【时间旅行者的妻子】48

“Jesus, Henry.” He shuts the door and I hear him walking back to his room. I throw my self a reproachful glare¹ as I pull on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. I walk down the hall to Dad’s bedroom. His door is shut. I knock. No answer. I wait. “Dad?” Silence. I open the door, stand in the doorway². “Dad?” He’s sitting with his back to me, on his bed. He continues to sit, and I stand there for a while, but I can’t bring myself to walk into the room. Finally I shut the door, walk back to my own room.

　“That was completely and totally your fault,” I tell my self severely³. He is wearing jeans, sitting on the chair with his head in his hands. “You knew, you knew that was going to happen and you didn’t say a word. Where is your sense of self preservation⁴? What the hell is wrong with you? What use is it knowing the future if you can’t at least protect us from humiliating little scenes—”

　“Shut up ” Henry croaks⁵. “Just shut up.”

　“I will not shut up,” I say, my voice rising. “I mean, all you had to do was say—”

　“Listen.” He looks up at me with resignation⁶. “It was like.. .it was like that day at the ice-skating rink.”

　“Oh. Shit.” A couple years ago, I saw a little girl get hit in the head with a hockey puck at Indian Head Park. It was horrible. I found out later that she died in the hospital. And then I started to time travel back to that day, over and over, and I wanted to warn her mother, and I couldn’t. It was like being in the audience at a movie. It was like being a ghost. I would scream, No, take her home, don’t let her near the ice, take her away, she’s going to get hurt, she’s going to die, and I would realize that the words were only in my head, and everything would go on as before.

　Henry says, “You talk about changing the future, but for me this is the past, and as far as I can tell there’s nothing I can do about it. I mean, I tried, and it was the trying that made it happen.

1 glare   

vi.怒目而视，发射强光；n.强光，怒视，炫耀

参考例句：

• Don't glare at me like that,you deserved the scolding.不要那么瞪着我，你本该受到训斥的。
• The glare from the fire lit up the sky.火光照亮了天空。

2 doorway   

n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径

参考例句：

• They huddled in the shop doorway to shelter from the rain.他们挤在商店门口躲雨。
• Mary suddenly appeared in the doorway.玛丽突然出现在门口。

3 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

4 preservation   

n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持

参考例句：

• The police are responsible for the preservation of law and order.警察负责维持法律与秩序。
• The picture is in an excellent state of preservation.这幅画保存得极为完好。

5 croaks   

v.呱呱地叫( croak的第三人称单数 )；用粗的声音说

参考例句：

• A burst of noisy croaks came from the pond. 从池塘里传来了一阵喧噪的蛙鸣。 来自互联网
• The noise in the zoo turned out to be the croaks of bullfrogs. 动物园里喧噪得很，原来是一群牛蛙在叫。 来自互联网

6 resignation   

n.放弃，辞职，反抗

参考例句：

• He handed in his resignation right after the cabinet meeting.内阁会议一开完，他就提出了辞呈。
• They asked for his resignation with one voice.他们一致要求他辞职。