Twenty years after he left school, Matteo drove back to his old town. The class time capsule was being opened. In their last year, the whole class had written letters to their future selves. A teacher had sealed them in a metal box and buried it under the school yard.
离开学校二十年后，马泰奥开车回到了他的老家小镇。班里的时间胶囊要开启了。毕业那一年，全班同学都给未来的自己写了信。一位老师把信封进一只金属盒，埋在了校园的地下。
The ceremony was short. The head teacher opened the box in the school hall. She handed out the envelopes one by one, each with a name on the front. Matteo watched his old classmates open theirs, laugh, and pass pages around. His own envelope wasn't there.
仪式很简短。校长在学校礼堂里打开了盒子。她把信封一封封分发出去，每个信封正面都写着名字。马泰奥看着老同学们拆开自己的信，笑着，把信页传来传去。他的那个信封却不在里面。
"It must have been lost," the head teacher said kindly. "Or perhaps you never wrote one."
“一定是弄丢了，”校长和气地说，“也许是你当年没写。”
But Matteo remembered it exactly. He had spent a whole evening on it. He had written three pages about his plans. He described the city, the job, and the kind of man he hoped to be. He wanted to know how wrong he had been.
可马泰奥记得清清楚楚。他为那封信花了整整一个晚上。他写了三页纸，讲他的打算。他描述了那座城市、那份工作，还有他希望成为的那种男人。他想知道自己当初错得有多离谱。
He tried to hide his disappointment. He talked to old classmates and ate a piece of dry cake. All the time, he was looking for the one person he really wanted to see. Vladimir, his best friend from school, was standing at the back. His hair was grayer, but his smile was the same crooked one. They hadn't spoken in fifteen years, since a stupid argument that neither of them could remember clearly.
他努力掩饰自己的失望。他和老同学聊天，吃了一块干巴巴的蛋糕。整个过程中，他一直在找一个他真正想见的人。弗拉基米尔，他在学校时最好的朋友，正站在后面。他的头发更灰了，但笑容依然是那种歪歪的笑。他们已经十五年没说过话了，起因是一场愚蠢的争吵，两个人谁也记不清楚了。
"I'm sorry about your letter," Vladimir said. Then someone called him away, and he disappeared into the crowd.
“你那封信，我很抱歉。”弗拉基米尔说。接着有人叫他过去，他消失在了人群里。
Later, while Matteo was helping to stack chairs, he noticed Vladimir's envelope on a table. It was much thicker than the others, and it had been left open. Inside were two letters. One was in Vladimir's handwriting. The other was in handwriting Matteo knew better than his own.
后来，马泰奥帮忙叠椅子的时候，注意到桌上有弗拉基米尔的信封。它比别的厚得多，敞着口。里面有两封信。一封是弗拉基米尔的笔迹，另一封的笔迹，马泰奥比认自己的还熟。
It was his letter, all three pages, a little yellow at the edges. On the back, in blue pen, someone had written: "You will do all of this and more. If you get lost, come and find me."
那是他的信，整整三页，边缘有点发黄。背面，有人用蓝笔写道：“这一切你都会做到，还会做得更多。如果你迷了路，来找我。”
Matteo read it standing up, with a chair in his hands. He remembered now. On the day of the sealing, he had wanted to tear it up. He thought it sounded stupid. Vladimir had taken it from his hands and said, "You'll thank me in twenty years."
马泰奥站着读完了，手里还拿着一把椅子。他现在想起来了。封存那天，他本想把信撕了。他觉得那信写得很蠢。弗拉基米尔从他手里把信拿了过去，说：“二十年后你会谢我的。”
He found Vladimir near the door, putting on his coat.
他在门边找到了弗拉基米尔，对方正在穿外套。
"You kept it," Matteo said.
“你把它留下了。”马泰奥说。
"I kept it safe," Vladimir said. "Did I wait too long to give it back?"
“我替你好好保管着，”弗拉基米尔说，“我是不是等了太久才还给你？”
"Come and have a coffee," Matteo said. "I'll tell you how wrong I was."
“来喝杯咖啡吧，”马泰奥说，“我告诉你，我当年错得有多离谱。”
