10.PART TWO--Skull

Skull¹

Ma is their sun and she is their moon. Her pale face shifts over the threshold of the new house, inside to out, light to shade, as she readies space for the tiger.
Outside, the family waits.
This house is really a shack², set alone at the valley’s edge, a long uphill walk from the creek³. Gapped walls, tin ceiling. What Lucy can spy of the inside is twilit, on account of the single window. No glass—just stretched oilcloth, yellow and cloudy, admitting weak light and smudged shapes. Lucy’s heart sank at the sight after two weeks of travel, but the mine boss who led them here didn’t leave much choice. It’s this or you camp with the trash outside town, he said, spitting. He would’ve said more, but Ma put a warning hand on Ba’s chest and said, It’ll do
Ma’s voice is husky and low, with the crackle of kept fire. Its roughness strange against her mannered movements, her smooth face. A stopping beauty in that mismatch. The mine boss reddened and went on his way. Ying gai care what other people see in you, Ma has said while straightening Lucy’s posture⁴, neatening Sam’s braids, scolding Ba for his love of the gambling⁵ dens⁶ and Indian camps on the fringes of town. What people see shapes how they treat you, dong bu dong?
But once the boss left, Ma drooped⁷. Inside the shack the shadows reached for her. Her beauty’s been worn thin by travel, during which she acquired a sickness that made her retch up her food. Her beauty now hardly covers her bones. As Ma moves in the house, Lucy can see the shape of her skull.
“Girls,” Ma calls when she’s swept a portion of dirt floor smooth. Her breath jerks and pulses at her throat, seeming like to tear the skin. “Fetch me a stick.”
Sam runs around one side of the shack, and Lucy the other.
Lucy’s side lies half in shadow, thanks to a plateau that looms⁸ over the valley’s edge. She kicks through heaped rubbish: dead grass, burnt wire, ashy sticks. At the bottom, a promising⁹ piece of wood. She tugs¹⁰ and a sign comes free.
HENCOOP, it spells once she’s brushed off the soot¹¹.
Those aren’t burnt twigs—they’re feathers. And this isn’t a house. Ma calls again as Lucy stomps¹² the sign back into the rubbish.
“Hao de,” Ma says when Lucy returns. “That’s all of us together.”
Despite sickness, Ma is smiling. She holds the stick that Sam found as if it’s something precious. For all the worry that chased them here, there is a hum of hope in the air, as there always is at the start of this ritual. A proper home, Ba said before they set out. A settling-down kind of place this time.
Ma begins to draw her tiger.
Ma’s tiger is like none other. Always eight lines: some curved, some straight, some hooked like tails. Always in the same unchangeable order. Only if Lucy squints¹³, looks away, watches from a slant¹⁴, does the tiger that Ma draws flicker¹⁵, for a moment, like a real tiger.

By the last stroke Ma is hunched¹⁶ in pain, skull once more straining through her skin. The protection is complete.

Quick then, bad leg forgotten, Ba is at Ma’s elbow, steadying. He calls for the rocking chair. Sam hurries it over the threshold, the plates piled on the seat beginning to slide. Lucy lunges to catch one. As she does, her foot smudges the last line of the tiger.
She considers telling. But Ma would insist on doing the whole ritual over, and Ba would scowl¹⁷ and call Lucy da zui, and say there’s a time and a place to use her big mouth. Lucy says nothing, as she says nothing about the pungent¹⁸ house, the imprint¹⁹ of old chicken shit unmistakable. Learning to keep her own secrets.

