我很高興能離開學(xué)校，這樣我就能在今晚陪著杰西卡出去以前自由自在地發(fā)脾氣和意志消沉了。但正當(dāng)我走進(jìn)查理家大門的時候，杰西卡打電話來取消了我們的計劃。我試圖為邁克邀請她出去吃晚餐感到高興——我確實為他最終明白過來而感到寬慰——但我熱切的聲音在我自己耳中顯得很假。她把我們的購物之旅順延到了明天晚上。
Which left me with little in the way of distractions. I had fish marinating for dinner, with a salad and bread left over from the night before, so there was nothing to do there. I spent a focusedhalf hour on homework, but then I was through with that, too. I checked my e-mail, reading the backlog of letters from my mother, getting snippier as they progressed to the present. I sighed and typed a quick response.
這就讓我?guī)缀鯖]有了可以分心的事。我把魚放進(jìn)調(diào)味汁里腌好，又做了一個沙拉，再加上昨天晚上剩下的面包，晚餐就準(zhǔn)備好了，再也沒有什么事可做了。我花了半小時專心致志地寫作業(yè)，但又把作業(yè)給寫完了。我檢查自己的電子郵件，看著積攢下來的我母親發(fā)來的郵件，時間越靠后的語氣越顯暴躁。我嘆了口氣，打了一封簡短的回復(fù)。
Mom, Sorry. I've been out. I went to the beach with some friends. And I had to write a paper. My excuses were fairly pathetic, so I gave up on that.
“媽媽，抱歉。我出去了。我和幾個朋友一起去了海灘。而且我還有一份論文要寫。”我的借口聽起來相當(dāng)?shù)乜杀?，所以我放棄了，換成了下面這封。
It's sunny outside today - I know, I'm shocked, too - so I'm going to go outside and soak up as much vitamin D as I can. I love you, Bella.
“今天外面晴朗極了——我知道，我也很震驚——所以我打算到外面去，盡可能地多吸收一些維生素D。我愛你。貝拉”
I decided to kill an hour with non-school-related reading. I had a small collection of books that came with me to Forks, the shabbiest volume being a compilation of the works of Jane Austen. I selected that one and headed to the backyard, grabbing a ragged old quilt from thelinen cupboard at the top of the stairs on my way down.
我決定用課外閱讀來打發(fā)掉一個小時的時間。在我來?？怂沟臅r候我隨身帶了一些藏書，其中最殘破的那一冊是簡?奧斯丁的作品集。我挑出那本書，向后院走去，下樓的時候順手從樓梯頂上的亞麻布衣櫥里抓了一條破舊的褥子。
Outside in Charlie's small, square yard, I folded the quilt in half and laid it out of the reach of the trees' shadows on the thick lawn that would always be slightly wet, no matter how long the sun shone. I lay on my stomach, crossing my ankles in the air, flipping through the different novels in the book, trying to decide which would occupy my mind the most thoroughly. My favorites were Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. I'd read the first most recently, so I started into Sense and Sensibility, only to remember after I began three that the hero of the story happened to be named Edward. Angrily, I turned to Mansfield Park, but the hero of that piece was named Edmund, and that was just too close. Weren't there any other namesavailable in the late eighteenth century? I snapped the book shut, annoyed, and rolled over onto my back. I pushed my sleeves up as high as they would go, and closed my eyes. I would think of nothing but the warmth on my skin, I told myself severely. The breeze was still light, but it blew tendrils of my hair around my face, and that tickled a bit. I pulled all my hair over my head, letting it fan out on the quilt above me, and focused again on the heat that touched my eyelids, my cheekbones, my nose, my lips, my forearms, my neck, soaked through my light shirt…
在查理小小的，四四方方的庭院里，我把那條褥子對疊了一下，把它放到樹陰之外的草坪上。不管陽光照射多久，那塊草坪永遠(yuǎn)都是微微濕潤著的。我趴下來，把腳踝在空中交疊，飛快地瀏覽著書里的每一篇小時，試圖決定哪一篇最能讓我沉迷其中。我最喜歡的是《傲慢與偏見》和《理智與情感》。前者我讀得最多，所以我開始看《理智與情感》，但在看了三頁以后卻想起來這個故事的主人公碰巧也叫愛德華。我憤怒地轉(zhuǎn)去看《曼菲爾德莊園》，但這一篇的主人公叫埃德蒙，實在是太相近了。十八世紀(jì)末就沒有別的名字可用了嗎?我啪地合上書，氣惱地把書扔過頭頂。我把袖子挽到最高的地方，然后閉上了眼睛。我嚴(yán)厲地對自己說，我什么也不要想，只想讓我的肌膚暖和起來。微風(fēng)輕輕吹拂著，卻把我臉旁的頭發(fā)吹得卷曲起來，這樣很癢。我把頭發(fā)全部攏到腦后，讓它呈扇形披散在我身上的褥子上，然后又一次把心思放在陽光的熱度上。暖烘烘的陽光落在我的眼皮上，我的顴骨上，我的鼻子上，我的嘴唇上，我的小臂上，我的脖子上，浸透了我輕薄的襯衣……
