2-23

 

23.

The press reported breathlessly on our return to Britain, how we dashed to Chelsy’s off-campusflat in Leeds, where she lived with two girls, whom I trusted, and who, more important, trustedme, and how I snuck into their flat disguised in a hoodie and baseball cap, giving her flatmates alaugh, and how I loved pretending to be a university student, going for pizza and hanging out inpubs, even wondering if I’d made the right choice in skipping university—not one word of whichwas true.

I went to Chels’s Leeds flat twice.

I barely knew her flatmates.

And I never once regretted my decision to skip university.

But the press was getting worse. They were now just peddling¹ fantasies, phantasms, whilephysically stalking and harassing² me and everyone in my inner circle. Chels told me that paps hadbeen following her to and from lectures—she asked me to do something about it.

I told her I’d try. I told her how sorry I was.

When she was back in Cape³ Town she phoned me and said people were tailing her everywhereand it was driving her crazy. She couldn’t imagine how they always knew where she was andwhere she’d be. She was freaking out. I talked it over with Marko, who advised me to ask Chels’sbrother to check the underside of the car.

Sure enough: tracking device.

Marko and I were able to tell her brother exactly what to check for, and where, because it hadhappened to so many other people around me.

Chels said again that she just wasn’t sure if she was up for this. A lifetime of being stalked?

What could I say?

I’d miss her, so much. But I completely understood her desire for freedom.

If I had a choice, I wouldn’t want this life either.

 

1 peddling   

忙于琐事的，无关紧要的

参考例句：

• He worked as a door-to-door salesman peddling cloths and brushes. 他的工作是上门推销抹布和刷子。
• "If he doesn't like peddling, why doesn't he practice law? "要是他不高兴卖柴火，干吗不当律师呢？

2 harassing   

v.侵扰，骚扰( harass的现在分词 )；不断攻击（敌人）

参考例句：

• The court ordered him to stop harassing his ex-wife. 法庭命令他不得再骚扰前妻。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• It was too close to be merely harassing fire. 打得这么近，不能完全是扰乱射击。 来自辞典例句

3 cape   

n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风

参考例句：

• I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
• She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。