Every August, the town held a two-kilometer swim across the lake, and this year Eira and her father had entered together. He had been talking about it for months. As a young man, he said, he had swum in far colder water than this, and he had never needed a wetsuit.
每年八月，小镇都会举办一场横渡湖面的两公里游泳赛，今年艾拉和她父亲一起报了名。他已经念叨好几个月了。他说，他年轻的时候游过比这冷得多的水，从来不需要穿什么潜水服。
On the morning of the race, the lake lay flat and silver under a thin mist. Two hundred swimmers in orange caps stood shivering on the shingle. Eira had been training three evenings a week, but her father had trained mostly by describing how easy it would be.
比赛那天早上，湖面平坦如银，笼着一层薄雾。两百名戴橙色泳帽的选手哆哆嗦嗦地站在卵石滩上。艾拉每周训练三个晚上，而她父亲的训练，主要是不停地描述这有多容易。
The horn sounded, and they waded in. The first few hundred meters went well. Her father swam ahead with a strong, splashy stroke, glancing back once to grin at her. She settled into a steady rhythm and kept the orange cap in sight.
号角响了，他们蹚进水里。头几百米很顺利。她父亲游在前面，划水有力，水花四溅，还回头冲她咧嘴一笑。她找到了稳定的节奏，眼睛一直盯着那顶橙色泳帽。
Then, near the middle of the lake, the water changed. Eira felt it on her arms first: a cold layer that seemed to rise from below like a slow breath. She was already used to it, but her father, she realized, had stopped swimming.
接着，快到湖中央的时候，水变了。艾拉先是在手臂上感觉到的：一层冰冷的水，好像从下面升上来，像一次缓慢的呼吸。她自己已经适应了，可她意识到，她父亲停了下来。
He was floating upright, his cap crooked, his breathing fast and shallow. "I'm fine," he said, before she had even asked. "Give me a second."
他直立着漂在水里，泳帽歪了，呼吸又快又浅。“我没事，”她还没开口问，他就说了，“让我缓一秒。”
She knew he wasn't fine. His lips were pale, and his voice had gone strangely high. If she had been him, she thought, she would have been terrified too, and she would not have wanted anyone to say so.
她知道他不是没事。他的嘴唇发白，声音变得出奇地尖。她想，要是换了她是他，她也会害怕，而且不会希望有人说出来。
"Dad, roll onto your back," she said calmly, treading water beside him. "Look at the sky. Breathe in for four, out for six. I'll count."
“爸，翻过来仰着，”她踩着水，在他身旁平静地说，“看着天空。吸气数四下，呼气数六下。我来数。”
He did as he was told. She counted aloud, and after a dozen breaths the color began to return to his face. Meanwhile, a yellow kayak had drifted quietly closer, and the woman paddling it raised a hand to show she was watching. She did not hurry them or ask any questions.
他照她说的做了。她大声数着，十几次呼吸之后，他脸上渐渐有了血色。与此同时，一只黄色的皮划艇悄悄漂近了，划艇的女人举起一只手，表示她在看着。她没有催促他们，也没有问任何问题。
"The cold takes everyone by surprise," the woman said eventually. "Nobody has ever been disqualified for floating."
“冷水会让每个人都措手不及，”那女人最后说，“从来没有人因为漂着而被取消资格。”
They swam the second half side by side, mostly on their backs, then breaststroke, then a slow, careful crawl. Whenever her father's breathing quickened, Eira slowed down, and he followed her pace without a word.
后半程他们并肩游，先是大多仰泳，然后蛙泳，再后来是缓慢而小心的自由泳。每当她父亲的呼吸变急，艾拉就放慢速度，他一句话也没说，跟上了她的节奏。
They were among the last to reach the shingle. A small crowd clapped for the final swimmers, and a man with a microphone read out their names. Her father stood still for a moment, water running down his face, then wrapped a towel around Eira's shoulders instead of his own.
他们是最后一批靠岸的人之一。一小群人为最后的选手鼓掌，一个拿话筒的男人念出了他们的名字。她父亲静静站了一会儿，水顺着脸往下淌，然后他把毛巾裹在了艾拉的肩上，而不是自己的。
"Same time next year?" she asked.
“明年同一时间？”她问。
"Only if we train in the lake first," he said. "And only if you tell people I was in front."
“除非我们先在湖里练一练，”他说，“还有，你得对别人说，我是游在前面的。”
