5.Wind

Wind

Wind blows down the slopes, a change-smell in the air. By the moon’s keen light, Sam readies the site for burial.
Around the tiger, Sam lays a circle of stones. Home, Sam calls this. To one side of the circle, their pot and pan and ladle and knife and spoons. Kitchen, Sam calls this. To the other, their blankets. Bedroom, Sam calls this. At the edge, branches stuck upright. Walls, Sam calls this. Over the branches, woven grass mats. Roof, Sam calls this.
The center Sam keeps empty till last.
It’s close to dawn by the time Sam finishes. The grass ceiling is clumsy and gaping¹, the pan still clumped² with oats. Sam is a poor housekeeper³ on account of having no practice. All the same, Sam shooed Lucy’s help away. Now Sam walks to the tiger skull⁴ and holds the shovel⁵ aloft. Does Sam’s hand quiver as the blade sinks into dirt?
Sam stops. The quivering continues. Maybe it’s lack of sleep. Maybe something else. Sam’s face is dry. Sam stares at the skull as if expecting an answer.
Lucy comes up and takes Sam’s hand. Today she encounters no protest as she lays Sam down and tucks the blanket beneath that trembling chin. There’s no hurry now. They’ll bury come daybreak. Till then, Lucy offers to sit vigil.
—
And all the rest of that night the wind blows with particular fierceness. Blows Sam’s house down, blows straight through Lucy’s threadbare dress and blanket, down her throat and into her hollows so that she’s cold from the inside. A slapping wind. Quick gusts⁶ against her cheeks. It means the rainy season is coming.
Though coming’s too strong a word, unless it’s meant as Ba meant it, saying I’ll come home tonightand meaning the next morning, the next night, the next Monday, red-eyed and fuming⁷ with whiskey. Rain’s coming in the way Ba was and was not coming: a far-off, brooding cloud. While Sam sleeps, the wind blows loud enough to keep Lucy awake. A wind unlike the daytime wind, a wind like a voice, low and blustering⁸ through the grass. Aaa, the wind says. And sometimes, Uoooo. And sometimes iiiiiiiin, sometimes aaaaaaan, ben daaaaaan. Can’t sass wind or beg wind, so Lucy does what she’s learned to do: keep quiet. She lets the wind batter¹⁰ her and sting her eyes. She lets the wind blow gifts from far-off places. Withered¹¹ leaves it brings, long-fingered as hands. Fine dirt that yellows her hair. Gifts or warnings? Smells of wet and rot. Cicada husks, which on first reckoning she mistakes for fingers and toes, which on third, fourth, fifth reckoning she takes for the ghosts of fingers and toes. The haunting comes in the way the wind blows down her throat with vengeful force, fills her ears with words she won’t dare remember by day. Aaaa, the wind screams, claiming her with coldness. Eeeeeer, the wind screams. Nu eeeeeer.Wind’s blowing up and as Sam sleeps, Lucy sits and listens. Listens. Listens.
—
And then it is day.
Sam has the shovel,
Lucy the ladle.
Burial zhi shi another recipe, Ma said.
“Ready?” Sam says.
Aaaaaard, the wind says.
And Lucy says, to herself, Remember? How he taught us to prospect¹². Remember? How his wrists were spotted¹³ with oil burns. Remember? His stories. Remember? His nails bitten to the quick. Remember? How he snored when he drank. Remember? His white hairs. Remember? His bluster⁹. Remember? How he loved pork cooked with peppers. Remember? The smell of him.
They dig a hole. The size of a pistol. They dig. The size of a dead baby. They dig. The size of a dog. They dig. The size of a girl who wants only to lie down and rest. They dig though there’s soon space enough for a rucksack, two rucksacks, four. They dig and the grave takes on a shape like the one inside Lucy, a hollow filled with the smell of loam¹⁴ and morning breath. They dig until sun crawls down the backs of the hills, drops shadow over the lip of the grave.
Cowaaaaaaard, the wind says sadly.
Lucy knows better than to talk back.
Sam opens the sack.
Ba falls in a jumble¹⁵. No hope of straightening him. Already the soil, so dry and so thirsty, is drinking him up. He sinks. Where will he go? Down to mix in a common murk alongside Ma’s bones, in the grave Lucy never saw?
Sam reaches into a pocket. For a moment the bulge¹⁶ of fist recalls the bulge of the gun Sam drew in the bank. They gave up so much for these two pieces of silver—she hopes this grave was worth their thieving.
Remember? How he taught you to ride. Remember? His boots that held the shape of his feet when empty. Remember? The smell of him, not after he quit washing, not after the drink, but the smell before.
And still Lucy doesn’t speak. As Sam doesn’t move. Sam holds those pieces of silver till Lucy realizes: Sam wants her gone.
As she did on many nights, Lucy leaves Sam and Ba alone together. She doesn’t see what passes at last between father and daughter, father and false son.

