尼古拉斯·斯帕克思 [著]

@一只高腰黒一只低腰白 [译]

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Chapter 02: Thibault

第二章   蒂博

It was strange to think of the unexpected twists a man's life could take. Up until a year ago, Thibault would have jumped at the opportunity to spend the weekend with Amy and her friends. It was probably exactly what he needed, but when they dropped him off just outside the Hampton town limits with the August afternoon heat bearing down hard, he waved good-bye, feeling strangely relieved. Maintaining a facade of normalcy had been exhausting.

    男人的命运总是很坎坷，也是很奇怪。这要是放在一年前，蒂博肯定会爽口答应，然后和艾米和她的朋友过一个难忘的周末。但是，当她们把他扔在汉普顿镇的城外时，即使当时正值8月酷暑时节，他还是礼貌的挥手告别，奇怪的是，他反倒觉得轻松许多。一路上在车上假装若无其事，早已让他疲惫不堪。

Since leaving Colorado five months earlier, he hadn't voluntarily spent more than a few hours with anyone, the lone exception being an elderly dairy farmer just south of Little Rock, who let him sleep in an unused upstairs bedroom after a dinner in which the farmer talked as little as he did. He appreciated the fact that the man didn't feel the need to press him about why he'd just appeared the way he had. No questions, no curiosity, no open-ended hints. Just a casual acceptance that Thibault didn't feel like talking. In gratitude, Thibault spent a couple of days helping to repair the roof of the barn before finally returning to the road, backpack loaded, with Zeus trailing behind him.

    五个月前他离开科罗拉多州之后，他从来没有主动跟任何人待在一起超过几个小时​。但是，他在小岩城南部（美国阿肯色州首府）的一个老奶牛场里，还是跟一个老奶农度过了一段时光。老人和他一样，沉默寡言，有一天晚饭后，老人让他睡在阁楼上空房间。他很感激这个老人，没有对他刨根问底，所以他才不会感觉到那种被迫回答问题的窘迫。老人从来不问，从来不好奇，也从不旁敲侧打，他们之间只是简单的几句寒暄。为了感激老人所做的一切，他花了几天时间帮老人修好牛栏屋顶后，才装好行囊，带着受过训练的宙斯，继续自己的旅程。

With the exception of the ride from the girls, he'd walked the entire distance. After dropping the keys to his apartment at the manager's office in mid-March, he'd gone through eight pairs of shoes, pretty much survived on PowerBars and water during long, lonely stretches between towns, and once, in Tennessee, had eaten five tall stacks of pancakes after going nearly three days without food. Along with Zeus, he'd traveled through blizzards, hailstorms,: fain, and heat so intense that it made the skin on his arms blister; he'd seen a tornado on the horizon near Tulsa, Oklahoma, and had nearly been struck by lightning twice. He'd taken numerous detours, trying to stay off the main toads, further lengthening the journey, sometimes on a whim. Usually, he walked until he was tired, and toward the end of the day, he'd start searching for a spot to camp, anywhere he thought he and Zeus wouldn't be disturbed. In the mornings, they hit the toad before dawn so no one would be the wiser. To this point, no one had bothered them.

    如果不是那些女孩载他一程，他就要自己走完全程了。​三月中旬，他交还公寓钥匙给物业后，徒步到现在已经磨穿了八双鞋子，一路上只靠着压缩食品和水坚持下来，最终完成了两个城镇间那漫长、孤独的旅程。有一次在田纳西州，他们饿着肚子走了三天，然后一口气吃了五张大煎饼。宙斯一直陪着他，无论狂风暴雨还是风雪冰雹，甚至连手臂上也被晒得起了水泡。在俄克拉荷马州的塔尔萨市附近，他还遇到了龙卷风。另外，还有两次他还差儿被从天而降的闪电击中。他总是故意避开大路，走林荫小道，虽然有时只是一时兴起，但是这让他饶了很多路。通常，只要他不累，他们就一直赶路，直到夜幕降临，他才会找一个安静的、没有人会打扰的地方扎营。第二天天还没亮，他们又继续赶路，这样就不会有人打扰到他们了，

He figured he'd been averaging more than twenty miles a day, though he'd never kept specific track of either the time or the distance. That wasn't what the journey was about. He could imagine some people thinking that he was walking to outpace the memories of the world he'd left behind, which had a poetic ring to it; others might want to believe he was walking simply for the sake of the journey itself. But neither was true. He liked to walk and he had someplace to go. Simple as that. He liked going when he wanted, at the pace he wanted, to the place he wanted to be. After four years of following orders in the Marine Corps, the freedom of it appealed to him.

    这段徒步没有规划行程，也没有时间限制，但是他还是一直前行，大概估算，每天都要走20英里的路，而这并不是旅行的意义。有人认为，他徒步是为了让自己有一种不断超越身后世界的感觉，们给他的行程蒙上了诗意的光环；也有人认为他的徒步在乎徒步本身。但是，这些都不是他的目的。他只是喜欢步行，恰好有地方要去，就是这么简单。他的旅行跟别人不同，只有当他想走的时候才会启程，而且以他喜欢的步调走每一步路，向着他想去的地方。在海军陆战队服役期间，他曾听命于人长达四年之久，而现在他非常享受真正的自由。

His mother worried about him, but then that's what mothers did. Or his mother, anyway. He called every few days to let her know he was doing okay, and usually, after hanging up, he would think that he wasn't being fair to her. He'd already been gone for much of the past five years, and before each of his three tours in Iraq, he'd listened as she'd lectured into the phone, reminding him not to do anything stupid. He hadn't, but there had been more than a few close calls. Though he'd never told her about them, she read the papers. "And now this," his mother had lamented the night before he'd left. "This whole thing seems crazy to me."

