Roald Dahl - Lamb to the Slaughter - Focus Group 2 lyrics

(1)THE ROOM WAS WARM, the curtains drawn. On the sideboard behind her, two tall gla**es, soda water, whisky. Mary Maloney was waiting for her husband to come home from work. (2) There was a slow smiling air about her, and about everything she did. Her skin - for this was her sixth month with child - had acquired a wonderful translucent quality. When the clock said ten minutes to five, she began to listen, and a few moments later, punctually as always, she heard the tires on the gravel outside, and the car door slamming. (3) 'Hullo, darling,' she said, 'Hullo,' he answered. (4) She took his coat and hung it in the closet. Then she walked over and made the drinks. For her, this was always a blissful time of day. She knew he didn't want to speak much until the first drink was finished, and she, on her side, was content to sit quietly, enjoying his company after the long hours alone in the house. She loved to luxuriate in the presence of this man, and to feel - almost as a sunbather feels the sun - that warm male glow that came out of him to her when they were alone together. She just loved him. (5) 'Tired, darling?'. 'Yes,' he said. 'I'm tired.' And as he spoke, he did an unusual thing. He lifted his gla** and drained it in one swallow although there was still half of it, at least half of it left. He paused a moment, then he got up and went slowly over to fetch himself another. (6) ‘I'll get it!' she cried, jumping up, 'Sit down,' he said. When he came back, she noticed that the new drink was dark amber with the quantity of whisky in it. 'Darling,' she said. 'Would you like me to get you some cheese? I haven't made any supper because it's Thursday, but if you're too tired to go out I can make something.' (7) She started to get up to go to the kitchen when he said, 'Sit down, just for a minute, sit down.' It wasn't till then that she began to get frightened. 'Listen,' he said, 'I've got something to tell you.' He had become absolutely motionless, and he kept his head down. 'This is going to be a bit of a shock to you, I'm afraid', he said. 'But I've thought about it a good deal and I've decided the only thing to do is tell you right away. I hope you won't blame me too much.' And he told her. It didn't take long, four or five minutes at most, and she sat very still through it all, watching him with a kind of dazed horror as he went further and further away from her with each word. (8) 'So there it is,' he added. ' And I know it's kind of a bad time to be telling you, but there simply wasn't any other way. Of course I'll give you money and see you're looked after. But there needn't really be any fuss. I hope not anyway. It wouldn't be very good for my job.' Her first reaction was that maybe, if she went about her business and acted as though she hadn't been listening, then later, when she sort of woke up again, she might find none of it had ever happened. (9) 'I'll get the supper,' she managed to whisper, and this time he didn't stop her. (10) She couldn't feel anything at all - except a slight nausea and a desire to vomit. Everything was automatic now - down the stairs to the cellar, the light switch, the deep freeze, the hand inside the cabinet taking hold of the first object it met. She lifted it out, and looked at it. It was wrapped in paper, so she took off the paper and looked at it again, A leg of lamb. (11) All right then, they would have lamb for supper. She carried it upstairs, holding the thin bone-end of it with both her hands, pa**ing him on the way to the kitchen. (12) 'For God's sake,' he said, hearing her, but not turning round; 'Don't make supper for me. I'm going out.' At that point, Mary Maloney simply walked up behind him and without any pause she swung the big frozen leg of lamb high in the air and brought it down as hard as she could on the back of his head. She stepped back a pace, waiting, and the funny thing was that he remained standing there for at least four or five seconds, gently swaying. Then he crashed to the carpet. (13) The violence of the crash, the noise, the small table overturning, helped bring her out of her shock. She came out slowly, feeling cold and surprised, and she stood for a while blinking at the body, still holding the ridiculous piece of meat tight with both hands. All right, she told herself. So I've k**ed him. (14) It was extraordinary, now, how clear her mind became all of a sudden. She began thinking very fast. As the wife of a detective, she knew quite well what the penalty would be. That was fine. It made no difference to her. In fact, it would be a relief. On the other hand, what about the child? What were the laws about murderers with unborn children? Did they k** them both - mother and child? Or did they wait until the tenth month? What did they do? (15) Mary Maloney didn't know. And she certainly wasn't prepared to take a chance. (16) She put the meat in the oven, then sat down before the mirror, tidied her face, touched up her lips and face. She tried a smile. It came out rather peculiar, She tried again. 'Hullo Sam: she said brightly, aloud. The voice sounded peculiar too. 'I want some potatoes please, Sam. Yes, and I think a can of peas.' That was better. Both the smile and the voice were coming out better now. She rehearsed it several times more. Then she ran downstairs, took her coat, went out the back door, down the garden, into the street. It wasn't six o'clock yet and the lights were still on in the grocery shop. (17) Hullo Sam: she said brightly, smiling at the man behind the counter. (18) 'Why, good evening, Mrs. Maloney. How're you?, 'I want some potatoes please, Sam. Yes, and I think a can of peas.' The man turned and reached up behind him on the shelf for the peas. (19) ‘Patrick's decided he's tired and doesn't want to eat out tonight,' she told him. 