Helena arrived on a Thursday, in a taxi, with one suitcase and a bag of gifts that turned out to be mostly chocolate. Petronella watched from the kitchen window while her sister paid the driver. She noticed first that Helena had cut her hair, and then that she was counting her change twice, in the careful way of someone who is not yet sure of the coins. Fifteen years of telephone calls had not prepared her for that small, ordinary detail: her own sister, hesitating on the street where they had both grown up.
海伦娜是在一个星期四到的，坐着出租车，带着一只行李箱和一袋礼物，那袋礼物后来发现大半是巧克力。佩特罗内拉在厨房的窗前看着姐姐付车费。她先注意到的是海伦娜剪了头发，接着是她数找回的零钱数了两遍，那是一个对硬币还不太有把握的人才有的谨慎。十五年的电话，没有让她为这个细小而平常的细节做好准备：自己的姐姐，站在两人都曾长大的那条街上，犹豫不决。
The calls had been good. Every second Sunday for fifteen years they had gone through the same routine: the weather, the children's marks, the price of things, a joke about their mother's cooking. Both of them had worked hard at keeping the line bright. Neither had ever mentioned that the silences between the jokes were getting longer.
那些电话打得很好。十五年里，每隔一个星期天，她们都走同一套流程：天气，孩子们的分数，物价，一个关于母亲厨艺的玩笑。两个人都费了很大力气，让线路那头保持明亮。谁也没有提过，笑话与笑话之间的沉默越来越长了。
The frictions came in small pieces, all day. Helena said "back home" and meant the city she lived in now. She asked whether the bathroom tap still stuck, and it did, and she laughed as though this proved something. She let words from her new language slip into her sentences without noticing, and when Petronella raised an eyebrow, she apologised for it, which was worse. At lunch she left a tip so large that the waiter looked startled, and Petronella, who had been counting out her own coins, felt her jaw tighten in a way she did not like.
摩擦一整天都在以细小的碎片出现。海伦娜说“回老家”，指的却是她如今住的那座城市。她问浴室的水龙头是不是还会卡住，它果然还会，她笑了起来，仿佛这证明了什么。她的新语言里的词会不知不觉从她的句子里溜出来，佩特罗内拉一扬眉毛，她就为此道歉，这更糟。午饭时，她留下的小费多得让服务员吃了一惊，而佩特罗内拉，一直在数自己的硬币，感到下巴绷紧了，那种感觉让她很不喜欢。
"It's only money," Helena said.
“不过是钱而已。”海伦娜说。
"Yes," said Petronella. "To some of us, it is only money."
“是啊，”佩特罗内拉说，“对我们当中的一些人来说，只是钱而已。”
By the afternoon they were walking the old route to the river, saying very little, and it was on the bridge that Helena stopped. She put both hands on the railing and looked down at the water, which looked much smaller than either of them remembered. "On the phone I always said I was fine," she said. "I nearly cancelled this visit three times. I was afraid you would see at once that I had turned into someone else."
到了下午，她们走在去河边的老路上，几乎没怎么说话，是在桥上，海伦娜停住了。她双手扶着栏杆，低头望着河水，水看上去比她们两个记忆中的都小得多。“在电话里，我总说我很好，”她说，“这次来看你，我差点取消了三回。我怕你一眼就看出，我已经变成了另外一个人。”
Petronella thought about lying. Not until she opened her mouth did she realise she had already decided not to.
佩特罗内拉想过撒谎。直到她张开嘴，才发现自己早已决定不撒谎。
"I did see it," she said. "The hair, the words, the way you count your change. It made me angry, and I couldn't have told you why." She watched a leaf turn slowly under the bridge and come out the other side. "I turned into someone else too, you know. I just stayed in the same place to do it."
“我看出来了，”她说，“头发，用词，你数零钱的样子。这让我生气，可我说不出为什么。”她看着一片叶子在桥下慢慢打转，又从另一头漂了出去。“你知道吗，我也变成了另外一个人。只不过我是待在原地变的。”
Helena said nothing for a long time. What Petronella noticed was that her sister's shoulders had come down from around her ears, where they had been since the taxi. If either of them had said these things on a Sunday, down a line that cost money by the minute, they would have rung back an hour later to talk about the weather.
海伦娜很久没有说话。佩特罗内拉注意到的是，姐姐的肩膀从耳朵旁边落了下来，自从下出租车起，它们就一直耸在那里。要是她们当中有谁在某个星期天，隔着一条按分钟计费的电话线说了这些话，一个小时后，她们就会再打回去，聊聊天气。
Back at the flat, Petronella put the kettle on and found the wrench that lived under the sink. She held it out, handle first, and Helena took it with the faint, startled look of a woman being handed back a piece of her own life. Together they went to deal with the tap.
回到公寓，佩特罗内拉烧上水，找出了一直放在水槽底下的那把扳手。她把它递过去，手柄朝前，海伦娜接了过来，脸上带着一丝微微吃惊的神色，像是有人把她自己生活的一小块还给了她。她们一起去对付那个水龙头。
"Tomorrow," Petronella said, "you cook. Mother's soup."
“明天，”佩特罗内拉说，“你来做饭。妈妈的汤。”
"It will be terrible."
“肯定会很难喝。”
"I know," said Petronella. "Do it anyway."
“我知道，”佩特罗内拉说，“还是做吧。”
