Reader
Taiwan
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The Great Gatsby . Chapter 13, page 51-page 55 . There was dancing in the garden; men danced with young girls, circling their arms across girls’ waists; the flame cast dancing shadows on the ground; the hilarity had increased and bursts of laughter had been heard here and there; the moon had hung right above, looking like fortifying them with the beweildering light. “Excuse me! Miss Baker, Gatsby would like to say something to you” the butler whispered behind. Miss Baker stood up hesitantly, showing more astonished than pleased. “Me?” “Yes, Madame.” She followed him in a few paces behind. I was alone again, noticing the boom of songs and the roaring voice rang out suddenly from the many-windowed room, and went inside. . People gathered around a girl. She was singing them a very sad song, occasionally out of tune. Someone said “she’s been deserted by her husband. Just minutes ago, she’d been beaten and kicked”. Suddenly she ceased, groaned in agony, but for a moment, she sang again with gasping, broken sobs. “She should’ve gone home right away” a girl muttered to me beside. I wasn’t surprised that people were unwilling to go home, even though the music band had stopped playing. By midnight the suggestion was made that the party was coming to an end, and people had began to move toward the gate. I shifted my gaze to another room, where Gatsby and Jordan Baker were inside. Shortly, the door opened, and I saw Baker came out first, Gatsby walked at her heels. Someone’s voice stopped them, turning their familiar conversation into some degree of formality. I waited patiently to see her walking toward me. . “What’s the matter?”I asked curiously. “It’s just an amazing thing. I won’t tell you right now” she looked at me all radiantly, “call me some other time. Here is my aunt’s telephone number” she added, with an exciting smile at me, and disappearing into her party. . As I was ready to leave, I heard Gatsby call my name. “Hi, old sport, how have you been tonight?” he patted me on my back. “Fine, I’m sorry for not having recognizing you immediately in the garden” I said. “Don’t mention it, old sport” he gave a broad smile, “we have a promise of going up hydroplane tomorrow morning”. At this moment, I saw the butler was approaching. “Sir, there’s a call from Philadelphia” the butler whispered beside his ear. “Ok, I will be there in a minute”, he turned to me, and said “good night, old sport. Don’t forget tomorrow morning”. . But when I walked out of the gate, a small group of people clustered around a car that had skidded off the road and into a ditch. A wheel had detached itself from the car, resting a few steps away on the roadside. There was a brief silence before a man crawled out of the car, panting. He was examining the car thoroughly. A bystander shouted out from the crowd, “you had drunk yourself to a stupor and drove the car to crush into the ditch”. “I didn’t know anything. I’m not even driving,” he sat explaining, looking puzzled. The bystanders, bewildered by his reaction, all took a straight look at him. “You don’t know. There’s someone driving the car,” he snapped. The shock that ensued from a stout man, who coughed and cleared his throat first and pushed the door open, had sent the crowd to step backward. The ghostly figure in a white dress, bit by bit, was emerging from the other side of the car, shadowed by the wall first, followed by his lingering pause, more intensified by a continuance of the roaring horns into the darkness. . To be continued.
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