Okay, so he also reads Tom Clancy novels and the newspapers and does crossword puzzles and tracks his stocks, but those things are all distractions. Given no one to justify it to, the man would stare out the window until he fell asleep. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It just seems so… boring.
好吧，尽管他也读汤姆·克兰西的小说和报纸，做纵横字谜游戏，但这些事情很容易让人分心。当他不做这些事的时候，他会一直盯着窗户看直到睡着。并不是说做这些事有什么错，只是这看起来非常…无聊。
Seventh grade brought changes, all right, but the biggest one didn’t happen at school — it happened at home. Granddad Duncan came to live with us.
七年级迎来了改变，好了，虽然最大的改变没有发生在学校——它发生在了家里。外公邓肯搬来和我们住了。
Mom says he stares like that because he misses Grandma, but that’s not something Granddad had ever discussed with me. As a matter of fact, he never discussed much of anything with me until a few months ago when he read about Juli in the newspaper.
妈妈说他这样盯着外面是因为他想念外婆，但是这并不是外公会和我讨论的事。实际上，他从来没有和我讨论过任何事，直到几个月之前他在报纸上读到了朱莉的新闻。
At first it was kind of weird because none of us really knew him. Except for Mom, of course. And even though she’s spent the past year and a half trying to convince us he’s a great guy, from what I can tell, the thing he likes to do best is stare out the front-room window. There’s not much to see out there except the Bakers’ front yard, but you can find him there day or night, sitting in the big easy chair they moved in with him, staring out the window.
一开始这很奇怪，因为我们任何一个人都不真正了解他。除了妈妈，当然。而且尽管她用了过去的一年半时间试图让我们相信他是个好人，我可以说，他最爱干的事就是盯着前室的窗户。那里除了贝克家的院子并没有什么好看，可是不论白天黑夜他都在那儿，坐在和他一起搬来的大大的安乐椅上，盯着窗户外面。
Now, Juli Baker did not wind up on the front page of the Mayfield Times for being an eighth- grade Einstein, like you might suspect. No, my friend, she got front-page coverage because she refused to climb out of a sycamore tree.
好了，朱莉·贝克并不是因为成为了八年级的爱因斯坦而占据了《五月镇时报》的首页，像你可能猜想的那样。不，我的朋友，她覆盖了整个首页，因为她拒绝从一棵梧桐树上下来。
So this tree, this sycamore tree, was up the hill on a vacant lot on Collier Street, and it was massive. Massive and ugly. It was twisted and gnarled and bent, and I kept expecting the thing to blow over in the wind.
这棵树，这棵梧桐树，就生长在科里尔街山坡的空地上，而且它非常庞大。又大又丑。它扭曲、多节，并且弯曲着，我一直期望着这东西被风刮倒。
Not that I could tell a sycamore from a maple or a birch for that matter, but Juli, of course, knew what kind of tree it was and passed that knowledge along to every creature in her wake.
我并不能把梧桐树和枫树或桦树区分开，但是朱莉当然知道它是棵什么树，并且她把那些知识告诉了所有在她醒着时遇到的每一个人。
One day last year I’d finally had enough of her yakking about that stupid tree. I came right out and told her that it was not a magnificent sycamore, it was, in reality, the ugliest tree known to man. And you know what she said? She said I was visually challenged. Visually challenged! This from the girl who lives in a house that’s the scourge of the neighborhood. They’ve got bushes growing over windows, weeds sticking out all over the place, and a barnyard’s worth of animals running wild. I’m talking dogs, cats, chickens, even snakes.
去年有一天我终于受够了她喋喋不休地谈论那棵愚蠢的树。我站出来直接告诉她那并不是什么了不起的树，事实上，它是人们所知道的最丑的树。你知道她说什么吗？她说我是视力残疾。视力残疾！这是一个住在给邻居带来祸害的房子里的女孩说出的话。他们家的杂草都有窗户那么高，遍地杂草丛生，还有一个最适合野生动物的仓房。我说的是狗，猫，鸡，甚至蛇。
I swear to God, her brothers have a boa constrictor in their room. They dragged me in there when I was about ten and made me watch it eat a rat.
