Remark
I see what you mean. It doesn't look like anything has happened in the quoted passage that would suggest he was dead. He is certainly disorientated. You have two choices.
Choice One
"I had not seen him approach, and the sudden appearance made me start." This happens to people all the time when they are concentrating and don't hear or see the things going on around them. But in this particular case, he was only putting a key in a door. That doesn't take much concentration, particularly if you have done this 1000 times before. If you allow me to speculate just a little bit, it sounds like an old fashioned boarding house. It would be hard to sneak up on someone.
Choice Two
Once inside the room, he runs straight to the back room and checks the door, but does not know if it is locked. Then comes back and asks for a favor. It's really odd. It's a hint.
Retell the main events from the story Through the Tunnel, by Doris Lessing, as Jerry might tell them to his best friend when he returns from vacation.
"My mother and I went abroad for vacation, to a beautiful beach. But, guess what? On the first day there, I discovered a much interesting place. It was a wild beach, so different from the one we were on. I begged my mom to let me go there and she finally did, although I think she was not very convinced. Anyway, I did! I went there! You wouldn't believe how wonderful it was. I met some local boys there that could dive through a hole in a wall of rocks under the water. They went through the hole and came out in a different beach! And I tried! At first, it was hard, I had to prepare my lungs, it took me a few days to do it properly. Besides, you know how my nose always bleeds when I push myself so hard... It didn't matter to me, my mom was not happy with this. But I really wanted to do it! So I kept trying until, the day before coming back, I finally managed to do it. I was so happy!
When I got back home and told my mother she asked me not to do it again, she seemed worried and I agreed not to do it anymore. I just feel happy I could do it once and I am so proud! I loved this vacations!
What about your vacations? Have you had fun?"
In the play entitled Pygmalion, there was a part when someone said, "Y<span>ou're not going to let yourself marry that low common woman!", and then Eliza appears to have forgotten that she was 'low and common' not so long ago” and she said, “I don’t care how you treat me, but I wont be passed over".
So the answer is being passed over. I hope this answer helps.</span>
