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Pet Samatary, Part One: The Pet Sematary - Chapter 7

Part One: The Pet Sematary - Chapter 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

The next two weeks were busy ones for the family. Little by little Louis's new job began to shake down for him (how it would be when ten thousand students, Many of them drug and liquor abusers, some afflicted with social diseases, some anxious about grades or depressed about leaving home for the first time, a dozen of them – girls, mostly – anorexic … how it would be when all of them converged on the campus at once would be something else again). And while Louis began getting a handle on his job as head of University Medical Services, Rachel began to get a handle on the house. As she was doing so, something happened which Louis had only dared to hope for – she fell in love with the place.

Gage was busy taking the bumps and spills that went with getting used to his new environment, and for a while his night-time schedule was badly out of whack, but by the middle of their second week in Ludlow he had begun to sleep through again. Only Ellie, with the prospect of beginning kindergarten in a new place before her, seemed always over-excited and on a hairtrigger. She was apt to go into prolonged giggling fits or periods of almost menopausal depression or tempertantrums at the drop of a word. Rachel said she would get over it when she saw that school was not the great red devil she had made it out to be in her own mind, and Louis thought she was right. Most of the time, Ellie was what she had always been – a dear.

His evening beer or two with Jud Crandall became something of a habit. Around the time Gage began sleeping through again, Louis began bringing his own six-pack over every second or third night. He met Norma Crandall, a sweetly pleasant woman who had rheumatoid arthritis – filthy old rheumatoid arthritis, which kills so much of what could be good in the old ages of men and women who are otherwise healthy – but her attitude was good. She would not surrender to the pain; there would be no white flags. Let it take her if it could. Louis thought she might have another five to seven productive if not terribly comfortable years ahead of her.

Going completely against his own established customs, he examined her at his own instigation, inventoried the prescriptions her own doctor had given her, and found them to be completely in order. He felt a nagging disappointment that there was nothing else he could do or suggest for her, but her Dr Weybridge had things as under control as they were ever going to be for Norma Crandall – barring some sudden break-through, which was possible but not to be counted upon. You learned to accept, or you ended up in a small room writing letters home with Crayolas.

Rachel liked her, and they had sealed their friendship by exchanging recipes the way small boys trade baseball cards: Norma Crandall's deep-dish apple pie for Rachel's beef stroganoff. Norma was taken with both of the Creed children – particularly with Ellie, who, she said, was going to be ‘an old-time beauty'. At least, Louis told Rachel that night in bed, Norma hadn't said Ellie was going to grow into a real sweet 'coon. Rachel laughed so hard she broke explosive wind, and then both of them laughed so long and loudly they woke up Gage in the next room.

The first day of kindergarten arrived. Louis, who felt pretty well in control of the infirmary and the medical support facilities now (besides, the infirmary was currently dead empty; the last patient, a summer student who had broken her leg on the Union steps, had been discharged a week before), took the day off. He stood on the lawn beside Rachel with Gage in his arms, as the big yellow bus made the turn from Middle Drive and lumbered to a stop in front of their house. The doors at the front folded open; the babble and squawk of many children drifted out on the mild September air.

Ellie cast a strange, vulnerable glance back over her shoulder, as if to ask them if there might not yet be time to abort this inevitable process now, and perhaps what she saw on the faces of her parents convinced her that the time was gone, and everything which would follow this first day was simply inevitable – like the progress of Norma Crandall's arthritis. She turned away from them and mounted the steps of the bus. The doors folded shut with a gasp of dragon's breath. The bus pulled away. Rachel burst into tears.

‘Don't, for Christ's sake,' Louis said. He wasn't crying. Only damn near. ‘It's only half a day.'

‘Half a day is bad enough,' Rachel answered in a scolding voice, and began to cry harder. Louis held her, and Gage slipped an arm comfortably around each parent's neck. When Rachel cried, Gage usually cried, too. Not this time. He has us to himself, Louis thought, and he damn well-knows it.

They waited with some trepidation for Ellie to return, drinking too much coffee, speculating on how it was going for her. Louis went out into the back room that was going to be his study and messed about idly, moving papers from one place to another but not doing much else. Rachel began lunch absurdly early.