    他的妈妈非常担心他，但天下的母亲哪个不是这样？​别人的妈妈是怎样的，他不知道，但他的妈妈确实是这样的。每隔几天，他就要打电话给妈妈报平安，但每次挂断电话，他又觉得，这对妈妈并不公平。在过去的五年时间里，他经常不在他身边，三次远赴伊拉克执行任务，每次打电话都会唠唠叨叨让他注意安全，别干傻事。他确实没有干过什么傻事，但还是经历了很多危急时刻。他虽然从不跟她提起，但是她还是读报纸知道了些许。“那现在这又算什么？”她在他启程前夜，伤心欲绝，“你是要把我逼疯啊。”

Maybe it was. Maybe it wasn't. He wasn't sure yet. 

    也许吧，他也不知道这样做到底对不对。

"What do you think, Zeus?"

    “宙斯，你觉得呢？”

The dog looked up at the sound of his name and padded to his side.

    宙斯听见喊它的名字，抬起头来，走过去趴在他身边。

"Yeah, I know. You're hungry. What's new?"

    “哈哈，我知道了，你一定是饿了，咱还能有点儿别的事吗？”

Thibault paused in the parking lot of a run-down motel on the edge of town. He reached for the bowl and the last of the dog food. As Zeus began to eat, Thibault took in the view of the town.

    他们在汉普顿城外一个汽车旅馆的停车场旁停了下来，蒂博从包里摸出碗，倒出了仅剩的狗粮。当宙斯进食的时候，他站起身环视了下周围。

Hampton wasn't the worst place he'd ever seen, not by a long shot, but it wasn't the best, either. The town was located on the banks of the South River, about thirty-five miles northwest of Wilmington and the coast, and at first glance, it seemed no different from the thousands of self-sufficient, blue-collar communities long on pride and history that dotted the South. There were a couple of traffic lights dangling on droopy wires that interrupted the traffic flow as it edged toward the bridge that spanned the river, and on either side of the main road were low-slung brick buildings, sandwiched together and stretching for half a mile, with business names stenciled on the front windows advertising places to eat and drink or purchase hardware. A few old magnolias were scattered here and there and made the sidewalks swell beneath their bulging roots. In the distance, he saw an old-fashioned barber pole, along with the requisite older men sitting on the bench out in front of it. He smiled. It was quaint, like a fantasy of the 1950s.

    汉普顿不是他去过最差的地方，但也不是最好的。汉普顿县城坐落于南河之畔，位于维尔明顿海岸线西北约三十五英里。第一眼望去，这里和其他南方各州的小县城没有两样，都是自给自足，而且长期以来都是蓝领工人阶层引以为傲，并有着悠久历史的老城镇。远处的街道上，低垂的电线上面耷拉着几盏红绿灯，车流在它们的阻隔下正缓缓流向横跨南河的大桥。街道两侧尽是些低矮的砖石结构楼房，彼此拥挤着延伸到半英里开外。楼房临街的窗户上挂满了各种广告牌，有餐厅、商店和五金小百货等。人行道上稀稀拉拉长着几棵木兰树，膨胀的树根已将其周围的路面弄得支离破碎。蒂伯还注意到远处有一家老式理发店，老理发匠正坐在门前的长椅上。如此情景让他禁不住笑了起来，犹如梦幻之中上个世纪50年代的缩影，如今却已是很难见到。

On closer inspection, though, he sensed that first impressions were deceiving. Despite the waterfront location—or maybe because of it, he surmised—he noted the decay near the rooflines, in the crumbling bricks near the foundations, in the faded brackish stains a couple of feet higher than the foundations, which indicated serious flooding in the past. None of the shops were boarded up yet, but observing the dearth of cars parked in front of the businesses, he wondered how long they could hold out. Small-town commercial districts were going the way of the dinosaurs, and if this place was like most of the other towns he'd passed through, he figured there was probably another, newer area for businesses, one most likely anchored by a Wal-Mart or a Piggly Wiggly, that would spell the end for this part of town.

    他再一次远眺汉普顿县城，却突然有种被欺骗的感觉。在河边，或者正是因为河边的原因，楼房的屋顶已近乎腐朽，基墙的砖块也是破碎不堪，地基线上几英尺的位置还隐约有曾被水浸过的痕迹。从这些来推测，这里曾经应该经历过严重的洪涝灾害。时至今日，临街店铺的墙面仍然没有用木板装封，店铺门前的小轿车也是寥寥可数。他不知道他们还能坚持多久，这片商业区最后的遭遇将如恐龙灭绝一般悲惨。如果汉普顿和他所到过的其他县城一样，那么这里很可能有一片新兴商业区，而像沃尔玛和皮格利威格利公司的商店将会在新商业区落脚。那时，老商业区的末日也将降临。

Strange, though. Being here. He wasn't sure what he'd imagined Hampton to be, but it wasn't this.

    奇怪的是，他来到汉普顿后有一种说不上来的感觉，虽说看到的汉普顿跟他想象的不大一样。

No matter. As Zeus was finishing his food, he wondered how long it would take to find her. The woman in the photograph. The woman he'd come to meet.

    但这并不重要。宙斯吃完狗粮，他开始琢磨，我什么时候才能找到她呢，那张照片中的她，他这次徒步想要见到的她。

But he would find her. That much was certain. He hoisted his backpack. "You ready?"

    不过唯一可以确定的是，他一定会找到她。她收起行囊，“你吃好了没？”

Zeus tilted his head.

    宙斯抬起头看着他。

"Let's get a room. I want to eat and shower. And you need a bath."

    “我们找间房子住着吧，我有点儿饿，还要洗澡，你也该洗澡了。”

Thibault took a couple of steps before realizing Zeus hadn't moved. He glanced over his shoulder."Don't give me that look. You definitely need a bath. You smell."

    蒂博走了几步，发现宙斯没有跟上来，他转身看着宙斯，“不要用这种眼神看我，你真的要洗澡了，你闻起来臭臭的。”

Zeus still didn't move.

    宙斯还是没有动。

"Fine. Do what you want. I'm going."

    “好吧，我不管你了，我自己走了啊。”

He headed toward the manager's office to check in, knowing that Zeus would follow. In the end, Zeus always followed.

