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A hero's aspiration
一位英雄的愿望
Officer Jonda's pulse quickened. Road conditions were dangerous on that cold, dark wintery night. The fierce storm made it hard to see, but she could tell the car ahead of her was in trouble. It was swaying. It was not swaying violently, and was still barely within the lane, but on the winding road in the fierce November rain, it was enough. Jonda had a sixth sense for accidents and lived in terror of them ever since that awful night so many years ago. She still couldn't abolish the terrible image of that teenager screaming for help, her help. Help that she had been unable to give as she was driven back by the intense heat of the car fire.
琼达警官的心跳加快了。在那个寒冷、漆黑的冬夜，路况险恶。狂风暴雨令人视线不清，但她能感到前面的车出了麻烦。那辆车开得歪歪扭扭。虽然歪得不是很厉害，还勉强开在车道里，但在十一月大雨滂沱中的蜿蜒道路上，这已经够悬的了。琼达对事故有着第六感，并且自从很多年以前那个可怕的夜晚之后，她一直生活在对事故的恐惧中。那个十几岁的少年呼喊求助——向她求助——的骇人情景至今在她脑海中，挥之不去。她当时无能为力，因为汽车燃起的大火使她无法靠近。
Her subsequent report on the incident had dutifully noted the facts, as she had been trained to write them, facts that did not include screams or pain. It was strange to talk about them one way: a string of facts for a police report; and to think about them in another: burning metal and deep tire tracks on the slippery concrete, bits of safety glass like primitive crystals reflecting in pools of blood. These were memories Jonda could never really turn off. She leaned on her training for support, and these days she never ignored any signs of the next accident. She made a gesture to turn on the patrol car's flashing lights, but her partner, David, beat her to it; he too had sensed the danger. "Let's pull that car over before someone gets hurt," he said.
她在事后的事故报告中按照以前的培训要求，就事论事地记录了事实，并没有对尖叫声和伤痛的描述。记录的是一种形式，即警方报告中的一连串事实；而回忆却是另一种形式：熊熊燃烧着的金属、湿滑水泥地上深深的车胎痕迹，还有散落在血泊中、如天然水晶般闪烁的安全玻璃碎屑。记录和回忆竟会如此不同，着实令人奇怪。这些成为琼达脑海中始终摆脱不掉的记忆。她靠着受过的训练来支撑自己。现在，她再不会放过任何预示下一起事故的征兆。她动手要去打开巡逻车上的警灯，但是她的搭档戴维抢先一步打开了警车顶灯，他也觉察到了险情。“我们让那辆车靠边停下，以免有人出事，”他说道。
The big car slowed, but not enough to stop at the warning sign as the driver slammed on the brakes. The car slipped off the road into the Dalton River.
那辆大轿车的司机猛踩刹车，车子慢了下来，但还是来不及停在警示线内。车子滑下公路，掉进了道尔顿河。
