一天，施工队的大卡车停靠在科利尔街来砍伐梧桐树，Juli执意不肯从树上下来，她百般哀求Bryce和他一起爬到树上捍卫她最喜爱的梧桐树。虽然Bryce一时动摇，最终还是害怕上学迟到而选择离开。
Juli伤心欲绝，事后，Bryce也开始感到有点难过后悔，... ...
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Day 9 Buddy, Beware 小心点，哥们！I went home and tried to shake it off, but I kept wondering, Should I have gone up the tree with her? Would it have done any good?Ithought about calling Juli to tell her I was sorry they’d cut it down, but I didn’t. It would’ve been too, I don’t know, weird.She didn’t show at the bus stop the next morning and didn’t ride the bus home that afternoon, either.我回到家，试图忘掉这一切，但我一直在想，我是不是应该和她一起爬上树？会不会有用？ 我想打电话给朱莉，告诉她，他们砍掉了梧桐树我也很难受，但我没有打。我不知道怎么啦，奇怪的感觉。 第二天早上她没有去公交站台，那天下午也没有坐公交车回家。Thenthat night, right before dinner, my grandfather summoned me into the front room. He didn’t call to me as I was walking by – that would have bordered on friendliness. What he did was talk to my mother, who talked to me. “I don’t know what it’s about, honey,” she said. “Maybe he’s just ready to get to know you a little better.”Great.The man’s had a year and a half to get acquainted, and he chooses now to get to know me. But I couldn’t exactly blow him off.那天晚上，就在晚饭前，我的外公把我叫到了前屋。当我经过时，他没有叫住我——如果那样倒是显示友好。他让我母亲来捎话。“我不知道这是怎么回事，亲爱的，” 她说。“也许他只是打算多了解你一点。”真是！他这一年半时间在熟悉我，他却选择现在来了解我。但我并不能完全无视他。My grandfather’s a big man with a meaty nose and greased-back salt-and-pepper hair. He lives in house slippers and a sports coat, and I’ve never seen a whisker on him. They grow, but he shaves them off like three times a day. It’s a real recreational activity for him.![]()
我外公身材高大，鼻子肥硕，留着胡椒粉色的头发。室内时，他就是一双拖鞋搭配运动外套，我从来没见过他留过胡须。其实胡须是长了的，但他每天要刮三次。这对他来说的确是一项真正的娱乐活动。Besides his meaty nose, he’s also got big meaty hands. I suppose you’d notice his hands regardless, but what makes you realize just how beefy they are is his wedding ring. That thing’s never going to come off, and even though my mother says that’s how it should be, I think he ought to get it cut off. Another few pounds and that ring’s going to amputate his finger.除了他肥硕的鼻子，他还有一双肥厚的手。我想无论怎样你也会注意到他的手，但让你意识到它们有多厚实的是他戴的结婚戒指。那东西从来没离过手，尽管我妈妈说戒指就不应该脱掉，我认为他如果想摘掉，就得把它切断。外公再胖几磅的话，那枚戒指将会勒断他的手指。When I went in to see him, those big hands of his were woven together, resting on the newspaper in his lap. I said, “Granddad? You wanted to see me?”“Have a seat, son.” Son? Half the time he didn’t seem to know who I was, and now suddenly I was “son”? I sat in the chair opposite him and waited.“Tell me about your friend Juli Baker.”“Juli? She’s not exactly my friend…!”“Why is that?” he asked. Calmly. Like he had prior knowledge. I started to justify it, then stopped myself and asked, “Why do you want to know?” 当我进去看他时，他的那双大手交互扣在一起，平放在他膝盖上的报纸上。我说，“外公？你想见我？” “坐下吧，孩子。” “孩子？”有一半的时间他似乎都不知道我是谁，现在我突然变成他“孩子”了？我坐在他对面的椅子上，等着他开口。 He opened the paper and pressed down the crease, and that’s when I realized that Juli Baker had made the front page of the Mayfield Times. There was a huge picture of her in the tree, surrounded by a fire brigade and policeman, and then some smaller photos I couldn’t make out very well. “Can I see that?” 他打开报纸，压平一页的折痕，那时我才意识到朱莉·贝克已经登上了《梅菲尔德时报》的头条。树上有一张她的大照片，周围是消防队和警察，还有一些我看不清的小照片。“我能看看吗？”He folded it up but didn’t hand it over. “Why isn’t she your friend, Bryce?” “Because she’s… ” I shook my head and said, “You’d have to know Juli.”“Because the girl’s got an iron backbone. Why don’t you invite her over sometime?”“An iron backbone? Granddad, you don’t understand! That girl is a royal pain. She’s a show-off, she’s a know-it-all, and she is pushy beyond belief!”他把它折起来，但没有递给我。“她为什么不是你的朋友呢，布莱斯？” “因为她是……”我摇了摇头，说，“你了解情况后就知道了。”“有骨气？外公，你不懂的！那个女孩是一个倔脾气。