The Twins at the Interview

Fenna has two interviews on her calendar for Thursday, one at nine and one at half past ten. She needs someone for the operations desk, a job that has already worn out two people in a year. She is not optimistic.

芬娜的日程表上，星期四排着两场面试，一场九点，一场十点半。她需要一个人来负责运营台，这个岗位一年里已经累垮了两个人。她并不乐观。

The first candidate arrives early, wearing a green tie and carrying a folder with colored tabs. He talks about spreadsheets with real affection. He has a plan for his first ninety days, and the plan has subheadings.

第一位应聘者来得很早，系着一条绿领带，拿着一个贴着彩色标签的文件夹。他谈起电子表格时带着真挚的喜爱。他为入职头九十天做了计划，而且计划还有分级小标题。

"Impressive," Fenna says to herself when he leaves. "A bit rigid, though." She writes "methodical" on her notepad and underlines it twice.

“印象深刻，”他离开后，芬娜对自己说，“就是有点死板。”她在便笺本上写下“条理分明”，并在下面划了两道线。

At half past ten, the second candidate walks in, and her first thought is that the first one has come back for another try. He has the same face, the same haircut and the same way of tilting his head. The tie is blue now, the folder has disappeared, and his hair is slightly less tidy.

十点半，第二位应聘者走了进来，她的第一个念头是，第一位又回来再试一次了。他有同样的脸，同样的发型，还有同样歪头的样子。领带现在是蓝色的，文件夹不见了，头发也稍微乱了一点。

"You've changed your tie," she says. "And you told me an hour ago that you love spreadsheets."

“你换了领带，”她说，“而且一个小时前你告诉我，你热爱电子表格。”

The man blinks. "I haven't been here before," he says. "Honestly, I would rather draw a map than fill in a spreadsheet."

男人眨了眨眼。“我之前没来过这里，”他说，“说实话，比起填电子表格，我更愿意画地图。”

A long, strange pause follows. Then he asks, very carefully, whether the earlier candidate wore a green tie and carried a folder with tabs. When she nods, he puts his face in his hands.

接下来是一阵漫长而奇怪的沉默。然后他非常小心地问，先前那位应聘者是不是系着绿领带，拿着一个带标签的文件夹。她点了点头，他把脸埋进了手里。

"That's my brother," he says. "My twin. I told him I had a dentist appointment this morning."

“那是我哥哥，”他说，“我的双胞胎哥哥。我跟他说我今天早上要去看牙医。”

Fenna pulls the two application forms out of the pile and lays them side by side. They list the same home address. She should have noticed that on Monday, but she had been sorting a hundred applications, and the forms had arrived in different weeks.

芬娜从那一堆材料里抽出两份申请表，并排摆在桌上。上面填的是同一个家庭住址。她本该在星期一就注意到的，但当时她在整理上百份申请，而且这两份表是在不同的星期送来的。

The interview carries on, mostly because neither of them knows how to stop. On paper, the second twin is nothing like the first. He is quick, he improvises, and he admits mistakes with a shrug. Fenna asks about a failed delivery, and he describes it so honestly that she laughs. By the end, she has decided that both brothers are good. Annoyingly good.

面试继续进行，多半是因为他们俩谁也不知道该怎么停下来。从纸面上看，第二位双胞胎和第一位毫不相像。他反应快，会随机应变，承认错误时只是耸耸肩。芬娜问起一次失败的配送，他说得那么坦率，让她笑了出来。到最后，她认定这两兄弟都很出色。出色得让人恼火。

She walks to the window. A man in a green tie is still sitting on the bench outside, rereading his notes with great concentration. Fenna waves, and he comes inside.

她走到窗边。一个系着绿领带的男人还坐在外面的长椅上，正全神贯注地重读自己的笔记。芬娜挥了挥手，他走了进来。

Now the two of them sit across the desk from her in identical postures, with different ties. She tells them that the operations desk has always been too big for one person, which is why the last two people left.

现在两个人隔着桌子坐在她对面，姿势一模一样，只是领带不同。她告诉他们，运营台对一个人来说一直都太繁重了，这就是前两个人离职的原因。

"If I hired only one of you, I would always wonder what the other would have done," she says. "So I'm offering one job, split into two part-time jobs. One of you is methodical and the other improvises. You'll have to agree between yourselves who is which."

“如果我只聘你们中的一个，我会一直想，另一个会怎么做，”她说，“所以我提供一份工作，拆成两份兼职。你们一个条理分明，一个随机应变。至于谁是哪一个，你们得自己商量。”

The brothers look at each other with exactly the same raised eyebrow.

兄弟俩看着对方，挑起了一模一样的眉毛。

"Do we get one desk or two?" asks the one in the blue tie.

“我们是用一张桌子，还是两张？”系蓝领带的那位问。

"One," Fenna says. "You'll have to share."

“一张，”芬娜说，“你们得共用。”