    他径直朝着旅馆前台走去，知道宙斯一定会跟着他。这种事情屡有发生，不过最后它都会跟上来的。

​

Until he'd found the photograph, Thibault's life had proceeded as he'd long intended. He'd always had a plan. He'd wanted to do well in school and had; he'd wanted to participate in a variety of sports and had grown up playing pretty much everything. He'd wanted to learn to play the piano and the violin, and he'd become proficient enough to write his own music. After college at the University of Colorado, he'd planned to join the Marine Corps, and the recruiter had been thrilled that he'd chosen to enlist instead of becoming an officer. Shocked, but thrilled. Most graduates had little desire to become a grunt, but that was exactly what he'd wanted.

​    发现那张照片前，蒂博的人生一帆风顺，他想做什么就能努力做的很好。在学校时，他想做个成绩优秀的学生，然后他确实品学兼优；他想要参加一些运动项目，结果长大后他体育方面无所不能；他想学习弹钢琴、拉小提琴，结果他不但琴艺娴熟，还会自己写歌。从美国科罗拉多大学毕业后，他想要成为一名海军陆战队员，所以放弃了做军官。当时，负责征兵的工作人员对他的选择感到很震惊，但更高兴可以招募到他。多数大学生都不愿意做一个普通的士兵，但这确是他想要的。

The bombing of the World Trade Center had little to do with his decision. Instead, joining the military seemed the natural thing to do, since his dad had served with the marines for twenty-five years. His dad had gone in as a private and finished as one of those grizzled, steel-jawed sergeants who intimidated pretty much everyone except his wife and the platoons he commanded. He treated those young men like his sons; his sole intent, he used to tell them, was to bring them back home to their mothers alive and well and all grown up. His dad must have attended more than fifty weddings over the years of guys he'd led who couldn't imagine getting married without having his blessing. Good marine, too. He'd picked up a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts in Vietnam and over the years had served in Grenada, Panama, Bosnia, and the First Gulf War. His dad was a marine who didn't mind transfers, and Thibault had spent the majority of his youth mov-ing from place to place, living on bases around the world. In some ways, Okinawa seemed more like home than Colorado, and though his Japanese was a bit rusty, he figured a week spent in Tokyo would rekindle the fluency he'd once known. Like his dad, he figured he'd end up retiring from the corps, but unlike his dad, he intended to live long enough afterward to enjoy it. His dad had died of a heart attack only two years after he'd slipped his dress blues onto the hanger for the last time, a massive infarction that came out of the blue. One minute he was shoveling snow from the driveway, and the next minute he was gone. That was thirteen years ago. Thibault had been fifteen years old at the time.

    世贸大厦当时被摧毁，但是这和他做这个决定没什么关系。相反，在他看来，参军是一件理所当然的事情，因为他的父亲曾经在海军陆战队服役整整二十五年。他的父亲在入伍时不过是个小兵，但当他两鬓斑白退役时已经是一个德高望重的士官了，除了妻子和他指挥的那一排的士兵外，几乎所有人都怕他。他对待士兵们就如同自己的亲生儿子一样，他经常跟他们说，他唯一的愿望就是把磨练成战士的他们活着带回家。这些年来，他的父亲参加了不下五十场士兵的婚礼，他们不敢想象结婚时没有他的祝福回事怎样的。他的父亲是一名优秀的海军陆战队员，曾在越南战争后被授予一枚青铜星章(授与英勇作战者)和两枚紫星勋章(专门授予作战中负伤的军人)，多年来一直在格林纳达、巴拿马、波斯尼亚和第一次海湾战争中服役。因此，蒂博童年时期总是跟随者父亲搬来搬去，辗转在世界各地的美军军营。不管怎样，日本冲绳群岛还是比美国科罗拉多州更有一种家的感觉。此时他的日语已经有些许生疏了，但只需要在日本待一个星期，就又能讲一口流利的日语了。如同他的父亲一样，蒂博希望自己可以光荣退役；但又和父亲有所不同，他希望有足够的时间可以安享晚年。他父亲在退役两年后就因为心脏病突发病逝了。前一秒还在车道上铲雪，后一秒就离开了他们。那是十三年前，蒂博当时只有15岁。

That day and the funeral that followed were the most vivid memories of his life prior to joining the marines. Being raised as a military brat has a way of making things blur together, simply because of how often you have to move. Friends come and go, clothing is packed and unpacked, households are continually purged of unnecessary items, and as a result, not much sticks. It's hard at times, but it makes a kid strong in ways that most people can't understand. Teaches them that even though people are left behind, new ones will inevitably take their place; that every place has something good—and bad—to offer. It makes a kid grow up fast

    在蒂博服役是，父亲去世的那天和后来举行的葬礼依然还是恍如隔日，知道现在还是历历在目。他从小在军营里长大，记忆总是很混乱，可能是因为常常搬家的缘故。结识新朋，忘记旧友；行囊打包，后又拆开；遗弃没有用的家具，直到最后没剩下什么。那段日子很艰难，但也很容易让小孩成长的更坚强。这段常人难以理解的时光，教会了蒂博人生有很多人，不想离开但不得不离开；任何事都有两面性，或好或坏，这些都让一个小男孩更快速的成长为有担当的男人。

Even his college years were hazy, but that chapter of his life had its own routines. Studying during the week, enjoying the weekends, cramming for finals, crappy dorm food, and two girlfriends, one of whom lasted a little more than a year. Everyone who ever went to college had the same stories to tell, few of which had lasting impact. In the end, only his education remained. In truth, he felt like his life hadn't really started until he'd arrived on Parris bland for basic training. As soon as he'd hopped off the bus, the drill sergeant started shouting in his ear. There's nothing like a drill sergeant to make a person believe that nothing in his life had really mattered to that point. You were theirs now, and that was that. Good at sports? Give me fifty push-ups, Mr. Point Guard. College educated? Assemble this rifle, Einstein. Father was in the marines? Clean the cropper like your old man once did. Same old clichés. Run, march, stand at attention, crawl through the mud, scale that wall: There was nothing in basic training he hadn't expected.

