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"Nath," Lydia whispered as he turned to go, and he knew by the tremble in her voice that she'd been crying, that she was about to begin again. "Goodnight," he said, and closed the door behind him.
“纳，”他转身要走时，莉迪亚低声说，声音发抖，他知道她在哭，她又要哭了。“晚安，”他说，随后关上了门。
The next morning, Marilyn thumbtacked the failed test to the kitchen wall across from Lydia's seat.
第二天早上，玛丽琳用图钉把不及格的考卷钉在莉迪亚座位对面的厨房墙上。
For the next three days, from breakfast until dinner, she plopped the physics book in front of her daughter and sat down beside her. All Lydia needed, she thought, was a little encouragement.
接下来的三天，从早餐到晚餐，她把物理书放在女儿面前，然后坐在旁边。她想，莉迪亚只是需要一点鼓励。
Momentum and inertia, kinetic and potential—these things still lingered in the corners of her own mind.
动量和惯性，动能和势能——这些东西仍然在她的脑海里徘徊。
She read aloud over Lydia's shoulder: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
她隔着莉迪亚的肩头大声念道：“每一个动作会引起同样的、相反的反应。
She worked through the failed test with Lydia again and again until Lydia could solve every problem correctly.
她一次又一次地和莉迪亚一起复盘这张不及格的卷子，直到莉迪亚能够正确回答每一个问题。
What Lydia did not tell her mother was that, by the third time through, she had simply memorized the right answers.
莉迪亚没有告诉妈妈的是，其实第三遍的时候，她已经记住了正确答案。
All day, while she huddled over her physics book at the table, she waited for her father to intercede: That's enough, Marilyn. It’s Christmas break, for God's sake. But he said nothing.
整整一天，她都蜷缩在桌旁的物理课本上，等着父亲出面说情：够了，玛丽琳，看在上帝的份上，现在是圣诞假期。但他什么也没说。
Lydia had refused to speak to Nath since that night—as she thought of it—and she suspected, correctly, that he was angry at her as well; he avoided the kitchen entirely, except for meals.
从那天晚上起，莉迪亚就拒绝同纳说话，如她所想，她猜对了，纳也在生她的气；除了吃饭，他完全不去厨房。
Even Hannah would have been some comfort—a small and silent buffer—but as usual, she was nowhere to be seen.
即使是汉娜也会带来些许安慰，厨房是个小而安静的缓冲区，但像往常一样，汉娜不见踪影。
In actuality, Hannah had planted herself under the end table in the foyer, just out of sight of the kitchen, listening to the scratch of Lydia's pencil.
其实汉娜坐在门厅的茶几下，在厨房视线之外，听着莉迪亚铅笔的刮擦声。
She hugged her knees and sent soft and patient thoughts, but her sister did not hear them.
她抱着膝盖，发出温柔而耐心的思绪，但姐姐没有听到。
By Christmas morning, Lydia was furious at them all, and even the discovery that Marilyn had at last unpinned the test from the wall failed to cheer her up.
到了圣诞节早上，莉迪亚对所有人都大发雷霆，即使发现玛丽莲终于从墙上取下了那张卷子，也没能使她高兴起来。
Sitting down around the Christmas tree felt sullied now, too. James lifted one ribboned package after another from the pile, handing each around, but Lydia dreaded the gift from her mother.
坐在圣诞树旁也闷闷不乐。詹姆斯从一堆包裹中一个接一个地拿出礼物，分发给每个人，但是莉迪亚害怕妈妈送的礼物。
Usually her mother gave her books—books that, although neither of them fully realized it, her mother secretly wanted herself, and which, after Christmas, Marilyn would sometimes borrow from Lydia's shelf.
母亲通常会送给她书，虽然他们都没有意识到这是母亲自己想要的，圣诞节过后，玛丽琳有时会从莉迪亚的书架上拿书。
To Lydia, they were always too hard no matter what age she was, less presents than unsubtle hints.
对莉迪亚来说，不管她多大年纪，这些都太严厉了，与其说是礼物，不如说是赤裸裸的暗示。
Last year, it was The Color Atlas of Human Anatomy, so large it wouldn’t fit on the shelf upright; the year before, she had received a thick volume called Famous Women of Science.
去年是《人体解剖学彩色地图集》，大得连书架都放不下；前年，她收到了一本厚厚的《科学名人录》。
The famous women had bored her. Their stories were all the same: told they couldn't; decided to anyway. Because they really wanted to, she wondered, or because they were told not to?
她已经厌烦了那些有名的女性。她们的故事都是一样的：她们都被告知无法做成，但决定无论如何都要做成。她想，是因为她们发自内心想去做，还是因为他们被否定所以想证明自己?
And the anatomy had made her queasy—men and women with their skin peeled off, then their muscles stripped away, until they were nothing but skeletons laid bare.
解剖让她感到恶心，男人和女人的皮肤被剥掉，肌肉也被剥离，只剩下光秃秃的骷髅。
She'd flipped through some of the color plates and slammed the book and squirmed in her seat, as if she could shake off the feeling like a dog shook rain off its fur.
她翻了翻一些彩板，猛地摔书，在座位上动来动去，仿佛她能像狗抖掉毛上的雨水一样摆脱掉这种感觉。
Nath, watching his sister's eyes blink and redden, felt a twinge of pity cut through his anger.
纳看着妹妹的眼睛一眨一眨地变红，一阵怜悯之情淹没了他的愤怒。
He had read the letter from Harvard eleven times now and had finally convinced himself it was real: they had actually accepted him.
他已经把这封哈佛的信读了十一次，最终确信自己真的被录取了。
In nine months, he would be gone, and that knowledge took the sting out of all that had happened. So what if his parents cared more about Lydia's failure than his success? He was leaving.
9个月后，他就要离开了，这个消息消除了一切痛苦。如果父母更关心莉迪亚的失败而不是他的成功呢？他要离开了。
And when he got to college—Lydia would have to stay behind. The thought, finally put into words, was bittersweet.
等他上了大学，莉迪亚就得留下来。这个想法，最后用文字表达出来，真是苦乐参半。
As his father passed him a present wrapped in red foil, Nath flashed Lydia a tentative smile, which she pretended not to see.
父亲递给他一件用红纸包着的礼物时，纳对莉迪亚勉强微笑了一下，她假装没看见。
After three comfortless days, she was not ready to forgive him yet, but the gesture warmed her, like a gulp of tea on a cold winter day.
过了三天不舒服的日子，她还不准备原谅他，但这一举动使她感到温暖，就像在寒冷的冬日里喝了一大口热茶。