我发誓，她的哥哥们养了一条蟒蛇在房间里。我十岁的时候他们把我拉进里面逼着我看它吃掉老鼠。
Anyway, normally I wouldn’t care about someone’s yard, but the Bakers’ mess bugged my dad big-time, and he channeled his frustration into our yard. He said it was our neighborly duty to show them what a yard’s supposed to look like. So while Mike and Matt are busy plumping up their boa, I’m having to mow and edge our yard, then sweep the walkways and gutter, which is going a little overboard, if you ask me.
无论如何，正常情况下我不会在乎别人的院子，但是贝克家的乱七八糟让我爸爸很烦恼。他说是我们做邻居的责任是向他们展示一个院子到底该是怎样的。当迈克和马特忙着喂蛇的时候，我就必须修建我们的院子，然后再扫走道和排水，这有一点无聊，如果你问我的话。
A live, beady-eyed rat. They held that rodent up by its tail and gulp, the boa swallowed it whole. That snake gave me nightmares for a month.
一只活着的，眼睛亮亮的老鼠。他们提着它的尾巴，然后“呼”地一声，蟒蛇把它整个吞了下去。那条蛇带给了我一整月的噩梦。
And you’d think Juli’s dad — who’s a big, strong, bricklaying dude — would fix the place up, but no. According to my mom, he spends all his free time painting. His landscapes don’t seem like anything special to me, but judging by his price tags, he thinks quite a lot of them. We see them every year at the Mayfield County Fair, and my parents always say the same thing: “The world would have more beauty in it if he’d fix up the yard instead.”
然后你会以为朱莉的爸爸——一个高大、强壮的男人——应该会清理院子。但是没有。妈妈的看法是，他把所有的空闲时间用在了画画上。他的风景画对我来说一点儿都不特别，但是从他的标价来看，至少他自己认为很特别。我们每年都会在五月镇集市上看到他的画作，每次我父母都说同样的话：“世界会变得更美丽，如果他清理好他们的院子。”
Back in the third and fourth grades she used to clown around with her brothers in the branches or peel big chunks of bark off so they could slide down the crook in its trunk. It seemed like they were playing in it whenever my mom took us somewhere in the car. Juli’d be swinging from the branches, ready to fall and break every bone in her body, while we were waiting at the stoplight, and my mom would shake her head and say, “Don’t you ever climb that tree like that, do you hear me, Bryce? I never want to see you doing that! You either, Lynetta. That is much too dangerous.”
回到三四年级她总是会和她的哥哥们坐在树枝间，或者剥下厚厚的树皮，他们就能从树上滑下来。好像每一次我妈妈带着我们坐车出去的时候他们都会在树上玩儿。朱莉会在树枝间荡来荡去，准备随时掉下来然后摔断她身上的每一根骨头。每次我们在等红绿灯的时候，妈妈都会摇头然后说：“你永远不要那样爬树，你听见了吗，布莱斯？我永远都不想看见你这样！你也是，琳内塔。这太危险了。”
Mom and Juli’s mom do talk some. I think my mom feels sorry for Mrs. Baker — she says she married a dreamer, and because of that, one of the two of them will always be unhappy.
妈妈和朱莉的妈妈偶尔会交谈。我认为我妈妈为贝克太太感到遗憾——她说她嫁给了一个空想家，因此，他们中的一个人总会不开心。
My sister would roll her eyes and say, “As if,” while I’d slump beneath the window and pray for the light to change before Juli squealed my name for the world to hear.
我姐姐会翻翻白眼然后说，“再说吧。”我会缩在窗户下面祈祷红绿灯能够在朱莉尖叫着我的名字让全世界都知道前改变。
Whatever. Maybe Juli’s aesthetic sensibilities have been permanently screwed up by her father and none of this is her fault, but Juli has always thought that that sycamore tree was God’s gift to our little corner of the universe.
无论如何，也许朱莉的审美感知已经被他父亲永久地毁了，这一切都不是她错，但是朱莉一直认为那棵梧桐树是上帝为我们宇宙间的小角落赐下的礼物。
So I made a mental picture of how high she’d climbed, and the next day I set off to outdo her by at least two branches. I made it past the crook, up a few limbs, and then — just to see how I was doing — I looked down.
所以我大致确定了她爬了多高，然后第二天我决定要胜过她至少两根树枝的长度。我先踩在枝桠上，再爬过几根大树枝，然后，为了看看我爬了多少，我低头往下看。
Mistake! It felt like I was on top of the Empire State Building without a bungee. I tried looking up to where my kite had been, but it was hopeless. I was indeed a tree-climbing weenie.
