255：我们的节日送礼指南

一条美丽的羊绒围巾。

A beautiful cashmere scarf.

就是我去年圣诞节送给我弟弟的那条。

The same one I'd given to my brother at Christmas last year.

天啊。

Oh my god.

你从哪儿弄来的？

Where did you get that?

一直放在女巫集会那里。

It's been up in the coven.

放了多久？

For how long?

那可是条羊绒围巾。

That's a cashmere scarf.

那是我去年圣诞节送给你的。

I gave you that for Christmas last year.

我知道。

I know.

而你把它落在这里了。

And you left it here.

你把它放在那里面了。

You have it in there.

天啊。

Oh god.

你知道吗，我何必费这个劲呢？

You know, why do I bother?

看来我著名的送礼能力也不过如此。

So much for my famous gift giving abilities.

我家里没人领情。

No one in my family appreciates my effort.

而事实,

And this was true, it suddenly became clear, of this gift of song as well.

我们要不要再试一次？

Should we do one more?

好的。

Yeah.

不要。

No.

我没时间。

I haven't got time.

你听到了吗？

You hear that?

喂。

Hello.

她没时间。

She hasn't got time.

进去把它搞定。

Go in there and do it.

我们正在做这件事

We're doing it

为了你。

for you.

叛逆的头发。

Rebellious hair.

这是你的圣诞礼物。

It's your Christmas present.

你想看电视吗？

You wanna watch the TV?

已经够了。

It's enough.

你已经做得够多了。

You've done enough.

好吧。

Alright.

你 你

You you

不想听'清心的人有福了'吗？

don't wanna hear blessed are the pure in heart?

不想。

No.

她对清心的人不感兴趣。

She was not interested in the pure in heart.

再见。

Goodbye.

你知道为什么吗？

And you know why?

再见。

Goodbye.

谢谢，因为她快要错过她最喜欢的电视节目了。

Thanks so Because she was about to miss her favorite TV program.

之前见

See you before

她正在赶我们走。

She was giving us the Bum's Rush.

非常好。

Very nice.

非常感谢你们两位。

Thank you both very much indeed.

好吧。

Alright.

你要错过你的电视节目了。

You're missing your TV program.

很高兴见到你。

Lovely seeing you.

是的。

Yes.

很高兴见到你。

Lovely to see you.

叫什么名字

What's the name

那个节目？

of the program?

《松林天空》。

Pine Pine Sky.

再见。

Goodbye.

再见，爸爸。

See you, dad.

再见，妈妈。

Bye, ma.

爱你。

Love you.

于是我们又开车40英里返回城里。

So we drove the 40 miles right back to the city.

我们花了一整天想给母亲准备完美礼物，结果只在她家待了26分钟就被赶了出来，就为了看那部叫《空中楼阁》的英国剧，讲一个乡村侦探做全世界最棒的牛排腰子派的故事。

We devoted a whole day to giving our mother the perfect gift, only to get kicked out of her house after twenty six minutes in favor of pie in the sky, an English TV series about a country detective who makes the best steak and kidney pie in the world.

其实我母亲以前也常做超棒的牛排腰子派，还当圣诞礼物送人。

Actually, my mother used to make excellent steak and kidney pie herself and give it away as Christmas presents.

当然，没有顿悟的圣诞节故事是不完整的。

Of course, no Christmas story is complete without a grand final realization.

而在回家路上，我顿悟了。

And on the way home, I had mine.

我们一直都搞错了方向。

We'd been going about it all wrong.

我们总想找到完美的圣诞礼物，但完美礼物本身就是个糟糕的主意。

We'd been trying to find the perfect Christmas present, but the perfect gift was a terrible idea.

因为完美礼物会打破那种维系每个家庭、如同信任之桥般微妙平衡的失败与缺陷。

Because the perfect gift upsets the delicate truce of failure and imperfection that holds every family together like a trust bridge.

你抽掉一根木头，整个结构就可能轰然倒塌。

You move one timber, the whole thing can come crashing down.

而如果你让那座摇摇欲坠的老桥保持原状——这边总有些过分需求，那边总有些过分讨好，再被一段突出的冷淡所抵消——那么大家就都相安无事。

Whereas if you leave that rickety old span as it has always been with a little too much need over here and a little too much eagerness to please over there, all offset by an overhang of standoffishness, then everyone's happy.

秘诀显然在于送一份不完美的礼物：既要对你老母亲倾注足够关注让她知道你依然在乎，又要存在根本缺陷，这样谁都不会带着亏欠感、义务感或孤独感回家。

The secret obviously is to give an imperfect gift that lavishes enough attention on your old Ma that she knows he'll still care but that's also fundamentally flawed so that no one goes home feeling indebted or beholden or lonely.

相反，他们可以安心回家。

Instead, they can go home reassured.

一切如常。

Nothing changes.

这才是连母亲都会喜欢的圣诞礼物。

And that's a Christmas present even a mother could love.

伊恩·布朗，加拿大广播界传奇人物，如今是《环球邮报》的特约撰稿人。

Ian Brown, the great iconic Canadian broadcaster these days as a feature writer of The Globe and Mail.

第二幕，圣诞回忆。

Act two, a Christmas memory.

我们之所以知道这段录音，是因为我们一位制作人的姻亲每年圣诞节家庭聚会时都会播放它。

We heard about this next recording because the in laws of one of our producers play it every Christmas when the family gets together.

而每年圣诞节，他们都会为此落泪。

And every Christmas, they all cry.

这是杜鲁门·卡波特的故事《圣诞忆旧》，讲述他上世纪二三十年代在阿拉巴马乡村度过的童年时光。

It's Truman Capote's story, a Christmas memory, about his own childhood growing up in rural Alabama in the nineteen twenties and thirties.

这既是一幅关于他所爱之人的亲密而复杂的肖像，同时也描绘了圣诞节的景象，以及美国某个时空的剪影——如今看来恍如异国。

It's simultaneously this intimate and complicated portrait of somebody that he loved, but it's also a picture of Christmas and of a time and place in America which almost feels like another country.

我想...你会明白我的意思。

I I think you'll hear what I mean.

这种生活方式如今在美国大部分地区已不复存在。

It's just a kind of life that does not exist many places here now.

这是故事的节选版本，为适应广播时长进行了删减。

This is an abridged version of the story, shortened to bid for the radio.

想象一个二十多年前的深秋清晨，冬天将至的早晨。

Imagine a morning in late November, a coming of winter morning more than twenty years ago.

一位白发剪短的女人正站在厨房窗前。

A woman with shorn white hair is standing at the kitchen window.

‘哦，天哪，’她呼出的气息在窗玻璃上凝结成雾，惊叹道。

Oh, my, she exclaims, her breath smoking the windowpane.

