Rabu, 11 Mei 2016
Animal and Men
A
few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas
River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. The water is
warm too, for it has slipped
twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow
pool. On one side of the river the golden foothill slopes curve up to the
strong and rocky Gabilan mountains, but on the valley side the water is lined with trees-willows fresh and
green with every spring, carrying in their lower leaf junctures the debris of
the winter’s flooding; and sycamores with mottled,
white, recumbent limbs and branches that arch over the pool. On the sandy bank
under the trees the leaves lie deep and so crisp that a lizard makes a great
skittering if he runs among them. Rabbit come out of the brush to sit on the
sand in the evening, and the damp flats are covered with the night tracks of
’coons, and with the spread pads of dogs from the ranches, and with the split-wedge
tracks of deer that come to drink in the dark.
There
is a path through the willows and among the sycamores, a path beaten hard by
boys coming down from the ranches to swim come wearily down from the highway in
the evening to jungle-up near water. In front of the low horizontal limb of a
giant sycamore there is an ash pile made
by many fires; the limb is worn smooth by men who have sat on it.
Evening
of a hot day started the little wind
to moving among the leaves. The shade climbed
up the hills toward the top. On the sand banks the rabbits sat as quietly as
little gray, sculptured stones. And
then from the direction of the state highway came the sound of footsteps
on crisp sycamore leaves. The rabbits hurried
noiselessly for cover. A stilted
heron labored up into the air and pounded
down river. For a moment the place was lifeless, and then two men emerged from the path and came into the opening by the green
pool.
They
had walked in single file down the
path, and even in the open one stayed
behind the other. Both were dressed
in denim trousers and in denim coats with brass buttons. Both wore black,
shapeless hats and both carried
tight blanket rolls slung over their shoulders. The first man was small and
quick, dark of face, with restless eyes and sharp , strong features. Every part
of him was defined: small, strong
hands, slender arms, a thin and bony nose. Behind him walked his opposite, a huge man, shapeless of face, with large,
pale eyes, with wide, sloping shoulders; and he walked heavily, dragging his feet a little, the way a bear drags
his paws. His arms did not swing at his sides, but hung loosely.
1. Using
action verb Past Tense
Using action verb that Marked by “ Bold ( Ctrl+B )
“.
2. Focusing
on Animal
3. Chronological
Order
1. A
few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas
River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green.
2. There
is a path through the willows and among the sycamores
3. Evening
of a hot day started the little wind to moving among the leaves.
Event
I
On
the sandy bank under the trees the leaves lie deep and so crisp that a lizard
makes a great skittering if he runs among them. Rabbit come out of the brush to
sit on the sand in the evening, and the damp flats are covered with the night
tracks of ’coons, and with the spread pads of dogs from the ranches, and with
the split-wedge tracks of deer that come to drink in the dark.
Event
II
On
the sand banks the rabbits sat as quietly as little gray, sculptured stones.
And then from the direction of the state highway came the sound of footsteps on crisp sycamore leaves. The
rabbits hurried noiselessly for cover. A stilted heron labored up into the air
and pounded down river.
Twist
Men
just saw Rabbit, Lizard and deer on the Gabilan mountains.
Euston
Elizabeth
marvelled at the changes in Euston.
She remembered the station much more
clearly as the fairly gloomy and barracks-like place where she had gone with Mother and Father to meet
Dara each year when she came over
from Ireland on holiday. And here she was years later in the huge revamped place with its shops and its
flashing lights and escalators waiting for Dara again. Dara who could well afford to fly but who decided that it would be more fun to retrace the old tracks and come on boat and
train; Dara who had always made the holidays turn into
technicolour for Elizabeth, the only child; Dara who was so quiet and gentle but somehow managed to make things cheerful in a house where there was little
love; Dara who had been able to say
things to Mother and Father even after one of their dreadfulrows-something that
would ease the atmosphere while
Elizabeth would sit mute and tight-lipped, afraid that by opening
her mouth she would drive her
parents further from each other than they already were.
Even
after the divorce, when she and Dara were fifteen, there had been a visit. Mother and Elizabeth had waited in this very spot and when Dara got off the train and ran up to them, she had hugged Mother and said, ‘You poor old thing, it must be desperately lonely and sort
of low for these days’, and Mother had
hugged her back and cried.