错误！我感觉自己像是在没有安全绳的情况下站在帝国大厦的顶上。我试着往上看我的风筝被挂住的地方，但是也没用。我是十足的爬树白痴。
Then junior high started and my dream of a Juli-free existence shattered. I had to take the bus, and you-know-who did, too. There were about eight kids altogether at our bus stop, which created a buffer zone, but it was no comfort zone.
然后初中开始了，我摆脱朱莉的梦想也被砸碎了。我要乘公车上学，然后你当然知道谁和我一起。大约八个孩子都会一起在公车站，这给了我一个缓冲区域，但不是舒服的区域。
I did try to climb it once in the fifth grade. It was the day after Juli had rescued my kite from its mutant toy-eating foliage. She climbed miles up to get my kite, and when she came down, she was actually very cool about it. She didn’t hold my kite hostage and stick her lips out like I was afraid she might. She just handed it over and then backed away.
五年级的时候我曾试着爬树。那是朱莉把我的风筝从变态的吃人树枝上救下来的后一天。她爬了很高去拿我的风筝，当她下来的时候，她显得非常冷静。她没有像我所担心的那样把我的风筝作为人质，撅起她的双唇。她只是递给我然后转身就走。
I was relieved, but I also felt like a weenie. When I’d seen where my kite was trapped, I was sure it was a goner. Not Juli. She scrambled up and got it down in no time. Man, it was embarrassing.
我松了口气，但我同时也觉得自己非常懦弱。当我看到我的风筝被挂住的时候，我能确定再也拿不回来了。不像朱莉。她迅速爬上去把它救了下来。天，这太尴尬了。
She tried to get me to come up there with her, too. “Bryce, come on! You won’t believe the colors! It’s absolutely magnificent! Bryce, you’ve got to come up here!”
她试过让我一起和她爬上去。“布莱斯，来吧！你不会相信这美妙的颜色！绝对很壮观！布莱斯，你一定要上来看看！”
And then she started climbing. The girl is in the seventh grade, and she’s climbing a tree — way, way up in a tree. And why does she do it? So she can yell down at us that the bus is five! four! three blocks away! Blow-by-blow traffic watch from a tree — what every kid in junior high feels like hearing first thing in the morning.
再然后她开始爬树。一个七年级的女孩，她在爬树——很高，很高的树梢上。她为什么这么做？因为她可以对我们喊公车离我们还有五站！四站！三站远！从一棵树上得来的详细交通状况——每一个中学生每天早上听到的第一件事。
Yeah, I could just hear it: “Bryce and Juli sitting in a tree…” Was I ever going to leave the second grade behind?
唉，我能够听到：“布莱斯和朱莉坐在一棵树上…”我什么时候才能彻底地摆脱二年级呢？
Juli always tried to stand beside me, or talk to me, or in some other way mortify me.
朱莉总是试图站在我边上，或者和我聊天，或用其他办法缠着我。
I dropped my backpack and wrenched my neck, and that did it. I refused to wait under that tree with that maniac monkey on the loose anymore. I started leaving the house at the very last minute. I made up my own waiting spot, and when I’d see the bus pull up, I’d truck up the hill and get on board.
从此我拒绝再和那个疯子一起等在树下。我总是在最后一分钟出家门。我有自己的等车地点，当我能够看到车开来的时候，我会冲向山坡然后赶上车。
One morning I was specifically not looking up when out of nowhere she swings down from a branch and practically knocks me over. Heart attack!
有天早上我特意没在她从树上滑下来敲我的时候往上看。突然间，我摔下了书包然后扭伤了脖子，都是树枝害得！
Chain saws.
链锯。
And that, my friend, took care of the rest of seventh grade and almost all of eighth, too, until one day a few months ago. That’s when I heard a commotion up the hill and could see some big trucks parked up on Collier Street where the bus pulls in. There were some men shouting stuff up at Juli, who was, of course, five stories up in the tree.
并且，我的朋友，剩下的七年级和大部分的八年级时光都很轻松，直到几个月前的一天。当我听见山坡上一阵骚动的时候，我能看见几辆大型卡车停在科里尔街上公交站边。那里有几个男人朝着朱莉喊叫，她当时正坐在高高的树梢上。
No Juli, no problem.
