Sunshine, the old clown, rims1 the room. Two pink chairs flank the gauze?filled window buttered with light that smears2 a writing desk furry3 with envelope?ends. Above the desk is a picture of a lady in pink stepping toward you. A woman's voice is tapping the door. "Mr. Angstrom. Mr. Angstrom."
"Yeah. Hi," he calls, hoarse4.
"It's twelve?twenty. Jack5 told me to tell you the visiting hours at the hospital are one to three." He recognizes Eccles' wife's crisp little twitty tone, like she was adding, And what the hell are you doing in my house anyway?
"Yeah. O.K. I'll be right out." He puts on the cocoa?colored trousers he wore last night and, displeased6 by the sense of these things being dirty, he carries his shoes and socks and shirt into the bathroom with him, postponing7 putting them against his skin, giving them another minute to air. Still foggy despite splashing water all around, he carries them out of the bathroom and goes downstairs in bare feet and a T?shirt.
Eccles' little wife is in her big kitchen, wearing khaki shorts this time and sandals and painted toenails. "How did you sleep?" she asks from behind the refrigerator door.
"Like death. Not a dream or anything."
"It's the effect of a clear conscience," she says, and puts a glass of orange juice on the table with a smart click. He imagines that seeing how he's dressed, with just the T?shirt over his chest, makes her look away quickly.
"Hey don't go to any bother. I'll get something in Brewer8."
"I won't give you eggs or anything. Do you like Cheerios?"
"Love 'em."
"All right."
The orange juice burns away some of the fuzz in his mouth. He watches the backs of her legs; the white tendons behind her knees jump as she assembles things at the counter. "How's Freud?" he asks her. He knows this could be bad, because if he brings back that afternoon he'll bring back how he nicked her fanny; but he has this ridiculous feeling with Mrs. Eccles, that he's in charge and can't make mistakes.
She turns with her tongue against her side teeth, making her mouth lopsided and thoughtful, and looks at him levelly. He smiles; her expression is that of a high?school tootsie who wants to seem to know more than she's telling. "He's the same. Do you want milk or cream on the Cheerios?"
"Milk. Cream is too sticky. Where is everybody?"
"Jack's at the church, probably playing ping?pong with one of his delinquent9 boys. Joyce and Bonnie are asleep, Heaven knows why. They kept wanting to look at the naughty man in the guest room all morning. It took real love to keep them out."
"Who told them I was a naughty man?"
"Jack did. He said to them at breakfast, `I brought home a naughty man last night who's going to stop being naughty.' The children have names for all of Jack's problems ? you're the Naughty Man; Mr. Carson, an alcoholic10, is the Silly Man; Mrs. MacMillan is the Woman Who Calls Up in the Night. Then there's the Droopsy Lady, Mr. Hearing?Aid, Mrs. Side?Door, and Happy Beans. Happy Beans is just about the least happy man you ever wanted to see, but once he brought the children some of those celluloid capsules with a weight in them, so they jiggle around. Ever since that he's Happy Beans."
Rabbit laughs, and Lucy, having delivered the Cheerios ? too much milk; he is used to living with Ruth, who let him pour his own milk; he likes just enough to take away the dryness, so that the milk and cereal come out even ? chats on confidingly11. "The worst thing that happened, in connection with some committee or other Jack was talking with one of the vestrymen over the phone and had the idea that it would buck12 this poor soul up to be given a church job so he said, `Why not make Happy Beans the chairman of something or other?' Well, the man on the other end of the line said `Happy Who?' and Jack realized what he'd said but instead of just sluffing it off like anybody else would have, Jack told the whole story about the children calling him Happy Beans and of course this stuffy13 old vestryman didn't think it was at all that funny. He was a friend, you see, of Happy Beans; they weren't exactly business associates but often had lunch together over in Brewer. That's the thing about Jack; he always tells people too much. Now this vestryman is probably telling everybody how the rector pokes14 fun of this poor miserable15 Happy Beans."
He laughs again. His coffee comes, in a thin shallow cup monogrammed in gold, and Lucy sits down opposite him at the table with a cup of her own. "He said I'm going to stop being naughty," Rabbit says.
"Yes. He's overjoyed. He went out of here virtually singing. It's the first constructive16 thing he thinks he's done since he came to Mt. Judge."
Rabbit yawns. "Well I don't know what he did."
"I don't either," she says, "but to hear him talk the whole thing was on his shoulders."
This suggestion that he's been managed rubs Rabbit the wrong way. He feels his smile creak. "Really? Did he talk about it?"
"Oh, all the time. He's very fond of you. I don't know why."
"I'm just lovable."
"That's what I keep hearing. You have poor old Mrs. Smith wrapped around your little finger. She thinks you're marvellous."
"And you don't see it?"
"Maybe I'm not old enough. Maybe if I were seventy?three." She lifts the cup to her face and tilts17 it and the freckles18 on her narrow white nose sharpen in proximity19 to the steaming brown coffee. She is a naughty girl. Yes, it's plain as day, a naughty?girl type. She sets the cup down and looks at him with mocking round eyes. "Well tell me. How does it feel? To be a new man. Jack's always hoping I'll reform and I want to know what to expect. Are you `born anew'?"
"Oh, I feel about the same."
"You don't act the same."
