《我打電話的地方》by Raymond Carver .pdf

WHERE I'M CALLING FROM by Raymond Carver Copyright 1987, 1988 by Raymond Carv To Tess Gallagher We can never know what to want, because, living only one life, we can neither compare it with our previous lives nor perfect it in our lives to come. --Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being. ==Editors Note The stories in this collection are arranged, generally, in chronological order. A number of them have been revised for this edition, and in a few cases titles have been changed. ===SELECTED STORIES. ==Nobody Said Anything. I could hear them out in the kitchen. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but they were arguing. Then it got quiet and she started to cry. I elbowed George. I thought he would wake up and say something to them so they would feel guilty and stop. But George is such an asshole. He started kicking and hollering. "Stop gouging me, you bastard," he said. "I'm going to tell!" "You dumb chickenshit," I said. "Can't you wise up for once? They're fighting and Mom's crying. Listen." He listened with his head off the pillow. "I don't care," he said and turned over toward the wall and went back to sleep. George is a royal asshole. Later i heard Dad leave to catch his bus. He slammed the front door. She had told me before he wanted to tear up the family. I didn't want to listen. After a while she came to call us for school. Her voice sounded funny--I don't know. I said I felt sick at my stomach. It was the first week in October and I hadn't missed any school yet, so what could she say? She looked at me, but it was like she was thinking of something else. George was awake and listening. I could tell he was awake by the way he moved in the bed. He was waiting to see how it turned out so he could make his move. "All right." She shook her head. "I just don't know. Stay home, then. But no TV, remember that." George reared up. "I'm sick too," he said to her. "I have a headache. He gouged me and kicked me