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Then, in the spring, while James—newly tenured—was at work and the children were at school and Marilyn,[qh]
然后，在春天，当詹姆斯——新近获得终身教职——在工作，孩子们在学校，而玛丽琳，[qh]
at home, folded her second load of laundry, the phone rang.[qh]
回到家，她叠好第二堆衣服，电话铃响了。[qh]
A nurse from St. Catherine’s Hospital, in Virginia, telling her that her mother had died.[qh]
弗吉尼亚州圣凯瑟琳医院的一名护士告诉她，她的母亲已经去世。[qh]
A stroke.[qh]
中风。[qh]
It was April 1, 1966, and the first thing Marilyn thought was: what a terrible, tasteless joke.[qh]
那是1966年4月1日，玛丽琳首先想到的是:多么可怕、乏味的笑话。[qh]
By then she had not spoken to her mother in almost eight years, since her wedding day.[qh]
从结婚那天起，她已经八年没跟母亲说过话了。[qh]
In all that time, her mother had not written once.[qh]
在那段时间里，她母亲一次也没有写信。[qh]
When Nath had been born, then Lydia, Marilyn had not informed her mother, had not even sent a photograph.[qh]
当纳出生，然后是莉迪亚，玛丽琳还没有通知她母亲，甚至连一张照片也没有寄来。[qh]
What was there to say?[qh]
有什么可说的?[qh]
She and James had never discussed what her mother had said about their marriage that last day: it’s not right.[qh]
她和詹姆斯从来没有讨论过她母亲在最后一天对他们婚姻的看法:这是不对的。[qh]
She had not ever wanted to think of it again.[qh]
她再也不想去想它了。[qh]
So when James came home that night, she said simply, “My mother died.”[qh]
所以那天晚上詹姆斯回家时，她只是简单地说了一句:“我母亲去世了。”[qh]
Then she turned back to the stove and added, “And the lawn needs mowing,” and he understood:[qh]
然后她转身对着炉子又说:“草坪该割了。”他这才明白:[qh]
they would not talk about it.[qh]
他们不愿谈论这件事。[qh]
At dinner, when she told the children that their grandmother had died, Lydia cocked her head and asked, “Are you sad?”[qh]
吃晚饭的时候，她告诉孩子们说，他们的祖母去世了，莉迪亚抬起头问道:“你们难过吗?”[qh]
Marilyn glanced at her husband. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, I am.”[qh]
玛丽琳瞥了她丈夫一眼。“是的,”她说。“是的,我难过。”[qh]
There were things to be taken care of: papers to be signed, burial arrangements to be made.[qh]
有一些事情需要处理:需要签署文件，需要安排葬礼。[qh]
So Marilyn left the children with James and drove to Virginia—she’d long since stopped thinking of it as home—to sort out her mother’s things.[qh]
于是，玛丽琳把孩子们留给了詹姆斯，开车去了弗吉尼亚——她早已不再认为那是家了——收拾母亲的东西。[qh]
As mile after mile of Ohio, then West Virginia, streamed past, her daughter’s question echoed in her mind.[qh]
一英里又一英里的俄亥俄州，然后是西维吉尼亚州，川流不息地经过，她女儿的问题在她的脑海里回响。[qh]
