The town pool at Harlow Gate opened every morning at seven. Every morning Bashir climbed the tall white lifeguard chair at the deep end and checked the water. For six years it had been the same. The surface had stayed level with the tiles. The lane ropes had floated in straight lines, and the only drama had been the occasional lost swimming cap.
哈洛门镇的游泳池每天早上七点开门。每天早上，巴希尔都会爬上深水区那把高高的白色救生椅，检查池水。六年来一直如此。水面始终与瓷砖齐平。泳道绳笔直地浮着，唯一的风波就是偶尔有人丢了泳帽。
Then, one Tuesday in June, the water was lower.
然后，六月的一个星期二，水位低了。
It was not much. A thin dry band of tile, about the width of a hand, ran above the waterline. Bashir stared at it from his chair. On Wednesday, the band was wider. By Friday, there was a clear step between the pool and the edge, and the swimmers had started to notice.
不多。瓷砖上露出一道干燥的细带，大约一只手那么宽，就在水线上方。巴希尔从椅子上盯着它看。星期三，那道带子更宽了。到了星期五，泳池和池沿之间已经有了一级明显的台阶，游泳的人开始注意到了。
"Is it supposed to look like that?" asked a boy, dangling his feet over the side.
“它本来就该是这样吗？”一个男孩晃着悬在池边的脚问。
"Absolutely," said Bashir, who had no idea.
“当然，”巴希尔说，他其实一点头绪也没有。
On Monday morning he called the council, and the council sent Wanjiru.
星期一早上，他给市政厅打了电话，市政厅派来了万吉鲁。
She arrived in a van full of pipes and gauges, wearing orange overalls. She had the expression of a person who had solved every kind of leak and expected this one to be no different. She walked once around the pool, tapped the walls with a small hammer and listened to the pumps for a long time.
她开着一辆装满水管和压力表的货车到了，穿着橙色的工作服。她的神情像是一个什么样的渗漏都解决过、认为这一个也不会例外的人。她绕着泳池走了一圈，用一把小锤子敲了敲池壁，又听了很久水泵的声音。
"Nothing is leaking," she said at last. "The drains are sealed. The filter room is dry. Evaporation might take a centimetre in a hot week, not twelve."
“没有任何渗漏，”她终于说，“排水口是封住的。过滤机房是干的。炎热的一个星期里，蒸发可能会带走一厘米，不会是十二厘米。”
"Then where is it going?"
“那水去哪儿了？”
"That is the interesting part." She wrote a number on her clipboard and underlined it twice. "I will run a pressure test tonight. If the water is still dropping tomorrow, I will need to open the floor."
“有意思的就在这里。”她在写字板上写下一个数字，在下面画了两道线。“今晚我要做一次压力测试。如果明天水还在降，我就得把池底打开。”
Bashir winced. The pool had only just been repainted, and the council had been telling him about the budget for months.
巴希尔皱了皱眉。泳池刚刚重新刷过漆，市政厅又已经跟他念叨了好几个月的预算。
He locked up at eight. Wanjiru stayed behind, determined to catch the pool in the act. She sat on an upturned crate by the filter room with a flask of soup and a torch. Bashir meant to go home, but at the door he remembered that he had left his water bottle on the chair. He went back to fetch it.
八点他锁了门。万吉鲁留了下来，决心当场抓住泳池的“罪行”。她坐在过滤机房旁一只倒扣的木箱上，带着一壶汤和一支手电筒。巴希尔本想回家，可走到门口时，他想起自己把水瓶落在了椅子上。他回去拿。
The pool hall was dim and very quiet. The only light came from the underwater lamps, which painted wavering patterns on the ceiling. At the top of the chair, where the stack of paper cups usually stood next to the first-aid box, something was moving.
泳池大厅里光线昏暗，非常安静。唯一的光来自水下灯，在天花板上映出晃动的图案。在救生椅的最上面，也就是那叠纸杯平时摆在急救箱旁边的地方，有什么东西在动。
It was small, no larger than a cat, and almost the same colour as the water. Its arms were thin and long, its fingers were webbed, and its eyes were two round points of silver. It held a paper cup in both hands. As Bashir watched, it dipped the cup into the pool, lifted it and drank with a long, happy gulp. Then it did it again.
它很小，不比一只猫大，颜色几乎和水一模一样。它的手臂又细又长，手指之间有蹼，眼睛是两个圆圆的银色亮点。它双手捧着一只纸杯。巴希尔看着它把杯子浸进池里，举起来，长长地、快乐地喝了一大口。然后它又来了一次。
Bashir did not shout. He did not move. After a minute he heard footsteps, and Wanjiru's torch swung through the doorway.
巴希尔没有叫喊。他没有动。一分钟后他听到了脚步声，万吉鲁的手电筒光扫过门口。
"I found a tiny crack in the pump housing, but it's not—" She stopped.
“我在水泵外壳上发现了一条细小的裂缝，不过它不是——”她停住了。
The creature lowered its cup and looked at them. It was not frightened. It simply seemed embarrassed, like a customer caught trying a free sample twice.
