谷仓里的盒子与妮可 第27章 ✨

大家好，欢迎来到《安心入梦故事》。

Hello, friends, and welcome to Sleep Tight Stories.

妮可和她妈妈讨论了她们看到的那幅画，意识到现在需要等待，去和安格斯谈谈，看看能否获得更多消息。

Nicole and her mom talk about the picture that they saw and realize they need to wait now to talk to Angus and see if they can find out any more information.

当星期六终于到来时，妮可早早醒来，下楼发现妈妈已经在那里，正看着那本书和日记。

When Saturday finally arrives, Nicole is awake early and goes downstairs to find her mom is already there, looking at the book and the journals.

看起来她已经在那里好一会儿了，就在她们交谈时，书里发生了点事情。

It looks like she has been there for a while, and as they are talking, something happens in the book.

妮可和谷仓里的盒子 第27部分。

Nicole and the box in the barn part 27.

星期六。

Saturday.

妮可在八点前就穿好衣服下楼了。

Nicole was dressed and downstairs before eight.

星期六意味着安格斯，她从周五下午就开始想着那幅插图了。

Saturday meant Angus, and she'd been thinking about the illustration since Friday afternoon.

谷仓，那两个身影，那个看起来像玛格丽特的人。

The barn, the two figures, the one that looked like Margaret.

她还没走到厨房，心里就已经穿过花园的门了。

She was mentally halfway through the garden door before she'd even reached the kitchen.

她妈妈已经坐在桌边了。

Her mom was already at the table.

两本日记都摊开着，书本打开在它们中间。

Both journals were out, and the book was open between them.

桌子两边各放着一杯茶，这意味着她妈妈没等她开口就给她泡了一杯。

There were two mugs of tea, one on each side of the table, which meant her mom had made one for Nicole without being asked.

尼科尔坐了下来。

Nicole sat down.

她认得这个表情。

She knew this look.

这和他们发现坐标那晚、发现地基石那晚的表情一模一样。

It was the same look from the night they'd found the coordinates and the night they discovered the foundation stones.

那种表情意味着她妈妈已经醒了很久，并且找到了些什么。

The look that meant her mom had been up for a while and had found something.

早上好，她妈妈说，我一直在翻看那些日记。

Morning, her mom said, I've been going through the journals again.

你醒多久了？

How long have you been up?

她妈妈瞥了一眼窗户，那时阳光还很微弱。

Her mom glanced at the window where the light was still pretty thin.

有一会儿了。

A while.

尼科尔用双手捧住茶杯。

Nicole wrapped her hands around her mug.

茶的温度刚刚好，说明它一直在那里等着她。

The tea was exactly the right temperature, which meant it had been sitting there waiting for her.

她对自己睡得比妈妈久感到有点内疚，但也感激妈妈为她泡了茶。

She felt a little guilty for sleeping longer than her mom, but also grateful she had made tea for her.

好吧，她说，给我看看。

Okay, she said, show me.

她妈妈把书转过来，让尼科尔能看到那幅插图——谷仓，以及外面的两个人。

Her mom turned the book around so Nicole could see the illustration the barn, the two figures outside.

她周五拍了这张照片，整个晚上都盯着它看，大概还梦到了它。

She'd photographed it Friday, stared at it all evening, dreamed about it probably.

她对每一根线条都了如指掌。

She knew every line.

我一直在把它和日记对比，她妈妈说。

I've been comparing it to the journals, her mom said.

她把父亲的日记本滑到桌子对面，翻开到靠近末尾的一页。

She slid her father's journal across the table, open to a page near the back.

这里的字迹更潦草，更匆忙。

The handwriting was messier here, more rushed.

大多是农事记录。

Farm notes mostly.

名字、日期、简短的观察。

Names, dates, short observations.

她妈妈指着页面底部的一行字，很容易被忽略，夹在关于围栏维修和天气的记录之间。

Her mom pointed to a line near the bottom of the page, easy to miss, between a note about fence repairs and something about the weather.

就只有这些。

Just that.

一行字。

One line.

