浪漫曲折路

Detour to Romance

One day, after about two weeks, Harry and Iwere talking and I told him about my theory. "If you'll just wait longenough," I said, "you'll see her coming up those stairs someday."He turned and looked at the stairs as though he had never seen them before.

The next day when I came to work Harry wasbehind the counter of Tony's magazine stand. He looked at me rather sheepishlyand said, "Well, I had to get a job somewhere, didn't I?"

So he began to work as a clerk for Tony. Wenever spoke of May anymore and neither of us ever mentioned my theory. But Inoticed that Harry always saw every person who came up the stairs.

Toward the end of the year Tony was killedin some argument over gambling, and Tony's widow left Harry in complete chargeof the magazine stand. And when she got married again sometime later, Harrybought the stand from her. He borrowed money and installed a soda7 fountain andpretty soon he had a very nice little business.

Then came yesterday. I heard a cry and alot of things falling. The cry was from Harry and the things falling were a lotof dolls and other things which he had upset while he was jumping over thecounter. He ran across and grabbed a girl not ten feet from my window. She wassmall and dark, and her eyebrows came to a little point in the middle.

For a while they just hung there to eachother laughing and crying and saying things without meaning. She'd say a fewwords like, "It was the bus station I meant" and he'd kiss herspeechless and tell her the many things he had done to find her. Whatapparently had happened three years before was that May had come by bus, not bytrain, and in her telegram, she meant "bus station," not"railroad station." She had waited at the bus station for days andhad spent all her money trying to find Harry. Finally, she got a job typing.

"What?" said Harry. "Haveyou been working in town? All the time?"

She nodded.

"Well, Heavens. Didn't you ever comedown here to the station?" He pointed across to his magazine stand."I've been there all the time. I own it. I've watched everybody that cameup the stairs."

She began to look a little pale. Prettysoon she looked over at the stairs and said in a weak voice, "I never cameup the stairs before. You see, I went out of town yesterday on a short businesstrip. Oh, Harry!" Then she threw her arms around his neck and really beganto cry.

After a minute she backed away and pointedvery stiffly toward the north end of the station. "Harry, for three years,for three solid years, I've been right over there working right in this verystation, typing, in the office of the stationmaster."

浪漫路曲曲折折

有一天，大约是过了两周之后，哈里和我聊天，我给他谈了我的想法。“假如你等的时间够长的话，”我说，“总有一天，你会看见她走上楼梯的。”他转过身看着楼梯，仿佛过去从来没见过似的。

第二天我去上班时，哈里已经站在托尼杂志摊的柜台后面了。他不大好意思地看着我说，“呃，我总得在哪儿找个工作，是不是？”

于是，他开始给托尼卖杂志。我们再也不谈梅，谁也不提我的看法。但是我注意到哈里总要看看每个上楼的人。

到年底时，托尼由于赌博发生争执而被别人杀了。托尼的妻子将杂志摊完全交给了哈里打理。过了些时候她再次结婚，哈里就从她那儿把杂志摊买了过来。他借了钱，装了个冷饮柜，不久小生意就做得不错了。

于是到了昨天，我听见了一声叫喊，还听见好多东西掉到地上。是哈里在叫。掉在地上的是一大堆玩具和其他的东西，都是他跳过柜台时弄翻的。他从这些东西上面跑过去抓住了一个女孩，她就在离我窗户不到10英尺的地方。她个子小小的，黑黑的，眉心处有一个小点。

好一会儿的时间他们就那么呆着，相对着，笑呀，哭呀，讲些没什么意义的话。她好像说“我指的是汽车站 ——”而他则把她吻得说不出话来，告诉她自己为找她所做的许多事情。显然，3年前，梅是乘汽车而不是火车来的。她电报里指的是“汽车站”而不是“火车站”。她在汽车站等了好几天，为找哈里花掉了所有的钱。最后，她找了一份打字的工作。

“什么？”哈里说，“你在城里工作？一直都在？”

她点了点头。

“哎呀，老天爷——你就从来没到这个车站来过？”他把手指向杂志摊。“我一直就在那儿。那个摊儿是我的。我看过每个上楼的人。”

她的脸色开始变得有些苍白。过了一会儿，她向楼梯看去，声音微弱地说：“我——我过去一直没上这个楼梯。你看，我昨天出城是去办点公事——噢，哈里！”然后，她伸手搂住他的脖子，真的哭了起来。

过了一会儿，她往后一站，用手直指车站的最北头。“哈里，3年来，整整3年，我就在那儿——就在这个车站工作，在站长办公室里，打字。”

2024丨浪漫曲折路 2