Everything that loomed so large close up—school, their parents, their lives—all you had to do was step away, and they shrank to nothing.

学校、父母、他们的生活——你所能做的就是离他们远远的，他们就会缩成一团。

You could stop taking their phone calls, tear up their letters, pretend they'd never existed. Start over as a new person with a new life.

你可以不再接他们的电话，撕掉他们的信件，假装他们从未存在过。以一个全新的人开始新的生活。

Just a problem of geography, he thought, with the confidence of someone who had never yet tried to free himself of family. Soon enough Lydia, too, would head off to school.

只是个地理问题，他想，带着一个从未试图摆脱家庭束缚的人的自信。不久，莉迪亚也要上学去了。

Soon enough she, too, would cut herself free. He gulped down the rest of his beer and went to get another.

不久，她也会把自己割断。他把剩下的啤酒一饮而尽，又去喝另一杯。

At home, alone on the landing, Lydia cradled the handset in her hands for a long time after the click. The tears that had choked off her voice dried away.

在家里，莉迪亚独自站在楼梯平台上，手机响了好长一段时间才拿在手里。哽咽的泪水已经干了。

A slow, burning anger at Nath began to smolder inside her, his parting words ringing in her ears. I don't have time for this.

一种对纳的缓慢而强烈的愤怒开始在她内心郁积，他临别的话在她耳朵里响个不停。我没时间做这个。

He had turned into a different person, a person who didn't care that she needed him. A person who said things to hurt her.

他变成了一个不同的人，一个不在乎她需要他的人。一个说了伤害她的话的人。

She felt herself becoming a different person, too: a person who would slap her sister.

她觉得自己也变成了一个不同的人：一个会打她妹妹耳光的人。

Who would hurt Nath as much as he had hurt her. Go take your problems to Jack.

谁会像他伤害她那样伤害纳呢？把你的问题告诉杰克。

Monday morning she put on her prettiest dress, the halter-neck with the tiny red flowers, which her father had bought her in the fall. Something new for the new school year, he had said.

星期一的早晨，她穿上了她最漂亮的衣服，那是她父亲秋天给她买的有红色小花的吊带衫。他说，新学年需要有新东西。

They had been shopping for school supplies and he had spotted it on a mannequin in the store's window display.

他们当时正在购买学习用品，他在商店橱窗里的人体模型上发现了它。

James liked to buy Lydia dresses off the mannequin; he was sure it meant everyone was wearing them. The latest thing, right? Every girl needs a dress for a special occasion.

詹姆斯喜欢从模特身上买莉迪亚的衣服；他确信这意味着每个人都穿。最新的东西，对吧？每个女孩都需要一件适合特殊场合的连衣裙。

Lydia, who aimed for unobtrusive—a hooded sweater and corduroys; a plain blouse and bell-bottoms—knew it was a date dress, and she did not date.

莉迪亚想要一件不显眼的连帽毛衣和灯芯绒衣服；一件素色衬衫和喇叭裤——她知道这是一件约会礼服，但她没有约会。

She had kept it in the back of her closet for months, but today she pulled it from the hanger.

她把它藏在衣橱后面好几个月了，但是今天她把它从衣架上拿了下来。

She parted her hair carefully, right down the center, and clipped one side back with a red barrette. With the tip of her lipstick she traced the curves of her mouth.

她小心地把头发从中间分开，用一个红色的发夹夹住一边的头发。用口红的尖端画出她嘴的曲线。

"Don't you look nice," James said at breakfast. "Just as pretty as Susan Dey."

“你看起来真漂亮，”早餐时詹姆斯说。“和苏珊·戴一样漂亮。”

Lydia smiled and said nothing, not when Marilyn said, "Lydia, don't be too late after school, Nath will be home for dinner,"

莉迪亚笑了笑，什么也没说。“莉迪亚，放学后别太晚了，纳会回家吃晚饭的。”

not when James touched one finger to her dimple—that old joke again—and said, "All the boys will be after you now."

当詹姆斯再次用一个手指碰了碰她的酒窝——那个老笑话——然后说，“现在所有的男孩都会来追求你。”

Across the table, Hannah studied her sister's dress and lipsticked smile, rubbing one finger against the rusty scab, fine as a spiderweb, that ringed her neck.

隔着桌子，汉娜端详着姐姐的衣服，嘴角挂着微笑，她用一根手指摸着缠在脖子上的、像蜘蛛网一样细的锈迹斑斑的痂。

Don't, she wanted to say, though she didn't know: don't what? She knew only that something was about to happen, and that nothing she could say or do would prevent it.

不要，她想说，虽然她不知道不要什么。她只知道有什么事要发生了，而且无论她说什么或做什么也阻止不了。

When Lydia had gone, she seized her spoon and mashed the soggy cereal in her bowl to a pulp.

莉迪亚走后，抓起勺子，把碗里湿漉漉的麦片粥捣成浆。

Hannah was right. That afternoon, at Lydia's suggestion, Jack drove up to the Point, overlooking the town, and they parked in the shade.

汉娜是对的。那天下午，在莉迪亚的建议下，杰克把车开到岬角上，眺望全城，他们把车停在树荫下。

On a Friday night, half a dozen cars would cluster there, windows slowly fogging, until a police car scattered them away.

在一个周五的晚上，六七辆车会聚集在那里，车窗上慢慢地起雾，直到一辆警车把它们驱散。

Now—in the bright light of a Monday afternoon—there was no one else around. "So when's Nath getting back?" "Tonight, I think."

现在，在周一下午明亮的光线下，周围没有其他人。“纳什么时候回来？”“今晚，我想。”

In fact, Lydia knew, Nath would land at Hopkins Airport in Cleveland at five nineteen. He and their father would be home at six thirty.

事实上，莉迪亚知道，纳将于5点19分在克利夫兰的霍普金斯机场降落。他和父亲将在六点半到家。

She peeked through the window to where First Federal's clock rose, just visible in the center of town. Five minutes past four.

她透过窗户向第一联邦大厦的钟楼望去，就在镇中心隐约可见。4点5分。