viser

What is this, thought Vicki. What is in hear? It is a warehouse, it has no walls or rooms. There is a row of windows, each one shaped like a eye with its briw raised. There is a TV, a phone on the floor, a bed like a big pink cloud. Where does she cook?

Does it mean: What is this enclosed place?

Elizabeth strode straight across the boards to the bed and pulled a

cassette player out from behind it. She shoved in a tape and went to the bare

window; she turned her back on Vicki and stood with her feet apart and her

hands on her hips. She looks like a record cover, thought Vicki. Tape hissed,

music burst out. Elizabeth begin to dance: no, not to dance, but to move her

body, to sway forward from the waist, as if she were on a stage, as if the

audience were outside the black window.

Does it mean: a cover of gramophone disc?

She wiped herself. The door swung open. Just as she reached up for the

chain, she heard a noise. Something trotted, something dragged itself. She

stood still with her hand hooked through the metal loop. The noise came

again, a small and intimate sound. She blew out the candle and sight

returned like the slow relaxing of a muscle. Ten feet out from the lavatory

door was a cage, a derelict chook pen, covered in creeper. Something in the

cage was shifting in its straw.

Does "sight" in the sentence " She blew out the candle and sightreturned like the slow relaxing of a muscle" mean: The ability to see?

Vicki had never seen anything like Dexter at table. She was disgusted,

and ashamed for him. He gripped the spoon so that the whole handle

vanished in his paw; he bent over the bowl and slurped so loudly that he

seemed not to be using the spoon at all, but to be transferring the food from

bowl to mouth by suction alone. Athena could eat properly – why didn’t she

correct him in private? But Athena went on spooning up her soup, glancing

from time to time at the children, and spread around her a shy, attentive

calm which even Elizabeth, to whom Dexter’s table manners were merely

one more avenue to her complicated memories of his family, found

soothing and agreeable.

Does it mean: she just was stiring her soup?

A bigger boy ran in the back door, and kicked it to. He had the same home-cut hair as Billy’s, a helmet of blond silk.

Does it mean: A bigger boy ran toward the back door and opened it when he kicked it?

The air shimmered with warmth. The table, large, wooden, scarred, was laid

at one end with a bleached cotton cloth, a pile of bowls, a fistful of spoons.

All the objects in the room looked like cartoons of themselves: the flap-handled

fridge, the brown piano grinning, the dresser where plates leaned

and cups hung.

Does it mean: the fridge that its handle is hung?

There was soup in the pot. ‘Soup means lots!’ Dexter would say when he

came in. Where were they? She propped the Kabalevsky open on the piano

and tried again. She had laboured through a dozen bars when the car slid

down the driveway outside the kitchen window. More than two doors

banged. She got up from the piano and took a knife to the rest of the loaf.

Dexter flooded in on a tide of cold air. He loved coming home.

‘Athena! Look who’s here!’

The three women stood still and stared at one another.

‘Sisters,’ thought Athena, with that start of wonder which family

resemblance provokes. ‘Big one’s tough. Little one’s miserable.’

‘She’s beautiful,’ thought Vicki. ‘’it's warm. I wish I could live here.’ Her

chest loosened and she began to breathe.

Does "it's warm" mean: she is friendly

There was soup in the pot. ‘Soup means lots!’ Dexter would say when he

came in. Where were they? She propped the Kabalevsky open on the piano

and tried again. She had laboured through a dozen bars when the car slid

down the driveway outside the kitchen window. More than two doors

banged. She got up from the piano and took a knife to the rest of the loaf.

Does it mean: He took a knife to cut the rest of the loaf?

Now every baby

photo reminded her of the famous one of Azaria in its oval frame: the

blurred form, pupa-like in swaddling, the wrinkled brow, the head turned

sharply from the light, the fists and eyes squeezed shut. Athena kept her

pointed scissors packed away, up high.

Does it mean: She kept away the scissors with its top part up?

The hostess at the open door showed her teeth. Vicki came out into the

world. She saw the man beside Elizabeth and slowed down. That couldn’t

be Philip. Philip couldn’t possibly look like that. Philip played in a band.

She whipped off the rhinestone ear-rings and shoved them into her pocket.

The freeway was dark. Vicki’s toes were so cold that they felt like rows

of marbles inside her shoes. The strange boy was strapped into his car seat

beside her. He mooed and murmured to himself. She stopped trying to listen

to the conversation in the front, and stared out the window. Low down on

the sky was a narrow band of apricot, all that was left of the daylight.

Dexter threw back his head and laughed at something Elizabeth said. Vicki

experienced the small prickle of power that comes to the one who rides in

the back seat. She saw her captors as they would never see themselves: two

silly heads of hair, two sets of shoulders, two unsuspecting napes. She hated

them. She closed her eyes with hatred. Dexter saw her in the mirror and

thought she had fallen asleep. Unresisted now, his tenderness for the whole

world rushed to envelop her.

Does it mean: She saw her captors in a way they would never see themselves?

Does "as" here mean: in a way

The child had vague eyes. Elizabeth, who was not good with small

children, bent across the table and tried to get her face into his line of

vision. The boy’s gaze drifted, but not towards her. It was like looking at

him through water. A smile of blessedness warmed his features and was

gone; a little knot of thought bulged between his brows and smoothed itself

again. She could not get his attention.

Does it mean: the smile of blessedness came into his face and then disappeared?

Doctor Fox looked at Elizabeth as he chewed, and nodded and smiled.

She must be nearly forty now, like Dex. Thank God they were never foolish

enough to marry, though no doubt Dexter had poked her when they were

students. He felt like laughing. She was quite plainly not the marrying kind.

