Drawing Boats

Ana looked at him for a long time. The river moved past them, black and quiet. She thought about Jess on the train to Leeds, singing four lines of a song she did not know the end of. She thought about Daniel saying it isn’t your story. Then she thought about a father who had never once talked to his daughter, standing two kilometres away from her for two months.

安娜看了他好久。河水从他们身边流过，又黑又静。她想起了去利兹的火车上的杰丝，嘴里唱着一首歌里的四句，却不知道结尾。她想起了丹尼尔说的那句“这不是你的故事”。然后，她想到了一个从来没跟女儿说过一次话的父亲，两个月来就站在离女儿两公里的地方。

“Once,” she said at last. “I’ll tell her about the boats. I won’t lie about anything else. If she asks me a direct question, I’ll answer it. Do you understand?”

“就这一次，”她最后说。“我会跟她说船的事。别的事情我不会撒谎。如果她直接问我问题，我会回答的。你明白吗？”

“I understand,” Michael said. He looked very tired, and very grateful, and a little afraid. “Thank you, Ana.” She did not answer. She went back into the kitchen and shut the door, and she did not feel that she had done a good thing. She only felt that she had done something.

“我明白，”迈克尔说。他看起来非常累，非常感激，又有一点害怕。“谢谢你，安娜。”她没有回答。她回到厨房，关上了门，并且不觉得自己做了一件好事。她只觉得，自己做了一件事。