3-22

22.

Meg, driving home from set, noticed five cars following her.

Then they started chasing her.

Each car was driven by a man—shady-looking. Wolfish.

It was winter, Canada, so the roads were ice. Plus, the way the cars were spinning around her,

cutting her off, running red lights, tailgating her, while also trying to photograph her, she felt sure

she was going to be in a crash.

She told herself not to panic, not to drive erratically¹, not to give them what they wanted. Then

she phoned me.

I was in London, in my own car, my bodyguard² driving, and her tearful voice brought me right

back to my childhood. Back to Balmoral. She didn’t make it, darling boy. I pleaded with Meg to

stay calm, keep her eyes on the road. My air-controller training took over. I talked her to the

nearest police station. As she got out of the car, I could hear, in the background, paps following

her to the door.

C’mon, Meghan, give us a smile!

Click click click.

She told the police what was happening, begged them for help. They had sympathy, or said

they did, but she was a public figure, so they insisted there was nothing to be done. She went back

to her car, paps swarming³ her again, and I guided her to her house, through the front door, where

she collapsed⁴.

I did too, a little. I felt helpless, and this, I realized, was my Achilles heel. I could deal with

most things so long as there was some action to be taken. But when I had nothing to do…I wanted

to die.

There was no real respite⁵ for Meg once she was inside her house. Like every previous night,

paps and so-called journalists knocked at her door, rang the bell, constantly. Her dogs were losing

their minds. They couldn’t understand what was happening, why she wasn’t answering the door,

why the house was under assault. As they howled and paced in circles she cowered⁶ in the corner

of her kitchen, on the floor. After midnight, when things quietened down, she dared to peep

through the blinds and saw men sleeping in cars outside, engines running.

Neighbors told Meg they’d been harassed⁷ too. Men had gone up and down the street, asking

questions, offering sums of money for any tidbit about Meg—or else a nice juicy lie. One neighbor

reported being offered a fortune to mount, on their roof, live streaming cameras aimed at Meg’s

windows. Another neighbor actually accepted the offer, hitched⁸ a camera to his roof and pointed⁹ it

straight at Meg’s backyard. Again she contacted the police, who again did nothing. Ontario laws

don’t prohibit that, she was told. If the neighbor wasn’t physically¹⁰ trespassing¹¹, he could hook the

Hubble telescope up to his house and point it into her backyard, no problem.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, her mother was being chased every day, to and from her house, to

and from the launderette, to and from work. She was also being libeled. One story called her

“trailer trash.” Another called her a “stoner.” In fact, she worked in palliative care. She traveled all

over Los Angeles to help people at the end of their lives.

Paps scaled the walls and fences of many patients she visited. In other words, every day there

was yet another person, like Mummy, whose last sound on earth…would be a click.

1 erratically   

adv.不规律地，不定地

参考例句：

• Police stopped him for driving erratically. 警察因其驾驶不循规则而把他拦下了。 来自辞典例句
• Magnetitite-bearing plugs are found erratically from the base of the Critical Zone. 含磁铁岩的岩栓不规则地分布于关键带的基底以上。 来自辞典例句

2 bodyguard   

n.护卫，保镖

参考例句：

• She has to have an armed bodyguard wherever she goes.她不管到哪儿都得有带武器的保镖跟从。
• The big guy standing at his side may be his bodyguard.站在他身旁的那个大个子可能是他的保镖。

3 swarming   

密集( swarm的现在分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去

参考例句：

• The sacks of rice were swarming with bugs. 一袋袋的米里长满了虫子。
• The beach is swarming with bathers. 海滩满是海水浴的人。

4 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

5 respite   

n.休息，中止，暂缓

参考例句：

• She was interrogated without respite for twenty-four hours.她被不间断地审问了二十四小时。
• Devaluation would only give the economy a brief respite.贬值只能让经济得到暂时的缓解。

6 cowered   

v.畏缩，抖缩( cower的过去式 )

参考例句：

• A gun went off and people cowered behind walls and under tables. 一声枪响，人们缩到墙后或桌子底下躲起来。
• He cowered in the corner, gibbering with terror. 他蜷缩在角落里，吓得语无伦次。

7 harassed   

adj. 疲倦的，厌烦的 动词harass的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He has complained of being harassed by the police. 他投诉受到警方侵扰。
• harassed mothers with their children 带着孩子的疲惫不堪的母亲们

8 hitched   

（免费）搭乘他人之车( hitch的过去式和过去分词 )； 搭便车； 攀上； 跃上

参考例句：

• They hitched a ride in a truck. 他们搭乘了一辆路过的货车。
• We hitched a ride in a truck yesterday. 我们昨天顺便搭乘了一辆卡车。

9 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

10 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

11 trespassing   

[法]非法入侵

参考例句：

• He told me I was trespassing on private land. 他说我在擅闯私人土地。
• Don't come trespassing on my land again. 别再闯入我的地界了。