Over the Step

Michael Bell had spent fifteen years making sure that nobody in a room ever looked at him for long, and now two hundred people had stood up and clapped at him, and he did not know where to put his hands. He had put them over his face, in the end, because it was the only place he could think of. When he took them away, the hall was sitting down again, and the small woman with the half-moon glasses was asking the committee who was in favour.

十五年来，Michael Bell一直竭力避免让屋里的任何人长久注视自己，而现在，两百个人站起身来向他鼓掌，他一时竟不知手该往哪儿放。到最后，他把双手捂在脸上，因为那是他唯一能想到的地方。等他拿开手时，大厅里的人正重新坐下，那个戴半月形眼镜的娇小女人正在询问委员会谁赞成。

One hand went up on the stage. It belonged to a heavy man at the end of the table whose name card said Cllr R. Booth and who looked, Michael thought, like someone voting for his own peace and quiet rather than for flats. It went up slowly, and then, as the man seemed to become aware of two hundred pairs of eyes, it came down again halfway and stayed there, uncertain, like a bird that could not decide where to land.

台上举起了一只手。那是坐在长桌尽头的一名身形魁梧的男子，他的姓名牌上写着R·布思议员（Cllr R. Booth）。Michael觉得，他看上去更像是在为自己的清静投票，而不是为了公寓。那只手举得很慢，接着，那名男子似乎意识到了两百双眼睛正盯着自己，手又落下一半停在那里，悬而未决，就像一只拿不定主意该落在哪里的鸟。

“Councillor Booth, are you in favour or not?” said Councillor Hale.

“布思议员，您是赞成还是反对？”黑尔议员（Councillor Hale）说。

“In favour,” said Councillor Booth, faintly, and put his hand all the way up, and did not look at the room.

“赞成，”布思议员有气无力地说着，把手完全举了起来，眼睛避开大厅里的人群。

“One in favour. Those against?”

“一人赞成。反对的请举手？”

Four hands. Councillor Hale’s among them, raised briskly, without ceremony, as though she were signalling for a bus. Michael watched them go up and felt nothing at all for a moment, the way you feel nothing in the first second after you have cut yourself with a bread knife, before the blood comes.

四只手。其中包括黑尔议员的，她干脆利落地举起手，毫不拖泥带水，仿佛只是在招手拦一辆公共汽车。Michael看着那些手举起来，那一刻心里没有任何感觉，就像被面包刀割伤后的第一秒钟，在鲜血涌出之前，人也是毫无知觉的。

“The application as submitted is refused,” said Councillor Hale, and brought the gavel down. The sound it made was not loud at all, a small wooden knock on green cloth, like somebody knocking on a door at three in the morning who does not want to wake the house.

“所提交的申请被驳回，”黑尔议员说着，落下了法槌。发出的声音一点也不响，只是小小的木槌敲在绿呢布上的轻叩声，就像凌晨三点有人敲门时唯恐吵醒满屋人一样。

Then the hall went up like a fire. That was what he thought, and he hated that it was what he thought. But it was true: a roar of noise that seemed to come from everywhere at once, people standing, hugging, the old woman with the stick waving it in the air, Priya with her face in Ana’s shoulder, Daniel shouting something nobody could hear. In the front row, Jess had not moved. She was sitting quite still with her portfolio on her knees, and she was looking back down the hall, over all of them, at him.

接着，整个大厅如烈火般轰然沸腾。他脑海中浮现出这个念头，随即便暗自厌恶自己竟会这样想。但事实确实如此：一阵轰鸣声仿佛同时从四面八方席卷而来，人们站起身，互相拥抱，那个拄着拐杖的老妇人在空中挥动拐杖，Priya把脸埋在Ana的肩头，Daniel高声喊着一句谁也听不清的话。在前排，Jess纹丝未动。她静静地坐着，画夹放在膝盖上，转过身越过所有人的头顶，目光径直落在他身上。

In the wheelchair in front of him, his father had begun to shake. Not the old tremor; something deeper, from the chest. Michael bent down to see if he was ill, and found that he was laughing, silently, on the one side of his face that still moved, with tears running down into his collar. Walter reached up with his good hand and took hold of his son’s sleeve, and held it, and did not let go.

在他面前的轮椅里，他的父亲开始颤抖起来。那不是往日的那种颤抖，而是某种更深层的、来自胸膛的震颤。Michael俯下身去看他是否身体不适，却发现他正在无声地笑着，用他脸上唯一还能动的那一侧笑着，泪水直流进领口。Walter伸出他那只完好的手，一把抓住儿子的衣袖，紧紧攥着，不肯松开。