿形的线条、小径等( zigzag的名词复数 )v.弯弯曲曲地走路，曲折地前进( zigzag的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
personalities
|
|
| n. 诽谤，（对某人容貌、性格等所进行的）人身攻击； 人身攻击；人格, 个性, 名人( personality的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
daze
|
|
| v.(使)茫然，(使)发昏 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
jig
|
|
| n.快步舞（曲）；v.上下晃动；用夹具辅助加工；蹦蹦跳跳 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
joints
|
|
| 接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
ivy
|
|
| n.常青藤，常春藤 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
lettuce
|
|
| n.莴苣；生菜 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
murmurs
|
|
| n.低沉、连续而不清的声音( murmur的名词复数 )；低语声；怨言；嘀咕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
hisses
|
|
| 嘶嘶声( hiss的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
marred
|
|
| adj. 被损毁, 污损的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
bleat
|
|
| v.咩咩叫，(讲)废话，哭诉；n.咩咩叫，废话，哭诉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
withered
|
|
| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
curb
|
|
| n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
tableaux
|
|
| n.舞台造型，（由活人扮演的）静态画面、场面；人构成的画面或场景( tableau的名词复数 )；舞台造型；戏剧性的场面；绚丽的场景 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
doomed
|
|
| 命定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
isolates
|
|
| v.使隔离( isolate的第三人称单数 )；将…剔出（以便看清和单独处理）；使（某物质、细胞等）分离；使离析 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
ensemble
|
|
| n.合奏(唱)组；全套服装；整体，总效果 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
numb
|
|
| adj.麻木的，失去感觉的；v.使麻木 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
wails
|
|
| 痛哭，哭声( wail的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
brewer
|
|
| n. 啤酒制造者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
gathering
|
|
| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
conspicuous
|
|
| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
snobs
|
|
| （谄上傲下的）势利小人( snob的名词复数 )； 自高自大者，自命不凡者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
pane
|
|
| n.窗格玻璃，长方块 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
burrow
|
|
| vt.挖掘(洞穴)；钻进；vi.挖洞；翻寻；n.地洞 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
wagon
|
|
| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
outfit
|
|
| n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
glossy
|
|
| adj.平滑的；有光泽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
mutual
|
|
| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
preoccupied
|
|
| adj.全神贯注的，入神的；被抢先占有的；心事重重的v.占据（某人）思想，使对…全神贯注，使专心于( preoccupy的过去式) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
deserted
|
|
| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
pruned
|
|
| v.修剪（树木等）( prune的过去式和过去分词 )；精简某事物，除去某事物多余的部分 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
ravaged
|
|
| 毁坏( ravage的过去式和过去分词 )； 蹂躏； 劫掠； 抢劫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
stumps
|
|
| （被砍下的树的）树桩( stump的名词复数 )； 残肢； （板球三柱门的）柱； 残余部分 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
helping
|
|
| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
moldy
|
|
| adj.发霉的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
dented
|
|
| v.使产生凹痕( dent的过去式和过去分词 )；损害；伤害；挫伤（信心、名誉等） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
rummages
|
|
| 翻找，搜寻( rummage的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
80
edible
|
|
| n.食品，食物；adj.可食用的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
81
groggy
|
|
| adj.体弱的；不稳的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
82
bastard
|
|
| n.坏蛋，混蛋；私生子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
83
sprouts
|
|
| n.新芽，嫩枝( sprout的名词复数 )v.发芽( sprout的第三人称单数 )；抽芽；出现；（使）涌现出 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
84
solvent
|
|
| n.溶剂；adj.有偿付能力的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
85
franchise
|
|
| n.特许，特权，专营权，特许权 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
86
licenses
|
|
| n.执照( license的名词复数 )v.批准，许可，颁发执照( license的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
87
purely
|
|
| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
88
grotesque
|
|
| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
89
equity
|
|
| n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
90
flattening
|
|
| n. 修平 动词flatten的现在分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
91
seclusion
|
|
| n.隐遁，隔离 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
92
utterance
|
|
| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
93
extravagant
|
|
| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
94
essentially
|
|
| adv.本质上，实质上，基本上 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
95
shack
|
|
| adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
96
acting
|
|
| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
97
rippling
|
|
| 起涟漪的，潺潺流水般声音的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
98
curtly
|
|
| adv.简短地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
99
auto
|
|
| n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
100
soda
|
|
| n.苏打水；汽水 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
101
lighter
|
|
| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
102
broker
|
|
