The Rules

“You let me talk,” I said on the stairs.

“你让我来说，”我在楼梯上说。

We were on the second floor of a grey council building near the station, climbing to the licensing office on the third, and I was carrying my father’s folder. It was a plastic bag from his own shop with every paper about the market inside it, in no order at all, including the form he had signed on Friday night, which I meant to make as harmless as a piece of paper can be.

我们在车站附近一栋灰色的市政大楼里，正从二楼往上走，前往三楼的许可办公室，我手里拿着父亲的文件夹。那其实是他店里用的一个塑料袋，里面装着所有和市集有关的文件，毫无次序，包括他星期五晚上签的那张表格。我打算尽可能让它变成一张无害的纸。

“You always talk,” he said. “Since you were two.”

“你总是在说，”他说。”从你两岁起就是这样。”

The officer who met us at the top was younger than I had expected. She was perhaps thirty-three, with honey-coloured hair falling out of a bun and thin gold glasses, and she held a clipboard against her chest like a shield. A council lanyard hung round her neck. On it was a photograph of her looking surprised, and her name: Hannah Clarke.

在楼上迎接我们的工作人员比我想象的年轻。她大概三十三岁，蜂蜜色的头发从发髻里散落下来，戴着细细的金边眼镜。她把写字板抱在胸前，像拿着一面盾牌。她脖子上挂着市政厅的挂绳，上面有一张照片，照片里的她看起来很惊讶，还有她的名字：Hannah Clarke。

“Mr Yousef,” she said to my father, and shook his hand warmly. Then she looked at me. “And Mr Yousef.”

“Yousef先生，”她对我父亲说，热情地和他握手。然后她看着我。”还有Yousef先生。”

“Karim. I’m his son. I’m also a lawyer, I’m afraid.”

“我是Karim，他儿子。恐怕我也是一名律师。”

“Everybody’s afraid of something,” she said. “Come in.”

“每个人都有害怕的东西，”她说。”请进。”

Her office was small and very tidy. There was one window, which looked at the window of the office opposite, and one plant, which was dying. On the wall hung a framed poster of the St Nicholas Christmas market from 1986, with the carousel lit up and children in woolly hats. She saw me looking at it.

她的办公室很小，也很整洁。只有一扇窗，正对着对面办公室的窗户，还有一盆快要枯死的植物。墙上挂着一张装在框里的海报，是1986年的St Nicholas圣诞市集，旋转木马亮着灯，孩子们戴着毛线帽。她看见我在看海报。

“My mother’s,” she said. “I grew up two streets from the square. Sit down, please.”

“我母亲的，”她说。”我是在离广场两条街的地方长大的。请坐。”

I didn’t sit down for long. I had read the council’s rules on Saturday night and again on Sunday. On Sunday Father Tom lit the first candle of Advent in a church full of coats, and afterwards my father and I had lunch and discussed the weather in four different ways. I had found three weaknesses in the new rule, and I began with the biggest.

我没坐多久。星期六晚上和星期天，我都读了市政厅的规定。星期天，Father Tom在挤满大衣的教堂里点燃了降临节的第一支蜡烛。之后，我和父亲吃了午饭，还从四个不同方面聊了天气。我发现新规定有三个漏洞，于是从最大的问题开始说。

“This responsibility form,” I said, “was introduced after Mr Brandt’s accident. It was never consulted on. It isn’t in the published policy. It should have been approved by the licensing committee, and as far as I can see it wasn’t. Legally it’s on very thin ice.”

“这张责任表格，”我说，”是在Brandt先生出事故之后推出的。推出之前没有征求过意见。它不在公布的政策里。它应该经过许可委员会批准，但据我所知，并没有。按法律来说，它很站不住脚。”

“It was approved by the head of licensing, under his emergency powers,” said Hannah Clarke. “Paragraph twelve of the scheme of delegation. Page forty.”

“它是由许可部门主管根据紧急权力批准的，”Hannah Clarke说。”授权方案第十二条。第四十页。”

“Emergency powers are for emergencies.”

“紧急权力是用来应对紧急情况的。”

“A market of thirty unsafe huts on a public square, with a carousel and an open fire, in December. Our legal team thought that qualified.”

“十二月，在公共广场上办一个有三十座不安全木屋、还有旋转木马和明火的市集。我们的法律团队认为这算紧急情况。”