Be
careful what you wish for. And be careful of giving your wife everything that
she asks for…
An
edited extract from “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs, part 2 of 2:
In
the huge new cemetery, some two miles distant, the old people buried their
dead, and came back to a house steeped in shadow and silence. It was all
over so quickly that at first they could hardly realize it.
It
was about a week after that the old man, waking suddenly in the night, stretched
out his hand and found himself alone. The room was in darkness, and the sound
of subdued weeping came from the window. He raised himself in bed and
listened.
"Come
back," he said, tenderly. "You will be cold."
"It
is colder for my son," said the old woman, and wept afresh. Suddenly she
cried wildly. "The paw! The
monkey's paw!"
He started up in alarm. "Where? Where is it? What's the matter?"
She
came stumbling across the room toward him. "I want it," she said, quietly.
"You've not destroyed it?"
"It's
in the parlour," he replied, marveling. "Why?"
She
cried and laughed together, and bending over, kissed his cheek.
"I
only just thought of it," she said, hysterically. "Why didn't I think of it before? Why
didn't you think of it? The other two wishes," she said, rapidly.
"We've only had one. We'll have one
more. Go down and get it quickly, and
wish our boy alive again."
The
man sat up in bed and flung the bedclothes from his quaking limbs. "Good
God, you are mad!" he cried, aghast.
"Get
it," she panted; "get it quickly, and wish--Oh, my boy, my boy!"
The
old man turned and regarded her, and his voice shook. "He has been dead
ten days, and besides he--I would not tell you if I didn’t have to, but--I
could only recognize him by his clothing. If he was too terrible for you to see
then, how will he be now?"
"Bring
him back," cried the old woman, and dragged him toward the door. "Do
you think I fear the child I have nursed?"
He
went down in the darkness, and felt his way to the parlour, and then to the
mantelpiece. The talisman was in its
place, and a horrible fear that the unspoken wish might bring his mutilated
son back seized upon him.
Even
his wife's face seemed changed as he entered the room. It was white and
expectant, and to his fears seemed to have an unnatural look upon it. He was
afraid of her.
"Wish!"
she cried, in a strong voice.
"It
is foolish and wicked," he faltered.
"Wish!"
repeated his wife.
He
raised his hand. "I wish my son alive again."
The
talisman fell to the floor, and he regarded it fearfully. Then he sank
trembling into a chair as the old woman, with burning eyes, walked to the
window and raised the blind.
***
"What's
that?" cried the old woman.
"A
rat," said the old man in shaking tones--"a rat."
His
wife sat up listening. A loud knock resounded through the house.
"It's
Herbert!" she screamed. "It's Herbert!"
She
ran to the door, but her husband was before her, and catching her by the arm,
held her tightly.
"It's
my boy; it's Herbert!" she cried, struggling mechanically. “What are you
holding me for? Let go. I must open the
door."
"For
God's sake don't let it in," cried the old man, trembling.
"You're
afraid of your own son," she cried, struggling. "Let me go. I'm coming,
Herbert; I'm coming."
There
was another knock, and another. The old woman with a sudden wrench broke free
and ran from the room. Her husband followed to the landing, and called after
her appealingly as she hurried downstairs. Then she raised her voice, strained
and panting.
"The
bolt," she cried, loudly. "Come down. I can't reach it."
But
her husband was on his hands and knees groping wildly on the floor in search of
the paw. If he could only find it before
the thing outside got in. Knocks reverberated through the house, and he heard
the scraping of a chair as his wife put it down in the passage against the
door. He heard the creaking of the bolt
as it came slowly back, and at the same moment he found the monkey's paw, and frantically
breathed his third and last wish.
Vocabulary:
a
cemetery – a graveyard; a place where people are buried after death
to
be steeped in (shadow) – to be filled with (shadow)
subdued
– quiet or dispirited
tenderly
– affectionately; lovingly
to
be aghast – to be filled with horror or shock
to
regard – to look at
to
be mutilated – about a living thing, to be badly disfigured or cut to pieces
to
falter – to lose strength or momentum
to
reverberate – of a loud noise, to repeat several times as an echo
frantically
– desperately
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