2-13

 

13.

After receiving permission to cross my airspace, a pilot wouldn’t always cruise on through, he’darrow through, and sometimes his need to know conditions on the ground would be urgent. Everysecond mattered. Life and death were in my hands. I was calmly seated at a desk, holding a fizzydrink and a biro (Oh. A biro. Wow.) but I was also in the middle of the action. It was exhilarating,the thing I’d trained for, but terrifying. Shortly before my arrival an FAC got one number wrongwhen reading out the geo coordinates¹ to an American F-15; the result was an errant bomb landingon British forces instead of the enemy. Three soldiers killed, two horribly maimed. So every wordand digit² I spoke³ would have consequences. We were “providing support,” that was the phraseused constantly, but I realized how euphemistic it was. No less than the pilots, we were sometimesdelivering death, and when it came to death, more so than life, you had to be precise.

I confess: I was happy. This was important work, patriotic⁴ work. I was using skills honed inthe Dales, and at Sandringham, and all the way back to boyhood. Even to Balmoral. There was abright line connecting my stalking with Sandy and my work here now. I was a British soldier, on abattlefield, at last, a role for which I’d been preparing all my life.

I was also Widow Six Seven. I’d had plenty of nicknames in my life, but this was the firstnickname that felt more like an alias⁵. I could really and truly hide behind it. For the first time I wasjust a name, a random⁶ name, and a random number. No title. And no bodyguard⁷. Is this what otherpeople feel like every day? I savored⁸ the normality, wallowed in it, and also considered how far I’djourneyed to find it. Central Afghanistan, the dead of winter, the middle of the night, the midst of awar, while speaking to a man fifteen thousand feet above my head—how abnormal is your life ifthat’s the first place you ever feel normal?

After every action there would be a lull⁹, which was sometimes harder to deal withpsychologically. Boredom¹⁰ was the enemy and we fought it by playing rugby, our ball a heavilytaped-up roll of loo paper, or by jogging on the spot. We also did a thousand press-ups, and builtprimitive weightlifting equipment, taping wooden crates¹¹ to metal bars. We made punch bags outof duffels. We read books, organized marathon chess matches, slept like cats. I watched grownmen log twelve hours a day in bed.

We also ate and ate. Dwyer had a full kitchen. Pasta. Chips. Beans. We were given thirtyminutes each week on the sat phone. The phone card was called Paradigm¹², and it had a code onthe back, which you punched into the keypad. Then a robot, a nice-sounding woman, told you howmany minutes you had left. Next thing you knew…Spike, that you?

Chels.

Your old life, down the line. The sound always made you catch your breath. To think of homewas never easy, for a complex set of reasons. To hear home was a stab in the chest.

If I didn’t call Chels, I called Pa.

How are you, darling boy?

Not bad. You know.

But he asked me to write rather than call. He loved my letters.

He said he’d much prefer a letter.

 

1 coordinates   

n.相配之衣物；坐标( coordinate的名词复数 )；（颜色协调的）配套服装；[复数]女套服；同等重要的人（或物）v.使协调，使调和( coordinate的第三人称单数 )；协调；协同；成为同等

参考例句：

• The town coordinates on this map are 695037. 该镇在这幅地图上的坐标是695037。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 digit   

n.零到九的阿拉伯数字，手指，脚趾

参考例句：

• Her telephone number differs from mine by one digit.她的电话号码和我的只差一个数字。
• Many animals have five digits.许多动物有5趾。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 patriotic   

adj.爱国的，有爱国心的

参考例句：

• His speech was full of patriotic sentiments.他的演说充满了爱国之情。
• The old man is a patriotic overseas Chinese.这位老人是一位爱国华侨。

5 alias   

n.化名；别名；adv.又名

参考例句：

• His real name was Johnson,but he often went by the alias of Smith.他的真名是约翰逊，但是他常常用化名史密斯。
• You can replace this automatically generated alias with a more meaningful one.可用更有意义的名称替换这一自动生成的别名。

6 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

7 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。

8 savored   

v.意味，带有…的性质( savor的过去式和过去分词 )；给…加调味品；使有风味；品尝

参考例句：

• We savored the barbed hits in his reply. 我们很欣赏他在回答中使用的带刺的俏皮话。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We savored, (the pleasures of) mountain life to the full. 我们充分体会了山居生活的乐趣。 来自辞典例句

9 lull   

v.使安静，使入睡，缓和，哄骗；n.暂停，间歇

参考例句：

• The drug put Simpson in a lull for thirty minutes.药物使辛普森安静了30分钟。
• Ground fighting flared up again after a two-week lull.经过两个星期的平静之后，地面战又突然爆发了。

10 boredom   

n.厌烦，厌倦，乏味，无聊

参考例句：

• Unemployment can drive you mad with boredom.失业会让你无聊得发疯。
• A walkman can relieve the boredom of running.跑步时带着随身听就不那么乏味了。

11 crates   

n. 板条箱, 篓子, 旧汽车 vt. 装进纸条箱

参考例句：

• We were using crates as seats. 我们用大木箱作为座位。
• Thousands of crates compacted in a warehouse. 数以千计的板条箱堆放在仓库里。

12 paradigm   

n.例子，模范，词形变化表

参考例句：

• He had become the paradigm of the successful man. 他已经成为成功人士的典范。
• Moreover,the results of this research can be the new learning paradigm for digital design studios.除此之外，本研究的研究成果也可以为数位设计课程建立一个新的学习范例。