He grunts20 "Well" and shifts in his chair. Why does he feel so awkward? She is trying to make him feel foolish and sissy, just because he's going to go back to his wife. It's quite true, he doesn't act the same; he doesn't feel the same with her, either; he's lost the nimbleness that led him so lightly into tapping her backside that day. He tells her, "Last night driving home I got this feeling of a straight road ahead of me; before that I was sort of in the bushes and it didn't matter which way I went."
Her small face above the coffee cup held in two hands like a soup bowl is perfectly21 tense with delight; he expects her to laugh and instead she smiles silently. He thinks, She wants me.
Then he remembers Janice with her legs paralyzed talking about toes and love and orangeade and this perhaps seals shut something in his face, for Lucy Eccles turns her head impatiently and says, "Well you better get going down that nice straight road. It's twenty of one."
He begins to put on his shoes and socks. "How long does it take to walk to the bus stop?"
"Not long. I'd drive you to the hospital if it weren't for the children." She listens to the stairs. "Speak of the devil: here comes one."
The older girl sneaks22 into the kitchen, dressed just in underpants.
"Joyce." Her mother halts halfway23 to the sink with the empty cups. "You get right back up to bed."
"Hello, Joyce," Rabbit says. "Did you come down to see the naughty man?"
Joyce stares and hugs the wall with her shoulder blades. Her long golden stomach protrudes24 thoughtfully.
"Joyce," Lucy says. "Didn't you hear me?"
"Why doesn't he have his shirt on?" the child asks distinctly.
"I don't know," her mother says. "I suppose he thinks he has a nice chest."
"I have a T?shirt on," he protests. It's as if neither of them see it.
"Is that his boo?zim?" Joyce asks.
"No, darling: only ladies have bosoms25. We've been through that."
"Hell, if it makes everybody nervous," Rabbit says, and puts on his shirt. It's rumpled27 and the inside of the collar is gray; he put it on clean to go to the Club Castanet. He has no coat, he left Ruth too hastily. "O.K.," he says, tucking in the tail. "Thank you very much."
"You're very welcome," Lucy says. "Be good now." The two females walk with him down the hall. Lucy's white legs mix in pallor with the child's naked chest. Little Joyce keeps staring up at him. He wonders what she's puzzling about. Children and dogs sense the invisible. He tries to calculate how much sarcasm28 was in that "Be good now" and what it meant, if anything. He wishes she could drive him; he wants, he really wants, to get into a car with her. His reluctance29 to leave pulls the air between them taut30.
They stand at the door, he and Eccles' baby?skinned wife and between them Joyce's face looking up with her father's wide lips and arched eyebrows31 and under them all Lucy's painted toenails, tiny?scarlet32 shells in a row on the carpet. He strums the air with a vague disclaimer and puts his hand on the hard doorknob. The thought that only ladies have bosoms haunts him foolishly. He looks up from the toenails to Joyce's watching face and from there to her mother's bosom26, two pointed33 bumps under a buttoned blouse that shows through its summer weave the white shadow of the bra. When his eyes reach Lucy's an amazing thing enters the silence. The woman winks34. Quick as light: maybe he imagined it. He turns the knob and retreats down the sunny walk with a murmur35 in his chest as if a string in there had snapped.
收听单词发音 |
1
rims
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| n.（圆形物体的）边( rim的名词复数 )；缘；轮辋；轮圈 | |
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smears
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| 污迹( smear的名词复数 )； 污斑； （显微镜的）涂片； 诽谤 | |
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furry
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| adj.毛皮的；似毛皮的；毛皮制的 | |
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hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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displeased
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| a.不快的 | |
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postponing
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| v.延期，推迟( postpone的现在分词 ) | |
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brewer
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| n. 啤酒制造者 | |
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delinquent
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| adj.犯法的，有过失的；n.违法者 | |
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alcoholic
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| adj.（含）酒精的，由酒精引起的；n.酗酒者 | |
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confidingly
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| adv.信任地 | |
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buck
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| n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃 | |
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stuffy
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| adj.不透气的，闷热的 | |
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pokes
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| v.伸出( poke的第三人称单数 )；戳出；拨弄；与（某人）性交 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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constructive
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| adj.建设的，建设性的 | |
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tilts
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| （意欲赢得某物或战胜某人的）企图，尝试( tilt的名词复数 ) | |
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freckles
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| n.雀斑，斑点( freckle的名词复数 ) | |
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proximity
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| n.接近，邻近 | |
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grunts
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| （猪等）作呼噜声( grunt的第三人称单数 )； （指人）发出类似的哼声； 咕哝着说； 石鲈 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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sneaks
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| abbr.sneakers (tennis shoes) 胶底运动鞋（网球鞋）v.潜行( sneak的第三人称单数 )；偷偷溜走；（儿童向成人）打小报告；告状 | |
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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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protrudes
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| v.（使某物）伸出，（使某物）突出( protrude的第三人称单数 ) | |
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bosoms
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| 胸部( bosom的名词复数 )； 胸怀； 女衣胸部（或胸襟）； 和爱护自己的人在一起的情形 | |
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bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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rumpled
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| v.弄皱，使凌乱( rumple的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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28
sarcasm
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| n.讥讽，讽刺，嘲弄，反话 （adj.sarcastic） | |
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reluctance
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| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
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taut
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| adj.拉紧的，绷紧的，紧张的 | |
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31
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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32
scarlet
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| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
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33
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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34
winks
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| v.使眼色( wink的第三人称单数 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
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35
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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