尼科尔盯着它看了一会儿，然后抬头看了看妈妈，又低头回去。

Nicole looked at it for a moment, then she looked up at her mom, then back down.

D，她说。

D, she said.

D，她妈妈说。

D, her mom said.

尼科尔把手指放在那个首字母上，没有移开。

Nicole put her finger on the initial and left it there.

外面，花园一片寂静。

Outside, the garden was quiet.

指南针已经放在她口袋里变得温热，而她甚至还没碰过它。

The compass was already warm in her pocket, and she hadn't even touched it yet.

她妈妈起身去烧水，准备再泡一壶，而尼科尔仍坐在桌旁凝视着那幅插图。

Her mom got up to put the kettle on for a second round, and Nicole stayed at the table looking at the illustration.

她也不确定自己希望看到什么：那个长得像玛格丽特的女人，那个她不认识的男人，他们身后微微敞开的谷仓门，还有她每天早晨从厨房窗户看到的同样的红色。

She wasn't sure what she was hoping to see: the woman who looked like Margaret, the man she didn't recognize, the barn doors slightly opened behind them, the same red she saw every morning from the kitchen window.

她微微凑近了一些。

She leaned a little closer.

然后，就在她几乎没注意到的时候，有什么东西变了。

And then, so quietly she almost missed it, something changed.

不是整幅画，只是谷仓门阴影里一小部分，出现了一个之前不存在的形状。

Not the whole picture, just a small part of it in the shadow of the barn doorway, a shape that hadn't been there before.

或者也许它一直都在，只是她没注意到。

Or maybe it had been there and she hadn't noticed.

这本书最棘手的地方就在这里。

That was the tricky thing with the book.

有时候很难分辨，到底是书真的发生了变化，还是她第一次看得不够仔细。

Sometimes it was hard to tell if it had actually changed or if she just hadn't looked carefully enough the first time.

但这次是全新的。

But this this was new.

第三个身影。

A third figure.

小小的，半掩在门廊的阴影里。

Small, half hidden in the shadow of the doorway.

太模糊了，看不清楚。

Too unclear to make out properly.

只是一个轮廓，仿佛有个人站在谷仓内侧。

Just a shape, really, the suggestion of someone standing just inside the barn.

妈妈？

Mom?

她妈妈从炉子旁转过身来。

Her mom turned from the stove.

过来看看这个。

Come look at this.

她妈妈穿过厨房，俯身凑到妮可的肩膀旁。

Her mom crossed the kitchen and leaned over Nicole's shoulder.

她沉默了一会儿，然后。

She was quiet for a moment, then.

刚才那个是？妮可说。

Did that just Yeah, Nicole said.

它就是会这样。

It does that.

她妈妈慢慢直起身来。

Her mom straightened up slowly.

她有一会儿没说话，而妮可已经学会任由这种情况发生。

She didn't say anything for a bit, which Nicole had learned to just let happen.

亲眼看到它，感觉很不一样。

It was different seeing it in person.

她妈妈听说过这本书的变化，曾在妮可的手机上看过新插图的照片，也读过相关期刊上的文章。

Her mom had heard about the book changing, had looked at photographs of the new illustrations on Nicole's phone, had read about it in the journals.

但亲眼目睹这一切发生，完全是另一回事。

But watching it happen in front of you was another thing entirely.

门口有个人，她妈妈终于说道。

There's someone in the doorway, her mom said finally.

我看不清是谁。

I can't tell who it is.

个子太小了。

It's too small.

她妈妈重新坐了下来。

Her mom sat back down.

她拿起杯子，发现已经空了，又放了回去。

She picked up her mug, realized it was empty, and put it back down.

你看着的时候，它通常会这样吗？

Does it usually do that while you're watching?

不常这样，尼科尔说。

Not usually, Nicole said.

通常，我只是注意到它不一样了，却想不起来它以前是什么样子。

Normally, I just notice it's different, and I can't remember what it looked like before.

她们俩又盯着那个小小的模糊身影看了一会儿。

They both looked at the small shadowy figure for a moment longer.

好吧，她妈妈轻声说。

Okay, her mom said quietly.

