The Missing Piece at the Top Station

The night shift in the cable-car maintenance room was supposed to be quiet. Zosia and Halima had checked the cables, oiled the wheels, and signed the long form. It was one in the morning, and nothing was left to do.

缆车维修室的夜班本该很安静。佐西娅和哈莉玛已经检查了缆绳，给滑轮上了油，还签了那张长长的表格。现在是凌晨一点，已经没有什么事可做了。

That was when Zosia sat down at the jigsaw.

就在这时，佐西娅在拼图前坐了下来。

The jigsaw lived on the big steel table in the middle of the room. It was a wooden puzzle of the mountain. It had two thousand pieces and a very blue sky. Eleven different crews had worked on it over four winters. Nobody had ever finished it, because nobody could agree on where the sky pieces went.

这副拼图放在房间中央那张大钢桌上。那是一幅木质的山景拼图，有两千块，天空蓝得很。十一班不同的人在四个冬天里拼过它。从来没人拼完，因为没人能就天空那些块该放哪儿达成一致。

"There are forty sky pieces left," Zosia said happily. "Forty. I can feel it. Tonight is the night."

“天空只剩四十块了，”佐西娅高兴地说，“四十块。我能感觉到。今晚就是那个晚上。”

"You said that last Tuesday," Halima said. She was eating a cold sausage roll and reading the repair log. "And the Tuesday before."

“你上周二也这么说，”哈莉玛说。她一边吃着冷香肠卷，一边看维修日志。“再上一个周二也是。”

"This time I have a system."

“这次我有办法了。”

"Your system is to hold each piece up to the light and say 'hmm.'"

“你的办法就是把每一块举到灯下，说一声‘嗯’。”

"It works for me," Zosia said with great dignity.

“我觉得挺管用，”佐西娅一本正经地说。

They were still arguing about the system at ten past three. Then the door sensor on Cabin Four began to beep. Halima looked up. An orange light was blinking on the control panel, and it did not look like a joke.

三点十分，她们还在为这个办法争论不休。这时，四号车厢的门感应器开始嘀嘀响了。哈莉玛抬起头。控制面板上有一盏橙灯在闪，看上去可不像开玩笑。

"That is not good," she said.

“这可不妙，”她说。

They climbed the ladder to the loading platform and found the problem in about a minute. The latch on the cabin door had a small plastic tab, no bigger than a thumbnail. The tab had snapped in half. Without it, the door could not lock, and an unlocked cabin could not carry a single passenger.

她们爬上梯子来到装载平台，大约一分钟就找到了毛病。车厢门的门闩上有一个小塑料片，不比拇指指甲大。那个小片断成了两半。没有它，门就锁不上，而锁不上的车厢连一个乘客也不能载。

"The first group of skiers arrives at seven," Halima said. "That is four hours."

“第一批滑雪的人七点到，”哈莉玛说，“还有四个小时。”

"Do we have a spare tab?"

“我们有备用的小片吗？”

Halima checked the shelf. She checked it again, slowly, as if the tab might be shy. "We had one," she said. "I used it in November. I wrote it on the order list. The new ones come on Monday."

哈莉玛查了架子。她又慢慢查了一遍，好像那个小片害羞躲起来了似的。“原来有一个，”她说，“十一月我用掉了。我写在订货单上了。新的星期一到。”

"It is Friday."

“今天是星期五。”

"I know what day it is, Zosia."

“我知道今天星期几，佐西娅。”

Zosia scratched her head. For a moment, the two women looked at the broken latch in silence. A cold wind whistled through the platform and made the empty cabins sway on their cables.

佐西娅挠了挠头。有那么一会儿，两个女人默默地看着坏掉的门闩。一阵冷风呼啸着穿过平台，吹得空车厢在缆绳上摇晃。

"Right," said Zosia. "First attempt. We make a new tab out of something."

“好吧，”佐西娅说，“第一次尝试。我们拿别的东西做一个新的小片。”

"Out of what?"

“用什么做？”

Zosia looked around. She found the jigsaw box lid on the table. It was a thick sheet of cardboard with a picture of the mountain. She cut a neat little tab from the corner. She used the knife that Halima kept for opening boxes. It was the right shape, and it fitted the latch perfectly.

佐西娅环顾四周。她在桌上发现了拼图盒的盒盖。那是一块厚厚的硬纸板，上面印着山的图案。她从一角剪下一个整齐的小片。她用的是哈莉玛拆箱子用的那把刀。形状正好，和门闩严丝合缝。

"Genius," said Halima. "I take back what I said about your system."

“天才，”哈莉玛说，“我收回我对你那个办法说过的话。”

"I never had a system," Zosia admitted.

“我根本没有什么办法，”佐西娅承认道。

They pushed the cardboard tab into the latch and pulled the door shut. It clicked. The sensor beeped once, in a friendly way, and the orange light turned green. Both women cheered quietly, because it was four in the morning and the mountain was asleep.

她们把纸板小片推进门闩，把门拉上。咔嗒一声。感应器友好地嘀了一声，橙灯变成了绿灯。两个女人小声地欢呼了一下，因为现在是凌晨四点，山还在沉睡。

They went down for coffee. Twenty minutes later, the sensor began beeping again.

她们下楼去喝咖啡。二十分钟后，感应器又开始嘀嘀响了。

When they got back to the platform, the cardboard tab was lying on the floor. It was a small, sad lump. The latch was cold and wet. A thin line of oil had soaked into the cardboard until it turned soft. It could not hold a door against the wind, let alone twenty skiers with heavy boots.

