她会听我念给她听的每一本书

　　她会听我念给她听的每一本书，每一首诗。一天我读了一首自己写的给她听。我凑得很近。我对着枕头轻轻耳语：
　　我想成为
　　海里的浪，风中的云，
　　但我还只是小小的我。
　　有一天我要
　　跳出自己的身躯
　　我要摇晃天空
　　像一百把小提琴。
　　很好。非常好。她用有气无力的声音说。记住你要写下去，埃斯佩朗莎。你一定要写下去。那会让你自由，我说好的，只是那时我还不懂她的意思。
　　那天我们玩了同样的游戏。我们不知道她要死了。我们装作头往后仰，四肢软弱无力，像死人的一样垂挂着。我们学她的样子笑。学她的样子说话，那种盲人说话的时候不转动头部的样子。我们模仿她必须被人托起头颈才能喝水的样子。她从一个绿色的锡杯里把水慢慢地吮出来喝掉。水是热的，味道像金属。露西笑起来，拉切尔也笑了。我们轮流扮演她。我们像鹦鹉学舌一样，用微弱的声音呼喊托奇过来洗碗。那很容易做到。
　　可我们不懂。她等待死亡很长时间了。我们忘了。也许她很愧疚。也许她很窘迫：死亡花了这么多年时间。孩子们想要做成孩子，而不是在那里洗碗涮碟，给爸爸熨衬衫。丈夫也想再要一个妻子。
　　于是她死了。听我念诗的婶婶。
　　于是我们开始做起了那些梦。
Chapter 37 Elenita, cards, plam, water
　　She makes the sign of the cross over the water three times and then begins to cut the cards.
　　They're not like ordinary playing cards, these cards. They're strange, with blond men on horses and crazy baseball bats with thorns. Golden goblets, sad-looking women dressed in old-fashioned dresses, and roses that cry.
　　There is a good Bugs Bunny cartoon on T.V. I know, I saw it before and recognize the music and wish I could go sit on the plastic couch with Ernie and the baby, but now my fortune begins. My whole life on that kitchen table : past, present, future. Then she takes my hand and looks into my plam. Closes it. Closes her eyes too.
　　Do you feel it, feel it cold?
　　Yes , I lie, but only a little.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　她用手在水面上画了三次十字，开始抽牌。
　　这可不是平常玩的牌。这些牌，它们有点奇怪，上面有骑在马上的金发白肤的男人，吓人滴长了刺的棒球棒、金色圣杯、穿着旧式服装的悲伤的女人，还有哭泣玫瑰。
　　我知道电视上在演一部好玩的《兔八哥》卡通片。我以前看过，听出了它的音乐，我希望可以走过去和埃尼、包包一起坐在塑料沙发上，可我的命运开始显现了。我的一生都在这厨桌子上：过去、现在和将来。接着她拿起我的手看手掌。合上它。同时合上的还有她的眼睛。
　　你感觉到了吗？感觉到冷了吗？
　　是的，我撒谎说，有一点冷。
Chapter 39 The Earl of Tennessee
　　Earl lives next door in Edna`s basement,behind the flower boxes Edna paints green each year,behind the dusty geraniums.We used to sit on the flower boxes until the day Tito saw a cockroach with a spot of green paint on its head.Now we sit on the steps that swing around the basement apatrment where Earl lives.
　　Earl works nights.His blinds are always closed during the day. Sometimes he comes out and tells us to keep quiet.The little wooden door that has wedged shut the dark for so long opens with a sigh and lets out a breath of mold and dampness,like books that have been left out in the rain.This is the only time we see Earl except for when he comes and goes to work. He has weo little black dogs that go everywhere with him. They don`t walk like ordinary dogs,but leap and somersault like an apostrophe and comma.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　埃尔住在隔壁埃德娜家的地下室里，在埃德娜每年都要漆成绿色的花箱后面，在那些灰蒙蒙的天竺葵后面。我们以前常坐在花箱上，直到有一天，提陀看到一只脑袋上有一点绿漆的蟑螂。现在我们坐在拐向埃尔住的地下室的楼梯步上。
　　埃尔上夜班。他的百叶窗在白天总是合上的。有时他会出来叫我们保持安静。已经开裂的小木门把黑暗关在里面那么久，现在它打开了，呀的一声叹息，吐出一口潮湿的霉气，就像放在外面淋过雨的书，这是惟一一次我们不是在他回来和去上班的时候看到他。他有两条与他形影不离的小黑犬。它们不是像平常的狗那么走路，而是一蹦一跳，翻着筋斗前进，像一个撇号和一个逗号。。
Chapter 40 Sire
　　I don't remember when I first noticed him looking at me—Sire. But I knew he was looking. Every time. All the time I walked past his house. Him and his friends sitting on their bikes in front of the house, pitching pennies. They didn't scare me. They did, but I wouldn't let them know. I don't cross the street like other girls. Straight ahead, straight eyes. I walked past. I knew he was looking. I had to prove to me I wasn't scared of nobody's eyes, not even his. I had to look back hard, just once, like he was glass. And I did. I did once. But I looked too long when he rode his bike past me. I looked because I wanted to be brave, straight into he dusty cat fur of his eyes and the bike stopped and he bumped into a parked car, bumped, and I walked fast. It made your blood freeze to have somebody look at you like that. Somebody looked at me. Somebody looked. But his kind, his ways. He is a punk, Papa says, and Mama says not to talk to him.