没有朱莉，没有麻烦。
Don’t get me wrong here, okay? The tree was an ugly mutant tangle of gnarly branches. The girl arguing with those men was Juli — the world’s peskiest, bossiest, most know-it-all female. But all of a sudden my stomach completely bailed on me. Juli loved that tree. Stupid as it was, she loved that tree, and cutting it down would be like cutting out her heart.
别理解错了，好吗？那棵树是个丑陋的突变体，还有很多多瘤的树枝。和那些男人争吵的是朱莉——全世界最烦人、最专横、最知道任何事的女生。但是突然间我的胃里开始翻江倒海。朱莉爱这棵树。就像这棵树本身一样愚蠢，她爱这棵树，把这棵树砍下了就像把她的心挖出来一样令她疼痛。
All the other kids started to gather under the tree, too, and I could hear them telling her she had to come down. She was fine — that was obvious to anyone with a pair of ears — but I couldn’t figure out what they were all arguing about.
其他的孩子开始围在树下，我可以听见他们在说她必须下来。她当时很正常——这对有耳朵的人来说很明显——但是我不明白他们在争论什么。
I trucked up the hill, and as I got closer and saw what the men were holding, I figured out in a hurry what was making Juli refuse to come out of the tree.
我跑上了山坡，走近了些我看清了那些男人们拿的东西，我立刻就明白朱莉为什么拒绝下树了。
We boarded the bus and left her behind, but school was pretty much a waste. I couldn’t seem to stop thinking about Juli. Was she still up in the tree? Were they going to arrest her?
我们上了车把她留了下来，但是去学校几乎是浪费。我似乎会不停地想着朱莉。她还在树上吗？他们会逮捕她吗？
For a second I considered it. But then the bus arrived and I talked myself out of it. It wasn’t my tree, and even though she acted like it was, it wasn’t Juli’s, either.
有那么几秒钟我犹豫了。但是公车到了站，我也说服了自己。那不是我的树，而且就算她表现得像她的一样，那也不是她的树。
When the bus dropped us off that afternoon, Juli was gone and so was half the tree. The top branches, the place my kite had been stuck, her favorite perch — they were all gone.
那天下午公车到站的时候，朱莉和一半的树都不见了。最高的树枝，我的风筝被挂住的地方，她最爱的栖息处——它们都不在了。
Everyone tried to talk her down. Even me. But she said she wasn’t coming down, not ever, and then she tried to talk us up. “Bryce, please! Come up here with me. They won’t cut it down if we’re all up here!”
所有人都试着想让她下来。我也是。但是她说她不会下来，永远都不，然后她试着让我们爬上去。“布莱斯，求你了！和我一起上来。如果我们都在树上他们就不会砍树了！”
We watched them work for a little while, the chain saws gunning at full throttle, smoking as they chewed through wood. The tree looked lopsided and naked, and after a few minutes I had to get out of there. It was like watching someone dismember a body, and for the first time in ages, I felt like crying. Crying. Over a stupid tree that I hated.
我们看着他们工作了一会儿，链锯开到了最高档，一边锯木头一边冒着烟。那棵树看起来已经不对称，而且赤裸裸的，没过多久我就呆不下去了。这就像看一个人解剖一个人体，这么多年来第一次，我想流泪。流泪，为了一棵我恨过的愚蠢的树。
Would it have done any good? I thought about calling Juli to tell her I was sorry they’d cut it down, but I didn’t. It would’ve been too, I don’t know, weird.
我想到了打电话给朱莉然后告诉她我很抱歉他们砍了树，但是我没有。那样做会很…你知道，奇怪。
She didn’t show at the bus stop the next morning and didn’t ride the bus home that afternoon, either.
第二天早上她没有出现在车站，下午也没有乘公车回家。
Then that night, right before dinner, my grandfather summoned me into the front room. He didn’t call to me as I was walking by — that would have bordered on friendliness. What he did was talk to my mother, who talked to me. “I don’t know what it’s about, honey,” she said. “Maybe he’s just ready to get to know you a little better.”
然后那天晚上，吃饭前，外公把我传唤进了前厅。他没有在我进去的时候叫我——那样是在友好的界限上。他告诉了我的妈妈，妈妈再告诉我。“我不知道是为了什么，亲爱的，”她说，“也许他只是已经准备更多地了解你。”
I went home and tried to shake it off, but I kept wondering, Should I have gone up the tree with her?
