評論
打印
The Boy and the Bank Officer
男孩和銀行職員
Philip Ross
菲利普·羅斯
I have a friend who hates banks with a special passion. "A bank is just a store—like a candy store or a grocery store," he says. "The only difference is that a bank's goods happen to be money, which is yours in the first place. If banks were required to sell wallets and money belts, they might act less like churches."
我有一位朋友特別討厭銀行。他說：“銀行就是個商店，和糖果店或雜貨店一樣。唯一的區(qū)別就是銀行的商品恰巧是錢。而這些錢本來就是你的。如果讓銀行賣錢包和錢夾。它們可能就不會像教堂那樣神圣了?！?/div>
I began thinking about my friend the other day as I walked into a small, overlit branch office on the West Side. I had come to open a checking account.
幾天前，我走進位于紐約曼哈頓西區(qū)的一家支行時，想到了我的那位朋友。這家支行面積不大，燈火輝煌。我來是要開一個活期賬戶的。
It was lunchtime and the only officer on duty was a fortyish black man with short, pressed hair, a pencil mustache, and a neatly pressed brown suit. Everything about him suggested a carefully dressed authority.
當時正是午餐時間，銀行只有一個職員值班。他是個40來歲的黑人，梳著短短的平頭，留著一字胡，穿著一身整潔的熨燙過的棕色西裝。他渾身上下都顯示出他是個衣著講究、有身份地位的人。
This officer was standing across a small counter from a young white boy who was wearing a V-neck sweater, khakis, and loafers. He had sandy hair, and I think I was especially aware of him because he looked more like a kid from a prep school than a customer in a West Side bank.
這位職員站在一個小柜臺的前面，對面是一個白人小男孩，小男孩穿著一件V字領的毛衣，一條卡其布褲子和一雙平底便鞋。他有一頭淺棕色頭發(fā)。我想我之所以特別注意他，是因為他看起來更像是一個來自預科學校的孩子，而不像是一家西區(qū)銀行的客戶。
The boy continued to hold my attention because of what happened next.
接下來發(fā)生的事讓我繼續(xù)關注那個男孩。