那个生物放下杯子，看着他们。它并不害怕。它只是显得有些尴尬，像一位被人发现偷偷试吃了两次免费样品的顾客。
"Do not tell me," Wanjiru said slowly, "that I need to put that in my report."
“别告诉我，”万吉鲁慢慢地说，“我得把这个写进报告里。”
"I don't think anyone would believe it," said Bashir. "But look at the cups."
“我想没有人会相信的，”巴希尔说，“不过你看那些杯子。”
The stack on the chair, normally forty cups high, had shrunk to six. The rest lay in a ring around the creature's feet, each one empty and dry on the inside.
椅子上的那叠杯子，平时有四十个那么高，现在只剩六个了。其余的躺在这个生物脚边，围成一圈，每一个里面都是空的，干干的。
Wanjiru sat down on the bottom step of the chair. She was a practical person, and practical people always begin with the smallest fact. "It is drinking the pool," she said. "A cup at a time. That is the whole leak."
万吉鲁在救生椅最下面的台阶上坐下。她是个讲求实际的人，讲求实际的人总是从最小的事实开始。“它在喝泳池里的水，”她说，“一次一杯。这就是全部的渗漏。”
"Why here?"
“为什么是这里？”
"This pool was built over a spring. I saw it on the old survey." She pointed toward the car park. "They sealed the spring with concrete forty years ago. Maybe it has been thirsty ever since, and nobody noticed until the water table dropped."
“这座泳池是建在一眼泉水上面的。我在旧的勘测图上看到过。”她指了指停车场的方向。“四十年前，他们用混凝土把泉眼封住了。也许从那以后它一直在口渴，只是直到地下水位下降，才被人注意到。”
The creature made a small sound, somewhere between a hiccup and a bell, and set its cup down very politely.
那个生物发出一声小小的声响，介于打嗝和铃声之间，然后非常有礼貌地把杯子放下了。
Bashir looked at the chair, then at the tap by the first-aid box. Then he thought of the long row of cups on the shelf in the staff room. A plan came to him, plain and almost boring, and he knew right away that it would work.
巴希尔看看椅子，又看看急救箱旁的水龙头。然后他想起了员工休息室架子上那一长排杯子。一个计划浮现在他脑海里，朴素得近乎乏味，他立刻知道它行得通。
"We cannot stop it from drinking," he said. "But we can give it somewhere else to drink from."
“我们没法阻止它喝水，”他说，“但我们可以给它别的地方喝。”
It took them an hour. Bashir carried cups from the staff room in stacks of fifty. Wanjiru filled them from the tap with a jug, working in her overalls like a woman at a very strange party. They lined up two hundred cups along the edge of the pool, on the steps of the chair and on the diving platform. Each one was full of clear tap water. The creature followed them from cup to cup, silent and delighted, touching the rims with one finger as if it were counting.
他们花了一个小时。巴希尔从休息室里五十个一叠地搬杯子。万吉鲁穿着工作服，用水壶从水龙头接水往杯子里倒，像一个出席着极为古怪聚会的女人。他们沿着池边、救生椅的台阶和跳水台摆了两百只杯子。每一只里都盛满了清澈的自来水。那个生物一个杯子接一个杯子地跟着他们，默默无声，满心欢喜，用一根手指触碰着杯沿，像是在数数。
When the last cup was filled, it took the first one, tipped its head back and drank. Then the second. Then the third. It moved down the line without hurrying, and the level of the pool did not move at all.
最后一只杯子倒满后，它拿起第一只，仰起头喝下去。然后是第二只。然后是第三只。它顺着长队一路走下去，不慌不忙，泳池的水位却丝毫没有下降。
"It will need a refill every night," said Wanjiru, rubbing her back. "I can fit a small tank under the chair, with a tap at the bottom. Nothing too obvious. The council will think it is a drinking fountain."
“它每晚都需要续杯，”万吉鲁揉着后背说，“我可以在椅子下面装一个小水箱，底部接个水龙头。别太显眼。市政厅会以为是个饮水机。”
"They'll be very proud of me," said Bashir. "A lifeguard with an excellent drinking fountain."
“他们会非常为我骄傲的，”巴希尔说，“一个有绝佳饮水机的救生员。”
The creature finished the line, set the last cup carefully upright and slid over the edge of the pool without a splash. For a moment a pair of silver eyes shone under the surface, and then they were gone.
那个生物喝完了整排杯子，小心地把最后一只杯子摆正，然后无声无息地滑过池沿入了水。有那么一会儿，水面下闪着一对银色的眼睛，随后消失了。
Wanjiru collected her hammer, her flask and her clipboard, and crossed out the underlined number. On her way to the door she stopped and looked back at the glittering pool, the lines of paper cups and the tall white chair.
万吉鲁收起锤子、水壶和写字板，划掉了那个画过线的数字。走向门口的路上，她停下来回头望了望：闪闪发亮的泳池，一排排纸杯，还有那把高高的白色救生椅。
"Next time," she said, "tell it to ask for a refill before it empties the deep end."
“下次，”她说，“告诉它，在把深水区喝空之前，先开口要续杯。”
