《金钱的落寞》—

The elevator was dark wood panelled and the doors were covered in gold leaf. Madison Avenue; top of the world. Mike knocked on one of the doors in the dim hallway. A thin girl wearing tight jeans and an even tighter black tank top opened the door. Her eyes, covered with eye shadow, seemed as though they peered out from two cavernous holes in her face.

电梯上嵌着深色木板，门上装饰着金箔。这所公寓大楼位于麦迪逊大街，这个世界最繁华之地。在这所公寓的昏暗走廊中，迈克敲响了一扇门。一位身材瘦小的女孩打开了门，她下身穿着一条紧身牛仔裤，上身穿着一件更紧身的黑色背心装。她涂着厚厚的眼影，好像她的双眼正躲在她脸上的两个深洞中窥视着。

Mike quickly brushed past her without any sort of salutation. As I walked up to introduce myself, she turned her back to me and followed Mike. “Mike, did you bring me my cigarettes?” she whined.

迈克快速地与她擦身而过，连一句寒暄都没有。当我走上前打算做自我介绍时，她转过身背对着我，朝迈克走去。 “迈克，你把我的香烟带来了吗？”她用抱怨的语气说道。

I looked at the elaborate decorations of the house; the paintings, the marble busts... The entire floor of the apartment was lavishly covered with an immaculate white carpet. The kitchen was at least twice as large as any room in my own house. I thought that these kinds of apartments were merely myths.

我看着这所公寓里精致的装饰品——油画、大理石半身像......整个公寓的地板上 铺满了洁白无暇的地毯。厨房都至少是我家最大房间的两倍大。我觉得这样的公寓简直是神一般的存在。

Mike stood by an industrial sized fridge and beckoned me towards him. As he rummaged through the fridge he tossed a pack of cigarettes from his pocket to the girl with too much eye shadow. She lunged fervently for the box and began to tear it open. Mike reached into the fridge and passed me a coke, while retrieving one for himself as well. “I’m telling you man this girl is so rich—Just look around!” he exclaimed. Mike spent the majority of the taxi ride uptown divulging exactly “how rich this girl was.” 

迈克站在一个工业用大小的冰箱旁，招手示意让我去他身旁。他翻遍了整个冰箱，然后从自己的衣袋里掏出了一包香烟，仍给了那位涂着厚眼影的女孩。她猛地向前一步接到了那包香烟，然后开始撕开香烟的包装。迈克从冰箱里取出了一瓶可乐递给我，然后又为他自己取出了一瓶。“我告诉你，伙计，这个女孩很有钱的——你还是别打她主意了！”他大声说道。迈克已经在我们来这的出租车上，花了大把的时间向我详细介绍“这个女孩有多么有钱”。

Natalie walked over to Mike and looked at me carefully. “He looks like an icky homeless guy” she said decidedly. “What’s his name?” she inquired. “Ben meet Natalie—Natalie meet Ben,” Mike said in a slightly restless way. Then he quickly took a seat in front of the television and concentrated on his video game. I smiled jovially at Natalie to show that I wasn’t annoyed, but she merely looked past me.

娜塔莉走到迈克身边，仔细地打量着我。“他看起来像个无家可归的家伙。”她坚定地说。“他叫什么名字？”她问道。“本，这是娜塔莉；娜塔莉，这是本。”迈克稍显不安地说。然后，他快速地在电视机前找了个座位坐下，开始专心地打电子游戏。我愉快地向娜塔莉笑了笑，表明我并没有因为刚才的事情生气，但她只是随便看了我一眼。

I proceeded to sip my coke quietly as we both watched Mike play Nintendo. As we stared out into nothing my eyes drifted to Natalie’s; those black holes in her face. She looked up at me and for a split second, her eyes glistered, as if filled with tears. “Excuse me, I need a Perrier,” she whined, her eyes suddenly fixated on the wall.

