书城外语双语学习丛书-爱的交融
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第14章 Detour to Romance曲折的浪漫(2)

The next day when I came to work, Harry was behind the counter of Tonys magazine stand. He looked at me rather sheepishly and said, “Well, I had to get a job somewhere, didnt I?”

“她工作过吗?”我问。

他点了点头。“她本来是个打字员。我给她以前的老板拍了电报。他们只知道她辞职、结婚去了。”

在随后的三四天里,哈里接了每一趟车。当然,铁路方面作了例行检查,警察也参与了这件事。但大家都没真正帮上忙。我看得出来,他们都觉得梅只不过是跟他开了个玩笑,但不知为何,我却根本不这么认为。

两星期之后的某一天,在和哈里聊天时,我向他谈了我的想法。“如果你有足够的耐心去等的话。”我说,“总有一天,你会看见她走上楼梯的。”他转过身看着楼梯,仿佛过去从来没见过似的。

第二天上班时,我发现哈里站在托尼杂志摊的柜台后面。他有些不好意思地看着我说,“呃,我总得做点什么,对吗?”

So he began to work as a clerk for Tony. We never spoke of May anymore and neither of us ever mentioned my theory. But I noticed that Harry always saw every person who came up the stairs.

Toward the end of the year Tony was killed in some argument over gamblinggambling n.赌博 , and Tonys widow left Harry in complete charge of the magazine stand. And when she got married again some time later, Harry bought the stand from her. He borrowed money and installedinstall vt.安装, 安置, 使就职 a soda fountain and pretty soon he had a very nice little business.

Then came yesterday. I heard a cry and a lot of things falling. The cry was from Harry and the things falling were a lot of dolls and other things which he had upset while he was jumping over the counter. He ran across and grabbed a girl not ten feet from my window. She was small and dark and her eyebrows came to a little point in the middle.

于是,他开始为托尼打工。我们再也不谈梅,谁也不提我的看法。但是我留意到哈里总察看着每个上楼的人。

因为赌博发生争执,托尼被别人杀死了。托尼的妻子将杂志摊完全交给了哈里打理。过了些时候她再次结婚,哈里就从她那儿把杂志摊买了过来。他借了钱,装了个冷饮柜,不久小生意就做得不错了。

就在昨天,我听见了一声尖叫,好多东西也似乎掉在地上了。是哈里的声音。掉在地上的是一大堆玩具和其他的东西,都是他跳过柜台时弄翻的。他从这些东西上面跑过去抓住了一个女孩,她就在离我窗户不到10英尺的地方。她个子小小的,黑黑的,眉心处有一个小点。

For a while they just hung there to each other laughing and crying and saying things without meaning. Shed say a few words like, “It was the bus station I meant—” and he’d kiss her speechlessspeechless adj.不能说话的, 酩酊大醉的 and tell her the many things he had done to find her.

What apparently had happeded three years before was that May had come by bus, not by train, and in her telegram she meant “bus station,” not “railroad station.” She had waited at the bus station for days and had spent all her money trying to find Harry. Finally she got a job typing.

“What?” said Harry. “Have you been working in town? All the time?”

She nodded.

“Well, Heavens. Didnt you ever come down here to the station?” He pointed across to his magazine stand. “Ive been there all the time. I own it. Ive watched everybody that came up the stairs.”

他们似乎忘掉了一切,就那么相对着笑呀,哭呀,讲些没什么意义的话。她好像说“我指的是汽车站——”而他则一边吻她,一边告诉她为了找她自己所做的一切。

很明显,梅在3年前乘的是汽车而不是火车。她电报里指的是“汽车站”而不是“火车站”。她在汽车站等了好几天,为找哈里花掉了所有的钱。最后,她找了一份打字的工作。

“什么?”哈里说,“你在城里工作?一直都在?”

她点了点头。

“哎呀,天呢——难道你就从没来过这个车站?”他指着杂志摊。“我一直就在那儿。那个摊儿是我的。我看过每个上楼的人。”

She began to look a little pale. Pretty soon she looked over at the stairs and said in a weak voice, “I never came up the stairs before. You see, I went out of town yesterday on a short business trip. Oh, Harry!” Then she threw her arms around his neck and really began to cry.

After a minute she backed away and pointed very stifflystiffly adv.顽固地, 呆板地, 僵硬地 toward the north end of the station. “Harry, for three years, for three solid years, Ive been right over there working right in this very station, typing, in the office of the stationmasterstationmaster n.站长.”

她的脸色看起来开始发白。过了一会儿,她看着楼梯,用微弱的声音说:“过去我从没上过这个楼梯。你知道吗,我昨天出城是去办点公事——噢,哈里!”然后,她搂着他的脖子,失声痛哭了起来。

过了一会儿,她往后一站,用手直指着车站的最北头。“哈里,3年来,整整3年,我就在那儿——就在这个车站工作,在站长办公室里,打字。”

带有调侃意味的故事却给我们重复了“好事多磨”的道理。悲欢离合的事情无时无刻不在发生着,让我们都来祝福:有情人终成眷属。

只是还需要一些小小的磨难,才能让两个人更加珍惜对方的存在,明白对方在自己心中的位置和意义。只要你怀着一颗虔诚的心,终会有一天,拨开迷雾见彩云,使走失在人群而心却相守的人相遇相知。