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"Let's pretend," he says, "that you never met me. That she was never born. That none of this ever happened." Then he is gone.
他说：“假装你从没遇见我。她从未出生。这一切从未发生过。”然后他走了。
Out on the landing, there is no time to run: Hannah and Nath have not even stood up when their father emerges into the hallway.
在外面的楼梯平台上，没有时间跑了：父亲出现在走廊上时，汉娜和纳甚至还没有站起来。
At the sight of his children, James stops short. It is clear they've heard everything.
一看到他的孩子，詹姆斯停了下来。很明显，他们什么都听到了。
For the past two months, every time he sees one of them, he sees a fragment of their missing sister—in the tilt of Nath's head, in the long sweep of hair half screening Hannah's face—and he leaves the room abruptly, without truly understanding why.
在过去的两个月里，每次他看到他们中的一个，他都会看到他们失踪的妹妹的点点滴滴——在纳斜着头的时候，在汉娜半遮半掩的长发中——他突然离开了房间，并没有真正明白为什么。
Now, with both of them watching, he edges past, not daring to meet their eyes.
现在，在他们两人的注视下，他侧身而过，不敢直视他们的眼睛。
Hannah presses herself to the wall, letting their father pass, but Nath stares straight at him, silently, with a look James can't quite parse.
汉娜把自己按在墙上，让父亲通过，但纳默默地直视着他，脸上的表情让詹姆斯无法理解。
The sound of his car as it whines out of the driveway, then speeds away, has the ring of finality; all of them hear it. Silence settles over the house like ash. Then Nath leaps to his feet.
他的车驶出车道时发出呜呜声，然后疾驰而去，带着一种终结的意味；他们都听到了。寂静像灰烬一样笼罩着房子。然后纳跳了起来。
Stop, Hannah wants to say, but she knows Nath won't. Nath pushes Hannah aside. His mother's keys dangle from their hook in the kitchen, and he takes them and heads for the garage.
汉娜想说停下来，但她知道纳不会。纳把汉娜推到一边。母亲的钥匙挂在厨房的挂钩上，他拿着钥匙朝车库走去。
"Wait," Hannah calls, out loud this time. She is not sure whether he is chasing their father or if he is running away as well, but she knows that what he has planned is dreadful.
“等等，”汉娜大声喊道。她不确定他是在追父亲还是他也在逃跑，但她知道他的计划是可怕的。
"Nath. Wait. Don't." He doesn't wait. He backs out of the garage, nicking the lilac bush beside the door, and then he, too, is gone. Upstairs, Marilyn hears none of this.
“纳。等等。不要。”他并没有等。他从车库里退了出来，在门边的丁香花丛上刮了几下，然后他也走了。楼上的玛丽琳什么也没听到。
She shuts the door of Lydia's room, and a thick, heavy quiet wraps itself around her like a smothering blanket.
她关上莉迪亚的房门，一阵厚重的寂静像令人窒息的毯子一样把她裹得严严实实。
With one finger, she strokes Lydia's books, the neat binders in a row, each labeled in marker with the class and date.
她用一根手指抚摸着莉迪亚的书，整齐的活页夹排成一排，每本都用记号笔标明了班级和日期。
A coarse fur of dust now coats everything—the row of blank diaries, the old science fair ribbons, the pinned-up postcard of Einstein, the covers of each binder, the spines of each book. She imagines emptying Lydia's room piece by piece.
现在所有的东西都蒙上了一层粗糙的灰尘——一排空白的日记，古老的科学展览带，爱因斯坦的明信片，每个活页夹的封面，每本书的书脊。她想象着把莉迪亚的房间一件一件地清空。
The tiny holes and unfaded patches that will mar the wallpaper when the posters and pictures come down; the carpet, crushed beneath the furniture, that will never rise again. Like her own mother's house after everything had been cleared away.
撕下海报和照片时，小孔和未褪色的补丁会损坏墙纸；地毯被压在家具下面，再也起不来了。就像她母亲的房子一样，一切都被清理干净了。
She thinks of her mother coming home alone all those years to an empty house, the bedroom kept just as it was, with fresh bedsheets, for the daughter who would never return, her husband long since gone, in some other woman's bed now.
她想起这些年来她的母亲独自一人回到空荡荡的房子，卧室保持着原样，铺着干净的床单，而她的女儿再也不会回来了，她的丈夫早已离开，现在躺在其他女人的床上。
You loved so hard and hoped so much and then you ended up with nothing. Children who no longer needed you. A husband who no longer wanted you.
你爱得那么深，期望那么多，结果却一无所有。不再需要你的孩子。不再需要你的丈夫。
Nothing left but you, alone, and empty space. With one hand, she pulls Einstein from the wall and tears him in two. Then the periodic table, useless now.
除了你，什么也没有留下，孤独而空虚。她用一只手把爱因斯坦从墙上扯下来，把他撕成两半。然后是元素周期表，现在没用了。
She yanks the earpieces from Lydia's stethoscope; she ravels the prize ribbons to satin shreds.
她从莉迪亚的听诊器上扯下耳机；她把奖品的丝带撕成碎片。
One by one she topples the books from the shelf. The Color Atlas of Human Anatomy. Women Pioneers of Science. With each one, Marilyn's breath becomes more fierce.
她把书架上的书一本一本推倒：《人体解剖学的颜色图谱》、《女性科学先驱》，随着每一次呼吸，玛丽琳的呼吸变得更加急促。
How Your Body Works. Chemistry Experiments for Children.The Story of Medicine. She remembers every single one.
《你的身体是如何工作的》、《儿童化学实验》、《医学的故事》，她记得每一本书。
It is like rewinding time, working her way backward through Lydia's entire life. An avalanche piles up at her feet.
这就像时光倒流，倒映着莉迪亚的一生。雪崩在她脚下堆积起来。
Downstairs, huddled beneath the hall table, Hannah hears heavy thumps, like stone after stone thudding to the floor.
楼下，汉娜蜷缩在大厅桌子下面，听到沉重的重击声，像是石头一块接一块地砸在地板上。