When the phone rang at quarter past ten, Rachel raced for it and answered with a breathless ‘Hello?' before it could ring a second time. Louis stood in the doorway between his office and the kitchen, sure it would be Ellie's teacher telling them that she had decided Ellie couldn't take it, and the stomach of public education had found her indigestible and was spitting her back. But it was only Norma Crandall, calling to tell them that Jud had picked the last of the corn and they were welcome to a dozen ears if they wanted it. Louis went over with a shopping bag and scolded Jud for not letting him help pick it.

‘Most of it ain't worth a tin shit anyway,' Jud said.

‘You spare that kind of talk while I'm around,' Norma said. She came out on the porch with iced tea on an antique Coca-Cola tray.

‘Sorry, my love.'

‘He ain't sorry a bit,' Norma said to Louis, and sat down with a wince.

‘Saw Ellie get on the bus,' Jud said, lighting a Chesterfield.

‘She'll be fine,' Norma said. ‘They almost always are.' Almost, Louis thought morbidly.

But Ellie was fine. She came home at noon smiling and sunny, her blue first-day-of-school dress belling gracefully around her scabbed shins (and there was a new scrape on one knee to marvel over), a picture of what might have been two children or perhaps two walking gantries in one hand, one shoe untied, one ribbon missing from her hair, shouting: ‘We sang Old MacDonald! Mommy! Daddy! We sang Old MacDonald! Same one as in the Carstairs Street School!'

Rachel glanced over at Louis, who was sitting in the windowseat with Gage on his lap. The baby was almost asleep. There was something sad in Rachel's glance, and although she looked away quickly, Louis felt a moment of terrible panic. We're really going to get old, he thought. It's really true. No one's going to make an exception for us. She's on her way … and so are we.

Ellie ran over to him, trying to show him her picture, her new scrape, and tell him about Old MacDonald and Mrs Berryman all at the same time. Church was twining in and out between her legs, purring loudly, and Ellie was somehow, almost miraculously, not tripping over him.

‘Shh,' Louis said, and kissed her. Gage had gone to sleep, unmindful of all the excitement. ‘Just let me put the baby to bed and then I'll listen to everything.'

He took Gage up the stairs, walking through hot slanting September sunshine, and as he reached the landing, such a premonition of horror and darkness struck him that he stopped – stopped cold – and looked around in surprise, wondering what could possibly have come over him. He held the baby tighter, almost clutching him, and Gage stirred uncomfortably. Louis's arms and back had broken out in great rashes of gooseflesh.

What's wrong? he wondered, confused and frightened. His heart was racing; his scalp felt cool and abruptly too small to cover his skull; he could feel the surge of adrenalin behind his eyes. Human eyes really did bug out when fear was extreme, he knew; they did not just widen but actually bulged as blood-pressure climbed and the hydrostatic pressure of the cranial fluids increased. What the hell is it? Ghosts? Christ, it really feels as if something just brushed by me in this hallway, something I almost saw.

Downstairs the screen door whacked against its frame.

Louis Creed jumped, almost screamed, and then laughed. It was simply one of those psychological cold-pockets people sometimes passed through – no more, no less. A momentary fugue. They happened, that was all. What had Scrooge said to the ghost of Jacob Marley? You may be no more than an underdone bit of potato. There's more gravy than grave to you. And that was more correct – physiologically as well as psychologically – than Charles Dickens had probably known. There were no ghosts, at least not in his experience. He had pronounced two dozen people dead in his career and had never once felt the passage of a soul.

He took Gage into his room and laid him in his crib. As he pulled the blanket up over his son, though, a shudder twisted up his back and he thought suddenly of his Uncle Frank's showroom. No new cars there, no televisions with all the modern features, no dishwashers with glass fronts so you could watch the magical sudsing action. Only boxes with their lids up, a carefully hidden spotlight over each. His mother's brother was an undertaker.

Good God, what gave you the horrors? Let it go! Dump it!

He kissed his son and went down to listen to Ellie tell about her first day at big kids' school.