Children out of the question. He saw her wide open eyes, her nervous

nostrils, her desire to impress, something fancy and successful about her,

and yet he felt sure she was the kind of woman who’d throw round terms

like theorthodox feminist position.

Does it mean: she wanted to show off by telling about her beauty?

I don't get the meaning of "fancy and successful".

Doctor Fox looked at Elizabeth as he chewed, and nodded and smiled.

She must be nearly forty now, like Dex. Thank God they were never foolish

enough to marry, though no doubt Dexter had poked her when they were

students. He felt like laughing. She was quite plainly not the marrying kind?

Does it mean "dexter had a romantic relationship with her when they were student"?

Or does it mean "Dexter hit her when they were students"?

A man was sitting with his back to her, just inside the row of plastic

potplants which fenced off the cafeteria. She had to narrow herself and slide

sideways to get past his inconveniently placed chair. Which of her senses

recognised him first? She was close enough to smell his unwashed hair, to

see the way his shirt collar stuck up stiffly round his ears, to hear the

cheerful slurp of his mouth at the cup. She was right behind him, poised on

her toes. Could it be? And if she spoke, would she be sorry afterwards?

‘Excuse me,’ she said.

He turned his head. It was Dexter.

Oh, her awful modern clothes, her hair spiked and in shock. He saw the

fan of lines at the outer corner of her eye and his heart flipped like a fish.

Does it mean: She had spiky hair and was in shock?

Or does it mean: her hair became spiked because of shock?

Philip did not turn up with the car. This did not surprise Elizabeth. She took the bus to the airport. Vicki’s plane was late. Elizabeth walked up and down on the shiny tiles. She did not like people to observe that she was being kept waiting, and at least one girl was smiling at her in that shy, dawning way which meant she had seen Elizabeth on TV; but there was no decent coffee to be had, and no civilised place to sit. She measured her pulse on a tin machine outside the chemist shop. The reading she got was so low that she thought the thing must be out of order. She strolled into the shop, stole a twenty-five dollar Dior lipstick and a cheap plastic-covered address book and tried again: the adrenalin rush of petty theft showed. The address book would do for Vicki, if she hadn’t missed the plane altogether. She transferred the stolen items from her sleeve to her bag and went into the cafeteria for a bottle of mineral water.

Is "The address book would do for Vicki, if she hadn’t missed the plane altogether." an imaginery conditional sentence?

I don't know what  the meaning of "The address book would do for Vicki" is in this context. And What is the use of "altogether" in this sentence? Does it for emphasis?

Does "she" refer to "Vicki"? Or does it refer to "Elizabeth"?

Elizabeth walked up and down on the shiny tiles. She did not like people

to observe that she was being kept waiting, and at least one girl was smiling

at her in that shy, dawning way which meant she had seen Elizabeth on TV;

but there was no decent coffee to be had, and no civilised place to sit. She

measured her pulse on a tin machine outside the chemist shop. The reading

she got was so low that she thought the thing must be out of order.

Had Dexter and Elizabeth thought of each other during this time? Of course they had, Dexter more than Elizabeth, not because of any imbalance

of affection, but because Dexter was mad about the past. He believed in it,

it sustained him, he used it to knit meaning into the mess of everything. He

recited it in anecdotes told always in the same words. He even recalled in

detail dreams that other people had had years before. Elizabeth disliked the

past. It was full of embarrassment. She and Dexter had never been in love,

but once she lay on his bed, in college, a whole Saturday afternoon waiting

for him to come back because she wanted to **** somebody and at the time

there was no-one else. She lay there all hot and impatient for hours but he

didn’t come back and he didn’t come back, and she got up and leaned out

the narrow window, through which a warm wind was blowing, and she

heard shouts from the university oval and realised he must be out there

playing cricket. She got off the bed, straightened the blanket, and went back

across the garden and through the gate to her own room in the next

building. She was cross. And she never told him about it. The victories she

scored against his voracious memory were small.

Does it mean "Dexter most of the time liked to remember his memory and among most of his memories she was in embarrassment situations "?

Had Dexter and Elizabeth thought of each other during this time? Of

course they had, Dexter more than Elizabeth, not because of any imbalance

of affection, but because Dexter was mad about the past. He believed in it,

it sustained him, he used it to knit meaning into the mess of everything.

Does "not because of any imbalanceof affection" mean: not because of any pity that he felt for Elizabeth because she loved him more?

Does "he believed in it" mean: He believed the effect of past?

Over the back fence, nearer the

creek, lived an old couple whom Dexter and Athena had never seen but

whom they referred to as Mister and Missus ******’. They drank, they

smashed things, they hawked and swore and vomited, they cursed each

other to hell and back.

Does "they hawked and swore" mean "they shouted cursed at each other"?

I don't know what does "******' " mean? Is it rude word?

Yes, I do,’ she said, but he had already struck up another chorus. She

loved him. They loved each other. They were friends. They lived in a

sparsely furnished house near the Merri Creek: its walls were cracking, its

floors sloped and its doors hung loosely in their frames. There was a piano

in the kitchen and during the day Athena would shut herself in there under

the portrait of Dexter’s father and pick away at Bartok’s Mikrokosmos or

the easiest of Bach’s Small Preludes. Preludes to what? Even under her

ignorant fingers those simple chords rang like a shout of triumph, and she

would run to stick her hot face out the window.

Does "under" in the sentence "Even under herignorant fingers those simple chords rang like a shout of triumph" mean "below"? Or does it mean "under the power of" ?