    虽说他对大学生活记忆也比较模糊，但是他依然记得那段特别的时光。周内刻苦学习，周末乐在其中，考试前挑灯夜读，简陋的宿舍和难吃的食堂饭菜，还有两任女朋友，其中有一任谈了一年多。就跟大多数上过大学的人经历的一样，到最后剩下的只有一纸毕业证书而已。事实上，在巴利斯岛的入伍训练，才让蒂博感觉到人生才刚刚开始，真正的开始。自从那次训练刚开始，他从军车上摔下来之后，教官的呵斥声就一直不绝于耳。没有什么比教官的厉声斥责更能让一个人相信，生活中绝对没有什么可以与之相提并论了。你是士兵，他是教官，就是这样。你擅长体育运动？做五十个俯卧撑，得分后卫先生；上过大学？那么我的爱因斯坦先生，把步枪给我组装起来；父亲当过兵？那就像你老子一样，去给我打扫厕所。齐步走，跑步走，立正，稍息，泥地里匍匐前进，徒手爬高墙，这些他都深切体会了一番。

He had to admit that the drill mostly worked. It broke people down, beat them down even further, and eventually molded them into marines. Or that's what they said, anyway. He didn't break down. He went through the motions, kept his head low, did as he was ordered, and remained the same man he'd been before. He became a marine anyway.

​    他不得不承认，入伍训练确实很有用。它击倒一个人，甚至是深深地打击，但最终还是会被锻炼为真正的海军陆战队员。这就是教官当时说的话。他非但没有被入伍训练打败，而且学了一身本领，也学会了低头领命。但不同的是，他还是那个入伍前的他，只是最后成了一名海军陆战队员。

He ended up with the First Battalion, Fifth Marines, based out of Camp Pendleton. San Diego was his kind of town, with great weather, gorgeous beaches, and even more beautiful women. But it was not to last. In January 2003, right after he turned twenty-three, he deployed to Kuwait as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Camp Doha, in an industrial part of Kuwait City, had been in use since the First Gulf War and was pretty much a town unto itself. There was a gym and a computer center, a PX, places to eat, and tents spread as far as the horizon. Busy place made much busier by the impending invasion, and things were chaotic from the start. His days were an unbroken sequence of hours-long meetings, backbreaking drills, and rehearsals of ever changing attack plans. He must have practiced donning his chemical war protection suit a hundred times. There were endless rumors, too. The worst part was trying to figure out which one might be true. Everyone knew of someone who knew someone who'd heard the real story. One day they were going in imminently; next day they'd hear that they were holding off. First, they were coming in from the north and south; then just from the south, and maybe not even that. They heard the enemy had chemical weapons and intended to use them; next day they heard they wouldn't use them because they believed that the United States would respond with nukes. There were whispers that the Iraqi Republican Guard intended to make a suicide stand just over the border; others swore they intended to make the stand near Baghdad. Still others said the suicide stand would happen near the oil fields. In short, no one knew anything, which only fueled the imaginations of the 150,000 troops who'd assembled in Kuwait.

    训练结束后，蒂博被分派到海军陆战队第五师一营，驻扎在加州的彭德尔顿营地。​圣地亚哥是他喜欢的城市，天气好，沙滩漂亮，还有很多美女。但是没过多久，2003年1月，他被派往科威特参加“伊拉克自由行动”，那年他刚满23岁。美军在伊拉克的营地多哈位于科威特工业区，从第一次海湾战争使用至今，营地本身就像一个小镇。这里有一个健身中心，一个计算机中心，一个军营商店，还有一些小餐馆，一座座营房更是遍布整个军营。原本就很繁忙的地方因为即将到来的入侵者变得更加忙碌，从一开始就混乱不堪。这段时间，他经常要开长达几小时的会议，参加魔鬼式训练，以及根据不断变化的作战计划而组织的演习，有时甚至要练习上百次生化武器防护服穿戴。当然，还有无穷无尽的谣言，而最糟糕的就是要去分析到底谁说的才是真的，但谣言在传播时总会被添油加醋，甚至没有人知道它最早的说法是怎样的。有时，头一天说部队准备紧急出发，后一天又说暂缓部署；有时说敌人会从北方进攻到南方，结果敌人是从南方攻入的，甚至根本不是南边；有一次他们听说敌人会使用生化武器，结果回头又说敌人不会用，因为他们知道美军会用核武器以牙还牙；有一次，他们听到传言说伊拉克共和国护卫队将在边境附近制造一起自杀式爆炸袭击，但是有人却发誓说自杀袭击会在巴格达附近，也有人说会在油田哪里。总之，谁都不知道真相，而谣言制造者往往都是军营的十五万士兵臆想的。

For the most part, soldiers are kids. People forget that sometimes. Eighteen, nineteen, twenty—half of the servicemen weren't old enough even to buy a beer. They were confident and well trained and excited to go, but it was impossible to ignore the reality of what was coming. Some of them were going to die. Some talked openly about it, others wrote letters to their families and handed them to the chaplain. Tempers were short. Some had trouble sleeping; others slept almost all the time. Thibault observed it all with a strange sense of detachment. Welcome to war, he could hear his father saying. It's always a SNAFU: situation normal, all fouled up.

    大多时候，士兵们都还是孩子，但人们却总是忘记这一点。18岁，19岁，20岁，一半以上的士兵甚至都没有到可以买酒的法定年龄（是21岁）。但是他们充满自信，接受过严格的训练，而且能为国效力感到很骄傲，但是战场上是很残酷的，他们有可能会战死沙场。有人会对这个看得很开，有人会默默写家书交给牧师。蒂博用一种超脱的心态将这一切看在眼里，记在心里。“这就是战场，”他仿佛听到父亲在说话，“在战场上通常都是乱七八糟的：本来没什么事，就给搞得一塌糊涂。”

Thibault wasn't completely immune to the escalating tension, and like everyone else, he'd needed an outlet. It was impossible not to have one. He started playing poker. His dad had taught him to play, and he knew the game… or thought he knew. He quickly found out that others knew more. In the first three weeks, he proceeded to lose pretty much every dime he'd saved since joining up, bluffing when he should have folded, folding when he should have stayed in the game. It wasn't much money to begin with, and it wasn't as if he had many places to spend it even if he'd kept it, but it put him in a foul mood for days. He hated to lose.