‘是做水果蛋糕的天气了。’

It's fruitcake weather.

她说话的对象正是我。

The person to whom she is speaking is myself.

我七岁。

I am seven.

她六十岁。

She is 60.

我们是表亲，关系很远的表亲，但自我记事起就一直生活在一起。

We are cousins, very distant ones, and we have lived together, well, as long as I can remember.

房子里还住着其他亲戚。

Other people inhabit the house, relatives.

尽管他们对我们有支配权，还经常惹我们哭，但总体上我们并不太在意他们。

And though they have power over us and frequently make us cry, we are not on the whole too much aware of them.

我们是彼此最好的朋友。

We are each other's best friend.

她叫我巴迪，是为了纪念她从前最好的朋友——一个男孩。

She calls me Buddy in memory of a boy who was formerly her best friend.

那位巴迪在十九世纪八十年代就去世了，那时她还是个孩子。

The other buddy died in the eighteen eighties when she was still a child.

她现在依然是个孩子。

She is still a child.

我还没下床就知道了，她说着从窗边转过身来，眼里闪烁着坚定的兴奋。

I knew it before I got out of bed, she says, turning away from the window with a purposeful excitement in her eyes.

帮我找找帽子，还有三十个蛋糕要烤呢。

Help me find my hat with 30 cakes to bake.

她不仅从没看过电影，也从未下过馆子、去过离家五英里以外的地方、收发电报、读过除漫画和圣经以外的读物、化过妆、骂过人、诅咒过谁、故意撒过谎，或是让饿狗挨饿。

In addition to never having seen a movie, she has never eaten in a restaurant, traveled more than five miles from home, received or sent a telegram, read anything except funny papers and the bible, worn cosmetics, cursed, wished someone harm, told a lie on purpose, let a hungry dog go hungry.

制作水果蛋糕的原料中，威士忌是最昂贵也最难获取的。

Of the ingredients that go into our fruitcakes, whiskey is the most expensive as well as the hardest to obtain.

州法律禁止销售威士忌。

State laws forbid its sale.

但谁都知道可以从琼斯先生那里买到一瓶。

But everybody knows you can buy a bottle from mister Jones.

第二天，完成更普通的采购后，我们动身前往

And the next day, having completed our more prosaic shopping, we set out for Mr.

先生的营业地址——用舆论的话说，是河边一家有伤风化的炸鱼舞厅。

Business address, a sinful, to quote public opinion, fish fry and dancing cafe down by the river.

我们以前去过那里，也是为同样的差事。

We've been there before and on the same errand.

但往年我们都是和他妻子打交道。

But in previous years, our dealings have been with wife.

事实上，我们从未见过她丈夫——一个脸颊上有剃刀疤痕的巨人。

Actually, we've never laid eyes on her husband, a giant with razor scars across his cheeks.

他们叫他忧郁先生，因为他从不大笑。

They call him because he's so gloomy, a man who never laughs.

当我们走近他的咖啡馆——一座大型原木小屋，内外挂满了一串串俗艳的裸灯泡，矗立在河边树荫下，树上的苔藓如灰雾般垂落。

As we approach his cafe, a large log cabin festooned inside and out with chains of garish gay naked light bulbs and standing by the river's muddy edge under the shade of river trees where moss drifts through the branches like gray mist.

我们的脚步慢了下来。

Our steps slow down.

就连奎妮也不再蹦跳，紧紧跟在我身边。

Even Queenie stops prancing and sticks close by.

有人在的咖啡馆里被谋杀过，被砍成碎片，脑袋被击中。

People have been murdered in 's cafe, cut to pieces, hit on the head.

下个月法庭将审理一起相关案件。

There's a case coming up in court next month.

我敲了敲门。

I knock at the door.

奎妮叫了起来。

Queenie barks.

我的朋友喊道。

My friend calls.

夫人女士，家里有人吗？

Missus ma'am, anyone to home?

脚步声。

Footsteps.

门开了。

The door opens.

我们的心都提到了嗓子眼。

Our hearts overturn.

是琼斯先生本人，而且他是个巨人。

It's mister Jones himself, and he is a giant.

他确实有伤疤。

He does have scars.

他没有笑。

He doesn't smile.

不。

No.

他用撒旦般斜睨的眼神怒视着我们，厉声质问我们有何贵干。那一刻，我们吓得说不出话来。

He glowers at us through Satan tilted eyes and demands to know what you want with For a moment, we are too paralyzed to tell.

终于，我的朋友勉强找回了声音，那声音微弱得几乎像耳语。

Presently, my friend half finds her voice, a whispery voice at best.

如果您方便的话，先生，我们想要一夸脱您这儿最好的威士忌。

If you please, mister we'd like a quart of your finest whiskey.

他的眼睛眯得更厉害了。

His eyes tilt more.

你猜怎么着？

Would you believe it?

他竟然笑了，还笑出了声。

Is smiling, laughing too.

你们当中谁是能喝酒的？

Which one of you is a drinking man?

这是用来做水果蛋糕的，库克先生。

It's for making fruitcakes, mister Cooking.

这句话让他清醒过来。

This sobers him.

他皱起眉头。

He frowns.

这样浪费好威士忌可不行。

That's no way to waste good whiskey.

我们用五分、一角和一分硬币付钱给他。

We pay him with nickels and dimes and pennies.

突然，他把硬币在手里摇得像一把骰子，脸色缓和下来。

Suddenly, jangling the coins in his hand like a fistful of dice, his face softens.

他提议道，把钱倒回我们的珠串钱包里。

Tell you what he proposes, pouring the money back into our bead purse.

到时候送我一块那样的水果蛋糕就行。

Just send me one of them fruitcakes instead.

回家的路上，我的朋友这样说道。

Well, my friend remarks on our way home.

真是个好人啊。

There's a lovely man.

我们要给他的蛋糕多加一杯葡萄干。

We'll put an extra cup of raisins in his cake.

黑色的火炉里填满了煤和木柴，像点亮的南瓜般发着光。

The black stove stoked with coal and firewood glows like a lighted pumpkin.

打蛋器旋转着，勺子在黄油和糖的碗里搅动，香草让空气变得甜美，姜的香气融化成令人鼻尖发麻的味道，充满了整个厨房。

Egg beaters swirl, spoons spin round in bowls of butter and sugar, vanilla sweetens the air, ginger spices melting nose tingling odors saturate the kitchen, suffuse the house, drift out to the world on puffs of chimney smoke.

四天后，我们的工作完成了。

In four days, our work is done.

31个用威士忌浸润的蛋糕摆满了窗台和架子。

31 cakes dampened with whiskey basked on windowsills and shelves.