1 gaping   

adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大

参考例句：

• Ahead of them was a gaping abyss. 他们前面是一个巨大的深渊。
• The antelope could not escape the crocodile's gaping jaws. 那只羚羊无法从鱷鱼张开的大口中逃脱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 clumped   

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

参考例句：

• The bacteria clumped together. 细菌凝集一团。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• He clumped after her, up the stairs, into his barren office. 他拖着沉重的步伐跟在她的后面上楼了，走进了他那个空荡荡的诊所。 来自辞典例句

3 housekeeper   

n.管理家务的主妇，女管家

参考例句：

• A spotless stove told us that his mother is a diligent housekeeper.炉子清洁无瑕就表明他母亲是个勤劳的主妇。
• She is an economical housekeeper and feeds her family cheaply.她节约持家，一家人吃得很省。

4 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

5 shovel   

n.铁锨，铲子，一铲之量；v.铲，铲出

参考例句：

• He was working with a pick and shovel.他在用镐和铲干活。
• He seized a shovel and set to.他拿起一把铲就干上了。

6 gusts   

一阵强风( gust的名词复数 )； （怒、笑等的）爆发； （感情的）迸发； 发作

参考例句：

• Her profuse skirt bosomed out with the gusts. 她的宽大的裙子被风吹得鼓鼓的。
• Turbulence is defined as a series of irregular gusts. 紊流定义为一组无规则的突风。

7 fuming   

愤怒( fume的现在分词 )； 大怒； 发怒； 冒烟

参考例句：

• She sat in the car, silently fuming at the traffic jam. 她坐在汽车里，心中对交通堵塞感到十分恼火。
• I was fuming at their inefficiency. 我正因为他们效率低而发火。

8 blustering   

adj.狂风大作的，狂暴的v.外强中干的威吓( bluster的现在分词 )；咆哮；（风）呼啸；狂吹

参考例句：

• It was five and a half o'clock now, and a raw, blustering morning. 这时才五点半，正是寒气逼人，狂风咆哮的早晨。 来自辞典例句
• So sink the shadows of night, blustering, rainy, and all paths grow dark. 夜色深沉，风狂雨骤；到处途暗路黑。 来自辞典例句

9 bluster   

v.猛刮；怒冲冲的说；n.吓唬，怒号；狂风声

参考例句：

• We could hear the bluster of the wind and rain.我们能听到狂风暴雨的吹打声。
• He was inclined to bluster at first,but he soon dropped.起初他老爱吵闹一阵，可是不久就不做声了。

10 batter   

v.接连重击；磨损；n.牛奶面糊；击球员

参考例句：

• The batter skied to the center fielder.击球手打出一个高飞球到中外野手。
• Put a small quantity of sugar into the batter.在面糊里放少量的糖。

11 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：

• The grass had withered in the warm sun. 这些草在温暖的阳光下枯死了。
• The leaves of this tree have become dry and withered. 这棵树下的叶子干枯了。

12 prospect   

n.前景，前途；景色，视野

参考例句：

• This state of things holds out a cheerful prospect.事态呈现出可喜的前景。
• The prospect became more evident.前景变得更加明朗了。

13 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。

14 loam   

n.沃土

参考例句：

• Plant the seeds in good loam.把种子种在好的壤土里。
• One occupies relatively dry sandy loam soils.一个则占据较干旱的沙壤土。

15 jumble   

vt.使混乱，混杂；n.混乱；杂乱的一堆

参考例句：

• Even the furniture remained the same jumble that it had always been.甚至家具还是象过去一样杂乱无章。
• The things in the drawer were all in a jumble.抽屉里的东西很杂乱。

16 bulge   

n.突出，膨胀，激增；vt.突出，膨胀

参考例句：

• The apple made a bulge in his pocket.苹果把他口袋塞得鼓了起来。
• What's that awkward bulge in your pocket?你口袋里那块鼓鼓囊囊的东西是什么？