Chapter 8: Welcome Home, Our Sophie Mol

Event: Sophie Mol arrived at the Ayemenem House

"Pappachi had been sitting in his mahogany rocking chair all along, rocking himself silently in the dark. When he caught her, he didn't say a word. He flogged her with his ivory-handled riding crop (the one that he had held across his lap in his studio photograph). Ammu didn't cry. When he finished beating her he made her bring him Mammachi's pinking shears from her sewing cupboard. While Ammu watched, the Imperial Entomologist shred her new gumboots with her mother's pinking shears. The strips of black rubber fell to the floor. The scissors made snicking scissor-sounds. Ammu ignored her mother's drawn, frightened face that appeared at the window. It took ten minutes for her beloved gumboots to be completely shredded. When the last strip of rubber had rippled to the floor, her father looked at her with cold, flat eyes, and rocked and rocked and rocked. Surrounded by a sea of twisting rubber snakes" (172).

「帕帕奇一直坐在桃花心木搖椅上，在黑夜中靜靜搖擺。當他抓到阿慕時，他不發一語，只是用那條有象牙把手的馬鞭鞭打她 (在那張相館拍的照片裡，他握著放在膝蓋上的那條)。阿慕沒有哭。鞭打完後，他叫阿慕去瑪瑪奇放縫紉雜物的櫥櫃裡，拿出一把有鋸齒的剪刀。當著阿慕的面，大英帝國的昆蟲學家用瑪瑪奇的剪刀剪破她的新橡膠靴。黑色橡膠碎片落到地板，剪刀發出喀喳咖喳的聲音。阿慕忽視窗口媽媽那張扭曲與驚嚇的臉。十分鐘後，帕帕奇才把她心愛的橡膠靴剪成碎片。當最後一片以波浪狀掉落地面時，她父親用冰冷、了無生氣的眼神看著她，持續搖啊搖。一堆扭曲的橡膠蛇包圍他。」