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In the rearview mirror, James's eyes flicked open in surprise. "To school, to swim practices and meets," he said. "And on errands, sometimes."
后视镜里，詹姆斯惊讶地睁大了眼睛。“去学校，去游泳训练，去参加比赛，”他说。“有时也出差。”
"But not on dates." "No," James said. His voice cracked briefly, like a teenage boy's. "No, not on dates."
“不是约会。”“不，”詹姆斯说。他的声音短促而嘶哑，像个十几岁的男孩。“不，不是约会。”
Lydia felt small and sharp and mean, like a tack. "Because you didn't date. Right?" Silence. "Why not? Didn't anybody want to go out with you?"
莉迪亚觉得自己渺小、尖锐、刻薄，就像个大头钉。“因为你没有约会过。对吧？”车里一阵沉默。“为什么不呢？难道没有人想和你约会吗？”
This time James kept his eyes on the road before them, and his hands on the wheel stiffened, elbows locking. "Oh, now," Louisa said. "I don't believe that for a minute."
这一次，詹姆斯的眼睛一直盯着前面的路，握着方向盘的双手僵硬，肘部紧锁。路易莎说：“现在我一点也不相信。”
She put her arm on James's elbow again, and this time she kept it there until they reached the dentist's office, until James stopped the car and said, to Lydia's outrage, "See you tomorrow."
她又把手臂搭在詹姆斯的胳膊肘上，直到他们到达牙医的办公室，直到詹姆斯停下车，对莉迪亚说：“明天见。”令莉迪亚愤怒不已。
Despite his daughter glowering in the backseat, James did not realize anything was wrong. At the DMV, he kissed her on the cheek and took a chair.
尽管他的女儿在后座怒目而视，詹姆斯并没有意识到有什么不对劲。在车管所，他亲吻了她的脸颊，然后坐到椅子上。
"You'll do fine," he said. "I'll be right here when you're done." Thinking about how excited Lydia would be, permit in hand, he had forgotten all about the moment in the car.
“你会做得很好的，”他说。“你完成的时候我就在这里。”想到莉迪亚手里拿着许可证会多么激动，他就把在车里的那一刻忘得一干二净。
Lydia herself, still roiling with the secret she was sure she had discovered, turned away without a word.
莉迪亚也还在为发现了这个秘密而烦恼，一言不发地转过身去。
In the test room, a woman handed her an exam booklet and a pencil and told her to take any empty seat.
在考场里，一位女士递给她一本考试手册和一支铅笔，并告诉她不要坐任何空座位。
Lydia made her way toward the back corner of the room, stepping over bookbags and purses and the legs of the boy in the next-to-last row.
莉迪亚朝考场后角走去，跨过了书包、钱包和倒数第二排男孩的腿。
Everything her father had ever said to her bounced back in a new tone: You can never have too many friends.
父亲对她说过的每句话都以一种新的语气反弹了回来：朋友再多也不嫌多。
She thought of her mother, sitting at home, doing the laundry, filling in a crossword, while her father — She was furious with him, furious with her mother for letting this happen.
她想起了她的母亲，她坐在家里，洗衣服，填纵横字谜，而她的父亲——她对他很生气，对母亲让这样的事情发生很生气。
Furious with everyone. At that moment Lydia realized the room had gone silent. Everyone's head was bent over the test.
她对每个人都非常不满。就在这时，莉迪亚意识到房间里鸦雀无声。每个人都埋头考试。
She looked up at the clock, but it told her nothing: not when they started, not when the test ended, only the time, three forty-one.
她抬头看了看钟，但它什么也没告诉她：没有告诉她什么时候开始，也没有告诉她考试什么时候结束，只有时间，3:41。
The second hand tick-tick-ticked around from eleven to twelve and the minute hand, like a long iron needle, jumped forward another notch.
秒针滴答滴答地从11点转到12点，分针像一根长长的铁针，向前又拨了一个缺口。
Three forty-two. She flipped her booklet open. What color is a stop sign? She filled in the circle for B: Red.
3:42。她迅速打开小册子。停车标志是什么颜色的？她选了B选项：红色。
What must you do if you see or hear an emergency vehicle coming from any direction? In her haste, the pencil slipped outside the bubble in a jagged claw.
如果你看到或听到紧急车辆从任何方向驶来，你必须怎样做？在匆忙答题中，铅笔以锯齿状的爪子滑出了泡泡。
A few rows up, a girl with pigtails rose, and the woman at the front gestured her into the next room. A moment later, the boy sitting next to her did the same.
前几排一个扎着辫子的女孩站了起来，前面的女人示意她到隔壁房间去。过了一会儿，坐在她旁边的男孩也站了起来。
Lydia looked down at her booklet again. Twenty questions. Eighteen left to go. If your car begins to skid, you should... All of the answers seemed plausible. She skipped ahead.
莉迪亚又低头看了看小册子。20个问题还剩下18个。如果车开始打滑，你应该…所有答案似乎都有道理。她跳过。
When are roads and highways most slippery? How much distance should you leave between yourself and the vehicle in front of you under good road conditions？
道路和高速公路什么时候最湿滑？在良好的路况下，应与前方车辆保持多少距离?
To her right, a man with a mustache closed his booklet and put down his pencil. C, Lydia guessed. A. D. On the next page, she found a list of sentences she could not complete.
右边留着胡子的男人合上了小册子，放下了铅笔。C，莉迪亚猜。A，D。在下一页，她发现了一张她不能完成的句子列表。
When driving behind a large truck on the freeway, you should... To safely navigate a curve, you should... When backing up, you should...
高速公路上跟在大卡车后面开车时，你应该……为了安全通过弯道，你应该……倒车时应该…
She repeated each question to herself and got stuck on the last words, like a scratched record: you should, you should, you should.
她把每个问题都重复了一遍，却被最后几个字难住了，就像一张划破了的唱片：你应该，你应该，你应该。
Then someone touched her shoulder, softly, and the woman from the front of the room said, "I'm sorry, dear, time's up."
然后有人轻轻地碰了碰她的肩膀，从房间前面过来的女人说：“对不起，亲爱的，时间到了。”
Lydia kept her head bent over the desk, as if the words would not be true until she saw the woman's face.
莉迪亚一直低着头趴在桌子上，仿佛在她看到那个女人的脸之前，这些话都是假的。
A dark spot formed in the middle of the paper, and it took her a moment to realize it was the mark of a tear, that it was hers. She wiped the paper clean with her hand, then wiped her cheek.
纸中央形成了一个黑点，过了一会儿她才意识到那是她的泪痕。她用手把纸擦干净，然后又擦了擦脸颊。
Everyone else had gone. "It's okay," the woman said. "You only need fourteen right." But Lydia knew she had filled in only five circles.
其他人都走了。“没关系，”女人说。“你只需要对十四个就行了。”但是莉迪亚知道她只答了五道题。