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Part One: The Pet Sematary - Chapter 7 第一部:『ペット・セマタリー』第七章 Deel één: De Pet Sematary - Hoofdstuk 7 Частина перша: Семінарія для домашніх тварин - Розділ 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

The next two weeks were busy ones for the family. Las siguientes dos semanas fueron muy ocupadas para la familia. Little by little Louis's new job began to shake down for him (how it would be when ten thousand students, Many of them drug and liquor abusers, some afflicted with social diseases, some anxious about grades or depressed about leaving home for the first time, a dozen of them – girls, mostly – anorexic … how it would be when all of them converged on the campus at once would be something else again). ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||afligidos|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Poco a poco, el nuevo trabajo de Louis comenzó a desmoronarse para él (cómo sería cuando diez mil estudiantes, muchos de ellos drogadictos y alcohólicos, algunos aquejados de enfermedades sociales, algunos ansiosos por las notas o deprimidos por salir de casa por primera vez, una docena de ellas, chicas, en su mayoría, anoréxicas… cómo sería cuando todas ellas convergieran en el campus a la vez sería otra cosa más). And while Louis began getting a handle on his job as head of University Medical Services, Rachel began to get a handle on the house. Y mientras Louis comenzaba a controlar su trabajo como jefe de los Servicios Médicos de la Universidad, Rachel comenzó a controlar la casa. As she was doing so, something happened which Louis had only dared to hope for – she fell in love with the place. Mientras lo hacía, sucedió algo que Louis solo se había atrevido a esperar: se enamoró del lugar.

Gage was busy taking the bumps and spills that went with getting used to his new environment, and for a while his night-time schedule was badly out of whack, but by the middle of their second week in Ludlow he had begun to sleep through again. Gage|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||desajustado||||||||||||||||| Gage estaba ocupado soportando los golpes y las caídas que implicaba acostumbrarse a su nuevo entorno, y durante un tiempo su horario nocturno estuvo muy fuera de control, pero a mediados de su segunda semana en Ludlow había comenzado a dormir de nuevo. . Only Ellie, with the prospect of beginning kindergarten in a new place before her, seemed always over-excited and on a hairtrigger. |||||||jardín de infancia||||||||||||||nerviosa Solo Ellie, con la perspectiva de comenzar el jardín de infantes en un nuevo lugar antes que ella, parecía siempre demasiado emocionada y en un gatillo. She was apt to go into prolonged giggling fits or periods of almost menopausal depression or tempertantrums at the drop of a word. |||||||risitas||||||||||||||| Era propensa a entrar en ataques de risa prolongados o períodos de depresión casi menopáusica o rabietas al decir una palabra. Rachel said she would get over it when she saw that school was not the great red devil she had made it out to be in her own mind, and Louis thought she was right. Rachel dijo que lo superaría cuando viera que la escuela no era el gran diablo rojo que había imaginado, y Louis pensó que tenía razón. Most of the time, Ellie was what she had always been – a dear. La mayor parte del tiempo, Ellie era lo que siempre había sido: un encanto.

His evening beer or two with Jud Crandall became something of a habit. Su cerveza vespertina o dos con Jud Crandall se convirtió en una especie de hábito. Around the time Gage began sleeping through again, Louis began bringing his own six-pack over every second or third night. Alrededor de la época en que Gage comenzó a dormir de nuevo, Louis comenzó a traer su propio paquete de seis cada dos o tres noches. He met Norma Crandall, a sweetly pleasant woman who had rheumatoid arthritis – filthy old rheumatoid arthritis, which kills so much of what could be good in the old ages of men and women who are otherwise healthy – but her attitude was good. ||||||||||reumatoide||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Conoció a Norma Crandall, una mujer dulce y agradable que padecía artritis reumatoide (artritis reumatoide vieja y asquerosa, que mata gran parte de lo que podría ser bueno en la vejez de hombres y mujeres que, por lo demás, gozan de buena salud), pero su actitud era buena. She would not surrender to the pain; there would be no white flags. Ella no se rendiría al dolor; no habría banderas blancas. Let it take her if it could. Deja que se la lleve si puede. Louis thought she might have another five to seven productive if not terribly comfortable years ahead of her. Louis pensó que podría tener otros cinco o siete años productivos, si no terriblemente cómodos, por delante.

