評論
打印
People thought Ethel Armstead was crazy to stand up to the young men dealing drugs outside her house. But Ethel had had enough. Summoning up her courage, she went out to talk to the gang. This is the story of what happened.
人們認為埃塞爾·阿姆斯特德準是瘋了，竟然敢去面對那些在她房子外面販賣毒品的年輕人。但埃塞爾已忍無可忍。她鼓足勇氣，走出去跟那幫人談話。下面就是所發生的故事。
Not on My Block
離開我這個街區
Lynn Rosellini
琳恩·羅塞利尼
Ethel Armstead liked the gray row house right off. It had an extra bedroom and a big backyard where her grandkids could play. The marble stoop would be perfect spot to sit on summer evenings.
埃塞爾·阿姆斯特德一下子就喜歡上了那棟灰色的聯房。房子里多出了一間臥室，還有一個很大的后院，可以讓她的小外孫和外孫女在那兒玩耍。那個大理石的門廊將是夏天夜晚坐著乘涼的理想場所。
But when Armstead arrived home from work that first night after moving in, she found a bunch of tough-looking young men sitting on her front steps.
但搬進來后的第一個晚上，當阿姆斯特德下班回到家時，她卻發現有一幫樣子很兇的人坐在她家門前的臺階上。
Excuse me, she said, startled. "I live here." The group of seven young men rose reluctantly, staring at her with cold, hard eyes. Once inside, Armstead locked the door and peered out the window. She was surprised to see that the men had already reseated themselves on her steps.
她大吃一驚，說道：“請原諒，我住在這兒。”那一幫七個年輕人不情愿地站了起來，用冷酷無情的目光盯著她看。一走進去，阿姆斯特德就鎖上門，從窗口往外看。她吃驚地發現那幾個年輕人已經又坐在了她的臺階上。
In coming weeks, Armstead learned that her house, long vacant, was used by drug dealers, who hid their drugs under the front steps. As a steady stream of cars and foot traffic passed by, the dealers conducted business on the stoop. Addicts shot up in the path behind the house and urinated in the backyard.
在以后的幾個星期里，阿姆斯特德了解到她那棟房子過去長期空關時，曾被一些毒品販子用來在前臺階下面藏過毒品。當川流不息的車輛和行人經過時，毒品販子就在門廊上做生意。吸毒成癮的人就在房子后面的小路上注射毒品，并在后院里隨地撒尿。
Armstead had no illusions about the men who occupied her front steps. Almost every night for the ten years she had lived in the tough Oliver neighborhood of East Baltimore, she lay in bed listening to the sound of gunshots as the drug wars raged. But this house, with dealers hanging out on her stoop, was the worst.
阿姆斯特德對占用她門前的那些人不抱任何幻想。在東巴爾的摩那個充滿犯罪與暴力的奧利弗地區居住的十年間，幾乎每個晚上，她都倒在床上聽著毒品戰激烈進行時的槍擊聲。但是這棟房子有毒品販子經常出沒于她的門廊卻是最糟糕的。