1 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。

2 shack   

adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚

参考例句：

• He had to sit down five times before he reached his shack.在走到他的茅棚以前，他不得不坐在地上歇了五次。
• The boys made a shack out of the old boards in the backyard.男孩们在后院用旧木板盖起一间小木屋。

3 creek   

n.小溪，小河，小湾

参考例句：

• He sprang through the creek.他跳过小河。
• People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。

4 posture   

n.姿势，姿态，心态，态度；v.作出某种姿势

参考例句：

• The government adopted an uncompromising posture on the issue of independence.政府在独立这一问题上采取了毫不妥协的态度。
• He tore off his coat and assumed a fighting posture.他脱掉上衣，摆出一副打架的架势。

5 gambling   

n.赌博；投机

参考例句：

• They have won a lot of money through gambling.他们赌博赢了很多钱。
• The men have been gambling away all night.那些人赌了整整一夜。

6 dens   

n.牙齿，齿状部分；兽窝( den的名词复数 )；窝点；休息室；书斋

参考例句：

• Female bears tend to line their dens with leaves or grass. 母熊往往会在洞穴里垫些树叶或草。 来自辞典例句
• In winter bears usually hibernate in their dens. 冬天熊通常在穴里冬眠。 来自辞典例句

7 drooped   

弯曲或下垂，发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Her eyelids drooped as if she were on the verge of sleep. 她眼睑低垂好像快要睡着的样子。
• The flowers drooped in the heat of the sun. 花儿晒蔫了。

8 looms   

n.织布机( loom的名词复数 )v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的第三人称单数 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近

参考例句：

• All were busily engaged,men at their ploughs,women at their looms. 大家都很忙，男的耕田，女的织布。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The factory has twenty-five looms. 那家工厂有25台织布机。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

10 tugs   

n.猛拉( tug的名词复数 )；猛拖；拖船v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The raucous sirens of the tugs came in from the river. 河上传来拖轮发出的沙哑的汽笛声。 来自辞典例句
• As I near the North Tower, the wind tugs at my role. 当我接近北塔的时候，风牵动着我的平衡杆。 来自辞典例句

11 soot   

n.煤烟，烟尘；vt.熏以煤烟

参考例句：

• Soot is the product of the imperfect combustion of fuel.煤烟是燃料不完全燃烧的产物。
• The chimney was choked with soot.烟囱被煤灰堵塞了。

12 stomps   

v.跺脚，践踏，重踏( stomp的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• This one ends the world, stomps on it, grinds it up and spits it out. 这一部又把世界给终结了，践踏了地球，还碾压她，然后再把她吐出来。 来自互联网

13 squints   

斜视症( squint的名词复数 )； 瞥

参考例句：

• The new cashier squints, has a crooked nose and very large ears. 新来的出纳斜眼、鹰钩鼻子，还有两只大耳朵。
• They both have squints. 他俩都是斜视。

14 slant   

v.倾斜，倾向性地编写或报道；n.斜面，倾向

参考例句：

• The lines are drawn on a slant.这些线条被画成斜线。
• The editorial had an antiunion slant.这篇社论有一种反工会的倾向。

15 flicker   

vi./n.闪烁，摇曳，闪现

参考例句：

• There was a flicker of lights coming from the abandoned house.这所废弃的房屋中有灯光闪烁。
• At first,the flame may be a small flicker,barely shining.开始时，光辉可能是微弱地忽隐忽现，几乎并不灿烂。

16 hunched   

（常指因寒冷、生病或愁苦）耸肩弓身的，伏首前倾的

参考例句：

• He sat with his shoulders hunched up. 他耸起双肩坐着。
• Stephen hunched down to light a cigarette. 斯蒂芬弓着身子点燃一支烟。

17 scowl   

vi.(at)生气地皱眉，沉下脸，怒视；n.怒容

参考例句：

• I wonder why he is wearing an angry scowl.我不知道他为何面带怒容。
• The boss manifested his disgust with a scowl.老板面带怒色，清楚表示出他的厌恶之感。

18 pungent   

adj.（气味、味道）刺激性的，辛辣的；尖锐的

参考例句：

• The article is written in a pungent style.文章写得泼辣。
• Its pungent smell can choke terrorists and force them out of their hideouts.它的刺激性气味会令恐怖分子窒息，迫使他们从藏身地点逃脱出来。

19 imprint   

n.印痕，痕迹；深刻的印象；vt.压印，牢记

参考例句：

• That dictionary is published under the Longman imprint.那本词典以朗曼公司的名义出版。
• Her speech left its imprint on me.她的演讲给我留下了深刻印象。