她妈妈最终还是去泡了第二壶茶，尼科尔则站起来，站在厨房的窗边。

Her mom went to make the second round of tea after all, and Nicole got up and stood at the kitchen window.

外面的花园，看起来和她最初爱上时的夏日模样不同了。

Outside, the garden looked different from the summer version she'd first fallen in love with.

那些大而艳丽的花大多已经凋谢，牡丹和向日葵早已开尽。

The big, showy flowers were mostly gone now, the peonies and the sunflowers long finished.

草莓植株变得矮小，颜色呈锈红色，贴近地面。

The strawberry plants gone small and rust colored close to the ground.

但苹果树上仍挂着几片叶子，在灰蒙蒙的十月天空下显得金黄明亮，浆果灌木则变成了深红色，几乎比八月时还要美丽。

But the apple tree still had a few leaves hanging on, bright yellow against the gray October sky, and the berry bushes had gone a deep red that was almost prettier than they'd been in August.

一些她叫不出名字的耐寒植物也仍在开花，花朵细小而淡雅，仿佛决心在冬天来临前抓住最后的每一天。

Some of the hardier plants she couldn't name were still flowering too, small and pale, like they were determined to get every last day they could before winter arrived.

普通的花园这时候早就枯萎了。

A regular garden would have given up by now.

但这个花园还没完全决定要放弃。

This one hadn't quite decided to yet.

再过几周，它就会陷入寂静。

In another few weeks, it would go quiet.

她不确定那会是什么样子。

She wasn't sure what that would look like.

她以前从未在冬天拥有过一个魔法花园。

She'd never had a magical garden in winter before.

她转而想到了艾玛。

She thought about Emma instead.

周四在公交车上，艾玛提到了一件事，从那以后尼科尔就一直无法停止思考。

On Thursday on the bus, Emma had mentioned something that Nicole hadn't been able to stop thinking about since.

她们当时在谈论岛上的老家族。

They'd been talking about old island families.

艾玛的母亲正在告诉她一些土地世代属于同一个家族的故事。

Emma's mom had been telling her about properties that had been in the same family for generations.

艾玛几乎是在不经意间提到，她祖母曾经说过，很久以前有一家人住在尼科尔公司附近。

And Emma had said, almost as an afterthought, that her gran used to talk about a family who lived near Nicole's firm a long time ago.

艾玛说，是麦当劳家。

The McDonald's, Emma had said.

她祖母认为他们曾经对社区非常重要，但后来就莫名其妙地消失了。

Her gran thought they were really important to the community once, but then they just sort of disappeared.

尼科尔点了点头，说了句‘挺有意思的’，这种话通常是当你觉得某事非常有趣，却又不想表现出来时说的。

Nicole had nodded and said something like, interesting, which was the kind of thing you said when you actually found something very interesting but didn't want to show it.

她还没跟妈妈提起这件事。

She hadn't mentioned it to her mom yet.

这并不是秘密，只是她想先自己好好想想，反复琢磨一下。

It wasn't a secret it was just she wanted to sit with it first, turn it over a bit.

这其实是她最近开始养成的习惯：在说出口之前，先默默保留一段时间。

That was something she'd started doing lately, holding things for a little while before saying them out loud.

玛格丽特曾经说过，一个好的守护者要学会在说话之前先倾听。

Margaret had said once that a good guardian learned to listen before speaking.

尼科尔还不确定自己是否已经做得很好，但她正在努力。

Nicole wasn't sure she was very good at it yet, but she was trying.

她小心翼翼地把艾玛的这个细节记下，放在父亲日记里字母D旁边，然后转身回到桌边。

She filed the Emma detail away carefully, right next to the D in her father's journal, and turned back to the table.

准备好了吗？

Ready?

她妈妈说着，递给她一杯新泡的咖啡。

Her mom said, handing her a fresh mug.

准备好了，尼科尔说。

Ready, Nicole said.

她喝完茶，穿上外套，走向花园。

She finished her tea, pulled on her jacket, and headed out to the garden.

门像往常一样等着她。

The door was waiting the way it always was.

