Analytical reading-Part 13

From The Lady In the Lake

Raymond Chandler

T

he garage at the side was shut up. I walked along a twisted path made of stepping-stones and pushed the bell. I could hear it ring somewhere in the rear with that sound bells seem to have in an empty house. I rang it twice more. Nobody came to the door. A mocking bird flew down on the small, neat front lawn and poked a worm out of the sod and went away with it. Somebody started a car out of sight down the curve of the street. There was a brand-new house across the street with a For Sale sign stuck into the manure and grass seed in front of it. No other house was in sight.

                I tried the bell one more time and did a snappy tattoo with the knocker, which was a ring in the mouth of a lion. Then I left the front door and put an eye to the crack between the garage doors. There was a car in there, shining dimly in the faint light. I prowled around to the back yard and saw two more oak trees and a rubbish burner and three chairs around a green garden table under one of the trees. It looked so shady and cool and pleasant back there, I would have liked to stay. I went to the back door, which was half glass but had a spring lock. I tried turning the knob, which was silly. It opened and I took a deep breath and walked in.

                The back door opened on a porch with high, narrow screens. From that another unlocked door, also with a spring lock, opened into a kitchen with gaudy tiles and an enclosed gas stove. There were a lot of empty bottles on the sink. There were two swing doors. I pushed the one towards the front of the house. It gave on an alcove dining-room with a buffet on which there were more liquor bottles, but not empty.

                The living-room was to my right under an arch. It was dark even in the middle of the day. It was nicely finished, with built-in bookshelves and books that hadn’t been bought in sets. There was a highboy radio in the corner, with a half-empty glass of amber fluid on top of it. And there was ice in the amber fluid. The radio made a faint humming sound and light glowed behind the dial. It was on, but the volume was down to nothing.

                That was funny. I turned around and looked at the back corner of the room and saw something funnier.

                A man was sitting in a deep brocade chair with slippered feet on a footstool that matched the chair. He wore an open-neck polo shirt and ice-cream pants and a white belt. His left hand rested easily on the wide arm of the chair and his right hand drooped languidly outside the other arm to the carpet, which was a solid dull rose. He was a lean, dark, handsome guy, rangily built. One of those lads who move fast and are much stronger than they look. His mouth was slightly open showing the edges of his teeth. His head was a little sideways, as though he had dozed off as he sat there, having himself a few drinks and listening to the radio.

Notes and comments:

to twist-syn. to bend, to tangle, to wreathe, to wriggle, to writhe, to zigzag; вия се, извивам се, криволича (за път)

twister-амер. ураган, торнадо

twisty-syn. twisting and turning, bending, circuitous, crooked, curving, meandering, rambling; завъртян, с много извивки

a twist to a story-revelation, surprise ending

a stepping-stone-1) камък (сложен в река за преминаване); 2) прен. брод, мост, трамплин

to poke-1) мушкам, мушвам, ръгам, пъхам; 2) търся опипом, ровя (about, for)

to poke the fire-разбърквам огъня

to poke about-любопитствам, мотая се, шляя се

to poke fun at-присмивам се на

poker-ръжен

poker face-безизразно лице

tattoo-барабанене с пръсти, тропане

Her heart was beating a wild tattoo. Сърцето u биеше лудо (до пръсване).

crack-syn. breach, break, chink, chip, cleavage, cleft, cranny, crevice, fissure, gap, opening, rift, slit

to feel/be faint with hunger-прималява/прилошава ми от глад

to go faint-припадам, губя съзнание

a faint tinge of orange-бледооранжев оттенък

a faint resemblance-смътна/слаба прилика

to have a faint idea of-имам смътна представа за, нямам и понятие за

gaudy-syn. bright, cheap, garish, ostentatious, showy, tasteless, vulgar; ярък, крещящ, безвкусен, пищен, натруфен

swing door-двукрила врата, която се отваря в двете посоки; “летяща” врата

to give on/upon-водя, гледам към, излизам на

This door gives on/upon the garden. Тази врата води към градината.

languid-syn. apathetic, feeble, droopy, torpid; отпуснат, безжизнен, инертен, апатичен, вял