这些蛋糕是给谁的呢？

Who are they for?

朋友们。

Friends.

不一定是邻居朋友。

Not necessarily neighbor friends.

事实上，大部分蛋糕是为那些我们可能只见过一面、甚至素未谋面的人准备的。

Indeed, the larger share are intended for persons we've met maybe once, perhaps not at all.

那些让我们心生欢喜的人，比如罗斯福总统，比如去年冬天在此演讲的婆罗洲浸信会传教士JC·露西牧师夫妇，或是每年两次路过小镇的磨刀匠，又或是那对加州年轻夫妇温斯顿——某个下午他们的车在屋外抛锚，与我们在门廊愉快闲聊了一小时。

People who've struck our fancy, like president Roosevelt, like the reverend and missus JC Lucy, Baptist missionaries to Borneo who lectured here last winter, or the little knife grinder who comes through town twice a year, or the young Wistons, a California couple whose car one afternoon broke down outside the house and who spent a pleasant hour chatting with us on the porch.

年轻的温斯顿先生给我们拍了张照片，那是我们唯一的一张合影。

Young mister Winston snapped our picture, the only one we've ever had taken.

此刻，新的十二月无花果枝正摩擦着窗棂。

Now a new December fig branch grates against the window.

厨房空荡荡的。

The kitchen is empty.

蛋糕已无踪影。

The cakes are gone.

昨天，我们把最后一批蛋糕运到了邮局，邮票的费用让我们囊空如洗。

Yesterday, we carted the last of them to the post office where the cost of stamps turned our purse inside out.

我们破产了。

We're broke.

这让我相当沮丧，但我的朋友坚持要用瓶底剩下的两英寸威士忌来庆祝。

That rather depresses me, but my friend insists on celebrating with two inches of whiskey left in bottle.

奎妮喝了一勺咖啡，还有一碗。

Queenie has a spoonful and a bowl of coffee.

她喜欢她的咖啡掺有菊苣味，而且很浓。

She likes her coffee chicory flavored and strong.

剩下的我们分装在两个果冻杯里。

The rest we divide between a pair of jelly glasses.

对于直接喝纯威士忌的前景，我们俩都感到相当敬畏。

We're both quite awed at the prospect of drinking straight whiskey.

它的味道让我们皱起眉头，露出酸涩的表情。

The taste of it brings screwed up expressions and sour shutters.

但渐渐地，我们开始唱歌，两人同时唱着不同的歌曲。

But by and by, we begin to sing, the two of us singing different songs simultaneously.

我不知道我这首歌的歌词。

I don't know the words to mine.

一起来吧。

Just come on along.

一起来参加暗夜镇的狂欢舞会吧。

Come on along to the dark town strutters ball.

但我可以跳舞。

But I can dance.

这就是我想成为的样子，电影里的踢踏舞者。

That's what I mean to be, a tap dancer in the movies.

我跳舞的影子在墙上欢跃。

My dancing shadow rollics on the walls.

我们的歌声震得瓷器叮当作响。

Our voices rock the chinaware.

我们咯咯笑着，仿佛有无形的手在挠我们痒痒。

We giggle as if unseen hands were tickling us.

奎妮仰面打了个滚。

Queenie rolls on her back.

她的爪子在空中刨动。

Her paws plow the air.

某种类似咧嘴笑的表情扯开了她的黑色嘴唇。

Something like a grin stretches her black lips.

我内心感到温暖而闪耀，就像那些碎裂的圆木，无忧无虑如同烟囱里的风。

Inside myself, I feel warm and sparky as those crumbling logs, carefree as the wind in the chimney.

我的朋友围着火炉跳华尔兹，她手指捏着破印花布裙的裙边，仿佛那是礼服裙。

My friend waltzes round the stove, the hem of her poor calico skirt pinched between her fingers as though it were a party dress.

她唱着'带我回家'，网球鞋在地板上吱吱作响。

Show me the way to go home, she sings, her tennis shoes squeaking on the floor.

带我回家。

Show me the way to go home.

闯进来两位怒气冲冲的亲戚，眼神凌厉，言辞锋利。

Enter two relatives, very angry, potent with eyes that scold, tongues that scold.

听听他们怎么说。

Listen to what they have to say.

话语交织成愤怒的旋律。

The words tumbling together into a wrathful tune.

七岁的孩子，满嘴威士忌味，你疯了吗？

A child of seven, whiskey on his breath, are you out of your mind?

给七岁孩子灌酒简直是自取灭亡的疯狂行径。

Feeding a child of seven must be loony road to ruination.

还记得凯特表姐、查理叔叔和他连襟吗？

Remember cousin Kate, uncle Charlie, uncle Charlie's brother-in-law?

耻辱、丑闻、颜面扫地。

Shame, scandal, humiliation.

快跪下，祈求主的宽恕。

Pray, beg the lord.

奎妮悄悄躲到了炉子下面。

Queenie sneaks under the stove.

我的朋友盯着她的鞋子。

My friend gazes at her shoes.

她的下巴在颤抖。

Her chin quivers.

她提起裙摆擤了擤鼻子，跑回了自己房间。

She lifts her skirt and blows her nose and runs to her room.

直到小镇早已入睡，整栋房子只剩下时钟的报时声和渐熄炉火的噼啪声时，她仍将脸埋在枕头里啜泣——那枕头已湿透得像寡妇的手帕。

Long after the town has gone to sleep and the house is silent except for the chimings of clocks and the sputter of fading fires, she is weeping into a pillow already as wet as a widow's handkerchief.

别哭了，我坐在她床尾说道，尽管穿着散发出去冬止咳糖浆味的法兰绒睡袍，我还是冷得发抖。

Don't cry, I say, sitting at the bottom of her bed and shivering despite my flannel nightgown that smells of last winter's cough syrup.

别哭了，我央求着，轻挠她的脚趾，搔弄她的脚心。

Don't cry, I beg, teasing her toes, tickling her feet.

你早过了哭鼻子的年纪了。

You're too old for that.

那是因为，她打着嗝说，我太老了。

It's because, she hiccups, I am too old.

又老又滑稽。

Old and funny.

不滑稽。

Not funny.

有趣。

Fun.

比任何人都要有趣。

More fun than anybody.

听着，如果你再哭下去，明天会累得没法去砍树了。

Listen, if you don't stop crying, you'll be so tired tomorrow we can't go cut a tree.

她直起身子。

She straightens up.

奎妮跳上床——虽然按规定它不能舔她的脸。

Queenie jumps on the bed where Queenie is not allowed to lick her cheeks.

我知道哪里能找到真正漂亮的树，伙计，还有冬青树，浆果大得像你的眼睛。

I know where we'll find real pretty trees, buddy, and Holly too, with berries big as your eyes.