'We usually go out Thursdays, you know, and now he's caught me without any vegetables in the house.' 'Then how about meat, Mrs. Maloney?' 'No, I've got meat, thanks. I got a nice leg of lamb, from the freezer.' 'Oh.' I don't much like cooking it frozen, Sam, but I'm taking a chance on it this time. You think it'll be all right?, 'Personally,' the grocer said, 'I don't believe it makes any difference.' And when it was all wrapped and she had paid, she put on her brightest smile and said, ‘Thank you, Sam. Good night.' (20) 'Good night, Mrs. Maloney. And thank you.' (21) And now, she told herself as she hurried back, all she was doing now, she was returning home to her husband and he was waiting for his supper. Mind you, she wasn't expecting to find anything. She was just going home with the vegetables. Mrs. Patrick Maloney going home with the vegetables on Thursday evening to cook supper for her husband. (22) Keep things absolutely natural and there'll be no need for any acting at all. Therefore, when she entered the kitchen by the back door, she was humming a little tune to herself and smiling. (23) 'Patrick!' she called. 'How are you, darling?' She put the parcel down on the table and went through into the living-room; and when she saw him lying there on the floor with his legs doubled up,, it really was rather a shock. All the old love and longing for him welled up inside her, and she ran over to him, knelt down beside him, and began to cry her heart out. It was easy. No acting was necessary. (24) A few minutes later she got up and went to the phone. She knew the number of the police station, and when the man at the other end answered, she cried to him, 'Quick! Come quick! (25) Patrick's dead!' 'Who's speaking?' 'Mrs. Maloney. Mrs. Patrick Maloney.' 'You mean Patrick Maloney's dead?'. I think so,' she sobbed. 'He's lying on the floor and I think he's dead.' 'Be right over,' the man said. (26) The car came very quickly. She knew the two policemen that knocked on her door and she fell right into Jack Noonan's arms, weeping hysterically. 'Is he dead?' she cried. 'I'm afraid he is. What happened?' Briefly, she told her story about going out to the grocer and coming back to find him on the floor. While she was talking, crying and talking, Noonan discovered a small patch of congealed blood on the dead man's head. Soon, other men began to come into the house. First a doctor, then two detectives, one of whom she knew by name. (27) Later, a police photographer arrived and took pictures, and a man who knew about fingerprints. There was a great deal of whispering and muttering beside the corpse, and the detectives kept asking her a lot of questions. But they always treated her kindly. She told her story again, this time right from the beginning, when Patrick had come in, and she was sewing, and he was tired, so tired he hadn't wanted to go out for supper. She told how she'd put the meat in the oven - 'it's there now, cooking' - and how she'd slipped out to the grocer for vegetables, and come back to find him lying on the floor. (28) 'Which grocer?' one of the detectives asked. She told him, and he turned and whispered something to the other detective who immediately went outside into the street. In fifteen minutes he was back with a page of notes, and there was more whispering, and through her sobbing she heard a few of the whispered phrases.'. . . acted quite normal. . .Occasionally one of the detectives asked her another question. Sometimes Jack Noonan spoke to her gently as he pa**ed by. Her husband, he told her, had been k**ed by a blow on the back of the head administered with a heavy blunt instrument, almost certainly a large piece of metal. They were looking for the weapon. (29) 'It's the old story,' he said, 'Get the weapon, and you've got the man.' The search went on. The four men searching the rooms seemed to be growing weary, a trifle exasperated. (30) 'Yes?' 'Would you do me a small favor - you and these others?' 'We can try, Mrs. Maloney.' (31) 'Well,' she said. 'Here you all are, and good friends of dear Patrick's too, and helping to catch the man who k**ed him. You must be terribly hungry by now because it's long past your supper time, and I know Patrick would never forgive me, God bless his soul, if I allowed you to remain in his house without offering you decent hospitality. Why don't you eat up that lamb that's in the oven? It'll be cooked just right by now.' 'Wouldn't dream of it,' Sergeant Noonan said. (32) 'Please,' she begged. 'Please eat it. Personally I couldn't touch a thing, certainly not what's been in the house when he was here. But it's all right for you. It'd be a favor to me if you'd eat it up. Then you can go on with your work again afterwards.' There was a good deal of hesitating among the four policemen, but they were clearly hungry, and in the end they were persuaded to go into the kitchen and help themselves. The woman stayed where she was, listening to them through the open door, and she could hear them speaking among themselves, their voices thick and sloppy because their mouths were full of meat. (33) 'Have some more, Charlie?' 'No. Better not finish it.' 'She wants us to finish it. She said so. Be doing her a favor." 'Okay then. Give me some more.' 'That's the hell of a big club the guy must've used to hit poor Patrick,' one of them was saying. 'The doc says his skull was smashed all to pieces just like from a sledge-hammer,' (34) 'That's why it ought to be easy to find. 'Exactly what I say.' 'Whoever done it, they're not going to be carrying a thing like that around with them longer than they need.' One of them belched. (35) 'Personally, I think it's right here on the premises.' 'Probably right under our very noses. What you think, Jack?' (36) And in the other room, Mary Maloney began to giggle.