Going completely against his own established customs, he examined her at his own instigation, inventoried the prescriptions her own doctor had given her, and found them to be completely in order. Yendo completamente en contra de sus propias costumbres establecidas, la examinó por su propia instigación, hizo un inventario de las recetas que su propio médico le había dado y encontró que estaban completamente en orden. He felt a nagging disappointment that there was nothing else he could do or suggest for her, but her Dr Weybridge had things as under control as they were ever going to be for Norma Crandall – barring some sudden break-through, which was possible but not to be counted upon. ||||||||||||||||||||Weybridge||||||||||||||||salvo||||||||||||| Sintió una persistente decepción porque no había nada más que pudiera hacer o sugerir por ella, pero su Dr. Weybridge tenía las cosas tan bajo control como nunca lo estarían para Norma Crandall, salvo algún avance repentino, que era posible pero no. para ser contado. You learned to accept, or you ended up in a small room writing letters home with Crayolas. Aprendiste a aceptar, o terminaste en una pequeña habitación escribiendo cartas a casa con Crayolas.

Rachel liked her, and they had sealed their friendship by exchanging recipes the way small boys trade baseball cards: Norma Crandall's deep-dish apple pie for Rachel's beef stroganoff. ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||stroganoff A Rachel le gustaba, y habían sellado su amistad intercambiando recetas de la misma manera que los niños pequeños intercambian cromos de béisbol: la tarta de manzana honda de Norma Crandall por el strogonoff de ternera de Rachel. Norma was taken with both of the Creed children – particularly with Ellie, who, she said, was going to be ‘an old-time beauty'. Norma estaba enamorada de los dos hijos de Creed, particularmente de Ellie, quien, dijo, iba a ser 'una belleza de antaño'. At least, Louis told Rachel that night in bed, Norma hadn't said Ellie was going to grow into a real sweet 'coon. |||||||||||||verbo auxiliar|||||||| Al menos, Louis le dijo a Rachel esa noche en la cama, Norma no había dicho que Ellie se iba a convertir en una verdadera y dulce 'coon'. Rachel laughed so hard she broke explosive wind, and then both of them laughed so long and loudly they woke up Gage in the next room. |||||||gas||||||||||||||||||habitación Rachel se rió tan fuerte que rompió un viento explosivo, y luego ambos se rieron tanto y tan fuerte que despertaron a Gage en la habitación de al lado.

The first day of kindergarten arrived. Llegó el primer día de jardín de infantes. Louis, who felt pretty well in control of the infirmary and the medical support facilities now (besides, the infirmary was currently dead empty; the last patient, a summer student who had broken her leg on the Union steps, had been discharged a week before), took the day off. ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||dada de alta||||||| Louis, quien ahora se sentía bastante bien en control de la enfermería y las instalaciones de apoyo médico (además, la enfermería estaba completamente vacía; el último paciente, un estudiante de verano que se había roto la pierna en los escalones de la Unión, había sido dado de alta una semana antes ), se tomó el día libre. He stood on the lawn beside Rachel with Gage in his arms, as the big yellow bus made the turn from Middle Drive and lumbered to a stop in front of their house. ||||||||||||||||||||||||se acercó|||||||| Estaba de pie en el césped junto a Rachel con Gage en brazos, mientras el gran autobús amarillo giraba desde Middle Drive y se detenía frente a su casa. The doors at the front folded open; the babble and squawk of many children drifted out on the mild September air. ||||||||charlas||gritos||||||||suave|| Las puertas del frente se abrieron; el balbuceo y los graznidos de muchos niños flotaban en el aire templado de septiembre.