那在树林深处，比我们以前去过的任何地方都远。

It's way off in the woods, farther than we've ever been.

爸爸以前常从那里给我们带圣诞树，扛在肩上带回来。

Papa used to bring us Christmas trees from there, carry them on his shoulder.

那是五十年前的事了。

That's fifty years ago.

好吧，我现在都等不及天亮了。

Well, now I can't wait for morning.

天亮。

Morning.

散发着节日气息的树林，红浆果，闪亮的装饰品，中国铃铛，黑乌鸦尖叫着俯冲下来。

Scented acres of holiday trees, prickly leafed holly, red berries, shinies, Chinese bells, black crows swoop upon them screaming.

我们用麻袋装满了足够的绿枝和红果来装饰十几个窗户，然后开始挑选一棵树。

Having stuffed our burlap sacks with enough greenery and crimson to garland a dozen windows, we set about choosing a tree.

我的朋友沉思着说，树应该比男孩高两倍，这样男孩就偷不到树顶的星星了。

It should be, muses my friend, twice as tall as a boy, so a boy can't steal the star.

我们选中的那棵树比我高两倍，是个英俊勇猛的大家伙，挨了三十下斧头才在吱呀断裂声中轰然倒下。

The one we pick is twice as tall as me, a brave handsome brute that survives 30 hatchet strokes before it keels with a creaking, rending cry.

为所有前窗编织装饰好冬青花环后，我们的下一个项目是制作家庭礼物。

After weaving and ribboning holly wreaths for all the front windows, our next project is the fashioning of family gifts.

给女士们准备扎染围巾。

Tie dye scarves for the ladies.

为男士们自制柠檬甘草阿司匹林糖浆，在感冒初发时和打猎后服用。

For the men, a home brewed lemon and licorice aspirin syrup to be taken at the first symptoms of a cold and after hunting.

但到了互赠礼物环节，我和朋友就分开秘密准备了。

But when it comes time for making each other's gifts, my friend and I separate to work secretly.

我想给她买珍珠柄小刀、收音机，还有整整一磅巧克力裹樱桃。

I would like to buy her a pearl handle knife, a radio, a whole pound of chocolate covered cherries.

我们曾尝过一些，她总发誓说我光靠这个就能活，老兄。

We tasted some once, and she always swears I could live on them, buddy.

老天，是的，我能做到，这可不是妄称他的名。

Lord, yes, I could, and that's not taking his name in vain.

不过，我正在给她做一只风筝。

Instead, I am building her a kite.

她倒是想送我一辆自行车。

She would like to give me a bicycle.

她说过无数次了。

She said so on several million occasions.

要是我能送你就好了，伙计。

If only I could, buddy.

生活中得不到想要的东西已经够糟了。

It's bad enough in life to do without something you want.

但最让我恼火的是，明明想送人东西却送不成。

But confounded, what gets my goat is not being able to give somebody something you want them to have.

总有一天我会的，伙计，给你弄辆自行车。

Only one of these days I will, buddy, locate you a bike.

别问怎么搞到的。

Don't ask how.

也许是偷来的。

Steal it, maybe.

不过我很确定她正在给我做风筝，和去年、前年一样。

Instead, I'm fairly certain that she is building me a kite, the same as last year and the year before.

前年我们互赠了弹弓，这些都让我很开心。

The year before that, we exchanged slingshots, all of which is fine by me.

因为我们可是研究风向如海员般的风筝高手。

For we are champion kite flyers who study the wind like sailors.

我那位比我厉害的朋友，能在连云都吹不动的微风里把风筝放上天。

My friend, more accomplished than I, can get a kite aloft when there isn't enough breeze to carry clouds.

圣诞前夜下午，我们凑出一枚硬币去肉铺给奎妮买传统礼物——一块上好的带肉牛骨。

Christmas Eve afternoon, we scrape together a nickel and go to the butcher's to buy Queenie's traditional gift, a good, knowable beef bone.

这根用滑稽包装纸包好的骨头被高高挂在圣诞树银星旁边。

The bone wrapped in funny paper is placed high in the tree near the silver star.

奎妮知道它在那儿。

Queenie knows it's there.

她蹲在树脚下，贪婪地出神凝视着上方。

She squats at the foot of the tree staring up in a trance of greed.

到了就寝时间，她仍固执地不肯挪动。

When bedtime arrives, she refuses to budge.

她的兴奋程度与我旗鼓相当。

Her excitement is equal by my own.

我踢开被子，翻动枕头，仿佛身处炎炎夏夜。

I kick the covers and turn my pillow as though it were a scorching summer's night.

远处有只公鸡在误报天明，其实太阳仍在地球的另一端。

Somewhere, a rooster crows falsely for the sun is still on the other side of the world.

巴迪，你醒着吗？

Buddy, are you awake?

是我的朋友在隔壁房间呼唤我。

It is my friend calling from her room, which is next to mine.

转瞬间，她已手持蜡烛坐在我的床边。

And an instant later, she is sitting on my bed holding a candle.

‘我一点儿也睡不着，’她宣称道。

Well, I can't sleep a hoot, she declares.

‘我的思绪像野兔般乱跳。’

My mind's jumping like a jackrabbit.

‘巴迪，你觉得罗斯福夫人会在晚餐时端上我们的蛋糕吗？’

Buddy, do you think missus Roosevelt will serve our cake at dinner?

我们蜷缩在床上，她紧握我的手说：‘我爱你。’

We huddle in the bed and she squeezes my hand, I love you.

‘你的手似乎以前要小得多呢。’

Seems like your hand used to be so much smaller.

‘我想我是不愿看你长大吧。’

I guess I hate to see you grow up.

‘等你长大了，我们还会是朋友吗？’

When you're grown up, will we still be friends?

我说，永远都是。

I say, always.

但我感觉很难过，伙计。

But I feel so bad, buddy.

我真的很想给你一辆自行车。

I wanted so bad to give you a bike.

我试着卖掉爸爸给我的浮雕首饰。

I tried to sell my cameo papa gave me.

伙计，她犹豫着似乎有些难为情，我又给你做了个风筝。

Buddy, she hesitates as though embarrassed, I made you another kite.

然后我坦白我也给她做了一个，我们都笑了。

Then I confess that I made her one too, and we laugh.

蜡烛烧得太短握不住了。

The candle burns too short to hold.

烛光熄灭，星光显现，星星在窗前旋转如同可见的颂歌，慢慢地，慢慢地被黎明平息。

Out it goes, exposing the starlight, the stars spinning at the window like a visible caroling that slowly, slowly daybreak silences.

或许我们打了个盹。

Possibly we doze.

