Stories of Ourselves: "Journey" by Shirley Geok-Lin Lim

In this coming-of-age story, a young girl travels to pick up a mysterious parcel for her mother.

Here are links to our lists for the short stories in Stories of Ourselves:
The Hollow of the Three Hills, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Signalman, The Happy Prince, The Yellow Wall Paper, The Son’s Veto, The Open Boat, The Moving Finger, The Door in the Wall, Sredni Vashtar, How It Happened, Her First Ball, The Lady in the Looking-Glass: A Reflection, The Fly in the Ointment, The Custody of the Pumpkin, An Englishman’s Home, The Phoenix, There Will Come Soft Rains, The Prison, The Destructors, Meteor, Billenium, The Lemon Orchard, The People Before, The Enemy, Five-Twenty, A Horse and Two Goats, Report on the Threatened City, The Rain Horse, Ming’s Biggest Prey, The Village Saint, Secrets, The Stoat, Games at Twilight, The Taste of Watermelon, Journey (Patricia Grace), The Bath, My Greatest Ambition, To Da-duh, in Memoriam, Of White Hairs and Cricket, Elephant, Sandpiper, Journey (Shirley Geok-Lin Um), The Third and Final Continent, Tyres, At Hiruharama, Real Time, On Her Knees, The Contest
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. subterranean
    being or operating under the surface of the earth
    Last night, she had dreamt she was shut away in a subterranean world; she had wandered in labyrinths of a thick brown claustrophobia.
  2. labyrinth
    complex system of paths in which it is easy to get lost
    Last night, she had dreamt she was shut away in a subterranean world; she had wandered in labyrinths of a thick brown claustrophobia.
  3. tread
    put down, place, or press the foot
    So dense was the air that her ears felt clogged with cotton-wool, and her feet trod slippery over ground strewn with skulls.
  4. strew
    spread by scattering
    So dense was the air that her ears felt clogged with cotton-wool, and her feet trod slippery over ground strewn with skulls.
  5. malevolent
    wishing or appearing to wish evil to others
    This dense silence was her holding her breath, conscious of malevolent eyes in the darkness, watching.
  6. monotony
    the quality of wearisome constancy and lack of variety
    Skulls smiled without friendship, then began moving around her, in slow monotony, circling formally, one after the other, as in a ritual dance.
  7. futile
    producing no result or effect
    Now they put on their lights, dusky yellow, blue and dim, smoky red, futile stabs in the twilight which invaded the interior of the bus with a deeper gloom.
  8. marshal
    make ready for action or use
    Each sat shut in by whatever thoughts bred in his mind with the coming night, eyes marshalled inwards, only flickering to the doorway in anticipation at every violent thrust of the brakes.
  9. drab
    lacking brightness or color; dull
    Only she defied the drab company in her bright uniform, fidgeting with her bag, gnawing her underlip, constantly peering out of the dusty window into the dustier evening to watch the roads whizz under.
  10. inscrutable
    difficult or impossible to understand
    An altar faced the open door, unlighted candles placed before the household god, an inscrutable figure who sat and watched the domestic goings-on, always to be placated, never to be pleased, awful Lord of the destiny of furniture, food and family.
  11. placate
    cause to be more favorably inclined
    An altar faced the open door, unlighted candles placed before the household god, an inscrutable figure who sat and watched the domestic goings-on, always to be placated, never to be pleased, awful Lord of the destiny of furniture, food and family.
  12. sinuous
    curved or curving in and out
    A gold dragon paced along the sketch of a wall, snaking sinuously on its red paper, agleam with shining scales.
  13. predatory
    living by preying on other animals
    Its predatory jaws yawned in eternal pursuit; its talons fiercely rode the air untiringly.
  14. seedy
    shabby and untidy
    She sat down on a seedy wooden stool, then got up almost immediately, disliking to be discovered sitting down, for it appeared irrevocable, as if she had come and meant to stay for a long time.
  15. irrevocable
    incapable of being retracted
    She sat down on a seedy wooden stool, then got up almost immediately, disliking to be discovered sitting down, for it appeared irrevocable, as if she had come and meant to stay for a long time.
  16. contour
    any spatial attributes, especially as defined by outline
    The gold dragonish contours swirled in their red field, jumped in the light, receded again into the red.
  17. recede
    become faint or more distant
    The gold dragonish contours swirled in their red field, jumped in the light, receded again into the red.
  18. parcel
    a wrapped package
    She was tired of standing before he returned with the parcel.
  19. rifle
    go through in search of something
    He took the money she gave him disinterestedly, yet she thought his eyes rifled her clothes and she was glad to leave.
  20. potent
    having or wielding force or authority
    As she went home, carefully aware that this time directions were reversed, she amused herself wondering what potent magic the parcel contained.
  21. croon
    sing softly
    The baby boy was suffering from wind; eldest sister carried him in her arms, patting his back and crooning to him, ’’Aii, aii, go to sleep, little boy, aii, aii, little man, strong man, sleep...’
  22. expletive
    profane or obscene expression usually of surprise or anger
    She could hear her father in the next room with his friends, squatting on their chairs and throwing dice, now and again spitting out an expletive.
  23. vile
    causing or able to cause nausea
    And their mother, strong big-boned mother who was not well and had taken those leaves and twigs and earth, medicine boiled into a black vile brew, lay scarcely a few feet away.
  24. fretful
    habitually complaining
    Even the fretful baby was quiet in his cloth-slung cradle.
  25. contracted
    reduced in size or pulled together
    Dark messes were splattered on the floor, her mother’s clothes were blood-red with a flow from some secret wound, while the woman herself squatted, eyes contracted, body rigid and contorted.
  26. writhing
    moving in a twisting or snake-like or wormlike fashion
    The blood seemed to gush from some fatal injury to the woman’s flesh, this woman now unrecognisable as her mother, who groaned and clutched her side, writhing.
  27. instinctive
    unthinking
    They lay beyond her experience, yet some instinctive sympathy, a habit of sex, made her arms and legs move.
  28. cessation
    a stopping
    Hot water from the baby’s flask, warmed towel, hot thick sweet milk given to that body as it contracted and shuddered and held itself rigid as if to will the cessation of that hidden mysterious gush.
  29. sluice
    irrigate with water from a conduit that carries a rapid flow
    When finally the woman lay asleep, covered with two blankets, asleep in the exhausted peace of past pain and suffering, she still moved about the little kitchen, sluicing the blackened floor, scrubbing the clothes while they stained the icy water with a dark dye.
  30. inversion
    turning upside down; setting on end
    As she squatted in the bathroom, pouring the black water away, scrubbing the cloth furiously, she felt the unexpected inversion.
Created on Fri Mar 09 09:26:54 EST 2018 (updated Fri Mar 23 15:42:05 EDT 2018)

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