Mother crying in public and hugging Dara.
Elizabeth
had left her heart lift for the
first time since the divorce. Dara always had
this gift of saying what people didn’t say and it all worked perfectly.
During
that particular visit Dara had suggested
that she would like to see Father.
Dara said she had a present for him for Ireland. Mother had pursed her lips and looked
disapproving. Elizabeth had feared
that everything was going to turn
sour again’Aw, come on out of that,’ Dara had
said. ‘Now for the rest of your life you can’t be expecting that nobody
except Elizabeth is going to want to be friends with both of you. It’s not a
battle for us’.
And
because of Dara the visit to Father had
been marvelous instead of stilted,
and Dara had said ‘Aw, come on out of that, of course you’ve got a new lady
friend, why can’t we meet her?’ It’s silly to ask her to be out all day, or
hidden away as if she were in
disgrace. ‘So Father, delighted, had suggested that Julia join them for
lunch, and it had been a memorable
meal with wine and a sip of brandy afterwards, and Dara said that there was no
purpose in carrying tales from one household back to another, it only made things worse on everyone…and with
her carefree attitude she had brought
some kind of happiness into that troubled
summer also.
Dara
lived in Ireland with an old grandmother,
a housekeeper and gardener. Her parents, who had been friends of Mother and Father in the old days, had been killed in a car crash and so
now Dara’s life was a matter of
cycling to a local school each day, coming home and making sure her hands were nice and clean and that she came in to lunch or dinner when the
gong sounded. She told her old
grandmother little tales about what happened
at school or with her friends, or during the holidays about what she had read. She seemed to lead an idyllic existence, wandering around the
countryside exploring and reading in her large sunny bedroom which looked out on purple mountains. Once a
year she came to spend two weeks in
London, her annual threat.
The
friendship lasted long after schooldays.
Dara had trained as a nurse in an
Irish hospital at the same time as Elizabeth was doing her training in London.
They still holidayed in each other’s
homes, and as they became more
adventurous they even went as far as Spain and Italy together. When Dara’s
grandmother died there was even talk of her coming to London
to share a flat with Elizabeth but she said
she would miss the purple mountains
and the narrows roads, which she now drove along in her little car instead of
pedaling on her creaking bike.
1.
Using action verb Past Tense
Using action verb that Marked by “ Bold ( Ctrl+B ) “.
2.
Focusing about People
3.
Chronological Order
1. Elizabeth
marvelled at the changes in Euston.
2. Dara
who had always made the holidays turn into technicolour for Elizabeth.
3. Dara
who had been able to say things to Mother and Father even after one of their
dreadfulrows-something.
4. Even
after the divorce, when she and Dara were fifteen, there had been a visit
Mother.
5. she
had hugged Mother and said, ‘You poor old thing, it must be desperately lonely
and sort of low for these days’, and Mother had hugged her back and cried.
Mother crying in public and hugging Dara.
6. because
of Dara the visit to Father had been marvelous instead of stilted, Dara had
said ‘why can’t we meet her’?. And Father so Delighted can Lunch together.
7. Dara
lived in Ireland with an old grandmother, a housekeeper and gardener.
8. Killed
in a car crash and so now Dara’s life was a matter of cycling to a local school
each day.
9. The
friendship lasted long after schooldays. Dara had trained as a nurse in an
Irish hospital
Event
I
Mother
and Elizabeth had waited in this very spot and when Dara got off the train and
ran up to them, she had hugged Mother and said, ‘You poor old thing, it must be
desperately lonely and sort of low for these days’, and Mother had hugged her
back and cried. Mother crying in public and hugging Dara.
Event
II.
During
that particular visit Dara had suggested that she would like to see Father.
Dara said she had a present for him for Ireland. It’s silly to ask her to be
out all day, or hidden away as if she were in disgrace. ‘So Father, delighted,
had suggested that Julia join them for lunch, and it had been a memorable meal
with wine and a sip of brandy afterwards.
Twist.
Even
after the divorce, when she and Dara were fifteen, there had been a visit.
Really,
Father and Mother of Dara’s had Divorced.