但黎明的曙光像冷水般泼洒在我们身上。

But the beginnings of dawn splash us like cold water.

我们睁大眼睛四处游荡，等待其他人醒来。

We're up wide eyed and wandering while we wait for others to waken.

我的朋友故意把水壶摔在厨房地板上。

Quite deliberately, my friend drops a kettle on the kitchen floor.

我在紧闭的房门前跳踢踏舞。

I tap dance in front of closed doors.

家人们陆续出现，看起来恨不得杀了我们俩，但因为是圣诞节所以不能动手。

One by one, the household emerges, looking as though they'd like to kill us both, but it's Christmas so they can't.

首先是丰盛的早餐，你能想到的应有尽有——从煎饼炸松鼠到玉米粥蜂窝蜜，这让所有人都心情大好，除了我和我朋友。

First, a gorgeous breakfast, just everything you can imagine from flapjacks and fried squirrel to hominy grits and honey in the comb, which puts everyone in a good humor except my friend and I.

老实说，我们急着拆礼物，一口都吃不下。

Frankly, we're so impatient to get at the presents we can't eat a mouthful.

唉，我太失望了。

Well, I'm disappointed.

谁能不失望呢？

Who wouldn't be?

只有袜子、主日学衬衫、几条手帕、一件二手毛衣，还有一份儿童宗教杂志的年订阅。

With socks, a Sunday school shirt, some handkerchiefs, a hand me down sweater, and a year's subscription to a religious magazine for children.

《小牧羊人》。

The Little Shepherd.

这让我怒火中烧。

It makes me boil.

真的让我很生气。

It really does.

巴迪，风在吹。

Buddy, the wind is blowing.

风在吹，我们非得跑到屋下的牧场不可——奎妮已经溜到那里去埋它的骨头了，而明年冬天，奎妮也将被埋葬在那里。

The wind is blowing and nothing will do till we've run to a pasture below the house where Queenie has scooted to bury her bone and where, a winter hence, Queenie will be buried too.

在那里，我们穿过齐腰高的茂盛草丛，放飞风筝，感受它们在风中游弋，像天空中的鱼儿一样轻扯动风筝线。

There, plunging through the healthy waist high grass, we unreal our kites, feel them twitching at the string like sky fish as they swim into the wind.

心满意足，晒着暖阳，我们摊开在草地上，剥着柑橘，看着我们的风筝在空中翻飞。

Satisfied, sun warmed, we sprawl in the grass and peel satsumas and watch our kites cavort.

很快，我就忘记了那些袜子和二手毛衣。

Soon, I forget the socks and hand me down sweater.

我高兴得仿佛我们已经赢得了那场咖啡命名比赛的5万美元大奖。

I'm as happy as if we'd already won the $50,000 grand prize in that coffee naming contest.

天哪，我多傻啊，我的朋友突然警觉地喊道，就像一个女人太晚想起烤箱里还有饼干。

My, how foolish I am, my friend cries suddenly alert, like a woman remembering too late she has biscuits in the oven.

你知道我一直以来怎么想的吗？

You know what I've always thought?

她用发现的语气问道，目光越过我看向远方，脸上没有笑容。

She asked in the tone of discovery and not smiling at me, but a point beyond.

我一直以为一个人必须病入膏肓才能见到上帝。

I've always thought a body would have to be sick and dying before they saw the lord.

我曾想象他降临时，会像浸信会的彩窗般美丽，阳光穿透彩色玻璃的景象。

And I imagined that when he came, it would be like looking at the Baptist window, pretty as colored glass with the sun pouring through.

如此耀眼的光芒，让你不觉天色已暗。

Such a shine, you don't know it's getting dark.

想到那光芒能驱散所有阴森的感觉，一直令我感到宽慰。

And it's been a comfort to think of that shine taking away all the spooky feeling.

但我敢打赌这永远不会发生。

But I'll wager it never happens.

我敢赌在生命最后一刻，人们才会意识到主早已通过现存万物显现自身。

I'll wager at the very end, a body realizes the Lord has already shown himself that things as they are.

她的手划出弧线，将云彩、风筝、草地和奎妮用泥土掩埋骨头的动作尽收其中。

Her hand circles in a gesture that gathers clouds and kites and grass and Queenie pouring earth over her bone.

他们日常所见的一切，其实都是在见证他的存在。

Just what they've always seen was seeing him.

至于我，我可以带着今日所见阖目离世。

As for me, I could leave the world with today in my eyes.

这是我们共度的最后一个圣诞节。

This is our last Christmas together.

生活将我们分开。

Life separates us.

那些最懂行的人决定我该上军校，于是接下来是一连串悲惨的军号监狱、阴森森的夏令营。

Those who know best decide that I belong in a military school, and so follows a miserable succession of bugle blowing prisons, grim, revelly ridden summer camps.

我也有个新家，但那不算数。

I have a new home too, but it doesn't count.

有朋友的地方才是家，而我再也没去过那里。

Home is where my friend is, and there I never go.

而她始终在那里，独自在厨房里忙活，先是有奎妮作伴，后来只剩她一人。

And there she remains, puttering around the kitchen, alone with Queenie, then alone.

亲爱的巴迪，她用潦草难辨的字迹写道。

Buddy dear, she writes in her wild, hard to read script.

昨天，吉姆·梅西的马把奎妮踢伤了。

Yesterday, Jim Macy's horse kicked Queenie bad.

庆幸她没受太多痛苦。

Be thankful she didn't feel much.

我用上好的亚麻布裹着她，驾着马车把她送到辛普森牧场，让她能与所有骸骨为伴。

I wrapped her in a fine linen sheet and rode her in the buggy down to Simpson's pasture where she can be with all her bones.

接下来的几个十一月，她仍坚持独自烘焙水果蛋糕，数量虽不如前，但仍有制作。

For a few Novembers, she continues to bake her fruitcake single handed, not as many, but some.

当然，她总会把最好的一批寄给我。

And of course, she always sends me the best of the batch.

但在她的来信中，她渐渐把我与另一位故人混淆——那位在1880年代就已离世的老友。

But gradually in her letters, she tends to confuse me with her other friend, the buddy who died in the eighteen eighties.

直到某个十一月的清晨，一个无叶无鸟的冬日早晨，她再没能醒来惊呼'啊呀，是做水果蛋糕的天气了'。

A morning arrives in November, a leafless, birdless coming of winter morning when she cannot rouse herself to exclaim, oh my, it's fruitcake weather.

当那一刻来临，我其实早已心知。

And when that happens, I know it.

传来的噩耗不过是印证了血脉中早已感知的消息——仿佛断线的风筝，我生命不可替代的部分就此飘散。

A message saying so merely confirms a piece of news some secret vein had already received, severing from me an irreplaceable part of myself, letting it loose like a kite on a broken string.

