The Forecast for the Wedding

Maura's wedding is on Saturday, and on Wednesday morning she checks the weather for the ninth time. Her usual weather app shows a small, smiling sun. It says dry, twenty-four degrees, and a light wind. That is perfect for a ceremony in the garden.

毛拉的婚礼定在星期六，星期三上午，她第九次查看天气。她常用的天气应用显示着一个微笑的小太阳，写着晴，二十四度，微风。这对花园里的仪式来说再完美不过了。

Then Joel, her fiancé, holds up his phone. "A friend at work told me about a new forecast. It uses an AI model and thousands of local sensors. Look at this."

这时她的未婚夫乔尔举起了手机。“我同事跟我说起过一个新的天气预报。它用的是人工智能模型和成千上万个本地传感器。你看这个。”

The screen shows a gray cloud. "Rain at four p.m. on Saturday," Joel reads. "Seventy percent."

屏幕上是一朵灰色的云。“星期六下午四点有雨，”乔尔念道，“百分之七十。”

"Seventy isn't a hundred," Maura says. "My app says sun."

“七十又不是一百，”毛拉说，“我的应用说是晴天。”

"Your app has been wrong twice this month. This one was right yesterday."

“你的应用这个月已经错了两次。这个昨天是对的。”

They sit quietly with the two phones between them. Moving everything inside would mean a smaller room, no garden photos, and a lot of phone calls. Staying outside would mean hoping. Maura is a planner, and hoping has never been her best skill. But the seventy bothers her more than the thirty does.

他们静静地坐着，两部手机摆在中间。把一切都挪到室内，意味着场地更小，没有花园里的照片，还要打一大堆电话。留在室外，意味着只能碰运气。毛拉是个爱做计划的人，碰运气从来不是她的强项。可那个七十比剩下的三十更让她心烦。

"What's the worst that could happen?" Joel asks.

“最糟的情况是什么？”乔尔问。

"Eighty guests in their best clothes, running for the door. And a very wet cake."

“八十位客人穿着最好的衣服，往门口跑。再加上一块湿透的蛋糕。”

"Then what if we don't move inside? What if we just add a tent?"

“那如果我们不搬进室内呢？如果我们只是加一顶帐篷呢？”

Maura calls the venue that afternoon. A tent with open sides is possible, and it costs about the same as a good dress. "If it doesn't rain, we have wasted money," she says.

那天下午，毛拉给场地打了电话。可以搭一顶四面敞开的帐篷，价钱跟一件好礼服差不多。“要是不下雨，钱就白花了，”她说。

"And if it does, we have saved the day," Joel says. "I would rather waste money."

“要是下了，我们就救了这一天，”乔尔说，“我宁愿白花钱。”

Maura says yes before she can think about it again.

毛拉还没来得及再想，就说了好。

On Saturday, the sky is bright blue. Her mother says the tent looks silly in the sunshine, and so does her cousin. Maura starts to doubt herself, too. She opens the old app one more time. Still a sun.

星期六，天空一片明亮的蓝。她妈妈说帐篷在阳光下看着很傻，她表妹也这么说。毛拉也开始怀疑自己。她又一次打开了那个旧应用。还是一个太阳。

The ceremony begins at three, under the open sky, next to the white tent. At four o'clock, the band starts to play. At ten past four, a single drop falls on a table. Then another one falls. Then the rain arrives, hard and loud, and the guests run laughing under the tent.

仪式在三点开始，就在开阔的天空下，白色帐篷的旁边。四点整，乐队开始演奏。四点十分，一滴雨落在了一张桌子上。接着又落下一滴。然后雨来了，又急又响，客人们笑着跑进帐篷。

"Seventy percent," Joel says, taking her hand. "Ten minutes late."

“百分之七十，”乔尔握住她的手说，“只晚了十分钟。”

Maura doesn't look at either app. She pulls him onto the dance floor, where eighty wet and happy guests are already dancing.

毛拉两个应用都没有看。她把他拉进舞池，那里八十位浑身湿透却兴高采烈的客人已经跳起舞来。