    在逐渐升级的紧张局势面前，蒂博并非熟视无睹，跟其他人一样，他也需要发泄。军营里没有什么好的解压方法，于是他就开始跟着大家一起打牌赌钱了。他的父亲教过他打牌，而且他自认为自己很厉害，可是很快，他发现有人比他玩得更好。开始打牌的三周里，他输光了入伍以来存下的每一分钱。牌不好时，他虚张声势继续坚持；而需要坚持时，他却早早扣了牌，虽然说刚开始输的钱不算多，其实就算他没输这些钱，他也花不出去，但是输掉还是让他心情不好。他痛恨失败。

The only antidote was to go for long runs first thing in the morning, before the sun came up. It was usually frigid; though he'd been in the Middle East for a month, it continually amazed him how cold the desert could be. He ran hard beneath a sky crowded with stars, his breaths coming out in little puffs.

    如果不打牌，那么唯一的发泄方式就是晨跑了。那里的天气寒冷之极，机关他之前也在中西部待过一个月，但他还是不断地惊讶于这里的沙漠有多冷。有一天，他醒的很早，那时天空还繁星点点，他跑步时都会有一阵阵白雾呼出。

Toward the end of one of his runs, when he could see his tent in the distance, he began to slow. By then, the sun had begun to crest the horizon, spreading gold across the arid landscape. With his hands on his hips, he continued to catch his breath, and it was then, from the corner of his eye, that he spotted the dull gleam of a photograph, half-buried in the dirt. He stopped to pick it up and noticed that it had been cheaply but neatly laminated, probably to protect it from the elements. He brushed off the dust, clearing the image, and that was the first time he saw her.

    跑步回来，不远处看到了自己的营地，他就放慢了步伐。这时，太阳冉冉升起，光芒洒满大地。他双手叉腰，继续调整着呼吸，眼角的余光瞥到了一张垃圾堆里被掩埋了半截的照片。他停了下来，捡起了照片。那张照片虽然是一种很便宜的相片纸，但照片被塑封了起来，可能是为了怕它污损。他擦去照片上的灰尘，这是他第一次看到她。

The blonde with the smile and the jade-colored mischievous eyes, wearing jeans and a T-shirt emblazoned with the words lucky lady across the front. Behind her was a banner showing the words Hampton fairgrounds. A German shepherd, gray in the muzzle, stood by her side. In the crowd behind her were two young men, clustered near the ticket stand and a bit out of focus, wearing T-shirts with logos. Three evergreen trees rose in the distance, pointy ones that could grow almost anywhere. On the back of the photo were the handwritten words, "Keep Safe! E."

    她，一个金发碧眼的美女，身着牛仔裤和胸前印有“幸运女神”的T恤。在她身后，有一条大横幅，上面写着“汉普顿嘉年华游乐会”。她身旁坐着一只口鼻是灰色的德国牧羊犬。在她身后拥挤的人群中，售票处那里有两个年轻人，虽说比较模糊，但能看出来是同一款的T恤。在他身后不远处有三棵常青树，不过常青树很常见，到处都可能有。照片后面手写着一行字“保重，艾！”

Not that he'd noticed any of those things right away. His first instinct, in fact, had been to toss the picture aside. He almost had, but just as he was about to do so, it occurred to him that whoever had lost it might want it back. It obviously meant something to someone.

    其实，他捡起照片时没打算仔细看，第一直觉是扔了它，而且差点儿就扔了，但是就在他要扔的时候，想到那个遗失照片的人可能在到处找寻它，这张照片可能对它的主人来说很重要。

When he returned to camp, he tacked the photo to a message board near the entrance to the computer center, figuring that pretty much every inhabitant of the camp made his way there at one point or another. No doubt someone would claim it.

    回到营地后，他用大头针将照片钉在了计算机中心入口处的留言板上。他知道，不管有事没事，大家都会时不时的看看留言板的，这样就会有人认领它的。

A week went by, then ten days. The photo was never retrieved. By that point, his platoon was drilling for hours every day, and the poker games had become serious. Some men had lost thousands of dollars; one lance corporal was said to have lost close to ten thousand. Thibault, who hadn't played since his initial humiliating attempt, preferred to spend his free time brooding on the upcoming invasion and wondering how he'd react to being fired upon. When he wandered over to the computer center three days before the invasion, he saw the photo still tacked to the message board, and for a reason he still didn't quite understand, he took down the photo and put it in his pocket.

    一周过去了，又等了十天，照片还在那里，没有人拿走。那段时间，他们排每天都要参加几个小时的魔鬼训练，而且打牌赌钱也变得越来越疯狂，有些人输掉了几千美元，甚至有一个一等兵输了一万多。蒂博从一开始打牌输钱后就收手了，即使有时闲暇，他也只是想想作战计划，总是想着如果敌人攻击他时他要怎么还击。在作战开始的三天前，他散步经过计算机中心，看到那张照片还在留言板上，于是他就拿下来装进了自己的口袋，具体为什么他会拿走这张照片，他也不知道。

Victor, his best friend in the squad—they'd been together since basic training—talked him into joining the poker game that night, despite Thibault's reservations. Still low on funds, Thibault started conservatively and didn't think he'd be in the game for more than half an hour. He folded in the first three games, then drew a straight in the fourth game and a full house in the sixth. The cards kept falling his way—flushes, straights, full houses—and by the halfway point in the evening, he'd recouped his earlier losses. The original players had left by then, replaced by others. Thibault stayed. In turn, they were replaced. Thibault stayed. His winning streak persisted, and by dawn, he'd won more than he'd earned in his first six months in the marines.

