【时间旅行者的妻子】63-英语课

时间：2019-01-29 作者：英语课 分类：时间旅行者的妻子

英语课

Sunday, September 23, 1984 (Henry is 35, Clare is 13)

　
HENRY: I am in the clearing, in the Meadow. It’s very early in the morning, just before dawn. It’s late summer, all the flowers and grasses are up to my chest. It’s chilly 1. I am alone.
I’ve never seen these clothes before, so I have no idea where I am in time. Clare has also left me a snack: there’s a peanut butter and jelly sandwich carefully wrapped in aluminum 2 foil, with an apple and a bag of lay’s potato chips. Maybe this is one of Clare’s school lunches. My expectations veer 3 in the direction of the late seventies or early eighties. I sit down on the rock and eat the food, and then I feel much better. The sun is rising.

The whole Meadow is blue, and then orange, and pink, the shadows are elongated 4, and then it is day. There’s no sign of Clare. I crawl a few feet into the vegetation, curl up on the ground even though it is wet with dew, and sleep.
　When I wake up the sun is higher and Clare is sitting next to me reading a book. She smiles at me and says, “Daylight in the swamp. The birds are singing and the frogs are croaking 5 and it’s time to get up!”
　I groan 6 and rub my eyes. “Hi, Clare. What’s the date?”
　“Sunday, September 23, 1984.”
　Clare is thirteen. A strange and difficult age, but not as difficult as what we are going through in my present. I sit up, and yawn. “Clare, if I asked very nicely, would you go into your house and smuggle 7 out a cup of coffee for me?”
　“Coffee?” Clare says this as though she has never heard of the substance. As an adult she is as much of an addict 8 as I am. She considers the logistics.

清晨我来到了草场的空地，刚好是黎明前的十分，是夏天快结束的时候了，四周的花草都长到了我齐胸的高度。天气有些凉了，草场只有我独自一人。我涉过又深又密的草丛来到放衣服箱子的地方，打开箱子，我找到了蓝色的牛仔裤和白色的牛津大学T-shirt, 还有一双人字平底拖鞋。

我以前从未见过这些衣服，所以我不知道我是不是来对了时间。卡莱尔还给我留了一包零食，一包花生酱，一个锡箔纸小心包起来的果冻三明治，一个苹果一包薯片。可能这些本来是卡莱尔带到学校吃的的中餐。我期望时间指针转到了七十年代末八十年代初。我坐在一块石头上在吃了起来，之后感觉好了很多。
太阳升了起来。整个草场从一片蓝色变成橘色然后是粉红色，影子拉得老长。现在已经是白天了。草场还是没有卡莱尔出现的迹象。我匍匐行进前了几尺钻进植物丛里，倦起身子在被露水打湿的地上睡着了。醒来的时候，太阳升的更高了，克莱尔正坐在我对面读着一本书，微笑望着我 “喂，天亮了还躺在湿湿的地上，鸟儿在唱歌青蛙呱呱叫，该起床啦！”

我咕哝了一声，揉了揉眼睛：“嗨，克莱尔，你好！你知道今天几号了吗？”
“星期天，1984年9月23日。”

克莱尔13岁了，这是一个奇怪而不太容易渡过的年纪，但我们当下要一起经历的事更不容易。我坐了起来，打着哈欠，“克莱尔，行行好，你能进屋去悄悄弄杯咖啡来给我吗？” “咖啡？”卡莱尔问得像从来没听说过这种东西的似的。成年后的她和我一样狂爱咖啡。她一直在思考这件事的逻辑性。