这就是为什么在这个特别的十二月早晨，我走过校园时不断仰望天空，仿佛期待会看到，就像两颗心一般，一对迷失的风筝正匆匆飞向天堂。

That is why walking across the school campus on this particular December morning, I keep searching the sky as if I expected to see, rather like hearts, a lost pair of kites hurrying toward heaven.

杜鲁门·卡波特于1959年记录。

Truman Capote recorded in 1959.

《圣诞回忆》经杜鲁门·卡波特文学信托基金授权播出，受托人为艾伦·U·施瓦茨。

A Christmas memory was broadcast with the permission of the Truman Capote Literary Trust, Alan u Schwartz, trustee.

本故事版本为适应广播节目有所删减。

This version of the story was abridged for radio.

接下来，更多证据表明完美礼物如同完美犯罪般难以捉摸，一分钟后芝加哥公共广播电台继续为您呈现。

Coming up, more proof that the perfect gift, like the perfect crime, is an elusive thing in a minute from Chicago Public Radio when our program continues.

这里是《美国生活》，我是艾拉·格拉斯。

Tis American Life, Amira Glass.

我们的节日送礼指南保证不会为您提供任何实用的最后一刻购物建议。

It's our guide to holiday gift giving, in which we guarantee you will find no practical advice for your last minute shopping.

相反，我们为您准备了关于节日礼物的故事。

Instead, we have stories of holiday presents.

本期节目首播于2003年。

Today's show was first broadcast in 2003.

我们正在播出节目的第三幕。

We're in act three of our show.

第三幕，神秘圣诞老人。

Act three, secret Santa.

凯特琳·查特利将讲述这个故事：一个礼物引发另一个，再引发下一个，如此延续，然后戛然而止。

Caitlin Chatterley has this story about one gift leading to another leading to another leading to another and then stopping.

我成长于缅因州东部沿海一个名为萨里的小镇。

I grew up in a small town called Surrey on the coast of down East Maine.

圣诞节时，我们镇上几乎所有人都会在乔丹树农场购买圣诞树。

At Christmas, most everyone in our town bought their trees at Jordan's Tree Farm.

每棵树5美元，砍伐风险自负。

$5 per tree, cut at your own risk.

现在回想起来觉得很有趣，毕竟这里是缅因州乡村——松树之州，按理说人们本可以在自家土地上砍树。

Thinking back, it seems funny to me now since after all, this is rural Maine, the pine tree state, and you'd think everyone could cut their own trees on their own land.

而且乔丹农场的树也没什么特别的。

And it's not like the trees at the Jordan Farm were so special.

几乎所有人都管它们叫查理·布朗树（形容瘦小不完美的圣诞树）。

Pretty much everyone called them Charlie Brown trees.

人们来是因为罗伯特·乔丹。

People came because of Robert Jordan.

他们对他很忠诚，觉得他需要这笔钱。

They were loyal to him, and they figured he could use the money.

每年的流程都一样。

Every year, the drill was the same.

你会和家人下车，在零下寒风中跋涉数英里寻找完美圣诞树，拖着战利品穿过雪地，最后去找罗伯特。

You'd get out of your car with your family, trudge for what seemed like miles and subzero winds searching for the perfect tree, drag your prize back through the snow, and then finally, you'd go find Robert.

这是一年中我们大多数人能见到罗伯特的少数时候。

This was one of the only times of year most of us saw Robert.

他似乎完全隐居在那座摇摇欲坠的房子里——房子高踞在路边，紧挨着谷仓后蔓延的茂密树林。

He seemed to live an entirely reclusive life in his ramshackle house perched above the road and bordering the thick trees that fanned out behind his barn.

我们很多人都认识像罗伯特这样的人，我们自己的布·拉德利，一个可怜的老人，一生都与父母同住，直到他们相继离世。

Many of us know someone like Robert, our own Boo Radley, a poor old man who's lived with his parents his entire life until one and then the other died.

以下是我们从这些每年短暂的交易中对罗伯特的了解。

Here's what we knew about Robert from these short yearly transactions.

他有着非常奇怪的声音。

He had a very strange voice.

他戴着可乐瓶底般的厚眼镜，一顶橙色猎帽，在我的记忆里还穿着一件红黑相间的格子呢外套。

He wore Coke bottle glasses, an orange hunting cap, and in my memory, a red and black buffalo plaid jacket.

但不知怎的，罗恩·汉密尔顿和他的妻子布伦达比大多数人更了解罗伯特。

But somehow Ron Hamilton and his wife Brenda came to know Robert better than most people did.

以下是罗恩的讲述。

Here's Ron.

很多人以为罗伯特智力有问题，因为他父亲听力不好，他说话有点像这样，你知道的。

A lot of people thought Robert was retarded because his father was hard hearing and he kinda talked like this, you know.

我跟他交流不多，但偶尔他会说些话，比如：你今天好吗？

And I kinda minimum with him a little bit, but every now and then he'd say something like, well, how are you today?

我会说，还不错，罗伯特。

And I'd say, pretty good, Robert.

嗯，我们今天要做什么？

Well, what are we gonna do today?

你知道吗？

You know?

这让我想起了凯瑟琳·赫本，对吧？

And it and it kinda reminded me of Catherine Hepburn, is it?

她声音里也有那种类似的破碎感。

That's got that same kind of broken spot in her voice.

但他一直都不知道自己说话是这样，直到后来才明白是因为他父亲几乎全聋。

But he never knew he'd done that until later in life that because his father was almost deathclawed.

他会看着你然后问，什么？

He'd have to look at you and went, what?

什么？

What?

罗伯特会直接大声说出来。

And Robert would bell it right out.

农舍和乔丹一家在农场的生活都很原始。

The farmhouse and the Jordans' lifestyle on the farm was primitive.

房子里没有热水。

The house had no hot water.

克莱德和罗伯特早餐吃的是冷的罐装豆子。

Clyde and Robert ate canned cold beans for breakfast.

他们的门廊堆满了杂物和猫，闻起来有猫粮和尿味。

Their porch was overflowing with junk and cats and smelled like cat food and urine.

罗伯特睡在客厅的椅子上，克莱德则睡在厨房木炉旁的小折叠床上。

Robert slept in a chair in the living room, and Clyde slept on a small cot next to the wood stove in the kitchen.

罗伯特的母亲贝西于1987年在楼上的小卧室里去世。

Robert's mother, Bessie, had passed away in 1987 in one of the small bedrooms upstairs.

自那以后，这两个男人就相依为命。

Since then, the two men were on their own.

