評論
打印
My cell phone rings, dragging me back to the present.
我的手機響了，一下子把我回拉到現實。
"He's drinking," the nurse says curtly.
“他在喝酒，”護士簡短地說道。
"It looks like hard stuff."
“事情不太好處理。”
I ask her to hand him the phone.
我讓護士把電話遞給他。
Taking the phone, he says,
他拿起電話，說道，
"She's overreacting ... I'm just blowing off steam."
“她有點反應過度了……我只是在發泄。”
His name is Pete; his wife's name was Jimmie.
他叫皮特；他妻子叫吉米。
"Y'all think I'm nuts, don't you?"
“你們都覺得我瘋了，是嗎?”
"No, we think you're hurting.
“不，我們認為你受傷了，
But if you keep drinking, I'll have to get the cops involved to make sure nothing bad happens."
但如果你繼續喝酒，我得讓警察介入，確保不會發生什么不好的事。”
"All right, I'll put the whiskey away," he says gruffly.
“好吧，我把威士忌收起來，”他粗聲粗氣地說。
We talk about Jimmie and their life together.
我們談一談吉米，還有他們在一起的生活。
"What do you think Jimmie would say to you right now if she could see what's going on?" I ask.
“如果吉米看到你現在這樣，她會對你說什么?”我問。
He starts crying. "She'd tell me to shut my damn mouth and let people help me for a change."
他開始哽咽了。“她會讓我閉嘴，找人幫我換個環境”
He hands the phone back to the nurse.
他把電話還給了護士。
"The guy is in a universe of hurt," I say.
“這家伙難過的無法自拔了，”我說。
"We need to respond to the pain without being thrown by the behavior."
“痛苦就得想辦法面對，而不是在這兒把自己灌醉。”
Within minutes, I'm turning onto a dirt road with a No Trespassing sign.
不出幾分鐘，我就拐進了一條泥土路，上面寫著“禁止入內”。
My mind returns to Claude at the bar.
我又想到了酒吧里的克勞德。
Until then, our conversations had skated along the intellectual surface.
在此之前，我們的談話一直都還算理智。
That night, I'd sensed that Claude, an older guy who'd been knocked around by life,
但那天晚上，我感覺到克勞德像是一個老人，經歷了歲月的滄桑，
was making himself uncharacteristically vulnerable.
脆弱不堪。
Wanting nothing to do with it, I scoffed:
我不想再去做什么，嘲笑說：
"Aren't you the guy who's always dismissed that stuff as wishful thinking?"
“你不是一直對那些東西不予理會嗎?”
He smiled, his mouth just a bit off-kilter.
他笑了，嘴角很不自然地動了一下 。
"It comforts me to think that I won't be alone down in that valley,
“想到我不是一個人呆在那個山谷里，我感到很欣慰，
that someone will be with me, whether it's God, a friend, even a stranger."
有人會和我在一起，無論是上帝，朋友，甚至是陌生人。”
Then he turned serious. "Maybe you'll be the one lending a hand down in the valley someday."
然后他變得嚴肅起來。“也許某一天你會在山谷里向別人施以援手。”
