评论
打印
In the next room, where a man fed answer sheets into the scoring machine, she jabbed her finger with the tip of her pencil.
在隔壁房间，一名男子把答题纸塞进了记分机，她用铅笔尖戳了戳自己的手指。
"Eighteen right," the man said to the girl in front of her. "Take this to the counter and they'll take your picture and print your permit. Congratulations."
“对18题，”男人对她前面的女孩说。“把这个拿到柜台去，他们会给你拍照并打印你的许可证。恭喜你。”
The girl gave a happy little skip as she passed through the door and Lydia wanted to slap her.
那个女孩走过门口时高兴地跳了一下，莉迪亚想扇她一巴掌。
There was a brief moment of silence as the man looked at Lydia's form, and she focused on the splotch of mud on his boot.
那人看了看莉迪亚的表格，沉默了片刻，莉迪亚的注意力集中在他靴子上的泥点上。
"Well," he said. "Don't feel bad. Lots of people fail the first time." He turned the paper faceup and again she saw the five dark circles, like moles, the rest of the sheet blank and bare.
“好吧，”他说。“不要难过。很多人在第一次失败了。”他把纸朝上翻过来，她又看到了五个黑圈，像鼹鼠一样，剩下的部分是空白的，光秃秃的。
Lydia did not wait for her score. As the machine sucked in the answer sheet, she walked straight past him, back into the waiting room.
莉迪亚没有等分数。当记分机吸进答题纸时，她径直从他身边走过，回到了等待室。
There was a long line at the counter for photos now; the man with the mustache counted the bills in his wallet, the girl who had skipped picked at her nail polish.
现在，柜台前已经排起了长队；留着小胡子的男人数着他钱包里的钞票，那个蹦蹦跳跳的女孩在啃她的指甲油。
The pigtailed girl and the boy had already gone. On the bench, James sat waiting. "So," he said, looking down at her empty hands. "Where is it?" "I failed," she said.
扎着辫子的女孩和男孩已经走了。詹姆斯坐在长凳上等着。“那么，”他说，低头看着她空空的双手。“许可证在哪里？”“我没有通过，”她说。
The two women beside her father on the bench looked up at her, then quickly away. Her father blinked, once, twice, as if he hadn't heard her properly.
坐在她父亲旁边的两个女人抬头看着她，然后迅速离开了。她父亲眨了眨眼睛，一次，两次，好像没听清她的话。
"It's okay, honey," he said. "You can try again this weekend." In the cloud of disappointment and humiliation, Lydia did not remember, or care, that she could take the test again.
“没事的，亲爱的，”他说。“这周末你可以再试一次。”在失望和屈辱的阴云笼罩下，莉迪亚既不记得也不关心她是否还能参加考试。
In the morning, Nath would leave for Boston. All she could think was: I will be here forever. I will never be able to get away.
早上，纳将前往波士顿。她所能想到的就是：我将永远留在这里。我将永远无法逃离。
James put his arm around his daughter, but it weighed on her shoulders like a lead blanket, and she shrugged it off. "Can we go home now?" she said.
詹姆斯把胳膊搭在女儿身上，但它像铅毯一样压在她的肩膀上，她耸了耸肩。“我们现在可以回家了吗？”她说。
"As soon as Lydia comes in," Marilyn said, "we'll say surprise. And then we'll have dinner, and presents after."
“莉迪亚一进来，”玛丽琳说，“我们就说surprise。然后我们吃晚饭，吃完后再送礼物。”
Nath was up in his room, packing for his trip, and alone with her youngest, she was planning aloud, half talking to herself.
纳正在自己房间里收拾行装，玛丽琳独自和她最小的孩子在一起，一边自言自语，一边大声计划着。
Hannah, delighted to have her mother's attention even by default, nodded sagely.
汉娜很高兴能得到母亲的注意，尽管这是默认的，但她还是明智地点了点头。
Under her breath she practiced—Surprise! Surprise!—and watched her mother pipe Lydia's name in blue onto the sheet cake.
她压低声音练习surprise！看着她妈妈在蛋糕上用蓝色糖霜裱了莉迪亚的名字。
It was supposed to look like a driver's license, a white-frosted rectangle with a photo of Lydia in the corner where the real photograph would be. Inside, it was chocolate cake.
它应该看起来像一张驾照，一个白色结霜的长方形，角落里有一张莉迪亚的照片，而真正的照片应该在那里。里面是巧克力蛋糕。
Because this was an extra-special birthday, Marilyn had baked this cake herself—from a box, true, but she had mixed it, one hand moving the mixer through the cake batter, the other holding the battered aluminum bowl still against the whirling blades.
因为今天是一个特别的生日，所以玛丽琳亲自烘焙了这个蛋糕。但是她已经把它混合好了，一只手把搅拌器从蛋糕糊中穿过，另一只手拿着打扁了的铝碗，仍然靠在旋转的叶片上。
She had let Hannah pick out the tub of frosting, and now she squeezed out the last of the tube of decorator's icing spelling L-Y-D and reached into the grocery bag for another.
她让汉娜挑出了一桶糖霜，现在她挤出最后一管装饰用的糖霜，拼出LYD，又从杂货袋里拿了一桶。
Such a special cake, Hannah thought, would taste extra-special, too. Better than just plain vanilla or chocolate.
汉娜想：这么特别的蛋糕，尝起来也会很特别。比纯香草或巧克力更好。
The box had shown a smiling woman hovering over a slice of cake and the words You mix in the love.
盒子里有一个微笑的女人在一块蛋糕上徘徊，上面写着你的爱的话语。