大约十五年前，罗尼·汉密尔顿和妻子布伦达结识了罗伯特和克莱德。

About fifteen years ago, Ronnie Hamilton and his wife Brenda met Robert and Clyde.

布伦达当时正在制作并销售圣诞花环，罗伯特看到后，先是邀请汉密尔顿夫妇来农场采集枝条制作花环，后来又让他们直接在农场售卖。

Brenda was making and selling Christmas wreaths, and when Robert saw them, he invited the Hamilton's first to get brush from the farm to make their wreaths, and later to sell them at the farm.

他们最终共度了许多时光。

They ended up spending a lot of time together.

尽管经营着圣诞树农场，但罗伯特和他已故的母亲都是耶和华见证会信徒，因此这家人实际上并不庆祝圣诞节。

Despite the Christmas tree farm, Robert and his late mother were Jehovah's Witnesses, and so the family didn't actually celebrate Christmas.

但罗尼和布伦达想让他们也感受到节日氛围。

But Ronnie and Brenda wanted to include them into their holiday.

有一天，罗恩注意到克莱德穿着两只不配对的靴子，在最寒冷的日子里根本没法保暖双脚。

One day, Ron noticed Clyde was wearing two different boots and that on the coldest days, they weren't keeping his feet warm.

于是我去给他买了双靴子，还给罗伯特买了双运动鞋——我知道他喜欢那种不用系鞋带、只用魔术贴的款式。

So I went and bought him a pair of boots, and we bought Robert a pair of sneakers because I knew Robert liked them ones that you didn't have to lace up, just had the Velcro.

总之，我们在圣诞季给他们准备了些小礼物。

Anyway, we got several little things in a Christmas darken.

圣诞节前一天，我过来敲门说‘圣诞老人来了’。

Well, day before Christmas, I'd come over and I said, knock on the door, they said, Santa's here.

他们进来后，他问‘你为什么要这么做？’

And they'd come in, and he said, what did you do that for?

我说‘因为我想这么做’。

I said, because I want to.

我还说‘就是因为你喜欢为别人做点事’。

And I said, just because you'd like to do things for people.

我又问‘你为什么要这么做？’

And I asked, what did you do that for?

他说‘因为他想这么做’。

And he says, because he wanted to.

所以我就用同样的方式回敬他，而他——你知道的——他其实喜欢圣诞节。

So I I kinda put it right back to him that way, and he, you know, he liked Christmas.

自那第一个圣诞节后，罗伯特开始每年都和罗恩、布伦达互赠礼物。

After that first Christmas, Robert began exchanging gifts each year with Ron and Brenda.

随着克莱德年岁渐长并开始依赖罗伯特，罗伯特也开始依赖汉密尔顿夫妇。

As Clyde got older and started to rely on Robert, Robert started to rely on the Hamiltons.

一个深夜，克莱德病得很重，罗伯特打电话向罗恩求助。

Late one night, Clyde got so sick, Robert called Ron for help.

他说，父亲病了。

And he says, father's sick.

你能来接他吗？

Can you come get him?

那时大概是晚上11点半到12点左右，天还下着雪。

And this was, like, 11:30, 12:00 at night, snowy and stuff.

我过去接他，把他抱起来放进卡车，然后送他去蓝山医院。

And I went over and got him, put him picked him up and put him in the truck and took him to Blue Hill Hospital.

不用说，他得了癌症。

Well, needless to say, he had cancer.

这种情况持续了大约一年。

And that went on for about a year.

最后，罗伯特的父亲在医院里情况非常糟糕。

Finally, Robert's father was in the hospital real bad there.

罗伯特打电话给我说：‘你能带我去看看爸爸吗？’

And Robert called me out and he said, you take me over and see dad?

我说：‘好的。’

And I said, Yeah.

进去后医生表示只是时间问题了。

Went in and the doctor just it was just a matter of time.

我对罗伯特说：‘如果你想对父亲说些什么，最好现在就说。’

And I said to Robert, I said, You know, if you want to say something to your father, you want say it now.

不过后来我们想起这事还觉得有点好笑。

But we get a check kick out of this because we chuckled about it afterwards.

他说：‘但我没法叫醒他。’

He said, but I can't get him awake.

我说：‘我能叫醒他。’

I said, I can get him awake.

他说，你能行吗？

He says, you can?

他说，怎么弄？

He says, how?

我说，你看着吧。

And I says, you watch.

我说，克莱德，你的圣诞树里有人。

I says, Clyde, there's somebody in your Christmas trees.

他睁开一只眼看了看我，说：我还没死呢。

He opened up one eye and he looked at me and said, I'm not dead yet.

我对罗伯特说：你想跟你父亲说点什么吗？

I says to Robert, I says, says, you wanna say something to your father?

你现在想跟他说话吗？

You wanna talk to him now?

于是他们聊了几分钟，然后克莱德又睡着了。第二天早上罗伯特打电话告诉我他父亲去世了。

So they talked a few minutes and then Clyde dozed off and Robert called me next morning and told me his father died.

罗伯特请罗恩负责安排克莱德的安葬事宜。

Robert asked Ron to take care of the burial arrangements.

于是罗恩为克莱德挖了墓穴，召集了几位朋友，并说了几句最后的告别词。

So Ron dug the hole for Clyde's remains, gathered some friends, and said a few final words.

随后罗伯特问罗恩，等到那一天来临时，是否也能为他做同样的事。

Then Robert asked Ron if when it came time, he would do the same for him.

罗恩答应了。

Ron said yes.

罗伯特父亲去世时他65岁。

Robert was 65 when his father died.

他一生大部分时间都在与糖尿病抗争。

He had struggled with diabetes for most of his life.

他心脏有问题，经常进出医院。

He had had heart problems, and he was in and out of the hospital.

2000年时他曾和罗恩与布伦达同住了几个月，因为他已无法自理生活。

He stayed with Ron and Brenda for a couple of months in the 2000 because he couldn't take care of himself.

他特别喜欢他们家能洗热水澡和有遥控器的电视。

He loved the hot showers and the television with remote control they had at their house.

最终罗伯特回到了农场，重获独立生活。

Eventually Robert went back to the farm and to his independence.

他开始每天步行四英里，体重也减轻了些。

He started walking four miles a day and lost some weight.

2001年的某个清晨，罗恩去接罗伯特进城时，

Then in 2001, Ron went over early one morning to pick Robert up to take him into town.

发现他倒在地板上。

He found Robert lying on the floor.

他已经去世了。

He was dead.

罗恩遵守了对罗伯特的承诺，在四月一个阳光明媚的下午举行了简短的仪式。

Ron kept his promise to Robert and held a small ceremony on a sunny April afternoon.

他将罗伯特的骨灰撒在农场后院的圣诞树林间。

He scattered Robert's ashes out back of the farm among the Christmas trees.

