DEADLOCK
More than a thousand people attended Boom Boom's funeral. Many of them were children, fans from the suburbs and the Gold Coast. A handful came from Chicago's South Side where Boom Boom had learned to fight and skate. He was a wing with the Black Hawks until he shattered his left ankle hang-gliding three vears earlier.
_He underwent surgery for the ankle three
times, refusing to admit he couldn't skate any more. But his doctors hadn't even wanted to attempt the third operation. After that Boom Boom drifted through a series of jobs.
He finally ended up with the Eudora Grain
is Company, where his father had worked during the thirties and forties. It was their vice-president, Clayton Philips, who found Boom Boom's body floating close to the wharf last Tuesday. Philips tried calling me since Boom
Boom's employment forms listed me as his nearest relative. However, I was out of town. By the time the police located me, one of Boom Boom's mother's sisters had identified the body and begun arranging a big Polish funeral.
Boom Boom's father and mine were brothers, and we'd grown up together in South Chicago. We were both only children and were closer than many brothers and sisters.
He grew up playing hockey. I don't know
so where he got the craze or the skill but, despite my Aunt Marie's frenzy over the danger, he spent most of his childhood thinking up ways to play without her knowing. A lot of them involved me - Hived six blocks away. In those
days^ajj, the hockey-mad kids loved Boom-Boom Geoffrion. My cousin copied him slavishly; to please him the other boys took to calling him Boom Boom and the nickname stuck. In fact when the Chicago police found
me and asked if I was Bernard Warshawski's cousin it took me a few seconds to realize who they meant.
Now [ sat in St. Wenceslas Church with Boom Boom's aunts and cousins. My own taste
would have been for a quiet service, with a chance for Boom Boom's old teammates to make a short speech - they'd asked to, but the aunts had turned them down. However, I knew he would not care how he was buried, whereas
the little excitement in his aunts' lives came from weddings and funerals. ^ •
After the interment Bobby Mallory fought through the crowd to me in his lieutenant's uniform. I was glad Bobby had come: he was an old friend of my father's from the Chicago Police Department, and the first person from the old neighborhood 1 really wanted to see.
'I was real sorry about Boom Boom, Vicki. I know how close you two were.'
Bobby's the only person I allow to call me Vicki. 'Thanks, Bobby. It's been tough.'
A chilly April wind made me shiver. I wished I'd worn a coat.
'Bobby,' I said, 'I couldn't get any information out of the guy at the grain company when I phoned him. How did Boom Boom die?"
He looked at me sternly. 'Do you really need to know that, Vicki? I know you think you're tough, but you'll be happier remembering Boom Boom the way he was on the ice.'
1 pressed my lips together; 1 wasn't going to lose my temper at Boom Boom's funeral. 'Bobby, I want to know what happened to my cousin. He was an athlete; it's hard for me to picture him slipping and falling like that.'
Bobby's expression softened a bit. 'You're not thinking he drowned himself, arc you?'
'He left an urgent message for me on my answering machine - I've been out of town, you know. 1 wondered if he might have been feeling desperate.'
Bobby shook his head. 'Your cousin wasn't the kind of man to throw himself under a ship.'
'Is that what happened?'
He sighed. 'A ship was tied up at the dock and Boom Boom went under the screw as she pulled away. He was chewed up pretty badly.'
'I see.'
'It was a wet day, Vicki. That's an old wooden dock - they get very slippery in the rain. I think he slipped and fell in. 1 don't think he jumped.'
I nodded. I agreed with Bobby that my cousin wasn't a quitter, but he had been apathetic the last year or so. Apathetic enough to fall under the propeller of a ship?
Ich brauche zu dem text diese informtionen(schritt für schritt)..:
Analysing and interpreting a fictional text
You are going to read the beginning of 'Deadlock' by Sara Paretsky, a crime novel, in which the Chicago detective V.I.Warshawski investigates her cousin's sudden death. Knowing a few of the most important literary terms will make it easier for you to understand and discuss any fictional texts you read.
1. POINT OF VIEW
The author presents the characters and events in a story from a certain point of view. The story can be narrated by one of the characters: the first-person narrator. Or it can be told by a narrator outside the action: the third-person narrator.
2. FLASHBACKS
The events that form the plot of a novel or short story are usually set out in chronological order. A flashback takes the reader back to scenes and events that happened earlier.
1 Read the first three paragraphs of 'Deadlock'.
Which point of view does the author use?
How far do you have to read before this
becomes clear? 1 Imagine writing your first novel. What point
of view will you choose? (First discuss the
pros and cons of the different points of view.)
1 Read on up to line 51. Where - and on what day - does the action of the novel begin?
1 What earlier events are referred to? How far back into the past do they take the reader?
1 Why does the author use these flashbacks?
3. The EXPOSITION
The exposition, which usually comes at the beginning of a story, presents the setting, and gives whatever background information the reader needs to 'get into' the story.
4. SUSPENSE
Stories - and especially thrillers - need suspense. To make the reader want to read on, the author puts in 'hooks' that lead the reader from line to line, from chapter to chapter, and on to the very last page.
5. The HERO or HEROINE
The hero or heroine is usually the main character in a story. The author encourages the reader to identify with him or her.
1 The story is set in Chicago. What does the reader find out about the city and its inhabitants in the first few paragraphs? List a few facts.
1 What information is given about Boom Boom? How might this be important to the story?
1 Thriller writers often create suspense in the form of dangerous situations or unanswered questions. Finish reading the text. What examples of suspense can you find? What 'hooks' are put in to make the reader want to read on?
• List all the characters in the text. Who do you think the hero or heroine is? Give reasons.
• Which character do you feel you can identify with?
Creative writing: How the story goes on
Imagine how the story goes on after the funeral. Work in groups first and exchange ideas
about how V.I.Warshawski starts investigating.
Either: Write down your ideas for your own plot.
Or: Write the next scene in the story as you imagine it. (Do you want to concentrate on
action? Or work out a dialogue or description?)