Ellie cast a strange, vulnerable glance back over her shoulder, as if to ask them if there might not yet be time to abort this inevitable process now, and perhaps what she saw on the faces of her parents convinced her that the time was gone, and everything which would follow this first day was simply inevitable – like the progress of Norma Crandall's arthritis. |||||||||||||||||||||||abortar|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Ellie lanzó una mirada extraña y vulnerable por encima del hombro, como si les preguntara si aún no había tiempo para abortar este proceso inevitable ahora, y tal vez lo que vio en los rostros de sus padres la convenció de que el tiempo se había ido. y todo lo que seguiría a este primer día era simplemente inevitable, como el progreso de la artritis de Norma Crandall. She turned away from them and mounted the steps of the bus. Se apartó de ellos y subió los escalones del autobús. The doors folded shut with a gasp of dragon's breath. ||||||suspiro||dragón|aliento Las puertas se cerraron con un jadeo de aliento de dragón. The bus pulled away. El autobús se alejó. Rachel burst into tears. Raquel estalló en lágrimas.

‘Don't, for Christ's sake,' Louis said. —No, por el amor de Dios —dijo Louis. He wasn't crying. Él no estaba llorando. Only damn near. Sólo malditamente cerca. ‘It's only half a day.' Es sólo medio día.

‘Half a day is bad enough,' Rachel answered in a scolding voice, and began to cry harder. ||||||||||reprimenda|||||| —Medio día ya es bastante malo —respondió Rachel con voz de regaño y empezó a llorar con más fuerza. Louis held her, and Gage slipped an arm comfortably around each parent's neck. Louis la abrazó y Gage deslizó un brazo cómodamente alrededor del cuello de cada padre. When Rachel cried, Gage usually cried, too. Cuando Rachel lloraba, Gage solía llorar también. Not this time. No esta vez. He has us to himself, Louis thought, and he damn well-knows it. Nos tiene para él solo, pensó Louis, y lo sabe muy bien.

They waited with some trepidation for Ellie to return, drinking too much coffee, speculating on how it was going for her. Esperaron con cierta inquietud a que Ellie regresara, bebiendo demasiado café, especulando sobre cómo le iba a ella. Louis went out into the back room that was going to be his study and messed about idly, moving papers from one place to another but not doing much else. Louis salió a la habitación trasera que iba a ser su estudio y se entretuvo ociosamente, moviendo papeles de un lugar a otro pero sin hacer mucho más. Rachel began lunch absurdly early. |||absurdamente| Rachel empezó a almorzar absurdamente temprano.

When the phone rang at quarter past ten, Rachel raced for it and answered with a breathless ‘Hello?' before it could ring a second time. ||||||||||||||||sin aliento|||||||| Cuando sonó el teléfono a las diez y cuarto, Rachel corrió hacia él y contestó con un '¿Hola?' sin aliento. antes de que pudiera sonar por segunda vez. Louis stood in the doorway between his office and the kitchen, sure it would be Ellie's teacher telling them that she had decided Ellie couldn't take it, and the stomach of public education had found her indigestible and was spitting her back. ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||indigerible|||escupiendo|| Louis se paró en la puerta entre su oficina y la cocina, seguro de que sería la maestra de Ellie diciéndoles que había decidido que Ellie no podía soportarlo, y que el estómago de la educación pública la había encontrado indigerible y la estaba escupiendo. But it was only Norma Crandall, calling to tell them that Jud had picked the last of the corn and they were welcome to a dozen ears if they wanted it. Pero solo era Norma Crandall, llamando para decirles que Jud había recogido lo último del maíz y que eran bienvenidos a una docena de mazorcas si lo querían. Louis went over with a shopping bag and scolded Jud for not letting him help pick it. ||||||||regañó|||no||lo||| Louis se acercó con una bolsa de compras y regañó a Jud por no dejarlo ayudar a recogerla.

‘Most of it ain't worth a tin shit anyway,' Jud said. —De todos modos, la mayor parte no vale una mierda —dijo Jud—.

‘You spare that kind of talk while I'm around,' Norma said. |ahorras||||||||| —Evita ese tipo de conversación mientras estoy cerca —dijo Norma—. She came out on the porch with iced tea on an antique Coca-Cola tray. ||||||||||||||bandeja Salió al porche con té helado en una bandeja antigua de Coca-Cola.

‘Sorry, my love.' 'Lo siento mi amor.'

‘He ain't sorry a bit,' Norma said to Louis, and sat down with a wince. ||||||||||||||mueca —No se arrepiente ni un poco —le dijo Norma a Louis, y se sentó con una mueca—.