    维克多是蒂博在军营里最好的朋友，他们早从入伍之前就认识了。那天晚上，维克多叫他一起去打牌，他虽再三推辞，但最后还是没拗得过，一起去了。牌局的赌注不是很大，他刚开始比较保守，觉得自己最多玩半个小时。前三局他都直接扣牌了，第四局他拿到一条同花顺，第六局拿到三张金花。那晚真的是运气很好，清一色、同花顺和三张金花接连不断的到他的手里。牌局过半，他就赢回了以前所有输掉的钱，刚开始一起玩的人都打了退堂鼓，新加入了几个，后来他们也走了，又换了几个，总之，那晚他一直在赢，直到黎明，他赢得的钱比他在部队六个月赚的还多。

It was only when he was leaving the game with Victor that he realized he'd had the photograph in his pocket the entire time. When they were back at their tent, he showed the photo to Victor and pointed out the words on the woman's shirt. Victor, whose parents were illegal immigrants living near Bakersfield, California, was not only religious, but believed in portents of all kinds. Lightning storms, forked roads, and black cats were favorites, and before they'd shipped out, he'd told Thibault about an uncle who suppos-edly possessed the evil eye: "When he looks at you a certain way, it's only a matter of time before you die." Victor's conviction made Thibault feel like he was ten years old again, listening raptly as Victor told the story with a flashlight propped beneath his chin. He said nothing at the time. Everyone had their quirks. Guy wanted to believe in omens? Fine with him. More important was the fact that Victor was a good enough shot to have been ^recruited as a sniper and that Thibault trusted him with his life.

    他和维克多离开牌局后，他才意识到打牌时那张照片一直在他口袋里。回到营房后，他拿出了照片，指着那个女人T恤衫上的字给维克多看。维克多的父母是加州贝克斯菲尔德附近的非法移民，他们不仅信仰宗教，还信仰各种各样的征兆，比如闪电、风暴、交叉路和黑猫等，这些在他们看来都是好征兆。维克多还说自己有一个拥有恶魔之眼的叔叔，"当他用某种特别的眼神看着你时，你的死期就不远了。"维克多对此深信不疑，蒂伯却觉得维克多像个10岁的小孩。在营房里，维克多用手电筒顶在下巴上，继续讲着自己的故事，蒂伯则全神贯注地听着，一言不发。每个人都有怪癖，有人会相信预兆？恐怕只有维克多了吧，信就信呗。更重要的是，当时征兵的人就是看上了他出色的射击技术，所以招募他为狙击手，或许正因如此，蒂博一直都很信任他。

Victor stared at the picture before handing it back. "You said you found this at dawn?"

    ​照片还给蒂博前，维克多紧盯着照片，“你说你是天还没亮捡到的？”

"Yeah."

    “是啊。”

"Dawn is a powerful time of the day."

    “一日之计在于晨。”

"So you've told me."

    “这个你早就跟我说过了。”​

"It's a sign," he said. "She's your good-luck charm. See the shirt she is wearing?"

    “这是一个征兆，”维克多接着说，“她是你的幸运女神，T恤上写的清清楚楚。”​

"She was tonight."

    “她只是昨晚牌局上的幸运女神。”

"Not just tonight. You found that picture for a reason. No one claimed it for a reason. You took it today for a reason. Only you were meant to have it."

    “不止昨晚，你见到这张照片、没有人认领以及最后你拿走它肯定都是有原因的，而且，只有你，才能拥有这张照片。”

Thibault wanted to say something about the guy who'd lost it and how he'd feel about that, but he kept quiet Instead, he lay back on the cot and clasped his hands behind his head.

    蒂博本想着丢照片的人一定很着急，但是他没说出口​，二十双手抱头躺在了床上，若有所思。

Victor mirrored the movement. "I'm happy for you. Luck will be on your side from now on," he added.

    维克多注意到了蒂博的焦虑，“我真为你高兴，从现在开始，幸运会一直伴随着你了。”他接着说。

"I hope so."

    “但愿吧。”

"But you can't ever lose the picture."

    “但是有一点，你不能失去这张照片。”

"No?"

    “为什么？”

"If you do, then the charm works in reverse."

    “如果你把它搞丢了，一切幸运的力量就会颠倒，你身上的幸运就会变成魔咒。”

"Which means what?"

    “什么意思？”

"It means you'll be unlucky. And in war, unlucky is the last thing you want to be."

    “意思是说你会变得非常不幸。毕竟，你知道的，战场上枪炮无眼。”

​

The motel room was as ugly on the inside as it had been from the outside: wood paneling, light fixtures attached to the ceiling with chains, shag carpet, television bolted to the stand. It seemed to have been decorated around 1975 and never updated, and it re-minded Thibault of the places his dad had made them stay in when they took their family vacations through the Southwest, when Thibault was a kid. They'd stayed overnight in places just off the highway, and as long as they were relatively clean, his dad had deemed them fine. His mom less so, but what could she do? It wasn't as if there had been a Four Seasons across the street, and even if there had been, there was no way they could ever have afforded it.

​    从外面看去，这汽车旅馆破烂不堪，房间里面也是如此。墙面上嵌着破木板，电灯被铁链挂在天花板上，电视用螺栓固定在一个支架上，整个房间看上去就像是装修于1975年，而后再也没有翻新过。这番情景，让蒂伯想起了孩提时的往事。那时父亲带着他和母亲到美国西南部去度假，却总是让他们住在跟这个旅馆一样的地方，他们常常夜宿高速公路旁的汽车旅馆。在父亲的眼中，只要相对比较干净，他就觉得还不错。尽管他母亲不这么认为，但是她又能怎么样呢？如果当时大街对面能有一家四季大酒店，那该有多好！可是话说回来，如果对面真的有那么一家大酒店，他们又怎么能支付得起？

Thibault went through the same routine his dad had when entering a motel room: He pulled back the comforter to make sure the sheets were fresh, he checked the shower curtain for mold, he looked for hairs in the sink. Despite the expected rust stains, a leaky faucet, and cigarette bums, the place was cleaner than he'd imagined it might be. Inexpensive, too. Thibault had paid cash for a week in advance, no questions asked, no extra charge for the dog. All in all, a bargain. Good thing. Thibault had no credit cards, no debit cards, no ATM cards, no official mailing address, no cell phone. He carried pretty much everything he owned. He did have a bank account, one that would wire him money as needed. It was registered under a corporate name, not his own. He wasn't rich. He wasn't even middle-class. The corporation did no business. He just liked his privacy.

