【时间旅行者的妻子】34

“Santa is magic. You’re not Santa.”

　“Meaning I’m not magic? Geez, Louise, you’re a tough customer.”

　“I’m not Louise,”

　“I know. You’re Clare. Clare Anne Abshire, born May 24, 1971. Your parents are Philip and Lucille Abshire, and you live with them and your grandma and your brother, Mark, and your sister, Alicia, in that big house up there.”

　“Just because you know things doesn’t mean you’re from the future.”

　“If you hang around a while you can watch me disappear” I feel I can count on this because Clare once told me it was the thing she found most impressive about our first meeting.

　Silence. Clare shifts her weight from foot to foot and waves away a mosquito. “Do you know Santa?”

　“Personally? Um, no.” I have stopped bleeding, but I must look awful. “Hey, Clare, do you happen to have a Band-Aid? Or some food? Time traveling makes me pretty hungry.”

　She thinks about this. She digs into her jumper pocket and produces a Hershey bar with one bite out of it. She throws it at me.

　“Thank you. I love these.” I eat it neatly¹ but very quickly. My blood sugar is low. I put the wrapper in her shopping bag. Clare is delighted.

　“You eat like a dog.”

　“I do not!” I am deeply offended. “I have opposable thumbs, thank you very much.”

　“What are posable thumbs?”

　“Do this.” I make the “okay” sign. Clare makes the “okay” sign. “Opposable thumbs means you can do that. It means you can open jars and tie your shoes and other things animals can’t do.”

　Clare is not happy with this. “Sister Carmelita says animals don’t have souls.”

　“Of course animals have souls. Where did she get that idea?”

　“She said the Pope² says.”

　“The Pope’s an old meanie. Animals have much nicer souls than we do. They never tell lies or blow anybody up.”

　“They eat each other.”

　“Well, they have to eat each other; they can’t go to Dairy Queen and get a large vanilla³ cone⁴ with sprinkles, can they?” This is Clare’s favorite thing to eat in the whole wide world (as a child. As an adult Clare’s favorite food is sushi, particularly sushi from Katsu on Peterson Avenue).

　“They could eat grass.”

　“So could we, but we don’t. We eat hamburgers.”

1 neatly   

adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地

参考例句：

• Sailors know how to wind up a long rope neatly.水手们知道怎样把一条大绳利落地缠好。
• The child's dress is neatly gathered at the neck.那孩子的衣服在领口处打着整齐的皱褶。

2 pope   

n.（罗马天主教的）教皇

参考例句：

• The Pope is the spiritual leader of many Christians.教皇是众多基督徒的宗教领袖。
• The Pope is the supreme leader of the Roman Catholic Church.教皇是罗马天主教的最高领袖。

3 vanilla   

n.香子兰，香草

参考例句：

• He used to love milk flavoured with vanilla.他过去常爱喝带香草味的牛奶。
• I added a dollop of vanilla ice-cream to the pie.我在馅饼里加了一块香草冰激凌。

4 cone   

n.圆锥体，圆锥形东西，球果

参考例句：

• Saw-dust piled up in a great cone.锯屑堆积如山。
• The police have sectioned off part of the road with traffic cone.警察用锥形路标把部分路面分隔开来。