‘Saw Ellie get on the bus,' Jud said, lighting a Chesterfield. —Vi a Ellie subirse al autobús —dijo Jud, encendiendo un Chesterfield.

‘She'll be fine,' Norma said. "Estará bien", dijo Norma. ‘They almost always are.' Almost, Louis thought morbidly. Casi siempre lo son. Casi, pensó Louis morbosamente.

But Ellie was fine. Pero Ellie estaba bien. She came home at noon smiling and sunny, her blue first-day-of-school dress belling gracefully around her scabbed shins (and there was a new scrape on one knee to marvel over), a picture of what might have been two children or perhaps two walking gantries in one hand, one shoe untied, one ribbon missing from her hair, shouting: ‘We sang Old MacDonald! |||||||||||||||||||costras|||||||rasguño||||||||||||||||||||||||||desatada||||||||||| Llegó a casa al mediodía sonriente y soleada, con su vestido azul del primer día de clases abocinado con gracia alrededor de sus costras en las espinillas (y había un nuevo rasguño en una rodilla para maravillarse), una imagen de lo que podrían haber sido dos niños o tal vez dos andadores en una mano, un zapato desatado, una cinta faltante en su cabello, gritando: '¡Cantamos Old MacDonald! Mommy! ¡Mami! Daddy! ¡Papá! We sang Old MacDonald! ¡Cantamos Old MacDonald! Same one as in the Carstairs Street School!' |||||Carstairs|| ¡El mismo que en la escuela de la calle Carstairs!

Rachel glanced over at Louis, who was sitting in the windowseat with Gage on his lap. ||||||||||asiento de la ventana||||| Rachel miró a Louis, que estaba sentado en el asiento junto a la ventana con Gage en su regazo. The baby was almost asleep. El bebé estaba casi dormido. There was something sad in Rachel's glance, and although she looked away quickly, Louis felt a moment of terrible panic. Había algo triste en la mirada de Rachel, y aunque apartó la mirada rápidamente, Louis sintió un momento de pánico terrible. We're really going to get old, he thought. Realmente vamos a envejecer, pensó. It's really true. Realmente es verdad. No one's going to make an exception for us. Nadie va a hacer una excepción por nosotros. She's on her way … and so are we. Ella está en camino... y nosotros también.

Ellie ran over to him, trying to show him her picture, her new scrape, and tell him about Old MacDonald and Mrs Berryman all at the same time. Ellie corrió hacia él, tratando de mostrarle su foto, su nuevo rasguño, y contarle sobre Old MacDonald y Mrs Berryman, todo al mismo tiempo. Church was twining in and out between her legs, purring loudly, and Ellie was somehow, almost miraculously, not tripping over him. ||enroscándose|||||||||||||||||| Church entraba y salía entre sus piernas, ronroneando ruidosamente, y Ellie de alguna manera, casi milagrosamente, no tropezaba con él.

‘Shh,' Louis said, and kissed her. 'Shh', dijo Louis, y la besó. Gage had gone to sleep, unmindful of all the excitement. Gage se había ido a dormir, sin pensar en toda la emoción. ‘Just let me put the baby to bed and then I'll listen to everything.' Déjame acostar al bebé y luego escucharé todo.

He took Gage up the stairs, walking through hot slanting September sunshine, and as he reached the landing, such a premonition of horror and darkness struck him that he stopped – stopped cold – and looked around in surprise, wondering what could possibly have come over him. ||Gage|||||||oblicua||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Llevó a Gage escaleras arriba, caminando bajo el sol cálido y sesgado de septiembre, y cuando llegó al rellano, una premonición de horror y oscuridad lo golpeó tanto que se detuvo, se detuvo en seco, y miró a su alrededor sorprendido, preguntándose qué podría haber sucedido. a él. He held the baby tighter, almost clutching him, and Gage stirred uncomfortably. ||||más fuerte|||||||incomodamente Sostuvo al bebé con más fuerza, casi abrazándolo, y Gage se movió incómodo. Louis's arms and back had broken out in great rashes of gooseflesh. |||||||||erupciones||piel de gallina Los brazos y la espalda de Louis habían estallado en grandes erupciones de piel de gallina.