喜欢显摆，万事通，她咄咄逼人，难以理喻！”“Is that so.”“Yes! That’s absolutely so! And she’s been stalking me since the second grade!” He frowned, then looked out the window and asked, “They’ve lived there that long?”“I think they were all born there!”He frowned some more before he looked back at me and said, “A girl like that doesn’t live next door to everyone, you know.”He studied me, long and hard. I said, “What?” but he didn’t flinch. He just kept staring at me, and I couldn’t take it – I had to look away.“是这样的。绝对真实！她从二年级起就开始跟踪我了！”他皱起眉头，然后看着窗外问：“他们在那里住了多久了？”“我想他们从出生起就住那里了！”他又皱了皱眉头，然后回头看着我说：“你知道，不是每个人的隔壁都住着这样的女孩。”他认真而长时间地审视着我。我说，“什么？” 但他并没有退缩。他只是一直盯着我看，我受不了了——我不得不把目光移开。Keep in mind that this was the first real conversation I’d had with my grandfather. This was the first time he’d made the effort to talk to me about something besides passing the salt. And does he want to get to know me? No! He wants to know about Juli!请记住，这是我和我的祖父进行的第一次真正的谈话。这是他第一次尝试和我聊聊除了递盐以外的一些事情。他想了解我吗？不，他只是想知道关于朱莉的事！I couldn’t just stand up and leave, even though that’s what I felt like doing. Somehow I knew if I left like that, he’d quit talking to me at all. Even about salt. So I sat there feeling sort of tortured. Was he mad at me? How could he be mad at me? I hadn’t done anything wrong!我恨不得站起来离开，尽管这是我想做的事情。不知怎么的，我知道如果我就此离开，他再也不会和我搭腔了。甚至连递盐这件事也不可能了。所以我按捺住坐在那里，受着折磨。他是在生我的气吗？他怎么能生我的气呢？我并没有做错任何事！When I looked up, he was sitting there holding out the newspaper to me. “Read this,” he said. “Without prejudice.”I took it, and when he went back to looking out the window, I knew – I’d been dismissed（不予理睬，解雇）. By the time I got down to my room, I was mad. I slammed my bedroom door and flopped down on the bed, and after fuming about my sorry excuse for a grandfather for a while, I shoved the newspaper in the bottom drawer of my desk. Like I needed to know any more about Juli Baker.当我抬起头来时，他正坐在那里递给我一张报纸。“读读这个，”他说。“不带偏见的。” 我拿起报纸，当他望向窗外时，我知道——我被冷落了。 当我回到自己房间的时候，我气疯了。我砰地一声关上了卧室的门，倒在床上，生了一会儿外公的气后，我把报纸塞进了桌子最下面的抽屉。好像我想知道朱莉·贝克的事一样！At dinner my mother asked me why I was so sulky, and she kept looking from me to my grandfather. Granddad didn’t seem to need any salt, which was a good thing because I might have thrown theshaker at him.My sister and dad were all business as usual, though. Lynetta ate about two raisins out of her carrot salad, then peeled the skin and meat off her chicken wing and nibbled gristle off the bone, while my father filled up airspace talking about office politics and the need for a shakedown in upper management.吃饭时，妈妈问我为什么这么闷闷不乐，她视线一直从我移到我外公身上。外公似乎不需要盐，真是庆幸，我怕自己会向他扔盐瓶。 不过，我姐姐和爸爸一切照常。莱内塔从她的胡萝卜沙拉中挑了大约两颗葡萄干吃了，然后剥去鸡翅上的皮和肉，啃着骨头上的软骨，而我父亲的声音充斥房间，他高谈阔论办公室政治和高层管理人员改组的必要性。No one was listening to him – no one ever does when he gets on one of his if-I-ran-the-circus jags – but for once Mom wasn’t even pretending. And for once she wasn’t trying to convince Lynetta that dinner was delicious either. She just kept eyeing me and Granddad, trying to pick up on why we were miffed at each other.Not that he had anything to be miffed at me about. What had I done to him, anyway? Nothing. Nada. But he was, I could tell. And I completely avoided looking at him until about halfway through dinner, when I sneaked a peek.He was studying me, all right. And even though it wasn’t a mean stare, or a hard stare, it was, you know, firm. Steady. And it weirded me out. What was his deal?I didn’t look at him again. Or at my mother. I just went back to eating and pretended to listen to my dad. And the first chance I got, I excused myself and holed up in my room.没有人听他夸夸其谈——当他做着“如果让我来当家”这类的美梦时，没有人当回事听他的话——这一次连妈妈也不装了。这一次，她也没有试图让莉内塔承认晚餐多么好吃。