【有声英语文学名著】CHAPTER FOUR（11）

You‘ve got to stop letting women slip drugs into your mouth, Dex, it‘s unhygienic. And dangerous. One day it‘ll be a cyanide capsule.‘

Dexter laughed. So do you want to hear what happened next?‘

She placed a finger on her chin. Do I? Nope, I don‘t think so. No, I don‘t.‘

But he told her anyway, the usual narrative¹ about dark back-rooms at clubs and late-night phone-calls and taxis across the city at dawn; the endless, eat-as-much-as-you-can buffet² that was  Dexter‘s  sex-life,  and  Emma  made  a  conscious  effort  not  to  listen  and  just  watch  his mouth instead.  It was a nice mouth as she remembered, and if she  were fearless, bold and asymmetrical³ like this Naomi girl she would lean over now and kiss him, and it occurred to her that she had never kissed anyone, that is never  initiated  the kiss. She had been kissed of course, suddenly and far too hard by drunken boys at parties, kisses that came swinging out of nowhere like punches. Ian had tried three weeks ago while she was mopping out the meat locker⁴,  looming  in  so  violently  that  she  had  thought  he  was  going  to  head -butt  her.  Even Dexter had kissed her once, many, many years ago. Would it really be so strange to kiss him back?  What  might  happen  if  she  were  to  do  it  now?  Take  the  initiative,  remove  your spectacles, hold onto his head while he‘s still talking and kiss him, kiss him—

—so Naomi calls at three in the morning, says, ―Get in a cab. Right. Now.‖‘

She had a perfectly⁵ clear mental picture of him  wiping his mouth with the back of his hand: the kiss as custard-pie. She let her head loll to the other side to watch the others on the hill.  The  evening  light  was  starting  to  fade  now,  and  two  hundred  prosperous,  attractive young  people  were  throwing  frisbees,  lighting  disposable  barbecues,  making  plans  for  the evening. Yet she felt as far removed from these people, with their interesting careers and CD players and  mountain bikes, as if it had been a TV commercial, for vodka perhaps or small 

sporty cars. Why don‘t you come home, sweetheart,‘ her mother had said on the phone last night, Your room‘s still here . . .‘

She looked back to Dexter, still narrating⁶ his own love-life, then over his shoulder at a 

young couple, kissing aggressively, the woman kneeling astride the man, his arms flung back in surrender, their fingers interlocked.

1 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

2 buffet   

n.自助餐；饮食柜台；餐台

参考例句：

• Are you having a sit-down meal or a buffet at the wedding?你想在婚礼中摆桌宴还是搞自助餐？
• Could you tell me what specialties you have for the buffet?你能告诉我你们的自助餐有什么特色菜吗？

3 asymmetrical   

adj.不均匀的，不对称的

参考例句：

• Most people's faces are asymmetrical.多数人的脸并不对称。
• Folds may be gentle and symmetrical,or sharp and asymmetrical.褶皱可以是平缓而对称的，也可以是陡峭而非对称的。

4 locker   

n.更衣箱，储物柜，冷藏室，上锁的人

参考例句：

• At the swimming pool I put my clothes in a locker.在游泳池我把衣服锁在小柜里。
• He moved into the locker room and began to slip out of his scrub suit.他走进更衣室把手术服脱下来。

5 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

6 narrating   

v.故事( narrate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• She entertained them by narrating her adventures in Africa. 她讲述她在非洲的历险来使他们开心。
• [Mike Narrating] Worm and I fall into our old rhythm like Clyde Frazier and Pearl Monroe. [迈克叙述] 虫子和我配合得象以前一样默契我们两好象是克莱德。弗瑞泽和佩尔。门罗。 来自电影对白