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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
“Naomi.”
“Naomi, even when you dial our phone number, it’s like you’re entering
sovereign land, as in sovereign nation, as in the most utilitarian2 use for your
badge right now is as a Halloween costume, though to be honest, we Native
Americans don’t much like Halloween.”
“See, I hate Halloween, too — my son dressed up as a Thug Life rapper this
Cal about.”
“Homicide’s a state crime. You’re a federal employee. Wanna try again?”
“The victim is a guy I partner with — Timothy Balfanz — he’s a friend,”
Naomi explained, hitting the brakes at the crosswalk and carefully watching
the small group of passengers that were now passing in front of her, on their
your people — say, that sweet girl with the lisp that I left my message with —
if someone nabbed her on a dark road and chopped her into hors
d’oeuvres . . . I’d like to think, if it was someone you cared about and you
needed my help, I’d do more than tell you off and bad-mouth Halloween.”
man in a windbreaker stepped out of the crosswalk and cut behind her car.
“I just wanna know what Cal called about,” Naomi pleaded, glancing over her
shoulder and out the back window. The man was already gone. And being out
here, exposed to every passing airport stranger, she knew she wasn’t being
safe.
heard a sudden thunk through the phone. Like a file cabinet being opened
and shut. “I got the bullet here that they pulled from his dad last night.”
“His dad?”
“Cal asked me to run it through the ATF folks, who traced it back to
Cleveland and some obscure gun that was used to kill a man named Mitchell
Siegel—”
through her earpiece. Caller ID told her it was Scotty. “I’ll run him ASAP.”
“Think what you want, Naomi,” Ocala added, “but I’m telling you right now,
“A dirty badge is a dirty badge — you know that. Besides, if he’s such an
angel, why doesn’t he at least come in and talk with us?”
catchphrases like ‘A dirty badge is a dirty badge.’ ”
“I appreciate your help,” Naomi said to Ocala as she clicked to the other line.
that airport list of who paid in cash, there were a few tickets bought this
morning — at least three headed to Cleveland.”
Naomi was about to re-enter the loop for departures when a high-pitched
triangle — was back in place and once again moving.
It took a moment to read the streets and orient herself, but as the crimson
triangle turned onto NE 23rd Court . . .
Naomi’s eyes went wide. No. That can’t —
Oh, God.
“Nomi, you okay?”
“He’s there, Scotty.”
“Where? What’re you talking about?”
“Twenty-third Court. Ellis . . . he’s . . . I think Ellis is at my house.”
39
“Ladies and gentlemen, the captain has turned off the Fasten Seat Belt sign
— you may now move freely about the cabin,” the flight attendant announces
as I stare through the egg-shaped window and watch Florida disappear
beneath the cotton candy clouds.
All around me, seats are empty. Still, all three of us sit separately, just to
keep it safe.
Checking over my shoulder, I peer ten rows back at my dad, who’s fast asleep
needs some rest. So do I. Across from him, I look for Serena, but her seat’s
empty. I glance back at my dad. Don’t tell me she snuck over to—
“Calvin,” a female voice interrupts, “would you mind if I joined you?”
to keep her there, but I can’t risk letting anyone overhear.
She slides into the aisle seat, with the empty middle seat between us, then
crosses her legs Indian style. It’s then that I see she’s barefoot. “I appreciate
the kindness,” she says.
“I didn’t offer any.”
“You were about to, Calvin. Your eyes said so.”
and I don’t know Lloyd much better. But when I look at his expensive silk
shirts . . . or his unscuffed shoes — I know my dad has a big need to impress.
And as I know from my clients, desperate men are the most easily
mesmerized17 by new-agey, yoga-filled nonsense — especially when it comes
from younger, sexed-up women who lock pinkies with them in hopes of
getting whatever it is they think those men can get for them. Now I realize
somewhere else.”
She looks at me in silence for what seems like a full minute. “I’m sorry I
made you angry.”
“No, angry’s what you get when someone dings your car. This is the cold
bitter rage that comes when someone kicks around in your personal crisis.”
“Calvin—”
She’s still unfazed. “Cal, I’m not sleeping with your father.”
“Then what’s with the pinkies and the hand-holding?”
“He was shaking, Cal. In all your anger, did you not see that? I was trying to
calm him — refocus his energy.”
“His energy? Oh, Lord. Listen, even as a stranger, I can tell he’s clearly in
love with you.”
started doing meditation—”
“He’s doing it right now,” she says, calm as ever.
I turn back to my dad, whose head is still down. His eyes are closed. I
thought he was sleeping, but the way he’s swaying forward and back . . .
“The key is breathing through your nose,” Serena adds. “Each breath needs
to reach down to your diaphragm.”
I stare at her across the empty middle seat. She nods and smiles.
“Serena, why’re you really here? And please don’t insult me by saying you
came all the way to the airport and potentially risked your life just to wave
good-bye and teach my dad how to breathe and realign his energy.”
Most people turn away when you ask them a hard question. Serena continues
to look straight at me, and her yellow blue eyes . . . I hate to say it . . .
there’s a real depth to her stare.
“He helped my brother. Andrew,” she finally says.
“Who? My dad?”
“You almost had it right before, Cal. Your dad — he’s Andrew’s sponsor,” she
explains. “And my brother — been in AA for years — always relapsing. A few
months ago, the judge sent him back, and your dad — it wasn’t anything
heroic — but your dad was nice to him. They connected. Really connected.
