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.My head felt heavy and my neck was suddenly aching with the effort of holding it up.‘Sleep if you wish,’ said the Woman in White.‘I shall not be offended.Sleep.’And sleep did seem deuced attractive in that instant.My eyelids had become great leaden weights that seemed to have no other course than to sink down over my eyes and usher in a dark and delicious slumber.Maybe the excitement of the journey and of starting a new school had affected me more than I realised.My eyelids fluttered, making the Woman in White flicker like a magic lantern show.Then suddenly, instead of the Woman in White, I saw a vivid image of my stepmother, her face pale and wild as it had been when she awoke from her dream.I could almost hear her voice saying, ‘Danger! Deadly danger!’ It brought me straight back to a state of wakefulness.‘My dear boy,’ said the Woman in White.‘Are you quite all right?’‘I am well, thank you,’ I said.‘I was just thinking of my stepmother.She had a strange dream before I left her.She was troubled by it.She is very superstitious.’‘But you are not?’ asked the Woman in White.‘Neither superstitious, nor troubled by her dream?’‘No,’ I said.‘I think I have rather a distrust of superstition, actually.My stepmother likes to believe in omens and portents and the like, but I find it all a little foolish.’‘But did she not have some kind of premonition that something was to happen on your journey?’‘Why, yes she did – did I tell you that?’ I said, wondering when that could have been.‘So you think it unimaginable that someone might be able to foretell the future?’ she asked.‘I don’t know,’ I said with a grin.‘But I find it very hard to believe that, were that possible, such a gift might have attached itself to someone like my stepmother.’The Woman in White did not return my grin.‘Perhaps it is not a gift in that sense,’ she said.‘Perhaps it is more that a curtain that has hitherto been concealing other times or places – other worlds, if you like – is for a moment pulled aside.Perhaps it is a moment of revelation and nothing more.’‘A moment of revelation?’ I asked, uncertain of what she meant.‘Yes,’ she continued.‘A moment when, for whatever reason, a person is given access to a different kind of sight: a sight that allows them to glimpse another time or place.Do you not believe it to be possible?’‘Perhaps,’ I said.‘I’ve heard of such people, of course.But I suppose I always assumed them to be con men – or crazed.Do you believe it?’She smiled.‘Oh, there is no question,’ she said.I was taken aback by the matter-of-factness of this reply.‘Have you had experience of it yourself, then?’ I asked, instantly regretting giving her the opportunity to recount some garbled nonsense of the kind my stepmother was always coming out with.‘I have no need of such things,’ she said with a little sigh and a smile.‘But.’ I began, but got no further.The image of that boy – Oscar – and his parents in the grip of that plant returned unbidden and with a frightening clarity and vigour.It made me jump as though electrocuted.It was a curious thing, but I realised that listening to these stories was different to listening to any stories I had heard before.I felt myself actually there, as if I were a witness to the events being described.It felt as though, instead of listening to the words the Woman in White was saying, I was actually seeing images, hearing voices; it was like a dream, but at the same time more real than any dream.‘Are you sure you’re all right?’ said the Woman in White.‘You’re looking rather pale.’‘I am quite well, miss, thank you,’ I said.But I was not feeling as well as I pretended.The carriage was awfully warm and stuffy.I got to my feet and tried to open the window again, but it still would not budge, despite repeated attempts.I smiled at the Woman in White, cursing silently at my inability to perform this simple task.I was certain that I detected a trace of enjoyment at my discomfort in her cool smile.Then, quite suddenly, I felt dizzy and had to reach out for the luggage rack to keep my balance while the carriage and all its occupants seemed to spin around me in a vortex.‘Can I be of assistance?’ she said, rising to her feet and reaching out to me.‘No!’ I said, more sternly than I had intended [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.My head felt heavy and my neck was suddenly aching with the effort of holding it up.‘Sleep if you wish,’ said the Woman in White.‘I shall not be offended.Sleep.’And sleep did seem deuced attractive in that instant.My eyelids had become great leaden weights that seemed to have no other course than to sink down over my eyes and usher in a dark and delicious slumber.Maybe the excitement of the journey and of starting a new school had affected me more than I realised.My eyelids fluttered, making the Woman in White flicker like a magic lantern show.Then suddenly, instead of the Woman in White, I saw a vivid image of my stepmother, her face pale and wild as it had been when she awoke from her dream.I could almost hear her voice saying, ‘Danger! Deadly danger!’ It brought me straight back to a state of wakefulness.‘My dear boy,’ said the Woman in White.‘Are you quite all right?’‘I am well, thank you,’ I said.‘I was just thinking of my stepmother.She had a strange dream before I left her.She was troubled by it.She is very superstitious.’‘But you are not?’ asked the Woman in White.‘Neither superstitious, nor troubled by her dream?’‘No,’ I said.‘I think I have rather a distrust of superstition, actually.My stepmother likes to believe in omens and portents and the like, but I find it all a little foolish.’‘But did she not have some kind of premonition that something was to happen on your journey?’‘Why, yes she did – did I tell you that?’ I said, wondering when that could have been.‘So you think it unimaginable that someone might be able to foretell the future?’ she asked.‘I don’t know,’ I said with a grin.‘But I find it very hard to believe that, were that possible, such a gift might have attached itself to someone like my stepmother.’The Woman in White did not return my grin.‘Perhaps it is not a gift in that sense,’ she said.‘Perhaps it is more that a curtain that has hitherto been concealing other times or places – other worlds, if you like – is for a moment pulled aside.Perhaps it is a moment of revelation and nothing more.’‘A moment of revelation?’ I asked, uncertain of what she meant.‘Yes,’ she continued.‘A moment when, for whatever reason, a person is given access to a different kind of sight: a sight that allows them to glimpse another time or place.Do you not believe it to be possible?’‘Perhaps,’ I said.‘I’ve heard of such people, of course.But I suppose I always assumed them to be con men – or crazed.Do you believe it?’She smiled.‘Oh, there is no question,’ she said.I was taken aback by the matter-of-factness of this reply.‘Have you had experience of it yourself, then?’ I asked, instantly regretting giving her the opportunity to recount some garbled nonsense of the kind my stepmother was always coming out with.‘I have no need of such things,’ she said with a little sigh and a smile.‘But.’ I began, but got no further.The image of that boy – Oscar – and his parents in the grip of that plant returned unbidden and with a frightening clarity and vigour.It made me jump as though electrocuted.It was a curious thing, but I realised that listening to these stories was different to listening to any stories I had heard before.I felt myself actually there, as if I were a witness to the events being described.It felt as though, instead of listening to the words the Woman in White was saying, I was actually seeing images, hearing voices; it was like a dream, but at the same time more real than any dream.‘Are you sure you’re all right?’ said the Woman in White.‘You’re looking rather pale.’‘I am quite well, miss, thank you,’ I said.But I was not feeling as well as I pretended.The carriage was awfully warm and stuffy.I got to my feet and tried to open the window again, but it still would not budge, despite repeated attempts.I smiled at the Woman in White, cursing silently at my inability to perform this simple task.I was certain that I detected a trace of enjoyment at my discomfort in her cool smile.Then, quite suddenly, I felt dizzy and had to reach out for the luggage rack to keep my balance while the carriage and all its occupants seemed to spin around me in a vortex.‘Can I be of assistance?’ she said, rising to her feet and reaching out to me.‘No!’ I said, more sternly than I had intended [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]