"Watch it," his father said. But then we all went outside and looked at the sky. We looked for the Pilot Star, close beside the second star in the handle of the Big Dipper. If you could see that one, Johnston said, then your eyesight was good enough to get you into the Air Force.
“好吧。”约翰斯顿说道。然后我们就都来到室外,一起看星星。我们寻找靠近北斗七星第二颗星的飞行员星。“要是谁找到那颗星星,说明他的眼力足够好,好到可以当空军士兵了,”约翰斯顿说。
Mike was standing a little ahead of me and to one side. He was actually closer to Sunny than he was to me. Nobody was behind us, and I wanted to brush against him—just lightly and accidentally against his arm or shoulder. Then if he didn't stir away—out of courtesy, taking my touch for a genuine accident?—I wanted to lay a finger against his bare neck. Was that what he would have done, if he had been standing behind me? Was that what he would have been concentrating on, instead of the stars? I had the feeling, however, that he was a scrupulous man, he would refrain.
迈克站在我的一边,稍微靠前一点。事实上,他靠赛妮比靠我更近一点。我们身后没有人,我很想靠近他——仅仅轻微地或是偶然地擦到他的胳膊或肩膀。然后如果他没有躲闪——出于礼貌,或没有在意——我想用手指碰一下他露出的脖子。如果他站在我后面,会不会也能有同样的想法?他会不会专注于此,而不是天上的星星?但是,我有种感觉,他是很谨慎的人,他不会这样做。
He had slept in the guest bedroom the night before but tonight he'd moved downstairs to the fold-out sofa in the front room. Sunny had given him fresh sheets rather than unmaking and making up again the bed he had left for me.
前一天晚上,迈克睡在客房。但今晚他要住到楼下前屋的折叠沙发床上。赛妮给了他干净的床单,免得在他留给我的床上重新叠被、铺床。
He's pretty clean, she said. "And after all he's an old friend."
“他挺千净的,”她说,“毕竟他是你的老朋友。”
Lying in those same sheets did not make for a peaceful night. I knew that he wouldn't come to me, no matter how small the risk was. It would be a sleazy thing to do, in the house of his friends. And how could he be sure that it was what I wanted? Or that it was what he really wanted? Even I was not sure of it. Up till now, I had always been able to think of myself as a woman who was faithful to the person who she was sleeping with at any given time. My sleep was shallow, my dreams monotonously lustful, with irritating and unpleasant subplots. All night—or at least whenever I woke up—the crickets were singing outside my windows. At first I thought it was birds. I had lived in cities long enough to have forgotten how crickets make a perfect waterfall of noise.
躺在他躺过的床单上,我并没有睡一个安稳觉。我知道即使风险很小,他也不会来找我。在他朋友的家里,那的确是很不应该做的事。并且他也无法了解我的想法,就像我无法确定他的想法一样。直到现在,我一直都认为自己是一个对自己的性伙伴忠诚的女人。我睡得很浅,没完没了地做着充满情欲的梦,中间还穿插着令人不快的小情节。一整个晚上——或者说至少是每当我醒来的时候——蟋蟀在窗外叫个不停。起初我以为是鸟儿,我已经在城市里住了太久,已经忘记了蟋蟀可以发出瀑布般的叫声。
Everybody was invited to brunch the next morning, at the house of some neighbors who had swimming pool. Mike said that he thought he would rather just go round the golt course, if that would be O.K.
第二天早上,大家都被邀请到某位邻居的房子里去用餐,房子的主人还拥有一个游泳池。迈克说如果可以的话,他宁愿只到高尔夫球场去转转。