    他走进房间，便开始了惯例检查，这是他从父亲那里学来的。他先揭开被单以确定床单是不是干净，其次又检查浴帘上有没有霉斑，最后检查水池里有没有先前住客遗留下的毛发。除去那意料之中的锈迹斑斑而且还漏水的水龙头，以及上一个住客留下的几个烟头，这个房间还是要比他想象中的干净一些，重点是不贵。他用现金预付了一周的费用，旅馆的人不但什么都没问，而且也没有因为他带着狗而额外收费。不管怎么说，只要便宜就行！他没有信用卡，没有借记卡，没有银联卡，没有正式的邮政地址，也没有手机。他带在身上的东西，就是他全部的家当。其实，他也有一个银行账户，在他需要用钱时可以电汇给他，那个账户是挂在一个公司的名下注册的，其实也不是他自己的。他不是富人，甚至连中产阶级也算不上，那个公司其实也不做生意，他挂在那里只是不想别人知道自己的隐私。

He led Zeus to the tub and washed him, using the shampoo in his backpack. Afterward, he showered and dressed in the last of his clean clothes. Sitting on the bed, he thumbed through the phone book, searching for something in particular, without luck. He made a note to do laundry when he had time, then decided to get a bite to eat at the small restaurant he'd seen just down the street.

    他把宙斯带到浴盆里，用背包里的狗狗沐浴乳给它洗了澡。然后，他自己也洗了澡，并换上最后一套干净的衣服。最后，他坐在床上拿起了电话本，想翻翻看能不能找到些什么有用的，却不幸什么也没能找到。他还写了一张便条儿，提醒自己有时间一定要洗衣服。然后，他打算出去吃点儿饭，刚刚在路上的时候看到一家小餐馆店门还没关。

When he got there, they wouldn't let Zeus inside, which wasn't surprising. Zeus lay down outside the front door and went to sleep. Thibault had a cheeseburger and fries, washed it down with a chocolate milk shake, then ordered a cheeseburger to go for Zeus. Back outside, he watched as Zeus gobbled it down in less than twenty seconds and then looked up at Thibault again.

    他带着宙斯来到餐馆门口，他们却不让宙斯进去。这也不算意外，毕竟一般小餐厅都不允许宠物一起用餐，宙斯只好躺在大门口睡觉。他进去点了一个芝士汉堡和一些炸薯条，然后用一杯巧克力奶昔将它们冲进胃里。离开餐馆时，他给宙斯也买了一个芝士汉堡。除了餐馆，他看到宙斯狼吞虎咽的用不到二十秒就吞掉了整个汉堡，吃完后还再一次抬起头看着他。

"Glad you really savored that. Come on."

    "看到你吃的这么津津有味真好，走吧！"

Thibault bought a map of the town at a convenience store and sat on a bench near the town square—one of those old-fashioned parks bordered on all four sides by business-lined streets. Featuring large shady trees, a play area for the kids, and lots of flowers, it didn't seem crowded: A few mothers were clustered together, while children zipped down the slide or glided back and forth on the swings. He examined the faces of the women, making sure she wasn't among them, then turned away and opened the map before they grew nervous at his presence. Mothers with young kids always got nervous when they saw single men lingering in the area, doing nothing purposeful. He didn't blame them. Too many perverts out there.

    他又去了一家自助商店，买了一张当地的地图，随后便在县城广场附近的一张长椅上坐了下来。广场是一个老式公园，四面都是商业街，但是公园里面却绿树成荫，鲜花满地，还有一个儿童游乐场。一些孩子们在游乐场里玩着溜溜板，荡着秋千，妈妈们也聚在一处聊家常。公园里人不多，他仔细从那些母亲们的脸上看过，以确定自己要找的人不在她们中间。然后，他转身打开了地图，以免引起她们的怀疑。如果有游手好闲的陌生男人在孩子们周围游荡，母亲们总是会变得紧张起来。他没有怪她们，只怪这个世界上有太多的坏人。

Studying the map, he oriented himself and tried to figure out his next move. He had no illusions that it was going to be easy. He didn't know much, after all. All he had was a photograph—no name or address. No employment history. No phone number. No date. Nothing but a face in the crowd.

    他仔细研究着地图，想从中找出下一步的计划。他知道要找到她绝非易事，毕竟他所知道的太少，那张照片是他知道的全部，没有姓名，没有地址，没有履历，没有电话号码，没有日期，只有人群中的一张脸，除此之外什么都没有。

But there were some clues. He'd studied the details of the photo, as he had so many times before, and started with what he knew. The photograph had been taken in Hampton. The woman appeared to be in her early twenties when the photo was taken. She was attractive. She either owned a German shepherd or knew someone who did. Her first name started with the letter E. Emma, Elaine, Elise, Eileen, Ellen, Emily, Erin, Erica… they seemed the most likely, though in the South, he supposed there could be names like Erdine or Elspeth, too. She went to the fair with someone who was later posted to Iraq. She had given this person the photograph, and Thibault had found the photograph in February 2003, which meant it had to have been taken before then. The woman, then, was most likely now in her late twenties. There was a series of three evergreen trees in the distance. These things he knew. Facts.

    但是，照片中并不是没有线索。虽然他已经看过无数次了，但他还是仔细审视着照片上的每一处细节。照片是在汉普顿拍的，而那个女人在拍照时也只不过二十出头。她不但漂亮迷人，而且她或者她认识的某个人还养着一只德国牧羊犬。她名字的第一个字母是艾，而这个名字有可能是艾玛，艾莱恩、艾丽斯、艾伦、艾琳、艾米丽、艾瑞、艾瑞卡……它们听上去也都差不多。在美国南部，首字为“艾”打头的名字也可能是艾尔丁或艾尔斯佩斯。他也知道，那个女人和某个晚些时候被派到伊拉克的海军陆战队员恋爱了，而照片是她送给那个人的特别礼物。他在垃圾堆里发现照片的时间是2003年2月，那就是说照片拍摄于那个时间之前。如果这么算来，现在她很可能已经将近30岁了。照片上她的身后不远处，还有三棵常青树。这一切便是他所知道的线索，也全都是事实。

Then, there were assumptions, beginning with Hampton. Hampton was a relatively common name. A quick Internet search turned up a lot of them. Counties and towns: South Carolina, Virginia, New Hampshire, Iowa, Nebraska. Georgia. Others, too. Lots of others. And, of course, a Hampton in Hampton County, North Carolina.

