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Chapter 54
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    IT WAS a tiny church no bigger than a rich man's parlor1. The pews had no backs, and since thecongregation was also the choir2, it didn't need a stall. Certain members had been assigned theconstruction of a platform to raise the preacher a few inches above his congregation, but it was aless than urgent task, since the major elevation3, a white oak cross, had already taken place. Beforeit was the Church of the Holy Redeemer, it was a dry-goods shop that had no use for sidewindows, just front ones for display. These were papered over while members considered whetherto paint or curtain them — how to have privacy without losing the little light that might want toshine on them. In the summer the doors were left open for ventilation. In winter an iron stove inthe aisle4 did what it could. At the front of the church was a sturdy porch where customers used tosit, and children laughed at the boy who got his head stuck between the railings. On a sunny andwindless day in January it was actually warmer out there than inside, if the iron stove was cold.

  The damp cellar was fairly warm, but there was no light lighting5 the pallet or the washbasin or thenail from which a man's clothes could be hung. And a oil lamp in a cellar was sad, so Paul D sat onthe porch steps and got additional warmth from a bottle of liquor jammed in his coat pocket.

  Warmth and red eyes. He held his wrist between his knees, not to keep his hands still but becausehe had nothing else to hold on to. His tobacco tin, blown open, spilled contents that floated freelyand made him their play and prey6.

  He couldn't figure out why it took so long. He may as well have jumped in the fire with Sixo andthey both could have had a good laugh. Surrender was bound to come anyway, why not meet itwith a laugh, shouting Seven-O! Why not? Why the delay? He had already seen his brother wavegoodbye from the back of a dray, fried chicken in his pocket, tears in his eyes. Mother. Father.

  Didn't remember the one. Never saw the other. He was the youngest of three half-brothers (samemother — different fathers) sold to Garner7 and kept there, forbidden to leave the farm, for twentyyears. Once, in Maryland, he met four families of slaves who had all been together for a hundredyears: great-grands, grands, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, cousins, children. Half white, partwhite, all black, mixed with Indian. He watched them with awe8 and envy, and each time hediscovered large families of black people he made them identify over and over who each was, whatrelation, who, in fact, belonged to who.

  "That there's my auntie. This here's her boy. Yonder is my pap's cousin. My ma'am was marriedtwice — this my half-sister and these her two children. Now, my wife..."Nothing like that had ever been his and growing up at Sweet Home he didn't miss it. He had hisbrothers, two friends, Baby Suggs in the kitchen, a boss who showed them how to shoot andlistened to what they had to say. A mistress who made their soap and never raised her voice. Fortwenty years they had all lived in that cradle, until Baby left, Sethe came, and Halle took her. Hemade a family with her, and Sixo was hell-bent9 to make one with the Thirty-Mile Woman. WhenPaul D waved goodbye to his oldest brother, the boss was dead, the mistress nervous and the cradle already split. Sixo said the doctor made Mrs. Garner sick. Said he was giving her to drink whatstallions got when they broke a leg and no gunpowder10 could be spared, and had it not been forschoolteacher's new rules, he would have told her so. They laughed at him. Sixo had a knowingtale about everything. Including Mr. Garner's stroke, which he said was a shot in his ear put thereby11 a jealous neighbor.

  "where's the blood?" they asked him.

  There was no blood. Mr. Garner came home bent over his mare's neck, sweating and blue-white.

  Not a drop of blood. Sixo grunted12, the only one of them not sorry to see him go. Later, however, hewas mighty13 sorry; they all were.

  "Why she call on him?" Paul D asked. "Why she need the schoolteacher?""She need somebody can figure," said Halle.

  "You can do figures.""Not like that.""No, man," said Sixo. "She need another white on the place.""What for?""What you think? What you think?"Well, that's the way it was. Nobody counted on Garner dying. Nobody thought he could. How'bout that? Everything rested on Garner being alive. Without his life each of theirs fell to pieces.

  Now ain't that slavery or what is it? At the peak of his strength, taller than tall men, and strongerthan most, they clipped him, Paul D. First his shotgun, then his thoughts, for schoolteacher didn'ttake advice from Negroes. The information they offered he called backtalk and developed a varietyof corrections (which he recorded in his notebook) to reeducate them. He complained they ate toomuch, rested too much, talked too much, which was certainly true compared to him, becauseschoolteacher ate little, spoke14 less and rested not at all. Once he saw them playing — a pitchinggame — and his look of deeply felt hurt was enough to make Paul D blink. He was as hard on hispupils as he was on them — except for the corrections. For years Paul D believed schoolteacherbroke into children what Garner had raised into men. And it was that that made them run off. Now,plagued by the contents of his tobacco tin, he wondered how much difference there really wasbetween before schoolteacher and after. Garner called and announced them men — but only onSweet Home, and by his leave. Was he naming what he saw or creating what he did not? That wasthe wonder of Sixo, and even Halle; it was always clear to Paul D that those two were menwhether Garner said so or not. It troubled him that, concerning his own manhood, he could notsatisfy himself on that point. Oh, he did manly15 things, but was that Garner's gift or his own will?

