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One Friday afternoon, as everyone was ready to leave the room after Linear Models, she gathered her courage and spoke to Bryan. He had spots on his chin and forehead, was taller than her, restless, as if he was in hurry to go somewhere else. He put his calculator back in its case, his pen in his pocket. She asked him for his notes, and his blue eyes behind his glasses took on the blankest look she had ever seen in her life. What was all the surprise for? Did he think she was an insect? Was he surprised that she could speak?
周五下午，在線性模型課下課后，當所有人都準備下課離開教室時，莎迪雅鼓足勇氣對布萊恩說話。他下巴和前額上有一些污點，他比她高很多，顯得焦躁不安，好像有急事要去其他地方似的，他把計算器放回包里，鋼筆放回口袋中。她問他借筆記時，他的眼鏡片后面的一雙藍眼睛露出了極度的茫然，她還從來沒有見過如此茫然的表情。為什么如此驚訝？難道他認為他是一只昆蟲？難道他詫異于她會說話？
A mumble for a reply, words strung together. So taken aback, he was. He pushed his chair back under the table with his foot.
他回答得很含糊，所有的話都黏在了一起。他就是這樣。他用腳把椅子推到了桌子下面。
Pardon?
“你說什么？”
He slowed down, separated each word.h' have them for ye on Monday."
他把每句話都分開來，慢慢說道，“我下周一給你帶來。”
Thank you. She spoke English better than he did! How pathetic. The whole of him was pathetic. He wore the same shirt every blessed day. Grey and white stripe.
“謝謝。”她的英語說得比他好！多么的可憐，他整個人都是如此的可憐。他竟然每天都穿同一件襯衫，那件灰白條子的襯衫。
On the weekends, Shadia never went out of the halls, and, unless someone telephoned long-distance from home, she spoke to no one. There was time to remember Thursday nights in Khartoum: a wedding to go with Fareed, driving in his red Mercedes. Or the club with her sister, sitting by the pool drinking lemonade with ice, the waiters all dressed in white. Here, in this country's weekend of Saturday and Sunday, Shadia washed her clothes and her hair.
周末的時候，莎迪雅幾乎很少出去，除了偶爾接到從家里打來的電話，她幾乎和誰都不說話。有時想起在喀土穆的某個周四的晚上，和法瑞德開著他的紅色奔馳車一起去參加婚禮。或者和她的妹妹一起去俱樂部，坐在泳池邊一起喝加冰的檸檬味汽水，侍者們都穿著白色衣服。而在這里，在這個國家的周末，莎迪雅能做的就只有洗衣服、洗頭發。
On the weekends, she made a list of the money she had spent: the sterling enough to keep a family alive back home. Yet she might fail her exams after all that expense, go back home emptyhanc-without degree. Guilt was cold like the fog of this city. It came from everywhere. One day she forgot to pray in the morning. She reached the bus stop and then realized that she hadn't prayed. That morning folded out like the nightmare she sometimes had, of discovering that she had gone out into the street without any clothes.
周末時，她把她的花費列了一張清單，如果在她自己的國家，這些英國貨幣足夠養活一個家庭。但是，在花費了這么多錢后，她很有可能會考試失敗，最后兩手空空，連個學位都沒有地回到家里。罪惡感就像這個城市的霧一樣，到處都是。有一天，她早上忘記了禱告。她到公交車站的時候才想起來。那個早上就像她經常會夢到的噩夢一樣，在夢里，她什么都沒穿地走在街上。
In the evening, when she was staring at multidimensional scaling, the telephone in the hall rang. She ran to answer it. Fareed's cheerful greeting: "Here, Shadia, Mama and the girls want to speak to you." His mother's endearments: "They say it's so cold where you are…"
晚上的時候，她凝視著多維尺度分析，走廊里的電話響了。她跑去接電話。電話里傳來了法瑞德歡快的問候：“喂，莎迪雅，媽媽和姐姐們想要和你說話。”電話里傳來了媽媽親切的問候：“聽他們說，你那里很冷…………”
