I drew up her reckoning

Status
Not open for further replies.

mrghd

Junior Member
Joined
May 29, 2012
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
Hungarian
Home Country
Hungary
Current Location
Hungary
(source: Iceberg Slim –Pimp, The story of my life)

Section of the novel that contains the expression:

”I stood there looking down at her. I remembered that tough bit in Leavenworth. Here at my mercy was that stinking bitch, Phyllis. Just the sight of her made me crazy. I grabbed a cologne bottle off the dresser. I jerked the big top off. I got my bag out. I dumped enough of the twenty percent stuff into the top to croak a sick junkie. She was clean. I spotted a bottle of mixer water on the floor. I filled the top and struck a match. I held it beneath the top. I rammed my gun into it. I drew up her reckoning.I stabbed the outfit into a vein just back of her knees. Her red blood streaked up into the joint. I was just about to press the pacifier bulb... ”

Background:

Slim goes to another hustler to make some business. In one of the guy’s rooms he recognizes his ex-whore who got him to jail some years before. Slim gets very angry. The girl is lying on a bed in an unconscious drunk state. Slims makes up a deadly heroin injection quickly and begins to kill the girl with that. (he did not finish the action at last and the girl remained alive)

But what does ’I drew up her reckoning’ mean in this context?
 

Grumpy

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 12, 2009
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
One meaning of the noun "reckoning" is an itemised bill or statement of a sum due. One meaning of "to draw up" is to fill a vessel with liquid, using suction. In this context, he means that he filled the syringe with an amount of lethal drug that equated to the debt he considered that she owed him by her past actions.
 

probus

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jan 7, 2011
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
English
Home Country
Canada
Current Location
Canada
Tentatively I suggest it means he drew up into his syringe enough of the heroin solution to kill her. This usage of reckoning may refer back to the biblical day of reckoning.
 

Miss Jeffery

New member
Joined
Feb 5, 2013
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
English
Home Country
Australia
Current Location
Spain
(source: Iceberg Slim –Pimp, The story of my life)

Section of the novel that contains the expression:

”I stood there looking down at her. I remembered that tough bit in Leavenworth. Here at my mercy was that stinking bitch, Phyllis. Just the sight of her made me crazy. I grabbed a cologne bottle off the dresser. I jerked the big top off. I got my bag out. I dumped enough of the twenty percent stuff into the top to croak a sick junkie. She was clean. I spotted a bottle of mixer water on the floor. I filled the top and struck a match. I held it beneath the top. I rammed my gun into it. I drew up her reckoning.I stabbed the outfit into a vein just back of her knees. Her red blood streaked up into the joint. I was just about to press the pacifier bulb... ”

Background:

Slim goes to another hustler to make some business. In one of the guy’s rooms he recognizes his ex-whore who got him to jail some years before. Slim gets very angry. The girl is lying on a bed in an unconscious drunk state. Slims makes up a deadly heroin injection quickly and begins to kill the girl with that. (he did not finish the action at last and the girl remained alive)

But what does ’I drew up her reckoning’ mean in this context?

I think that "I drew up her reckoning" is being used to say metaphorically that he prepared her last bill. As Grumpy pointed out "reckoning" could be referring to a bill. And "to draw up" can mean to prepare. I think this ties in with that Grumpy said about him feeling that the girl owed him something and he was making her pay for it
 

mrghd

Junior Member
Joined
May 29, 2012
Member Type
Interested in Language
Native Language
Hungarian
Home Country
Hungary
Current Location
Hungary
Thanks, it is clear now :) Now I can solve the translation -due to your help
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top