  What would he have been anyway — before Sweet Home — without Garner? In Sixo's country, or his mother's? Or, God help him, on the boat? Did a whiteman saying it make it so? Suppose Garnerwoke up one morning and changed his mind? Took the word away. Would they have run then?

  And if he didn't, would the Pauls have stayed there all their lives? Why did the brothers need theone whole night to decide? To discuss whether they would join Sixo and Halle. Because they hadbeen isolated16 in a wonderful lie, dismissing Halle's and Baby Suggs' life before Sweet Home asbad luck. Ignorant of or amused by Sixo's dark stories. Protected and convinced they were special.

  Never suspecting the problem of Alfred, Georgia; being so in love with the look of the world,putting up with anything and everything, just to stay alive in a place where a moon he had no rightto was nevertheless there. Loving small and in secret. His little love was a tree, of course, but notlike Brother — old, wide and beckoning17.

  In Alfred, Georgia, there was an aspen too young to call sapling.


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 parlor v4MzU     
n.店铺,营业室;会客室,客厅
参考例句:
  • She was lying on a small settee in the parlor.她躺在客厅的一张小长椅上。
  • Is there a pizza parlor in the neighborhood?附近有没有比萨店?
2 choir sX0z5     
n.唱诗班,唱诗班的席位,合唱团,舞蹈团;v.合唱
参考例句:
  • The choir sang the words out with great vigor.合唱团以极大的热情唱出了歌词。
  • The church choir is singing tonight.今晚教堂歌唱队要唱诗。
3 elevation bqsxH     
n.高度;海拔;高地;上升;提高
参考例句:
  • The house is at an elevation of 2,000 metres.那幢房子位于海拔两千米的高处。
  • His elevation to the position of General Manager was announced yesterday.昨天宣布他晋升总经理职位。
4 aisle qxPz3     
n.(教堂、教室、戏院等里的)过道,通道
参考例句:
  • The aisle was crammed with people.过道上挤满了人。
  • The girl ushered me along the aisle to my seat.引座小姐带领我沿着通道到我的座位上去。
5 lighting CpszPL     
n.照明,光线的明暗,舞台灯光
参考例句:
  • The gas lamp gradually lost ground to electric lighting.煤气灯逐渐为电灯所代替。
  • The lighting in that restaurant is soft and romantic.那个餐馆照明柔和而且浪漫。
6 prey g1czH     
n.被掠食者,牺牲者,掠食;v.捕食,掠夺,折磨
参考例句:
  • Stronger animals prey on weaker ones.弱肉强食。
  • The lion was hunting for its prey.狮子在寻找猎物。
7 garner jhZxS     
v.收藏;取得
参考例句:
  • He has garnered extensive support for his proposals.他的提议得到了广泛的支持。
  • Squirrels garner nuts for the winter.松鼠为过冬储存松果。
8 awe WNqzC     
n.敬畏,惊惧;vt.使敬畏,使惊惧
参考例句:
  • The sight filled us with awe.这景色使我们大为惊叹。
  • The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。
9 bent QQ8yD     
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的
参考例句:
  • He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
  • We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。
10 gunpowder oerxm     
n.火药
参考例句:
  • Gunpowder was introduced into Europe during the first half of the 14th century.在14世纪上半叶,火药传入欧洲。
  • This statement has a strong smell of gunpowder.这是一篇充满火药味的声明。
11 thereby Sokwv     
adv.因此,从而
参考例句:
  • I have never been to that city,,ereby I don't know much about it.我从未去过那座城市,因此对它不怎么熟悉。
  • He became a British citizen,thereby gaining the right to vote.他成了英国公民,因而得到了投票权。
12 grunted f18a3a8ced1d857427f2252db2abbeaf     
(猪等)作呼噜声( grunt的过去式和过去分词 ); (指人)发出类似的哼声; 咕哝着说
参考例句:
  • She just grunted, not deigning to look up from the page. 她只咕哝了一声,继续看书,不屑抬起头来看一眼。
  • She grunted some incomprehensible reply. 她咕噜着回答了些令人费解的话。
13 mighty YDWxl     
adj.强有力的;巨大的
参考例句:
  • A mighty force was about to break loose.一股巨大的力量即将迸发而出。
  • The mighty iceberg came into view.巨大的冰山出现在眼前。
14 spoke XryyC     
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说
参考例句:
  • They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
  • The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
15 manly fBexr     
adj.有男子气概的;adv.男子般地,果断地
参考例句:
  • The boy walked with a confident manly stride.这男孩以自信的男人步伐行走。
  • He set himself manly tasks and expected others to follow his example.他给自己定下了男子汉的任务,并希望别人效之。
16 isolated bqmzTd     
adj.与世隔绝的
参考例句:
  • His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
  • Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。
17 beckoning fcbc3f0e8d09c5f29e4c5759847d03d6     
adj.引诱人的,令人心动的v.(用头或手的动作)示意,召唤( beckon的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • An even more beautiful future is beckoning us on. 一个更加美好的未来在召唤我们继续前进。 来自辞典例句
  • He saw a youth of great radiance beckoning to him. 他看见一个丰神飘逸的少年向他招手。 来自辞典例句


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