等她们回到平台，纸板小片已经掉在了地上。那是一小团可怜巴巴的东西。门闩冰冷潮湿。一道细细的油渍浸进了纸板，把它泡软了。它连一阵风都顶不住门，更别说二十个穿着沉重靴子的滑雪者了。

"Oil," Halima said. "Of course there was oil. It is a cable car."

“油，”哈莉玛说，“当然有油。这可是缆车。”

"We should have thought of that."

“我们早该想到的。”

"We should have thought of that in the first place."

“我们一开始就该想到的。”

So the first attempt had failed, and they had three hours left. This time, Halima suggested, they would not try to be clever. They would think. What they needed was something small, hard, and shaped like a tab. It should not mind oil or cold, and it should not snap when somebody pulled the door.

就这样，第一次尝试失败了，她们还剩三个小时。哈莉玛提议，这一次不再耍小聪明。她们要动脑筋想一想。她们需要的是一样小小的、硬的、形状像那个小片的东西。它不怕油也不怕冷，有人拉门时也不会折断。

Halima walked back and forth on the platform. Then she stopped, turned around slowly, and looked at her friend.

哈莉玛在平台上来回走动。然后她停下来，慢慢转过身，看着她的朋友。

"Zosia," she said. "How do you feel about wood?"

“佐西娅，”她说，“你觉得木头怎么样？”

"I feel fine about wood. Why?"

“我觉得木头挺好。怎么了？”

"The jigsaw is wood. Real wood, not cardboard. It is thick, and it has a smooth coating. The oil won't soak into it." Halima waited. "And there are plenty of pieces with a little knob on one side."

“拼图是木头做的。真正的木头，不是纸板。它很厚，表面有一层光滑的涂层。油渗不进去。”哈莉玛停了一下。“而且有很多块，一边都有一个小凸起。”

Zosia's face went very pale. "No."

佐西娅的脸一下子变得惨白。“不行。”

"There are two thousand of them."

“有两千块呢。”

"Halima, no. I have forty sky pieces left. Forty. If I give one away, then there will be thirty-nine, and I will never finish. I will be buried with an unfinished jigsaw."

“哈莉玛，不行。我只剩四十块天空了。四十块。要是我送出去一块，就只剩三十九块了，我永远也拼不完了。我会带着一副没拼完的拼图被埋进土里。”

"Nobody is going to bury you with a jigsaw," Halima said. "Pick the piece you hate most."

“没人会把你和拼图一起埋的，”哈莉玛说，“挑一块你最讨厌的。”

It took Zosia a long time to choose. She stood over the table and held one piece after another up to the light. She said "hmm" in a very small voice. In the end, she chose a sky piece with a bent edge. She had tried it in nineteen different places over three weeks, and it had never once fit.

佐西娅挑了很久。她站在桌子上方，把一块又一块举到灯下。她用很小的声音说着“嗯”。最后，她选了一块边缘有点弯的天空块。三个星期里她把它试了十九个不同的位置，却一次也没合上过。

"Goodbye," she whispered.

“再见了，”她小声说。

"It is a piece of wood," said Halima.

“那不过是一块木头，”哈莉玛说。

"It is a piece of my heart."

“那是我的一块心头肉。”

They filed the little knob down with a metal file until it matched the broken tab. Halima held the latch steady. Zosia pressed the piece into the slot with both thumbs, and for a moment, neither of them breathed. The wooden piece slid in smoothly. It was a perfect fit. It looked as if it had been made for the job.

她们用金属锉把那个小凸起锉小，直到和断掉的小片一样大。哈莉玛稳稳地扶着门闩。佐西娅用两个拇指把那块拼图按进槽里，那一刻，两人都屏住了呼吸。木块顺顺当当地滑了进去。严丝合缝。看上去就像是专为这个用处做的。

"Try the door," said Zosia.

“试试门，”佐西娅说。

Halima pulled the cabin door shut. It closed with a firm, solid sound. The light on the panel turned green and stayed green. They stood on the freezing platform for fifteen minutes, waiting for it to fail. It did not.

哈莉玛把车厢门拉上。它关上时发出结实有力的一声。面板上的灯变成绿色，并且一直亮着绿色。她们在冰冷的平台上站了十五分钟，等着它出问题。它没有。

At seven o'clock, the first skiers arrived, loud and cheerful. Cabin Four took them up the mountain without a single problem. Zosia watched it rise into the pink morning light. The little piece of the sky was hidden in its latch.

七点钟，第一批滑雪的人到了，吵吵嚷嚷，兴高采烈。四号车厢把他们送上了山，一点毛病也没出。佐西娅看着它升入粉红色的晨光中。那一小块天空，就藏在它的门闩里。

"Two thousand pieces," she said sadly. "And the only one that fitted anywhere was the one I gave away."

“两千块，”她伤心地说，“结果唯一一块在哪儿都合得上的，是我送出去的那块。”

Halima handed her half of the cold sausage roll. "At least it is up there with the real sky."

哈莉玛把半个冷香肠卷递给她。“至少它在上面，和真正的天空在一起。”

At that moment, high above them, the cabin door closed behind the last passenger.

就在这时，高高的上方，车厢的门在最后一位乘客身后关上了。

Click.

咔嗒。