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81.

Late at night, with everyone asleep, I’d walk the house, checking the doors and windows. Then I’d

sit on the balcony or the edge of the garden and roll a joint¹.

The house looked down onto a valley, across a hillside thick with frogs. I’d listen to their late-

night song, smell the flower-scented air. The frogs, the smells, the trees, the big starry² sky, it all

brought me back to Botswana.

But maybe it’s not just the flora³ and fauna⁴, I thought.

Maybe it’s more the feeling of safety. Of life.

We were able to get a lot of work done. And we had a lot of work to do. We launched a

foundation, I reconnected with my contacts in world conservation. Things were getting under

control…and then the press somehow learned we were at Tyler’s. It had taken six weeks exactly,

same as Canada. Suddenly there were drones overhead, paps across the street. Paps across the

valley.

They cut the fence.

We patched the fence.

We stopped venturing outside. The garden was in full view of the paps.

Next came the helicopters.

Sadly, we were going to have to flee. We’d need to find somewhere new, and soon, and that

would mean paying for our own security. I went back to my notebooks, started contacting security

firms again. Meg and I sat down to work out exactly how much security we could afford, and how

much house. Exactly then, while we were revising our budget, word came down: Pa was cutting

me off.

I recognized the absurdity⁵, a man in his mid-thirties being financially cut off by his father. But

Pa wasn’t merely my father, he was my boss, my banker, my comptroller, keeper of the purse

strings⁶ throughout my adult life. Cutting me off therefore meant firing me, without redundancy

pay, and casting me into the void after a lifetime of service. More, after a lifetime of rendering⁷ me

otherwise unemployable.

I felt fatted for the slaughter⁸. Suckled like a veal⁹ calf¹⁰. I’d never asked to be financially

dependent on Pa. I’d been forced into this surreal state, this unending Truman Show in which I

almost never carried money, never owned a car, never carried a house key, never once ordered

anything online, never received a single box from Amazon, almost never traveled on the

Underground. (Once, at Eton, on a theater trip.) Sponge, the papers called me. But there’s a big

difference between being a sponge and being prohibited from learning independence. After

decades of being rigorously and systematically¹¹ infantilized, I was now abruptly¹² abandoned, and

mocked for being immature¹³? For not standing¹⁴ on my own two feet?

The question of how to pay for a home and security kept Meg and me awake at nights. We

could always spend some of my inheritance from Mummy, we said, but that felt like a last resort.

We saw that money as belonging to Archie. And his sibling¹⁵.

It was then that we learned Meg was pregnant.

1 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

2 starry   

adj.星光照耀的, 闪亮的

参考例句：

• He looked at the starry heavens.他瞧着布满星星的天空。
• I like the starry winter sky.我喜欢这满天星斗的冬夜。

3 flora   

n.(某一地区的)植物群

参考例句：

• The subtropical island has a remarkably rich native flora.这个亚热带岛屿有相当丰富的乡土植物种类。
• All flora need water and light.一切草木都需要水和阳光。

4 fauna   

n.(一个地区或时代的)所有动物，动物区系

参考例句：

• This National Park is an area with unique fauna and flora.该国家公园区域内具有独特的动物种群和植物种群。
• Fauna is a biological notion means all the animal life in a particular region or period. 动物群是一个生物学的概念，指的是一个特定时期或者地区的所有动物。

5 absurdity   

n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论

参考例句：

• The proposal borders upon the absurdity.这提议近乎荒谬。
• The absurdity of the situation made everyone laugh.情况的荒谬可笑使每个人都笑了。

6 strings   

n.弦

参考例句：

• He sat on the bed,idly plucking the strings of his guitar.他坐在床上，随意地拨着吉他的弦。
• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。

7 rendering   

n.表现，描写

参考例句：

• She gave a splendid rendering of Beethoven's piano sonata.她精彩地演奏了贝多芬的钢琴奏鸣曲。
• His narrative is a super rendering of dialect speech and idiom.他的叙述是方言和土语最成功的运用。

8 slaughter   

n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀

参考例句：

• I couldn't stand to watch them slaughter the cattle.我不忍看他们宰牛。
• Wholesale slaughter was carried out in the name of progress.大规模的屠杀在维护进步的名义下进行。

9 veal   

n.小牛肉

参考例句：

• She sauteed veal and peppers,preparing a mixed salad while the pan simmered.她先做的一道菜是青椒煎小牛肉，趁着锅还在火上偎着的机会，又做了一道拼盘。
• Marinate the veal in white wine for two hours.把小牛肉用白葡萄酒浸泡两小时。

10 calf   

n.小牛，犊，幼仔，小牛皮

参考例句：

• The cow slinked its calf.那头母牛早产了一头小牛犊。
• The calf blared for its mother.牛犊哞哞地高声叫喊找妈妈。

11 systematically   

adv.有系统地

参考例句：

• This government has systematically run down public services since it took office.这一屆政府自上台以来系统地削减了公共服务。
• The rainforest is being systematically destroyed.雨林正被系统地毀灭。

12 abruptly   

adv.突然地，出其不意地

参考例句：

• He gestured abruptly for Virginia to get in the car.他粗鲁地示意弗吉尼亚上车。
• I was abruptly notified that a half-hour speech was expected of me.我突然被通知要讲半个小时的话。

13 immature   

adj.未成熟的，发育未全的，未充分发展的

参考例句：

• Tony seemed very shallow and immature.托尼看起来好像很肤浅，不夠成熟。
• The birds were in immature plumage.这些鸟儿羽翅未全。

14 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

15 sibling   

n.同胞手足(指兄、弟、姐或妹)

参考例句：

• Many of us hate living in the shadows of a more successful sibling.我们很多人都讨厌活在更为成功的手足的阴影下。
• Sibling ravalry has been common in this family.这个家里，兄弟姊妹之间的矛盾很平常。