Left Behind
遺留在時光背後的思念
They’re gone now.
他們已經走了。
I stood in the driveway and watched my grown children drive off into the distance. I looked down the road until I could no longer see their vehicles.
我站在車道上,看著我那些已長大的孩子駛遠。我凝視著那路的盡頭,直到再看不見他們的車。
「They live way too far away from me,」 I said to myself. 「When did they grow up and become parents of small children? Shouldn’t that be me?」
「他們住得離我太遠了,」我自言自語道,「他們什麼時候長大且為人父母的?我不是才長大,才為人父母嗎?」
I slipped back inside the house and just walked through the rooms for no reason in particular. I was just missing them already and looking for signs of their having been here. There were pillows on the floor where they had been tossed from the couch and a few stuffed animals lying around where the children had been playing.
我回到屋裡,只是漫無目的地行走於各個房間裡。他們才剛走,我就已經開始想他們了,只好在屋裡尋找著他們曾逗留的痕跡。地板上的枕頭是孩子們從沙發上扔下來的,一些布絨玩具動物正躺在孩子們之前玩耍的地方。
I smiled at the little fingerprints on my mirror. I didn’t wipe them off. I thought back to the time when I tried so hard to keep the fingerprints off the mirrors and doors when my children were small. Now, I wanted the tiny fingerprints to stay so that I could see them there just a little longer.
我對著鏡子上的小指印微笑,沒去擦。回想起當我的孩子還小時,我竭力不讓鏡子和房門沾上指印。現在,我希望這些小指印都留在上面,好讓我看久一點。
As I walked around the house, I picked up a few items on the floor and straightened a chair. I decided to sort through the toy box and I found a flying dinosaur, a skeleton, and a Frankenstein that had mysteriously taken up residence in my box of toys.
當我在屋裡四處遊走時,我撿起地上的一些物品,並把一張椅子擺正。我決定整理一下玩具箱裡的玩具。而我發現了一隻會飛的恐龍、一架動物骷髏,連弗蘭肯斯坦這個人造怪物也不知怎的就神秘地跑到那玩具箱裡了。
I walked into the kitchen and there on the back of the sink was a bottle brush that had been left behind. 「Ah, even Tessa left something behind,」 I announced. Well, I suppose she had help since she was just four months old.
我走進廚房,水池後面有一個被落下的洗瓶刷。「哈,連特莎也落下了一個東西,」我說道。噢,肯定是有人幫她刷瓶子給落下的,畢竟她只有四個月大。
「I wonder what else has been left behind,」 I said out loud to no one in particular. My husband heard me and joined the search for things left behind.
「我想知道還有什麼東西落下了,」我大聲地自言自語道。我丈夫聽見了我的話,也和我一塊搜尋那些落下的東西。
It seems like every time our family gets together something is left behind. When I call my children to tell them what they have left behind I am usually told, 「Oh, just bring it when you come,」 「Keep it for me until I come back the next time,」 or 「Hey, I really need that, would you mind mailing it to me?」
似乎每次我們家庭聚會,他們總會落下一些東西。每次我打電話告訴我的孩子他們都落下些什麼的時候,他們通常會跟我說,「噢,下次你來時給我們帶上吧。」或者「幫我留著,下次我回去再取。」又或者「嗨,我急著用,能幫我郵寄過來嗎?」
「Oh look! Here’s Tegan’s tooth,」 I said to my husband as I picked up a ziplock bag with her name engraved on it. Tegan had a loose tooth and had managed to wiggle it out earlier in the day. 「Now, she can’t put it under her pillow. I wonder if it will work if I put it under my pillow. The Tooth Fairy is going to be so confused!」 I laughed.
「噢,看!這是泰根的牙,」我邊撿起一個寫著她名字的自封袋,邊對丈夫說道。泰根先前有顆牙鬆了,今早她成功把它拽了下來。「現在,她沒法把牙放在她的枕頭下了。我想知道,如果我把它放在我的枕頭下,那傳說是否奏效。牙仙子會很困惑的!」我笑了。