But right after I walked in the door of Charlie's house, Jessica called to cancel our plans. 但正当我走进查理家大门的时候，杰西卡打电话来取消了我们的计划。

I tried to be happy that Mike had asked her out to dinner— 我试图为迈克邀请她出去吃晚餐感到高兴——

I really was relieved that he finally seemed to be catching on—but my enthusiasm sounded false in my own ears. 我确实为他最终明白过来而感到宽慰——但我热切的声音在我自己耳中显得很假。

She rescheduled our shopping trip for tomorrow night. 她把我们的购物之旅顺延到了明天晚上。

Which left me with little in the way of distractions. 这就让我几乎没有了可以分心的事。

I had fish marinating for dinner, with a salad and bread left over from the night before, so there was nothing to do there. 我把鱼放进调味汁里腌好，又做了一个沙拉，再加上昨天晚上剩下的面包，晚餐就准备好了，再也没有什么事可做了。

I spent a focused half hour on homework, but then I was through with that, too. 我花了半小时专心致志地写作业，但又把作业给写完了。

I checked my e-mail, reading the backlog of letters from my mother, getting snippier as they progressed to the present. 我检查自己的电子邮件，看着积攒下来的我母亲发来的邮件，时间越靠后的语气越显暴躁。

I sighed and typed a quick response. 我叹了口气，打了一封简短的回复。

Mom, Sorry. I've been out. I went to the beach with some friends. And I had to write a paper. “妈妈，抱歉。我出去了。我和几个朋友一起去了海滩。而且我还有一份论文要写。”

My excuses were fairly pathetic, so I gave up on that. 我的借口听起来相当地可悲，所以我放弃了，换成了下面这封。

It's sunny outside today—I know, I'm shocked, too— “今天外面晴朗极了——我知道，我也很震惊——

so I'm going to go outside and soak up as much vitamin D as I can. I love you, Bella. 所以我打算到外面去，尽可能地多吸收一些维生素D。我爱你。贝拉”

I decided to kill an hour with non-school-related reading. 我决定用课外阅读来打发掉一个小时的时间。

I had a small collection of books that came with me to Forks, the shabbiest volume being a compilation of the works of Jane Austen. 在我来福克斯的时候我随身带了一些藏书，其中最残破的那一册是简·奥斯丁的作品集。

I selected that one and headed to the backyard, grabbing a ragged old quilt from the linen cupboard at the top of the stairs on my way down. 我挑出那本书，向后院走去，下楼的时候顺手从楼梯顶上的亚麻布衣橱里抓了一条破旧的褥子。

Outside in Charlie's small, square yard, 在查理小小的，四四方方的庭院里，

I folded the quilt in half and laid it out of the reach of the trees' shadows on the thick lawn that would always be slightly wet, 我把那条褥子对叠了一下，把它放到树阴之外的草坪上。

no matter how long the sun shone. 不管阳光照射多久，

I lay on my stomach, crossing my ankles in the air, flipping through the different novels in the book, 那块草坪永远都是微微湿润着的。我趴下来，把脚踝在空中交叠，飞快地浏览着书里的每一篇小时，

trying to decide which would occupy my mind the most thoroughly. 试图决定哪一篇最能让我沉迷其中。

My favorites were Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. 我最喜欢的是《傲慢与偏见》和《理智与情感》。

I'd read the first most recently, so I started into Sense and Sensibility, 前者我读得最多，所以我开始看《理智与情感》，

only to remember after I began three that the hero of the story happened to be named Edward. 但在看了三页以后却想起来这个故事的主人公碰巧也叫爱德华。

Angrily, I turned to Mansfield Park, but the hero of that piece was named Edmund, and that was just too close.  我愤怒地转去看《曼菲尔德庄园》，但这一篇的主人公叫埃德蒙，实在是太相近了。

Weren't there any other names available in the late eighteenth century? 十八世纪末就没有别的名字可用了吗？

I snapped the book shut, annoyed, and rolled over onto my back. 我啪地合上书，气恼地把书扔过头顶。

I pushed my sleeves up as high as they would go, and closed my eyes. 我把袖子挽到最高的地方，然后闭上了眼睛。

I would think of nothing but the warmth on my skin, I told myself severely. 我严厉地对自己说，我什么也不要想，只想让我的肌肤暖和起来。

The breeze was still light, but it blew tendrils of my hair around my face, and that tickled a bit. 微风轻轻吹拂着，却把我脸旁的头发吹得卷曲起来，这样很痒。

I pulled all my hair over my head, letting it fan out on the quilt above me, 我把头发全部拢到脑后，让它呈扇形披散在我身上的褥子上，

and focused again on the heat that touched my eyelids, my cheekbones, my nose, my lips, my forearms, my neck, soaked through my light shirt... 然后又一次把心思放在阳光的热度上。暖烘烘的阳光落在我的眼皮上，我的颧骨上，我的鼻子上，我的嘴唇上，我的小臂上，我的脖子上，浸透了我轻薄的衬衣……