藤蔓缠绕在门框上，即使在寒冷的十月早晨，木头在她手中依然温热。

Vines curled around the frame, the wood warm under her hand, even on a cold October morning.

她深吸一口气，转动把手，走了进去。

She took a breath, turned the handle, and stepped through.

花园的门像往常一样打开了：一道微光，一阵不同的空气，接着是安格斯的农场院子，坚实而熟悉地环绕着她。

The garden door opened the way it always did A shimmer, a breath of different air, and then Angus' farmyard, solid and familiar around her.

干草和木烟的气味，一只鸡在篱笆附近抱怨着什么。

The smell of hay and wood smoke, a chicken complaining about something near the fence.

我以为你不来了。

I thought you weren't coming.

我被耽搁了，尼科尔说。

I got held up, Nicole said.

我和我妈妈在看那本书。

My mom and I were looking at the book.

他点了点头，仿佛这完全说得通——经过这一切之后，这确实说得通。

He nodded like this made complete sense, which after everything, it probably did.

他在谷仓门旁的干草堆上坐下，那是他们常坐的地方，尼科尔也坐在他旁边。

He sat down on the hay bale near the barn door, their usual spot, and Nicole sat beside him.

她向他描述了那幅插图：那个长得像玛格丽特的女人、那个她不认识的男人，还有他们在看图时突然出现在门口的第三个身影。

She told him about the illustration: the woman who looked like Margaret, the man she didn't recognize, the third figure that had appeared in the doorway while they were looking at it.

安格斯安静地听着，没有打断，这正是她喜欢他的一点。

Angus listened without interrupting, which was one of the things she liked about him.

我爸爸的日记里还有一张便条，她说。

And there's a note in my dad's journal, she said.

只有一个字母：D。

Just an initial, D.

上面说他负责东田，他知道的比他表现出来的要多。

It says he worked the East Field, that he knew more than he let on.

安格斯沉默了一会儿。

Angus was quiet for a moment.

他捡起一根稻草，用手指来回转动，她注意到，这是他努力回忆时的习惯动作。

He picked up a piece of straw and turned it between his fingers, which she'd noticed was something he did when he was trying to remember something.

奶奶以前常提起一个在东田干活的人，”他缓缓说道，“那是在我出生之前很久的事了。

Gran used to talk about a man who worked the Eastfield, he said slowly, a long time ago, before my time even.

她说他问了很多关于花园的问题。

She said he asked a lot of questions about the garden.

尼科尔保持语气平静。

Nicole kept her voice even.

什么样的问题？

What kind of questions?

就是一些问题。

Just questions.

那里种了什么？

What grew there?

门是不是一直都在那里？

Whether the door was always there?

有没有人曾经穿过它？

Whether anyone had ever gone through it.

安格斯皱起了眉头。

Angus frowned.

她说他并不是想惹麻烦。

She said he wasn't trying to cause trouble.

他只是很好奇。

He was just curious.

但家人不知道他会拿这些答案做什么，因此有点紧张。

But it made the family a bit nervous not knowing what he'd do with the answers.

你知道他的名字吗？

Do you know his name?

安格斯想了想。

Angus thought about it.

也许是唐尼或者唐纳德？

Something like Donnie maybe or Donald?

奶奶对名字总是不太清楚。

Gran wasn't always clear on names.

他侧眼看着她。

He looked at her sideways.

为什么？

Why?

你知道他是谁吗？

Do you know who it is?

也许吧，”尼科尔说，“我还不确定。

Maybe, Nicole said, I'm not sure yet.

这是真的。

Which was true.

她有一种强烈的感觉，但感觉并不等同于确知。

She had a strong feeling, but a feeling wasn't the same as knowing.

她多留了一会儿，他们聊了其他事情——收成、一只总来骚扰鸡群的狐狸，以及尼科尔所在的时代是否会在圣诞节前下雪。

She stayed a little longer, and they talked about other things the harvest, a fox that had been bothering the chickens, whether Nicole thought it would snow before Christmas in her time.

普通的事情。

Normal things.

好事。

Good things.

当她终于站起来要走时，安格斯说：‘你一旦弄清楚他是谁，会告诉我吗？’

When she finally stood up to go, Angus said, You'll tell me when you figure out who it is?

