The Woman in the Dunes Read Online Free PDF Page A

animation than during the day. Or was it the sound of the sea? The sky was heavy with stars.
    The woman turned when she saw the lamplight. Skillfully handling the shovel, she was scooping sand into a big kerosene can. Beyond her the wall of black sand soared precipitously up and seemed to be bending inward on them. It must have been up there that he had walked during the day in his search for insects. When two kerosene cans were full, the woman carried them, one in each hand, over to where he was. As she passed him she raised her eyes. “Sand,” she said in a nasal voice. She emptied the sand from the kerosene cans near the path in the back where the rope ladder hung. Then she wiped away the sweat with the end of a towel. The place was already piled high with the sand she had hauled over.
    “I’m clearing away the sand.”
    “You’ll never finish, no matter how long you work at it.”
    The next time she passed, she poked him in the side with the end of a free finger. He almost let the lamp fall as he started up in surprise. Should he keep holding the lamp as he was, or should he put it on the ground and return the tickling? He hesitated, caught off guard by the unexpected choice he faced. He decided to keep the lamp in his hand, and with his face set in a grin, which he himself did not know the meaning of, he awkwardly and stiffly approached the woman, who had begun to shovel again. As he drew near, her shadow filled the whole surface of the sand wall.
    “You shouldn’t do that, you know,” she said in a low, breathless voice, her back still toward him. “I have six cans to go until the lift basket comes.”
    His expression hardened. It was unpleasant to have feelings that he had been at pains to check aroused to no purpose. Yet, in spite of himself something not to be denied was welling up in his veins. The sand which clung to his skin was seeping into his veins and, from the inside, undermining his resistance. “Well, shall I give you a hand?”
    “Oh, that’s all right. It wouldn’t be right to have you do anything on the very first day.”
    “On the first day? Don’t worry about such things. I’ll only be here tonight anyway.”
    “Is that so?”
    “I don’t lead a life of leisure, you know. Hand me the other shovel. Come on.”
    “Excuse me, but your shovel is over there.” Indeed, under the eaves near the entrance a shovel and two kerosene cans with handles were lined up to the side. When they had said “for the other one,” it was most certainly these things that had been tossed down from the road above. The preparations were too good, and he had the feeling that they had guessed in advance what he would do. But how could they? He had not known himself. Anyway, he thought apprehensively, they had a pretty low opinion of him. The shaft of the shovel was made of a bumpy wood and had a dark sheen from handling. He had already lost his desire to lend a hand. “Oh! The lift basket is already at the neighbors’!”
    She spoke animatedly, seeming not to have noticed his hesitation. Her voice was cheerful and contained a note of confidence that had not been there before. The human sounds that had been audible for some time were suddenly near at hand. A series of short, rhythmic shouts was repeated several times, followed by a period of low, continuous muttering interspersed with suppressed laughter, and then the shouts again. The rhythm of the work suddenly made him feel buoyant. In such a simple world it was probably quite normal to let a night’s guest use a shovel. And there would be something curious about holding back. With his heel he made a hollow in the sand, in which he placed the lamp so that it would not fall.
    “I suppose it’s all right to dig any place, isn’t it?”
    “Well… not just any place.”
    “Then what about over here?”
    “Yes, but try to dig right down from the cliff wall.”
    “Is this the time for clearing away the sand at all the houses?”
    “Yes. The sand is