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Quarantining With a Ghost? It's Scary
居家隔離鬧鬼？好恐怖！
It started with the front door.
一開始是在前門。
Adrian Gomez lives with his partner in Los Angeles,
艾德里安·戈麥斯和同伴兩人住在洛杉磯，
where their first few days of sheltering in place for the coronavirus pandemic proved uneventful.
兩人正在那里隔離，頭幾天的日子還較平淡。
They worked remotely, baked, took a two-mile walk each morning and refinished their porcelain kitchen sink.
遠(yuǎn)程辦公，做做烘焙，每天早晨散步兩英里，還維修了廚房里的陶瓷水槽。
But then, one night, the doorknob began to rattle "vigorously," so loud he could hear it from across the apartment.
然而，接下來的一天晚上，前門的門把手開始“劇烈地”搖晃，聲音大到他從房子的另一頭都能聽到。
Yet no one was there.
問題是，屋外并沒有人。
In mid-April, Mr. Gomez was in bed when a nearby window shade began shaking against the window frame so intensely —
后來，4月中旬的一天夜里，已經(jīng)睡下的戈麥斯突然又聽到旁邊一扇窗戶的百葉窗在猛烈地敲打窗框——
despite the fact that the window was closed,
盡管窗戶當(dāng)時明明是關(guān)著的，
an adjacent window shade remained perfectly still, the cats were all accounted for,
而且旁邊另一扇窗戶的百葉窗沒有任何動靜，貓也確認(rèn)過了，
and no bug nor bird nor any other small creature had gotten stuck there —
也沒有蟲子或鳥或是其他任何小生命被困在那里——
that Mr. Gomez thought it was an earthquake.
敲打之厲害，戈麥斯甚至誤以為是發(fā)生了地震。
"I very seriously hid myself under the comforter, like you see in horror movies, because it really did freak me out," he said.
“我立馬躲到了被子里，就跟看了恐怖片一樣，因為真的把我給嚇壞了，”他說。
Now, though neither he nor his partner noticed any unexplained activity at home before this,
盡管在此之前，他和同伴都沒有注意到家里有任何無法莫名其妙的事情發(fā)生，
the couple can "distinctly" make out footsteps above their heads.
現(xiàn)在兩人卻能“清楚地”聽到頭頂有腳步聲。
No one lives above them.
問題是，他們上面根本就沒人住。
"I'm a fairly rational person," said Mr. Gomez, who is 26 and works in I.T. support.
“我這個人還算比較理性的，”在IT支持部門工作現(xiàn)年26歲的戈麥斯說。
"I try to think, 'What are the reasonable, tangible things that could be causing this?'
“我就想，‘如果是合理的，有形的東西引起的，那會是什么呢？’
But when I don't have those answers, I start to think, 'Maybe something else is going on.'"
但我實在想不出會是什么，于是我又開始想，‘說不定還真是別的什么東西在搞鬼。’”
They're not alone …possibly in more ways than one.
不光他們是這樣……可能還不止是這樣。
For those whose experience of self-isolation involves what they believe to be a ghost,
對那些自認(rèn)為在家隔離的時候撞鬼了的人來說，
their days are punctuated not just by Zoom meetings or home schooling,
隔離這段時間，闖進(jìn)他們生活的不僅是視頻會議和網(wǎng)課，
but by disembodied voices, shadowy figures, misbehaving electronics, invisible cats cozying up on couches,
還有鬼魅般的響聲，模糊的影子，表現(xiàn)怪異的電子產(chǎn)品，癱在沙發(fā)上卻看不見的貓，
caresses from hands that aren't there and even, in some cases — to borrow the technical parlance of "Ghostbusters" —
來自根本就不存在的手的撫摸，有時甚至還有——借用《捉鬼敢死隊》里的說法就是——
free-floating, full-torso vaporous apparitions.
自由漂浮，全身呈蒸氣狀的幽靈。
Some of these people are frightened, of course.
有些人自然是被嚇壞了。
Others say they just appreciate the company.
其他人反而表示很高興有它們陪伴。
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