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For a minute, two, three, they lay facedown, catching their breath.
一分钟，两分钟，三分钟过去了，他们面朝下躺着，屏住呼吸。
Then Nath pushed himself to his feet, and to his surprise, Lydia reached up to clutch his hand.
接着，纳一跃而起，令他吃惊的是，莉迪亚伸出手来抓住他的手。
Don't let go, she meant, and, dizzy with gratitude, Nath gave it.
她的意思是“别松手”，她头晕目眩，纳把手给了她。
They trudged home in silence, making damp slodges on the sidewalk.
他们默默地拖着沉重的脚步回家，在人行道上留下了湿漉漉的泥巴。
Except for Mrs. Allen's snores, there was no noise but the sound of water dripping from their clothes to the linoleum.
除了艾伦太太的鼾声外，什么声音也没有，只有水从衣服上滴到油地毡上的声音。
They had been gone only twenty minutes, but it felt as though eons had passed.
他们只走了二十分钟，但感觉就像过了亿万年。
Quietly they tiptoed upstairs and hid their wet clothes in the hamper and put on dry, and when their parents returned with suitcases and boxes of books, they said nothing.
他们蹑手蹑脚地上楼，把湿衣服藏进洗衣篮里，然后穿上干衣服，当父母拎着手提箱和成箱的书回来时，他们什么也没说。
When their mother complained about the water spots on the floor, Nath said he had spilled a drink.
当母亲抱怨地板上有水渍时，纳说他把饮料洒了。
At bedtime, Nath and Lydia brushed their teeth sociably at the sink, taking turns to spit, saying goodnight as if it were any other night.
睡觉前，纳和莉迪亚在水池边友好地刷着牙，轮流漱口，互道晚安，一如往常。
It was too big to talk about, what had happened.
发生了那样的大事，他们无法开口。
It was like a landscape they could not see all at once; it was like the sky at night, which turned and turned so they couldn’t find its edges.
这就像一道无法一下子看到的风景；它就像夜晚的天空，不停地旋转，所以他们找不到边际。
It would always feel too big. He pushed her in. And then he pulled her out.
它总是令人感到太大。他把她推进水里，又把她拉了出来。
All her life, Lydia would remember one thing. All his life, Nath would remember another.
莉迪亚一辈子只会记得一件事，纳一生都会记得另一件。
Middlewood Elementary held its annual welcome-back picnic on the last weekend in August.
米德尔伍德小学在8月的最后一个周末举办了一年一度的欢迎返校野餐。
Their mother pressed one hand to her belly, where Hannah grew heavier every day; their father carried Lydia on his shoulders as they walked across the parking lot.
母亲把一只手按在肚子上，汉娜一天比一天重。他们走过停车场时，父亲把莉迪亚扛在肩上。
After lunch, there were contests: who could hit a Wiffle ball the farthest, who could toss the most beanbags into a coffee can, who could guess the number of jelly beans in the one-gallon Mason jar.
午饭后，有很多家庭比赛：谁能把威浮球击得最远，谁能在咖啡罐里倒入最多豆袋，谁能猜出一加仑的玻璃瓶里有多少颗糖豆。
Nath and James entered the father-son egg race, each balancing a raw egg in a teaspoon like an offering.
纳和詹姆斯参加了父子鸡蛋比赛，两人都拿一个生鸡蛋放在茶匙里，就像祭品一样。
They made it almost all the way to the finish line before Nath tripped and dropped his.
他们几乎是一路跑到终点线，后来纳摔倒在地。
Miles Fuller and his father crossed the line first and Mrs. Hugard, the principal, gave them the blue ribbon.
迈尔斯·富勒和他的父亲第一个冲过了终点线，校长哈格德女士给了他们蓝丝带。
"It’s okay," James said, and for a moment Nath felt better.
詹姆斯安慰说：“没事的，”一时间纳感觉好多了。
Then his father added, "Now, if they had a contest for reading all day—"
然后他的父亲又补充道：“现在，如果他们有一整天的阅读比赛——”
All month he had been saying things like this: things that sounded like jokes but weren't.
整整一个月，他一直在说这样的话，听起来像笑话，但其实不是。
Every time, as he heard his own voice, James bit the tip of his tongue, too late.
每当听到自己的声音时，詹姆斯总是咬着舌尖，但为时已晚。
He did not understand why he said these things to Nath, for that would have meant understanding something far more painful: that Nath reminded him more and more of himself, of everything he wanted to forget from his own boyhood.
他不明白自己为什么要对纳说这些话，因为这意味着他要理解一件痛苦得多的事情：那便是纳越来越让他想起自己，想起他想忘掉的童年时代。
He knew only that it was becoming a reflex, one that left him smarting and ashamed, and he glanced away.
他只知道这是一种条件反射，一种使他感到刺痛和羞愧的反射，于是他把目光移开了。
Nath looked down at his broken egg, yolk trickling between blades of grass, whites seeping into the soil.
纳低头看着破鸡蛋，蛋黄在草叶间流淌，蛋清渗进了土壤。
Lydia gave him a small smile, and he ground the shell into the dirt with his sneaker.
莉迪亚对他微微一笑，他便用运动鞋把蛋壳磨成泥。
When his father turned his back, Nath spat into the lawn at his feet. And then came the three-legged race.
父亲转过身时，纳朝脚下的草坪吐了口唾沫。接着是三腿赛跑。
A teacher looped a handkerchief around Lydia's and Nath's ankles and they hobbled to the starting line, where other children were tethered to their parents, or to siblings, or to each other.
一位老师用手绢包着莉迪亚和纳的脚踝，他们一瘸一拐地朝起跑线走去，其他孩子被拴在父母、兄弟姐妹或彼此之间。
They had hardly begun to run when Lydia caught the edge of Nath's shoe under her own and stumbled. Nath threw an arm wide for balance and wobbled.
他们刚开始跑，莉迪亚就抓住纳的鞋尖，绊了一跤。纳张开手臂保持平衡，摇摇晃晃。
He tried to match Lydia's stride, but when Lydia swung her leg forward, Nath pulled back.
他试图跟上莉迪亚的步伐，但当莉迪亚向前一摆腿时，纳退缩了。
The handkerchief around their ankles was tied so tight their feet throbbed.
他们脚踝上的手绢系得太紧了，脚都发颤了。
It didn't loosen, yoking them together like mismatched cattle, and it didn’t come undone, even when they jerked in opposite directions and tumbled face-forward onto the soft, damp grass.
手绢没有松开，像没有默契的牛一样把他们套在一起，即使他们朝相反的方向猛然一扭，脸朝前摔倒在柔软潮湿的草地上，手绢也没有解开。