我回到家试图忘掉这些事，但是我不断地想，我当时应该和她一起爬上树吗？那样事情会有改变吗？
Great. The man’s had a year and a half to get acquainted, and he chooses now to get to know me. But I couldn’t exactly blow him off.
好吧。这个男人已经认识我有一年半的时间，他却选择了现在来了解我。但是我没办法拒绝。
My grandfather’s a big man with a meaty nose and greased-back salt-and-pepper hair. He lives in house slippers and a sports coat, and I’ve never seen a whisker on him. They grow, but he shaves them off like three times a day. It’s a real recreational activity for him.
我的外公是一个高大的男人，他有一个胖乎乎的鼻子和一头油腻发亮的头发。他穿着拖鞋和运动衫，我从没见过他脸上有胡子。它们会长出来，但他一天刮三次。这对他来说是真正的娱乐活动。
Son? Half the time he didn’t seem to know who I was, and now suddenly I was “son”? I sat in the chair opposite him and waited.
孩子？有一半的时间他看起来根本不知道我是谁，现在我突然变成了“孩子”？我在他对面的椅子上坐下，等他。
“Why is that?” he asked. Calmly. Like he had prior knowledge.
“为什么呢？”他平静地问。就像他以前了解过一样。
Besides his meaty nose, he’s also got big meaty hands. I suppose you’d notice his hands regardless, but what makes you realize just how beefy they are is his wedding ring. That thing’s never going to come off, and even though my mother says that’s how it should be, I think he ought to get it cut off. Another few pounds and that ring’s going to amputate his finger.
除了他巨型的鼻子，他还有一双巨大而肥壮的手。我猜想你并不会太注意他的手，但是真正让你注意到它们有多结实的是他的结婚戒指。那东西从来没被拿下来过，虽然我妈妈说就应该是这样，我还是认为要弄下它把它截断。再增加几磅，那个戒指就会切断他的手指。
When I went in to see him, those big hands of his were woven together, resting on the newspaper in his lap. I said, “Granddad? You wanted to see me?”
当我走进去见他的时候，那双大手正插在一起，在他腿上的报纸上休息。我说：“外公？你想见我？”
“Have a seat, son.”
“坐吧，孩子。”
“Tell me about your friend Juli Baker.”
“说说你的朋友朱莉。”
“Juli? She’s not exactly my friend…!”
“朱莉？她不算是我的朋友…！”
I started to justify it, then stopped myself and asked, “Why do you want to know?”
我开始为自己辩护，但是我阻止了自己然后问：“为什么你想知道这些？”
He opened the paper and pressed down the crease, and that’s when I realized that Juli Baker had made the front page of the Mayfield Times.
他打开了报纸并压平折痕，这时我才注意到朱莉·贝克上了《五月镇时报》的首页。
“Lucky them!”
“他们真幸运！”
He studied me, long and hard. I said, “What?” but he didn’t flinch. He just kept staring at me, and I couldn’t take it — I had to look away.
他用了很长时间认真地审视着我。我说：“怎么了？”但是他没有退缩。他只是继续盯着，我无法忍受——我移开了视线。”
“I think they were all born there!”
“我想他们都在那儿出生！”
“What? Why?”
“什么？为什么？”
He frowned, then looked out the window and asked, “They’ve lived there that long?”
他皱了皱眉，然后朝窗外看了看，问道：“他们在那里住了那么久了？”
“An iron backbone? Granddad, you don’t understand! That girl is a royal pain. She’s a show- off, she’s a know-it-all, and she is pushy beyond belief!”
“有骨气？外公，你不明白！那个女孩很让人讨厌。她很爱炫耀，她什么都知道，她独断专行！”
He folded it up but didn’t hand it over. “Why isn’t she your friend, Bryce?”
他把报纸折起来但没有给我。“为什么她不是你的朋友，布莱斯？”
“Is that so.”
“就这样吗？”
“Yes! That’s absolutely so! And she’s been stalking me since the second grade!”
“是！绝对是这样！而且她从二年级就一直缠着我！”
He frowned some more before he looked back at me and said, “A girl like that doesn’t live next door to everyone, you know.”
他的眉头皱得更紧，但他回头看着我说，“你知道，并不是每个人都有像她那样的女孩做邻居。”
“Because the girl’s got an iron backbone. Why don’t you invite her over sometime?”