我一边和娜塔莉一起看着迈克打任天堂，一边继续啜饮着我的可乐。当迈克的游戏场景没那么精彩时，我的双眼就会飘向娜塔莉的双眸——她脸上的那两个黑洞。她抬头看了看我，有那么一瞬间，她的双眼闪烁，似乎满是泪水。“帮个忙，给我拿一瓶毕雷矿泉水。”她用抱怨的语气说道，然后，突然将目光凝固在了墙上。

Mike ignored her, until a raspy voice called from the doorway. “Mike! You’re here, finally it’s been so boring here, let’s go somewhere!” she exclaimed desperately. This voice belonged to a girl wearing a tight blue dress with feisty green eyes. “Yeah, whatever, soon, just chill!” Mike said coolly. She entered, and I stood up to introduce myself, and just as I walked toward her she walked through me and sat in my seat at the table. “I need another cigarette. Pass them here Ashley” whined Natalie.

此时，从门口传来一阵刺耳的喊声——“迈克！你来了啊！这里真是太无聊了，我们找个别的地方待会儿吧！”——这个声音来自一位身穿蓝色紧身连衣裙的女孩，之前迈克并没有注意到她也在。“是的，的确挺无聊的，稍等我片刻，你先冷静一下！”迈克沉着地说。女孩走了进来，我站起身来打算做自我介绍，但就在我走向她时，她从我身边走了过去，坐在我的座位上，似乎并没有看到我。“我想再抽一支香烟。把香烟递给我，阿什利。”娜塔莉用抱怨的语气说。

“You know those things will kill you” I said teasingly. She abruptly turned to me and glared out from the black holes that were here eye sockets. She smoothly proceeded to take another cigarette out of the carton bringing it to her lips and slowly lighting it.

“吸烟会害死你的”我戏弄地说。娜塔莉突然转向我，透过黑洞一样的眼窝瞪着我。然后，她非常熟练地又从烟盒里取出了一支香烟，叼在嘴里，悠悠地点燃了它。

A small, black poodle pranced into the kitchen. Ashley picked up the dog and placed it on her lap; she took a drag on her cigarette, and subsequently exhaled a cloud of smoke into the dog’s face. The dog, assaulted, leaped down and retreated to the safety of her cage.

一只黑色的小贵宾犬跑进了厨房。阿什利抱起这只小狗，将它放在娜塔莉的膝盖上。娜塔莉用力吸了一口香烟，然后将一团烟雾吐在了小狗的脸上。受到烟雾袭击，小狗从她的膝盖上跳下，逃回到自己的笼子里避险去了。

A small grin slowly creeped across Ashley’s face. It was the first sign of emotion I saw from her all night. “Let’s get out of here, I’m like so bored just sitting here!” Ashley winced. “We could go to John’s house, I heard that he was gonna have people there” suggested Natalie. “Eww I really don’t like John, his house is so cramped and small” Ashley complained. We all sat in silence for a few moments until Ashley got up and proceeded to the kitchen door. On her way out, she gave Mike a small, cold nod. Mike stood up, and quickly followed her out of the kitchen. This left Natalie and me alone in the kitchen.

阿什利忍不住咧嘴笑了出来。这是我整晚在她脸上看到的第一个表情。“我们离开这里吧，在这里干坐着太无聊了！”阿什利说话时脸部肌肉抽搐了一下。“我们可以去约翰家，听说他邀请人去他家了。”娜塔莉建议道。“呃，我真的不喜欢约翰，他家太狭窄、太小了。”阿什利抱怨说。之后是一阵沉默，我们每个人都坐在那里一言不发，直到阿什利起身朝厨房门走去。正要走出厨房时，她冷冷地向迈克轻轻点了一下头。迈克站起来，快速跟着她走出了厨房，留下娜塔莉和我单独在厨房里。

“So do they come by often?” I inquired. Her eyes remained fixated on the wall ahead of her as she answered me. “Meh, they just sorta show up. I don’t mind though; they are friends of mine” she said with a twinge of forced cheeriness in her voice. We sat in silence for several moments until Natalie went to her bedroom. I sat in the kitchen alone. I let myself out and took the elevator back to reality. I walked along the deserted Madison Avenue under the pallid glow of the street lamps overhead.

“嗯，他们经常来吗？”我问道。回答我时，她的眼睛依然凝视着前方的墙。“嗯，只是偶尔。但我不介意，他们都是我的朋友。”她回答说，声音中带着悲痛，却强作欢愉。我们默默地坐了好久，直到娜塔莉去了自己的卧室。然后，我独自坐在厨房里，让自己从这一幕中走出来。随后，我乘坐电梯下了楼，回到现实中来。我独自一人走在凄凉的麦迪逊大街上，只有苍白的路灯照在我的身上。