TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED - by Roald Dahl

by Roald Dahl

LAMB TO THE SLAUGHTER

Plot: Mary Maloney is a devoted wife and expectant mother who wait happily each night for the arrival of her husband Patrick, home from work. But one night there is something strange: Patrick is cold, he doesn't want to dinner. He has to tell Mary that he is leaving her.

When Mary understands this, dazed, she goes into the kitchen to prepare their supper and pulls a large frozen leg of lamb from the deep freeze. Still numb, she carries it into the living room and, without warning, she bashes her husband over the head with it.

As she looks at Patrick lying dead on the floor, she slowly begins to come back to her senses. Immediately she realizes what she has done and not wanting her unborn child to suffer as a result of her crime, she begins ning her alibi.

She places the leg of lamb in a pan in the oven and goes down to the corner grocery to get some food for 'her husband's dinner".

Then, she returns home and screams when she finds Patrick lying on the floor so she calls the police and informs them that she found her husband lying dead on the floor.

Lots of officers arrive and believe Mary's story of coming home from the grocer and finding him as she had ned. While the police are searching into the night for the murder weapon, Mary offers them some lamb that she had prepared for dinner. They accept the offer.

While they eat in the kitchen and discuss the case, Mary Maloney sits in the living room and giggles softly to herself.

Description of the main characters:

Mary Maloney: Mary Maloney, the story's protagonist, is six months pregnant and the wife of Patrick, a man that she adores and waits every night coming home from work. She is curiously tranquil and precise.
When Patrick unexpectedly announces that he is ending their marriage, Mary enters a state of shock. She automatically goes to the basement to remove something from the freezer for supper. She takes the first thing she finds, carries it back up the stairs, approaches her husband from behind, and strikes him on the head with the frozen leg of lamb.
Mary is very cunning in to hide her guilt giving herself a great alibi.

Patrick Maloney: Patrick is Mary's beloved husband. He is a policeman belonging to the middle class with a strange and reserved personality. He is very surprised by the reaction of his wife to his news.

Setting of the story: Time and setting are not specified.

MAN FROM THE SOUTH

Plot: The narrator is sitting near a pool in a hotel when he meets a strange little South American man in a white dress. They are joined by an American boy with his English girlfriend, and the boy offers them all a cigarette. When he shows and explains that his lighter always lights, even in such wind, the old man asks if he wants to bet on it. The boy is surprised but agrees to bet a dollar. The old man laughs and does a strange offer: If the boy can light his lighter ten times in a row, he will give him his new Cadillac. If the boy loses, the man will cut off the little finger on his left hand.

After some deliberation, the boy agrees to the bet so they all go up to the old man's room where he prepares for the bet. The boy's hand is tied to the desk and the man holds a chopping knife at the ready. The boy makes it up to eight successful lights when the door suddenly opens and a woman enters speaking in Spanish.

She throws the old man down on the bed and apologizes to the others. She says that she should not have left him alone and that he has taken forty-seven fingers where they come from. She eventually managed to win everything from him, but it took her a long time.

The last thing the narrator sees as he leaves the room is the woman's hand with only one finger and one thumb .

Description of the main characters: The three characters are not carefully described, all we know is present in the plot.

Setting of the story: Time and setting are not specified.