What's wrong? ¿Qué ocurre? he wondered, confused and frightened. ||||asustado se preguntó, confundido y asustado. His heart was racing; his scalp felt cool and abruptly too small to cover his skull; he could feel the surge of adrenalin behind his eyes. Su corazón estaba acelerado; su cuero cabelludo se sentía frío y abruptamente demasiado pequeño para cubrir su cráneo; Podía sentir la oleada de adrenalina detrás de sus ojos. Human eyes really did bug out when fear was extreme, he knew; they did not just widen but actually bulged as blood-pressure climbed and the hydrostatic pressure of the cranial fluids increased. ||||||||||||||||se ensanchaban|||se abultaban|||||||hidrostática|||||| Los ojos humanos realmente saltaban cuando el miedo era extremo, lo sabía; no sólo se ensancharon, sino que en realidad se abultaron a medida que aumentaba la presión sanguínea y aumentaba la presión hidrostática de los fluidos craneales. What the hell is it? ¿Qué diablos es ésto? Ghosts? ¿Fantasmas? Christ, it really feels as if something just brushed by me in this hallway, something I almost saw. Cristo, realmente se siente como si algo me hubiera rozado en este pasillo, algo que casi vi.

Downstairs the screen door whacked against its frame. ||||golpeó||| Abajo, la puerta mosquitera golpeó contra su marco.

Louis Creed jumped, almost screamed, and then laughed. Louis Creed saltó, casi gritó y luego se echó a reír. It was simply one of those psychological cold-pockets people sometimes passed through – no more, no less. Era simplemente uno de esos bolsillos fríos psicológicos por los que a veces pasa la gente, ni más ni menos. A momentary fugue. Una fuga momentánea. They happened, that was all. Ocurrieron, eso fue todo. What had Scrooge said to the ghost of Jacob Marley? ||Scrooge||||||| ¿Qué le había dicho Scrooge al fantasma de Jacob Marley? You may be no more than an underdone bit of potato. |||||||poco cocida||| Puede que no seas más que una patata poco hecha. There's more gravy than grave to you. ||gravy|||| Hay más salsa que tumba para ti. And that was more correct – physiologically as well as psychologically – than Charles Dickens had probably known. ||||||||||||Dickens||| Y eso era más correcto, tanto fisiológica como psicológicamente, de lo que Charles Dickens probablemente supo. There were no ghosts, at least not in his experience. No había fantasmas, al menos no en su experiencia. He had pronounced two dozen people dead in his career and had never once felt the passage of a soul. Había declarado muertas a dos docenas de personas en su carrera y nunca había sentido el paso de un alma.

He took Gage into his room and laid him in his crib. Llevó a Gage a su habitación y lo acostó en su cuna. As he pulled the blanket up over his son, though, a shudder twisted up his back and he thought suddenly of his Uncle Frank's showroom. ||||||||||||||||||||||||salón Sin embargo, mientras cubría a su hijo con la manta, un escalofrío le recorrió la espalda y de repente pensó en la sala de exposición de su tío Frank. No new cars there, no televisions with all the modern features, no dishwashers with glass fronts so you could watch the magical sudsing action. ||||||||||||lavavajillas|||frentes|||||||espuma| No hay autos nuevos allí, no hay televisores con todas las características modernas, no hay lavavajillas con frentes de vidrio para que puedas ver la acción mágica de la espuma. Only boxes with their lids up, a carefully hidden spotlight over each. Sólo cajas con sus tapas levantadas, un foco cuidadosamente escondido sobre cada una. His mother's brother was an undertaker. |||||funerario El hermano de su madre era un empresario de pompas fúnebres.

Good God, what gave you the horrors? Buen Dios, ¿qué te dio los horrores? Let it go! ¡Déjalo ir! Dump it! ¡Arrojarlo!

He kissed his son and went down to listen to Ellie tell about her first day at big kids' school. Besó a su hijo y bajó a escuchar a Ellie contarle sobre su primer día en la escuela de niños grandes.