会的，尼科尔说。

Yeah, Nicole said.

你会是第一个知道的人。

You'll be the first to know.

他对此似乎很满意。

He seemed satisfied with that.

她退后一步，走出了门。

She stepped back through the door.

当尼科尔穿过花园的栅栏门回来时，她妈妈还坐在厨房的餐桌旁。

Her mom was still at the kitchen table when Nicole came back through the garden gate.

她透过窗户能看到妈妈，两本日记本摊开着，笔记本电脑放在一旁，正等着她。

She could see her through the window, both journals open, laptop beside them, waiting.

尼科尔从后门进来，脱下运动鞋，走进厨房，坐了下来。

Nicole came in through the back door, towed off her sneakers, went into the kitchen, and sat down.

安格斯知道这个名字，或者差不多是这个名字，

Angus knows the name, she said, or close to it.

他觉得是唐纳德，也许是唐尼。

He thinks it was Donald, maybe Donnie.

一个很久以前在东菲尔德工作过的人，问了很多关于花园的问题。

Someone who worked the Eastfield a long time ago asked a lot of questions about the garden.

她妈妈看着她，沉默了一会儿。

Her mom looked at her for a moment.

然后她转向笔记本电脑，敲了一些内容。

Then she turned to the laptop and typed something.

没什么特别的，只是尼科尔以前见过她用过的本地档案网站，那时她们正在追溯家族历史。

Nothing fancy, just a local records site Nicole had seen her use before when they were tracing the family history.

那种网站上有旧的人口普查记录、农场劳工名单，以及大多数已被遗忘的名字。

The kind of site with old census records and farm labor lists and names that had mostly been forgotten.

她妈妈滚动浏览着。

Her mom scrolled.

停了下来。

Stopped.

把笔记本电脑转了过来。

Turned the laptop around.

一个结果：在1942年和1943年肯辛顿地区的农场劳工记录中，有一名叫唐纳德的人。

One result: A Donald listed in farm labor records for the Kensington area, 1942 and 1943.

尼科尔向前倾身，读完了整行内容，尽管她已经知道最后一部分会写什么。

Nicole leaned forward and read the whole line, even though she already knew what the last part was going to say.

好了。

Done.

唐纳德·邓恩。

Donald Dunn.

她向后靠了靠。

She sat back.

马库斯·邓恩，”她说。

Marcus Dunn, she said.

马库斯·邓恩，”她妈妈说。

Marcus Dunn, her mom said.

外面，一只乌鸦落在了花园旁的围栏柱上，但又改变了主意，飞走了。

Outside, a crow landed on the fence post by the garden and then thought better of it and left.

厨房里非常安静。

The kitchen was very quiet.

尼科尔想起马库斯坐在科学课上她旁边，往笔记上画卡通奶牛，还说：‘太酷了！’

Nicole thought about Marcus sitting next to her in science class, drawing cartoon cows on his notes, going, That is so cool!

就像这是他这一周听到的最好的消息一样，他谈到了祖母那箱从未有人翻看过的旧信件。

Like it was the best news he'd heard all week, talking about his gran's box of old letters that nobody had ever gone through.

他完全不知道。

He had no idea.

她把手伸进了口袋。

She put her hand in her pocket.

指南针是温热的。

The compass was warm.

不紧急，没有拉扯着她去任何地方。

Not urgent, not pulling her anywhere.

只是温热。

Just warm.

就像某些东西终于对上时的感觉一样，仿佛它一直在等她跟上步伐，只是在告诉她，她终于到了。

The way it sometimes felt after something had clicked into place, like it had been waiting for her to catch up and was just letting her know she'd finally got there.

我们现在该怎么办？

What do we do now?

尼科尔问道。

Nicole asked.

她妈妈轻轻合上了笔记本电脑。

Her mom closed the laptop gently.

我想，”她说，“这个问题留到下个星期六再谈吧。

I think, she said, that's a question for next Saturday.

这部分就到这里结束了。

And that is the end of this part.

晚安。

Good night.

好梦。

Sleep Tight.