Bertil has volunteered at the animal shelter for three years, and he has never seen two families claim the same dog. He sees it now. The dog, a medium-sized brown mutt with one white ear, sits in the middle of the front office, wagging his tail at everybody.
贝蒂尔在动物收容所做了三年志愿者，从没见过两家人认领同一条狗。现在他见到了。那条狗是只中等个头的棕色杂种犬，有一只白耳朵，坐在前厅的中央，冲着每个人摇尾巴。
"His name is Pilot," says the first family, a father and two teenagers, holding out a phone. "Here he is at the beach. Here he is on the sofa. He has been missing since Thursday."
“它叫派洛特，”第一家人说，一位父亲和两个十几岁的孩子，他们递出一部手机，“这是它在海滩上。这是它在沙发上。它从星期四起就不见了。”
"His name is Toast," says the second family, a mother and a small girl. "We have had him for two years. Here he is in the garden. Here he is asleep under the table." The photos on her phone show the same white ear and the same crooked tail.
“它叫吐司，”第二家人说，一位母亲和一个小女孩，“我们养了它两年。这是它在花园里。这是它睡在桌子底下。”她手机上的照片里，是同样的白耳朵，同样弯弯的尾巴。
Bertil does what any sensible volunteer would do. He fetches the scanner to check the microchip. It beeps, flashes an error and falls silent. The vet tries two more machines and then shakes her head. "The chip has been damaged, or it has moved," she says. "I can't read it. He could belong to either of you."
贝蒂尔做了任何一个明智的志愿者都会做的事。他拿来扫描仪，检查芯片。它嘀了一声，闪出一个错误提示，又安静了。兽医又试了另外两台机器，然后摇了摇头。“芯片损坏了，或者移位了，”她说，“我读不出来。它可能是你们任何一家的。”
The dog yawns.
那条狗打了个哈欠。
Both families begin to speak at once. The little girl starts to cry, and the teenagers fold their arms. For a full minute, nobody listens to anybody. Bertil, who was a schoolteacher for thirty years, recognizes the noise immediately.
两家人同时开口说话。小女孩哭了起来，几个少年抱起了胳膊。整整一分钟，谁也不听谁的。当了三十年中学老师的贝蒂尔，一下子就听出了这种喧闹。
"I have a proposal," he says. "A fair test. Nobody calls him and nobody touches him. At a quarter to six we take him to the park gate, drop the leash and see where he goes. If he is yours, he will go home."
“我有个提议，”他说，“一个公平的测试。谁也不许叫它，谁也不许碰它。五点四十五分，我们把它带到公园门口，松开牵引绳，看它往哪儿走。如果它是你们的，它会回家。”
Both families agree, mostly because neither can think of a reason to refuse. Bertil has a private reason for choosing that hour. According to the other volunteers, the dog has stood at the shelter's back door at six sharp every evening since Friday. He looks like someone with a reservation.
两家人都同意了，主要是因为谁也想不出拒绝的理由。贝蒂尔选这个时间，自有一个私下的原因。据其他志愿者说，从星期五起，这条狗每天傍晚六点整都会站在收容所的后门口。它看起来就像一个预订了座位的人。
At 5:45, the park is quiet. The dog sniffs the gatepost. He looks at the first family, then at the second, then at nothing in particular. At 5:52, he stands, stretches and trots out of the gate without looking back. Everyone follows.
五点四十五分，公园里很安静。那条狗嗅了嗅门柱。它看了看第一家人，又看了看第二家人，然后看向了某个说不上来的地方。五点五十二分，它站起来，伸了个懒腰，头也不回地小跑着出了门。大家跟了上去。
He crosses the road, climbs the hill and scratches at the first family's front door. "You see?" says the father, almost in tears. The dog goes inside and empties a bowl in under a minute. He accepts a pat on the head and leaves through a gap in the back hedge, which nobody in the family has ever noticed.
它穿过马路，爬上山坡，在第一家人的前门上扒了扒。“你们看见了吧？”父亲说，几乎要哭了。那条狗走了进去，不到一分钟就把一只碗舔得干干净净。它接受了摸头，然后从后面树篱的一个缺口钻了出去，这个缺口家里没有一个人注意到过。
Down the hill he goes, toward the street by the river, with two families hurrying behind him. He stops on the second family's front step, where a bowl is already waiting.
它下了山坡，朝河边的那条街走去，两家人匆匆跟在后面。它在第二家人的前门台阶上停了下来，那里已经有一只碗在等着。
"I always put it out at six," the mother says weakly. "I thought he was just late."
“我总是六点钟放出来，”母亲有气无力地说，“我还以为它只是来晚了。”
The dog begins his second dinner of the evening. He must have been doing this for two years, Bertil thinks. The families should have compared photos long ago. However, their lost-dog posters, which carried different names, were put up in different neighborhoods.
那条狗开始吃它今晚的第二顿晚饭。贝蒂尔心想，它一定这样已经两年了。两家人早就该对照一下照片的。然而，他们那些写着不同名字的寻狗启事，贴在了不同的街区。
"Two dinners," the father says at last. "No wonder he has put on weight."
“两顿晚饭，”父亲终于说，“难怪它胖了。”
The little girl wipes her nose. "Can he be Pilot on weekdays and Toast on weekends?"
小女孩擦了擦鼻子。“它能不能工作日叫派洛特，周末叫吐司？”
Nobody has a better suggestion. Bertil writes a new tag with two phone numbers and no name at all. The dog, lying on the pavement between the two families, has already fallen asleep.
没有人有更好的建议。贝蒂尔写了一个新的名牌，上面有两个电话号码，却没有名字。那条狗躺在两家人中间的人行道上，已经睡着了。
