Catching Fire - Chapter 1 (3)

Fiszkoteka
By this time Gale will have clocked in at the mines, taken the stomach-churning
elevator ride into the depths of the earth, and be pounding away at a coal seam.
I know what it's like down there. Every year in school, as part of our training, my
class had to tour the mines. When I was little, it was just unpleasant. The
claustrophobic tunnels, foul air, suffocating darkness on all sides. But after my
father and several other miners were killed in an explosion, I could barely force
myself onto the elevator. The annual trip became an enormous source of
anxiety. Twice I made myself so sick in anticipation of it that my mother kept me
home because she thought I had contracted the flu.
I think of Gale, who is only really alive in the woods, with its fresh air and
sunlight and clean, flowing water. I don't know how he stands it. Well ... yes, I
do. He stands it because it's the way to feed his mother and two younger
brothers and sister. And here I am with buckets of money, far more than enough
to feed both our families now, and he won't take a single coin. It's even hard for
him to let me bring in meat, although he'd surely have kept my mother and Prim
supplied if I'd been killed in the Games. I tell him he's doing me a favor, that it
drives me nuts to sit around all day. Even so, I never drop off the game while
he's at home. Which is easy since he works twelve hours a day.


The only time I really get to see Gale now is on Sundays, when we meet up in
the woods to hunt together. It's still the best day of the week, but it's not like it
used to be before, when we could tell each other anything. The Games have
spoiled even that. I keep hoping that as time passes we'll regain the ease
between us, but part of me knows it's futile. There's no going back.


do tej pory - by this time
rejestrować czas przyjścia do pracy - clock in
kopalnia - mine
powodujący mdłości - stomach-churning
wybrać się na wycieczke, zwiedzać jedno miejsce - tour
nieprzyjemny - unpleasant
klaustrofobiczny - claustrophobic
zanieczyszczone powietrze - foul air
duszący - suffocating
ledwie, z trudem - barely
olbrzymi - enormous
niepokój - anxiety
w oczekiwaniu na - in anticipation of
Zaraziłam się grypą. - I have contracted the flu.
przepływająca woda - flowing water
kupa kasy - buckets of money
dużo bardziej - far more
moneta - coin
Jest to dla niego nawet trudniejsze - It's even hard for him.
przynieść - bring in
na pewno - surely
dostarczony - supplied
doprowadza do wariactwa - It drives me nuts
siedzieć beczynnie - sit around
nawet pomimo tego - even so
podrzucić(np. samochodem) - drop off
spotkać się z kimś - meet up with sb
zepsuć - spoil
nawet to - even that
z biegiem czasu - as time passes
odzyskać - regain
swoboda, łatwość - ease
daremny - futile
Nie ma powrotu do przeszłości. - There's no going back.