几天后，汉密尔顿一家接到通知，要求他们与五家当地非营利组织的代表一同出席罗伯特遗嘱的宣读会。

A few days later, the Hamiltons were contacted to come to a reading of Robert's will along with representatives from five local nonprofit organizations.

当律师开始宣读遗嘱时，在场的人都震惊了。

As the lawyer started to read out the will, people were stunned.

原来罗伯特·乔丹是个百万富翁。

It turns out Robert Jordan was a millionaire.

罗伯特从三位邻居——马路对面拥有避暑别墅的富有的三姐妹那里继承了价值几十万美元的AT&T股票。

Robert had inherited a couple 100,000 in AT and T stock from three neighbors, wealthy sisters who had a summer place across the road.

罗伯特年轻时曾为这些姐妹修剪草坪和跑腿办事。

When Robert was growing up, he had mowed lawns and run errands for the sisters.

当她们年迈时，他又悉心照料她们。

And when they got older, he had taken care of them.

1984年最后一位姐妹贝蒂去世时，她把股票和房子都留给了罗伯特。

When the last sister Betty died in 1984, she left Robert the stock and her house.

罗伯特卖掉了那栋房子。

Robert sold the house.

至于那些股票，他的时机把握得恰到好处。

And as for the stock, his timing was perfect.

股价暴涨。

It boomed.

罗伯特将他的钱分配给了他感兴趣或曾善待他的当地组织。

Robert had divided up his money between local organizations he was interested in or had been kind to him.

但最大的一笔赠予留给了罗恩和布伦达·汉密尔顿夫妇。

But the largest gift was left to Ron and Brenda Hamilton.

罗伯特·乔丹把农场留给了他们。

Robert Jordan had left them the farm.

我当时完全惊呆了。

Well, was flabbergasted.

我是说，我简直不敢相信。

I mean, I couldn't believe it.

直到今天我都难以相信，因为我从未期待从任何人那里得到任何东西。

I just I just you know, to this day, I don't believe it because I didn't look for nothing for nobody.

我们当时非常兴奋，于是收拾好行李，开始在农场里打扫卫生，稍微修整了一下农场和谷仓之类的，然后搬了进去。你知道，那真是个可爱的地方。

We were so excited so we packed up our stuff and started cleaning on the farm and fixing the farm up a little bit and the barn and stuff and moved in and you know it was just a lovely spot.

罗伯特留给罗尼和布伦达的树场坐落在山顶，俯瞰着172号公路。

The tree farm Robert left to Ronnie and Brenda sits on top of a hill looking over Route 172.

那里有66英亩的树林和一处天然泉水。

It has 66 acres of trees and a natural spring.

房子是白色的，从路上看比实际要大。

The house is white, and from the road, it looks bigger than it really is.

唯一的洗手池在厨房里，除了烧木柴的炉子外，房子里没有其他取暖设备。

The only sink was in the kitchen, and the house had no heat besides the wood stove.

2001年8月，罗尼和布伦达搬了进去。

In August 2001, Ronnie and Brenda moved in.

他们对眼前的任务感到兴奋，而不是畏惧。

They were excited, not daunted, by the task that lay ahead of them.

一年后，我去拜访了罗尼和布伦达。

A year later, I went to visit Ronnie and Brenda.

这是我第一次真正能够走上门廊。

It was the first time I'd actually been able to walk onto the porch.

杂物已经清理干净，一只灰色的小猫蜷缩在沙发上，三只狗在门口迎接我。

The clutter was gone, a small gray kitten lay curled on a couch, and three dogs met me at the door.

仿佛罗尼和布伦达的世界突然开阔了。

It was as if Ronnie and Brenda's world had opened up.

罗恩告诉我，罗伯特的礼物彻底改变了他的生活。

Ron told me that Robert's gift had completely changed his life.

我身上没有那么大的压力了，你知道，不用再想我该怎么办。

I don't have so much tension on me, you know, thinking that, what am I gonna do?

现在我知道我要做什么了。

Now I know what I'm gonna do.

我余生大部分时间都会照料这些圣诞树，并像他一样享受这个过程。

I'm gonna work on these Christmas trees most of the rest of my life and enjoy it like he did.

当晚我离开时，罗恩送我到了车旁。

When I left that night, Ron walked me to my car.

太好了。

That's great.

非常感谢。

Thank you so much.

嗯，谢谢你，亲爱的。

Well, thank you, dear.

我想我会回来的

I think I'll come back

在圣诞节的时候。

at Christmas.

好的。

Okay.

好的。

Okay.

你要拿你的托盘吗？

You gonna get your tray?

好的。

Yeah.

一定要来

Definitely get come

拿个

get a

托盘，肯定的。

tray For sure.

嗯。

Yeah.

谢谢。

Thank you.

谢谢。

Thank you.

不客气。

You're welcome.

测试。

Test.

测试。

Test.

四个月后，正值圣诞前夕，我又回到了圣诞树农场。

Four months later, it's Christmas Eve, and I'm back at the tree farm.

早上好，亲爱的。

Good morning, dear.

你好吗？

How are you?

哦。

Oh.

哇。

Wow.

你的房子看起来真棒。

Your house looks great.

谢谢大家。

Thank you all.

正在逐渐成形。

It's coming together.

哦，看

Oh, look

那棵树。

at the tree.

我想我们会去散步。

I think we'll go for a walk.

不过住在这里还顺利吗？

Is it going well, though, living here?

你对这里感觉满意吗？

Are you feeling good about it?

我整个夏天在这里遇到的都是麻烦事。

I had nothing but trouble here all summer long.

告诉我为什么。

Tell me why.

有些人闯进了我的皮卡车，偷走了我的药，还进了这里。

Some people broke into my pickup truck and and taken my pills and come in here.

汉密尔顿一家搬来后，事情就变得复杂了。

After the Hamilton's moved in, things got complicated.

房子和谷仓需要大量修缮，而汉密尔顿一家却没有足够的资金来完成这些工作。

The house and the barn needed a lot of work, and the Hamiltons needed money they didn't have to do that work.

管理66英亩从公路向后延伸一英里多的农场对罗恩来说很困难。

Tending to 66 acres of farm that stretched over a mile back from the road was hard for Ron.

有一天，他在勘测土地时摔倒了，拉伤了颈部的肌肉和肌腱。

One day, he fell while surveying the land, and he pulled the muscles and tendons in his neck.

罗恩去了医院，医生给他开了止痛药，他把药带回了家。

Ron went to the hospital and was given painkillers, which he brought home.

一天后，几个孩子闯进他的卡车，偷走了他的药。

And a day later, some kids broke into his truck and stole his medicine.