Whatever they had in common, Andrew was Andrew again.”
“So all this — coming to help my dad — it’s just a thank-you?”
easily as if she’s telling me her shoe size. Reading my confusion, she adds,
Holiday Park. But it was your dad who helped us locate him — he knew
Andrew’s old hiding spots. He knew my brother. And even though I think you
have a hard time with things like this — being near your dad . . . somehow
I’m still connected with Andrew.”
“Can I offer you a snack?” a flight attendant interrupts, approaching just
behind Serena and holding out a tiny bag of pretzels.
“No peanuts?” Serena asks.
“Sorry, just pretzels,” the attendant says.
“Then I’m meant to have pretzels,” Serena decides, smiling as she pops
open the little bag and turns back to me. “Your dad tried to save my brother,
Cal. And by helping Andrew — with that strength your dad shows, like in the
airport — your father helped me. He’s still helping me. And I’m helping him.
Do you not see that? That’s what being family is — that’s the best part — it’s
not tit for tat or who owes more, it’s simply — when one hurts, so does the
other; when one finds good, you share in that, too. That’s family.” But as
Serena continues to stare my way . . . “This is making you uncomfortable,
isn’t it?” she asks.
I shake my head, trying to convince her she’s wrong.
She goes silent, her stare digging even deeper. She’s not upset. She’s excited.
bit concerned that we brought her on this plane to save her life. “Not just for
what your father and I share . . . the lessons are for you, too, for all three of
us. Oh, I didn’t see it before. I mean, until you showed up, I didn’t even think
he had family.”
my chest and digging my feet into the airplane’s thin carpet. “He has a
family,” I say quietly. “He just chose to ignore me.”
position and reaching for a pretzel.
“What’re you talking about?”
“You were, what, sixteen years old when he was released? Just taking the
SATs, starting to wonder about going to college. You really think having a
convicted murderer enter your life was the best thing for you?”
“You don’t know that. You met him, what, four months ago?”
“Six months,” she says. “How’d you know that, anyway?”
hospital, asking if he got the shipment. So answer my question, Serena:
Why’d you really come to the airport?”
I wait for her yellow blue eyes to narrow, but they just get wider. She’s not
insulted. She’s hurt. “I came for the same reason you did,” she tells me.
“Let me guarantee right now that’s not true.”
“Do you really think you’re the only one whose life didn’t turn out the way
they dreamed, Cal? When I was eleven years old, my mother remarried a
man who . . . well, shouldn’t’ve been living around eleven-year-old girls. Or
their younger brothers. I still pay for those years. But when I was seventeen
— when I finally told my mom, and she threw me out because she couldn’t
McDonald’s. It was pouring, one of those thick Florida rains, and I had this
that reminded me of this great puddle we used to jump in back when we
All because I listened to that feeling to go outside.”
“Okay — so to find true meaning in life, I need to go stand out in some
“Let me ask you something, Cal: Why’d you come on this trip?”
“I almost got killed this morning.”
“Before that. When you saw your dad lying there in the rain . . . You had
your own feeling, right? You listened to something inside yourself and
suddenly your life was reignited. Like in Don Juan, where he says that
sometimes you need to lace your belt the opposite way.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
courteous
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| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
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utilitarian
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| adj.实用的，功利的 | |
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pal
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| n.朋友，伙伴，同志；vi.结为友 | |
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4
offense
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| n.犯规，违法行为；冒犯，得罪 | |
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blur
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| n.模糊不清的事物；vt.使模糊，使看不清楚 | |
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guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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7
jotting
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| n.简短的笔记，略记v.匆忙记下( jot的现在分词 )；草草记下，匆匆记下 | |
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demon
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| n.魔鬼，恶魔 | |
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spout
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| v.喷出，涌出；滔滔不绝地讲；n.喷管；水柱 | |
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blurted
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| v.突然说出，脱口而出( blurt的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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12
sagging
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| 下垂[沉，陷]，松垂，垂度 | |
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aisle
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| n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道 | |
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steer
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| vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶 | |
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15
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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vomit
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| v.呕吐，作呕；n.呕吐物，吐出物 | |
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mesmerized
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| v.使入迷( mesmerize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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lashes
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| n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 )；鞭子；突然猛烈的一击；急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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growl
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| v.（狗等）嗥叫，（炮等）轰鸣；n.嗥叫，轰鸣 | |
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solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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meditate
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| v.想，考虑，（尤指宗教上的）沉思，冥想 | |
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helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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grove
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| n.林子，小树林，园林 | |
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blurts
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| v.突然说出，脱口而出( blurt的第三人称单数 ) | |
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25
clenching
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的现在分词 ) | |
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26
tugs
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| n.猛拉( tug的名词复数 )；猛拖；拖船v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的第三人称单数 ) | |
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tightening
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| 上紧，固定，紧密 | |
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bluffing
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| n. 威吓，唬人 动词bluff的现在分词形式 | |
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filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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puddle
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| n.(雨)水坑，泥潭 | |
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mitten
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| n.连指手套，露指手套 | |
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bliss
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| n.狂喜，福佑，天赐的福 | |
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sentient
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| adj.有知觉的，知悉的；adv.有感觉能力地 | |
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