“因为那个女孩很有骨气。为什么你不邀请她过来玩儿呢？”
“Because she’s…” I shook my head and said, “You’d have to know Juli.”
“因为她…”我摇摇头说，“你得先了解她。”
There was a huge picture of her in the tree, surrounded by a fire brigade and policemen, and then some smaller photos I couldn’t make out very well. “Can I see that?”
上面有一张她在树上的巨型照片，周围是消防队和警察，还有一些小照片我无法看清。“我能看看吗？”
“I’d like to.”
“我很愿意。”
I took it, and when he went back to looking out the window, I knew — I’d been dismissed.
我接过报纸，然后他转过头看着窗外，我知道——我可以解脱了。
Keep in mind that this was the first real conversation I’d had with my grandfather. This was the first time he’d made the effort to talk to me about something besides passing the salt. And does he want to get to know me? No! He wants to know about Juli!
这是我记忆中第一次真正和外公谈话。这是第一次他主动和我谈论除了递一下盐之外的事。但是他想要了解我吗？没有！他想知道朱莉！
I couldn’t just stand up and leave, even though that’s what I felt like doing. Somehow I knew if I left like that, he’d quit talking to me at all. Even about salt. So I sat there feeling sort of tortured. Was he mad at me? How could he be mad at me? I hadn’t done anything wrong!
我不能直接站起来然后离开，虽然我很想这么做。不知为什么我知道如果我就那样离开，他再也不会和我讲话。甚至是关于盐。所以我像被拷问似的坐在那儿。他对我生气了吗？他怎么能生我的气？我没做错任何事！
When I looked up, he was sitting there holding out the newspaper to me. “Read this,” he said. “Without prejudice.”
我抬头的时候，他坐在那儿把报纸递给了我。“读读这个，”他说，“别带着偏见。”
By the time I got down to my room, I was mad. I slammed my bedroom door and flopped down on the bed, and after fuming about my sorry excuse for a grandfather for a while, I shoved the newspaper in the bottom drawer of my desk. Like I needed to know any more about Juli Baker.
当我进入我的房间时，我开始生气。我甩上卧室的门倒在了床上，为有这样一个外公生了一会儿气后，我把报纸扔进了最底层的抽屉里。好像我了解朱莉·贝克还不够多似的！
At dinner my mother asked me why I was so sulky, and she kept looking from me to my grandfather. Granddad didn’t seem to need any salt, which was a good thing because I might have thrown the shaker at him.
吃饭的时候妈妈问我为什么这么生气，然后她在我和外公之间来回看。外公看起来不需要任何盐，这很好，因为我可能直接用盐罐扔他。
Nada. But he was, I could tell. And I completely avoided looking at him until about halfway through dinner, when I sneaked a peek.
但是他在生气，我知道。所以我完全避免看着他直到吃了一半的时候，瞟了他一次。
He was studying me, all right. And even though it wasn’t a mean stare, or a hard stare, it was, you know, firm. Steady. And it weirded me out.
好吧，他盯着我。虽然那并没有什么有意图，但还是，你知道，坚定不移地看着。这让我心乱如麻。
Not that he had anything to be miffed at me about. What had I done to him, anyway? Nothing.
并不是有什么事让他对我生气。无论如何，我到底做了什么？什么都没有。
My sister and dad were all business as usual, though. Lynetta ate about two raisins out of her carrot salad, then peeled the skin and meat off her chicken wing and nibbled gristle off the bone, while my father filled up airspace talking about office politics and the need for a shakedown in upper management.
但我姐姐和爸爸还像往常一样。琳内塔吃了她胡萝卜沙拉里面的两粒葡萄干，然后剥下鸡翅上的鸡皮和鸡肉，一点点啃咬软骨，整个房间都是爸爸的言论，关于办公室政治和更换管理部门的需求。
No one was listening to him — no one ever does when he gets on one of his if-I-ran-the- circus jags — but for once Mom wasn’t even pretending. And for once she wasn’t trying to convince Lynetta that dinner was delicious either. She just kept eyeing me and Granddad, trying to pick up on why we were miffed at each other.
没有人在听他讲——从没有人听他讲“如果我进入马戏团”的言论——唯独这一次妈妈甚至没有装作在听。唯独这一次她也没有试着说服琳内塔晚饭其实很美味。她只是继续盯着我和外公，试着了解为什么我们对对方这么恼怒。
What was his deal?