| n.中间人，经纪人；v.作为中间人来安排 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
103
drudgery
|
|
| n.苦工，重活，单调乏味的工作 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
104
constriction
|
|
| 压缩； 紧压的感觉； 束紧； 压缩物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
105
pricked
|
|
| 刺，扎，戳( prick的过去式和过去分词 )； 刺伤； 刺痛； 使剧痛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
106
murky
|
|
| adj.黑暗的，朦胧的；adv.阴暗地，混浊地；n.阴暗；昏暗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
107
blurred
|
|
| 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 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
108
binding
|
|
| 有约束力的，有效的，应遵守的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
109
uprooted
|
|
| v.把（某物）连根拔起( uproot的过去式和过去分词 )；根除；赶走；把…赶出家园 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
110
tenant
|
|
| n.承租人；房客；佃户；v.租借，租用 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
111
shrugs
|
|
| n.耸肩（以表示冷淡，怀疑等）( shrug的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
112
stew
|
|
| n.炖汤，焖，烦恼；v.炖汤，焖，忧虑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
113
touching
|
|
| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
114
versus
|
|
| prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
115
cavalry
|
|
| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
116
shrieking
|
|
| v.尖叫( shriek的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
117
wilting
|
|
| 萎蔫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
118
neatly
|
|
| adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
119
strut
|
|
| v.肿胀，鼓起；大摇大摆地走；炫耀；支撑；撑开；n.高视阔步；支柱，撑杆 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
120
depressed
|
|
| adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
121
soothed
|
|
| v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
122
shudder
|
|
| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
123
slumps
|
|
| 萧条期( slump的名词复数 )； （个人、球队等的）低潮状态； （销售量、价格、价值等的）骤降； 猛跌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
124
dummy
|
|
| n.假的东西；(哄婴儿的)橡皮奶头 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
125
thermostat
|
|
| n.恒温器 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
126
dealers
|
|
| n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
127
unintelligible
|
|
| adj.无法了解的，难解的，莫明其妙的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
128
antagonist
|
|
| n.敌人，对抗者，对手 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
129
domed
|
|
| adj. 圆屋顶的, 半球形的, 拱曲的 动词dome的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
130
chapel
|
|
| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
131
swollen
|
|
| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
132
bumpy
|
|
| adj.颠簸不平的，崎岖的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
133
stony
|
|
| adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
134
gulps
|
|
| n.一大口（尤指液体）( gulp的名词复数 )v.狼吞虎咽地吃，吞咽( gulp的第三人称单数 )；大口地吸（气）；哽住 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
135
sob
|
|
| n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
136
sobs
|
|
| 啜泣（声），呜咽（声）( sob的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
137
thoroughly
|
|
| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
138
rivets
|
|
| 铆钉( rivet的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
139
collapsing
|
|
| 压扁[平]，毁坏，断裂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
140
vault
|
|
| n.拱形圆顶，地窖，地下室 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
141
boredom
|
|
| n.厌烦，厌倦，乏味，无聊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
142
defiant
|
|
| adj.无礼的，挑战的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
143
repentant
|
|
| adj.对…感到悔恨的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
144
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
145
alignment
|
|
| n.队列；结盟，联合 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
146
squinting
|
|
| 斜视( squint的现在分词 )； 眯着眼睛； 瞟； 从小孔或缝隙里看 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
147
soothingly
|
|
| adv.抚慰地，安慰地；镇痛地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
148
reprieve
|
|
| n.暂缓执行（死刑）；v.缓期执行；给…带来缓解 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
149
whittling
|
|
| v.切，削（木头），使逐渐变小( whittle的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
150
bushed
|
|
| adj.疲倦的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
151
hideous
|
|
| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
152
conspire
|
|
| v.密谋，（事件等）巧合，共同导致 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
153
elicit
|
|
| v.引出,抽出,引起 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
154
stunts
|
|
| n.惊人的表演( stunt的名词复数 )；（广告中）引人注目的花招；愚蠢行为；危险举动v.阻碍…发育[生长]，抑制，妨碍( stunt的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
155
perverted
|
|
| adj.不正当的v.滥用( pervert的过去式和过去分词 )；腐蚀；败坏；使堕落 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
156
monstrous
|
|
| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
157
sobbing
|
|
| <主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
158
chastised
|
|
| v.严惩（某人）（尤指责打）( chastise的过去式 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
159
spanked
|
|
| v.用手掌打( spank的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
160
undo
|
|
| vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |