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One morning Nath turned on the television, but there were no cartoons.
一天早上，纳打开电视，但里面没有动画片。
There was Walter Cronkite, serene at his desk just as if he were doing the evening news—but it was barely eight A.M., and his desk stood outside, the Cape Kennedy wind ruffling his papers and his hair.
沃尔特·克朗凯特安详地坐在办公桌前，就像在做晚间新闻一样——但还不到8点，他的办公桌就在外面，肯尼迪角的海风吹乱了他的文件和头发。
A rocket stood poised on the launchpad behind him; at the bottom of the screen, a countdown clock ticked.
一枚火箭稳稳地立在他身后的发射台上;在屏幕底部，一个时钟在倒计时，滴答作响。
It was the launch of Gemini 9.
双子座9号要发射了。
Had Nath known the word, he would have thought: surreal.
如果纳知道这个词，他会想到超现实。
When the rocket shot upward in a billow of sulfur-colored smoke, he crept so close to the television that his nose smudged the glass.
火箭喷出一股硫磺色的滚滚浓烟时，他蹑手蹑脚地靠近电视机，鼻子把玻璃都弄脏了。
The counters on the bottom of the screen showed impossible numbers: seven thousand miles an hour, nine thousand, ten.
屏幕底部的计数器显示了一些不可能的数字：7000英里每小时，9000英里每小时，10英里每小时。
He had not known anything could fly so high.
他不知道有什么东西能飞得这么高。
All morning Nath absorbed the news reports, savoring each new term like a fancy bonbon: Rendezvous.
整个上午，纳都在全神贯注地听新闻报道，细品每一个新术语，就像是品味一份精美的糖果。
Orbital map.
轨道地图。
Lydia curled up on the sofa and went to sleep while, all afternoon, Nath repeated Gemini.
莉迪亚蜷在沙发上睡着了，整个下午纳都在重复双子座的动作。
Gemini. GEM-in-i. Like a magic spell.
双子座。双 子 座。就像一个魔咒。
Long after the rocket faded into blue, the camera stayed trained on the sky, on the fading plume of white it left behind.
在火箭变没入蓝色天空很久之后，镜头仍然对准天空，对准它留下的逐渐褪色的白色羽毛。
For the first time in a month, he forgot, for a moment, about his mother.
一个月以来，他第一次暂时忘记了母亲。
Up there—eighty-five miles high, ninety, ninety-five, the counter said—everything on earth would be invisible.
计数器显示，在离地面八十五英里高，九十英里高，九十五英里高的火箭上面，地球上的一切都不可见。
Mothers who disappeared, fathers who didn’t love you, kids who mocked you—everything would shrink to pinpoints and vanish.
消失的母亲，不爱你的父亲，嘲笑你的孩子，一切都会缩成一团，消失不见。
Up there: nothing but stars.
上面只有星星。
For the next day and a half, despite Lydia’s complaints, Nath refused to switch to I Love Lucy reruns or Father Knows Best.
接下来的一天半，尽管莉迪亚抱怨不断，纳还是拒绝换到《我爱露西》或《老爸最知道》。
He began to refer to the astronauts—Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan—by first name, as if they were friends.
他开始直呼宇航员的名字：汤姆·斯塔福德和吉恩·塞尔南，就好像他们三是朋友一样。
As the first transmission from the astronauts was patched through, Lydia heard only garbled, scratchy gibberish, as if the voices had been pressed through a grinder.
当来自宇航员的第一个信号被接通时，莉迪亚只听到一些含糊不清、刺耳的胡言乱语，仿佛这些声音是从碾磨器械那里挤出来的。
Nath, however, had no trouble making out the words: Gene, breathless, whispering, “Boy, it sure is beautiful out here.”
然而，纳却毫不费力地听出了这几个词：吉恩，气喘吁吁，悄声说：“孩子，这儿真是太美了。”
NASA had no television feed of the men in orbit, so the station aired a simulation: an actor on wires, a prop set on a soundstage in Missouri.
美国宇航局没有轨道上宇航员的电视转播，所以空间站播放了一个模拟画面：一个演员在电线上，一个道具在密苏里的摄影棚。
But when the space-suited figure lumbered out of the capsule and floated gracefully, effortlessly upward—feet to the sky, tethered by nothing—Nath forgot it wasn’t real.
但这个穿着太空服的笨重身影走出太空舱，优雅地漂浮起来，毫不费力地飞向天空时，什么也没有系住，纳特忘了这不是真的。
He forgot everything.
他忘记了一切。
He forgot to breathe.
他忘了呼吸。
At lunch, while they ate their peanut butter sandwiches, Nath said,
午餐时，他们吃着花生酱三明治，纳说：