他究竟想干什么？
I didn’t look at him again. Or at my mother. I just went back to eating and pretended to listen to my dad. And the first chance I got, I excused myself and holed up in my room.
我没有再看他。或者我妈妈。我只是继续吃饭并且装作听我父亲谈话。等我逮到了一个机会，就立刻找了个借口钻回了房间。
I told myself I should be glad about it — it was like she wasn’t even there, and isn’t that what I’d always wanted? But still, I felt bad. About her tree, about how she hurried off to eat by herself in the library at lunch, about how her eyes were red around the edges. I wanted to tell her, Man, I’m sorry about your sycamore tree, but the words never seemed to come out.
我告诉自己应该为此感到高兴——这就像她根本不在那儿一样，那不是我一直想要的吗？可是我还是感觉很差。为她的树，为她单独一个人在图书馆吃午餐，为她眼睛周围的红肿。我想告诉她，我为你的树感到难过，但是这些话似乎永远说不出口。
I was planning to call my friend Garrett like I usually do when I’m bent about something. I even punched in his number, but I don’t know. I just hung up. And later when my mom came in, I faked like I was sleeping. I haven’t done that in years.
我计划着给加瑞特打电话，像我通常在有烦恼时做的那样。我甚至拨了他的号码，但是不知道为什么。我还是挂了电话。过了一会儿我妈妈进来的时候，我假装自己睡着了。我已经很多年没这么做。
The whole night was weird like that. I just wanted to be left alone.
整个夜晚都很奇怪。我只是想单独呆着。
Juli wasn’t at the bus stop the next morning. Or Friday morning. She was at school, but you’d never know it if you didn’t actually look. She didn’t whip her hand through the air trying to get the teacher to call on her or charge through the halls getting to class. She didn’t make unsolicited comments for the teacher’s edification or challenge the kids who took cuts in the milk line. She just sat. Quiet.
第二天朱莉还是不在车站。星期五也是。她在学校，但是如果你不注意的话根本不会知道。她没有在空中挥手试图让老师叫她或者冲过走廊进教室。她没有主动回答老师的启发或是竞争谁去提牛奶。她只是安静地坐在那儿。
Juli still didn’t show at the bus stop, and by the end of the week I learned from Garrett that she was riding a bike. He said he’d seen her on the side of the road twice that week, putting the chain back on the derailleur of a rusty old ten-speed.
朱莉仍旧没在车站出现，那周末我从加瑞特那里了解到她骑车上下学。他说他这周有两次看到她在路旁，把链条装回一个已经生锈的老式十变速自行车的变速器。
By the middle of the next week, they’d finished taking down the tree. They cleared the lot and even tried to pull up the stump, but that sucker would not budge, so they wound up grinding it down into the dirt.
下一个星期过半的时候，他们把树砍完了。他们清理了空地，甚至试着移开树桩，但是那个顽固的东西不能忍受被移动，所以他们把它磨成了灰。
I figured she’d be back. It was a long ride out to Mayfield Junior High, and once she got over the tree, she’d start riding the bus again. I even caught myself looking for her. Not on the lookout, just looking.
我以为她会回来。到五月镇初中有很长一段路，等她忘记了那棵树，她就会重新乘车上学。我甚至发现我在寻找她。并不是监视，只是寻找。
Then one day it rained and I thought for sure she’d be up at the bus stop, but no. Garrett said he saw her trucking along on her bike in a bright yellow poncho, and in math I noticed that her pants were still soaked from the knees down.
然后有一天下雨了，我确定她会来车站，但是没有。加瑞特说他看到她骑着车，穿了明黄色的雨衣，上数学课的时候我发现她的裤子从膝盖下面都是湿的。
When math let out, I started to chase after her to tell her that she ought to try riding the bus again, but I stopped myself in the nick of time. What was I thinking? That Juli wouldn’t take a little friendly concern and completely misinterpret it?
数学课结束后，我开始追着她想告诉她再次试着乘车，但是关键时刻我停了下来。我到底在想什么？朱莉会仅仅把它当做一个友好的劝告然后完全误解吗？
After all, the last thing I needed was for Juli Baker to think I missed her.
毕竟，我并不需要让朱莉认为我想念她。
Whoa now, buddy, beware! Better to just leave well enough alone.
哦，现在，兄弟，当心！最好还是离得远点儿吧。
0 条评论