她只是一直注视着我和外公，揣摩我们为什么互生闷气。 他有什么可对我生气的！我到底对他做了些什么？什么也没有。但我看出来，他确实在生我的气。我避免看他，直到吃到一半，我偷偷看了一眼。 他一直在审视我。他目光不算是恶狠狠的，也不是严厉的，但我觉得，它是坚定的。平静的。这让我忐忑不安。他究竟想干嘛？ 我没有再看他一眼，也没有看我妈妈一眼。我继续专心吃饭，假装听爸爸在说什么。逮住一个机会，我找个借口撤退，躲在自己的房间里。I was planning to call my friend Garrett like I usually do when I’m bent about something. I even punched in his number, but I don’t know. I just hung up.And later when my mom came in, I faked like I was sleeping. I haven’t done that in years. The whole night was weird like that. I just wanted to be left alone.我本来打算像我以往一样，心烦意乱时，就打电话给我的朋友加勒特，我甚至拨了他的号码，但不知怎么的，我挂断了电话。后来，当我妈妈进来的时候，我假装睡着了。我已经很多年没这样做了。整个晚上都感觉怪怪的。我只想一个人呆着。
Juli wasn’t at the bus stop the next morning. Or Friday morning. She was at school, but you’d never know it if you didn’t actually look. She didn’t whip her hand through the air trying to get the teacher to call on her or charge through the halls getting to class. She didn’t make unsolicited（未被恳求的）comments for the teacher’s edification or challenge the kids who took cuts in the milk line. She just sat. Quiet.第二天早上，朱莉没有出现在公交站台。周五早晨也没来。如果没有亲眼见到她，你根本感觉不到她的存在。她不再用挥手试图让老师喊她回答问题，也不再冲过大厅去上课。她没有在老师讲课的时候抢着插嘴，也没有制止插队的来领牛奶的孩子。她只是坐着，安安静静地坐着。Itold myself I should be glad about it – it was like she wasn’t even there, and isn’t thatwhat I’d always wanted？But still, I felt bad. About her tree, about how she hurried off to eat by herself in the library at lunch, about how her eyes were red around the edges. I wanted to tell her, Man, I’m sorry about your sycamore tree, but the words never seemed to come out.我告诉自己，我不是应该感到高兴吗——就好像她根本不存在一样，这不是我一直想要的吗？但我还是感到很难过。关于她的树，关于她午饭时匆匆去图书馆吃饭，和她哭红的眼眶。我想告诉她，伙计，我对被砍掉的梧桐树感到抱歉，但这些话一直没有说出口。By the middle of the next week, they’d finished taking down the tree. They cleared the lot and even tried to pull up the stump, but that sucker would not budge, so they wound up grinding it down into the dirt.Juli still didn’t show at the bus stop, and by the end of the week I learned from Garrett that she was riding a bike. He said he’d seen her on the side of the road twice that week, putting the chain back on the derailleur of a rusty old ten-speed.I figured she’d be back. It was a long ride out to Mayfield Junior High, and once she got over the tree, she’d start riding the bus again. I even caught myself looking for her. Not on the lookout, just looking.接下来的一个星期的前几天，他们挖好运走了那棵树。工人们清理了地面，还试图挖出树根，但它就是纹丝不动，所以人们最后锯掉树桩，让剩余的部分埋在土里。 朱莉仍然没有出现在校车站，周末的时候，我从加利特那里得知，她骑了一辆自行车。他说上个星期有两次看到她在路边骑着一辆生锈的老旧十挡变速车，把掉下来的车链装回原位。 我猜想她会回来的。去梅菲尔德中学的路很远，等她释怀后，就会再来坐校车。我甚至发现自己会不由自主地寻找她的身影。不是有意盯梢，只是想看到她。 Then one day it rained and I thought for sure she’d be up at the bus stop, but no. Garrett said he saw her trucking along on her bike in a bright yellow poncho, and in math I noticed that her pants were still soaked from the knees down.Whenmath let out, I started to chase after her to tell her that she ought to try ridingthe bus again, but I stopped myself in the nick of time. What was I thinking? That Juli wouldn’t take a little friendly concern and completely misinterpret it? Whoa now, buddy, beware! Better to just leave well enough alone.After all, the last thing I needed was for Juli Baker to think I missed her.一天下着雨，我想她肯定会来公交车站台，但她没有。加勒特说，他看到她穿着亮黄色的斗篷骑着自行车走了。在数学课上我注意到她的裤子从膝盖以下全部湿透了。 下课后，我追着她，想说服她重新乘坐校车，但是在最后一刻，我还是放弃了。我在想啥呢？朱莉根本不会在意一句友善的关怀，并且完全可能误解我的意思。嘿，哥们，你要小心点！最好还是离她远点吧。毕竟，我最不愿发生的事情就是让朱莉·贝克觉得我想念她。女主最喜爱的梧桐树被砍倒，她萎靡不振，心情跌倒谷底（be down in the dump）。热情爽朗的Juli变成了一个沉默寡言的女孩。那曾经是她的快乐栖息地，充满了欢声笑语，也是她瞭望校车的岗哨，从此只空留回忆。一草一木皆是情，一云一溪皆是景。谁说不是呢？从香格里大街到庆丰路的搬迁，对我来说也是一段割舍不了的情结，学海河畔的柳杉，宿舍东侧的紫薇藤，301窗外的高大石楠树，还有操场边的皂角树，... ... 每个角落都留下我和伙伴们的美好回忆。轻轻地走来，又悄悄地离别，挥一挥衣袖，想带走所有的云彩和---花草！![]()
图片：校园内爱花惜花的美人们