    另外，他还有一些推测。首先是照片里横幅上的"汉普顿"三个字，这是个相对来讲比较普通的地名，只要上网随便搜索一下，便能找到很多的结果。在南卡罗来纳、维吉尼亚、新罕布什尔、爱荷华、内布拉斯加、乔治亚和美国其他的各州，有很多名为汉普顿的县城和镇子，还有很多叫做汉普顿的小地方。当然，在北卡罗来纳州的汉普顿县，这里的汉普顿镇也是其中之一。

Though there'd been no obvious landmarks in the background— no picture of Monticello indicating Virginia, for instance, no welcome to Iowa! sign in the distance—there had been information. Not about the woman, but gleaned from the young men in the background, standing in line for tickets. Two of them had been wearing shirts with logos. One—an image of Homer Simpson— didn't help. The other, with the word Davidson written across the front, meant nothing at first, even when Thibault thought about it. He'd originally assumed the shirt was an abbreviated reference to Harley-Davidson, the motorcycle. Another Google search cleared that up. Davidson, he'd learned, was also the name of a reputable college located near Charlotte, North Carolina. Selective, challenging, with an emphasis on liberal arts. A review of their bookstore catalog showed a sample of the same shirt.

    照片的背景里没有明显的地域性标志，没有标志维吉尼亚州的蒙蒂塞洛庄园的图片，也没有写着"欢迎您到爱荷华州！"的标志牌。但是，照片里面仍然有值得去挖掘的线索。这个线索并非来自那个女人，却是蒂伯从那两个排队挤在售票处的年轻小伙身上发现的。他们的身上都穿着印有标志的T恤，其中一个印着荷马·辛普森的卡通形象，这个没什么用。但是，另一个却印有"戴维森"三个字，开始他觉得这条线索也没用，以为那三个字是"哈雷戴维森"的简写。但是，当他上网搜索之后，这种假设被推翻了。他在搜索结果中发现，"戴维森"还是一所享有盛誉的大学的名字，这所大学注重人文科学研究，位于北卡罗来纳州的夏洛特市，网上还有一篇关于该大学书店图书目录的评论，正好有一张和小伙子身上T恤一样的图片。

The shirt, he realized, was no guarantee that the photo had been taken in North Carolina. Maybe someone who'd gone to the college gave the guy the shirt; maybe he was an out-of-state student, maybe he just liked the colors, maybe he was an alum and had moved someplace new. But with nothing else to go on, Thibault had made a quick phone call to the Hampton Chamber of Commerce before he'd left Colorado and verified that they had a county fair every summer. Another good sign. He had a destination, but it wasn't yet a fact. He just assumed this was the right place. Still, for a reason he couldn’t explain, this place felt right.

    这条线索虽然有些进展，但是仅凭着T恤也不能证明照片拍摄于北卡罗来纳州。小伙子可能在戴维森大学里有朋友，而朋友送给他一件那样的T恤，或者他本人是一个来自外州的学生，或者他只是喜欢那件T恤的颜色，或者他只是一个戴维森大学的校友，而拍照时他早已移居他乡。虽然有太多的不确定，但是在没有更好的线索之前，蒂伯也只好继续沿着这条线索走下去了。他早在离开科罗拉多州之前，曾打电话到汉普顿县商贸委员会询问，最后确认每年夏天汉普顿县都会举行一次嘉年华游乐会。这是个好消息，至少为他提供了旅途的目的地，就算这里也找不到她。他将北卡罗来纳州的汉普顿假设成为旅途的终点，虽然直到现在他还不知道为什么要做出这样的选择，但他始终觉得他在这里能找到她。

There were other assumptions, too, but he'd get to those later. The first thing he had to do was find the fairgrounds. Hopefully, the county fair had been held in the same location for years; he hoped the person who could point him in the right direction could answer that question as well. Best place to find someone like that was at one of the businesses around here. Not a souvenir or antiques shop- Those were often owned by newcomers to town, people escaping from the North in search of a quieter life in warmer weather. Instead, he thought his best bet would be someplace like a local hardware store. Or a bar. Or a real estate office He figured he'd know the place when he saw it.

    虽然还有其他一些推测，但他宁愿以后再去考虑它们。目前而言，他要做的第一件事是找到嘉年华游乐会的会场，而这也不是没有希望的事。这么多年来，汉普顿的嘉年华游乐会始终都在同一个地点举办。他希望自己能找到一个不但能够指路给他，而且还能回答他心中疑问的人。他知道自己应该去一些老商店里找人打听一番，而不是那些纪念品店或精品专卖店里，因为这些店里的人大多是新搬来这里的。他们逃离了美国北部城市的喧嚣，来到南方温暖的小镇寻求一种更为安逸的生活。蒂伯心想自己最好将赌注下在当地的五金商店，或者酒吧，或者房产租赁公司等地方。他只要能看得见那个地方，便一定能认出它来。

He wanted to see the exact place the photograph had been taken. Not to get a better feel for who the woman was. The fair-grounds wouldn't help with that at all.

    虽然，他很想亲眼看到那张照片到底是在什么地方拍摄的，不是为了让自己更多地了解那个女人是什么样的人。事实上，就算亲眼看到了嘉年华会场，也不会改变什么。

He wanted to know if there were three tall evergreen trees clustered together, pointy ones that could grow almost anywhere.

    他只是想知道，那里是不是真的有三棵挺拔的常青树，虽然说高高挺立着的常青树可能生长在世界上的任何一个地方。