Mirza arrives at the skating rink at six in the morning, before the first visitors. The ice is empty and shining, and the air smells of cold metal. Gus is already sitting on the bench by the barrier, tying his skates with great care.
米尔扎早晨六点到达滑冰场，比第一批游客来得早。冰面空旷闪亮，空气里有冷金属的味道。格斯已经坐在护栏边的长凳上，正小心翼翼地系着冰鞋的鞋带。
"You are late," he says.
“你迟到了，”他说。
"I am four minutes early," Mirza says. "Your watch is wrong."
“我早到了四分钟，”米尔扎说，“你的表不准。”
"My watch is never wrong. That is why I brought the clock."
“我的表从来不会不准。所以我才把钟带来了。”
On the bench between them sits an old wooden chess clock. Gus bought it at a market stall last month. It has two white faces, two brass buttons, and a loud tick that echoes across the empty ice.
他们之间的长凳上，放着一只旧木头棋钟。格斯上个月在集市摊位上买的。它有两个白色表盘，两个黄铜按钮，滴答声很响，在空荡荡的冰面上回响。
The rink is celebrating its fiftieth year, and the manager has asked for a show. Mirza skated every winter as a girl. Now she wants a routine with fast spins and long, sharp lines. Gus is a carpenter who learned to skate in the autumn. He wants something slow and funny, with a bow at the end.
滑冰场迎来五十周年庆典，经理请他们表演一个节目。米尔扎小时候每个冬天都滑冰。现在她想要一套有快速旋转和长而锐利线条的编排。格斯是个木匠，秋天才学会滑冰。他想要的是又慢又好笑的，结尾还要鞠一躬。
They could not agree. So they made a rule, and the clock is the judge. Each of them gets twenty minutes of every morning. While your side of the clock runs, you choose what the pair practises. When your time ends, you press your button, and the other person takes over.
他们谈不拢。于是他们定了一条规则，让这只钟来当裁判。每天早晨，两人各有二十分钟。你这一边的钟在走时，就由你来决定两人练什么。你的时间一到，你就按下自己的按钮，换另一个人接手。
"Ladies first," Gus says.
“女士优先，”格斯说。
Gus presses his button, and Mirza's side begins to tick. For twenty minutes, she leads. They skate fast circles. They practise her spin, with Gus holding her hand and trying not to fall. He falls twice. She does not mind. Her plan is good, and she can feel it.
格斯按下自己的按钮，米尔扎那一边开始滴答作响。二十分钟里，她带头。他们快速地滑着圈。他们练她的旋转，格斯握着她的手，努力不摔倒。他摔了两次。她不介意。她的方案很好，她能感觉得到。
Then she slaps the button. The ticking changes sides.
然后她啪地拍下按钮。滴答声换到了另一边。
"Finally," Gus says, and he stands up. "My turn."
“终于，”格斯说着站了起来，“轮到我了。”
He wants to try a slow turn he has invented. It is a wide, gentle curve with a bow in the middle. It looks like a boat on a quiet lake. Mirza follows him, and she has to admit that it is pretty. They have skated for perhaps ten minutes when the clock gives a loud click.
他想试试自己发明的一个慢速转弯。那是一道宽阔而柔和的弧线，中间还有一个鞠躬。看起来像一艘小船漂在平静的湖面上。米尔扎跟在他后面，不得不承认，真是好看。他们大概滑了十分钟，钟忽然咔嗒响了一声。
"Time," Mirza calls from the barrier. She is holding the clock in her hands. "Your twenty minutes are over."
“时间到，”米尔扎在护栏边喊道。她双手捧着那只钟。“你的二十分钟用完了。”
Gus stops in the middle of the ice. "That was fast."
格斯在冰面中央停了下来。“这么快。”
"The clock does not lie."
“钟是不会撒谎的。”
He skates over, slowly, and looks at his watch. He does not say anything. He only puts his chin in his hand, the way he does when he checks a measurement.
他慢慢滑过去，看了看自己的手表。他没有说话。他只是用手托住下巴，就像他检查尺寸时那样。
The next morning is the same. Mirza leads for twenty minutes, and her plan grows. She adds a jump. She adds a lift that scares both of them. When it is Gus's turn, he has a new idea, a small dance step with the feet together. He barely finishes the first try before the clock clicks again.
第二天早晨也是一样。米尔扎带了二十分钟，她的方案越来越丰富。她加了一个跳跃，又加了一个让两人都害怕的托举。轮到格斯时，他有了一个新想法，一个双脚并拢的小舞步。第一次尝试他还没做完，钟又咔嗒响了。
"Time," she says.
“时间到，”她说。
"Already?" Gus asks. "It feels like five minutes."
“已经到了？”格斯问，“感觉才五分钟。”
Mirza does not look at the clock twice. She is thinking about the lift.
米尔扎没有再看第二眼钟。她在想着那个托举。
On the third morning, Gus arrives before her. When Mirza walks in, he is sitting on the bench with the clock open on his knees. A small screwdriver lies beside him, and so does his phone.
第三天早晨，格斯比她先到。米尔扎走进来时，他坐在长凳上，膝盖上摊开着那只钟。旁边放着一把小螺丝刀，还有他的手机。
"What are you doing to my judge?" she asks.
“你对我的裁判做了什么？”她问。
"I am making sure the judge is honest." He holds up the phone. "I timed us yesterday. You skated for twenty-four minutes. I skated for eleven."
“我在确保这个裁判是诚实的。”他举起手机。“昨天我给我们计了时。你滑了二十四分钟，我滑了十一分钟。”
Mirza stares at him. "That cannot be right."
米尔扎盯着他。“这不可能。”
"The clock is fine. I checked every part." He closes the back and puts the screwdriver away. "It is not the clock that is wrong. It is the hand that presses the button."
“钟没有问题。每个零件我都检查过了。”他合上后盖，把螺丝刀收了起来。“出错的不是钟，而是按按钮的那只手。”
For a moment she wants to argue. She has a long speech ready, about her experience and her years on the ice. Instead she sits down next to him on the bench, and the speech goes quiet.
有一刻，她想争辩。她已经准备好一大篇话，讲她的经验，讲她在冰上的岁月。可她却在长凳上他身边坐了下来，那篇话也随之沉寂了。
"I did not know," she says at last.
“我不知道，”她终于说。
"I think you did a little."
“我想你多少是知道的。”
She looks at her gloves. It is true, and it is easy to see once he says it. Each morning she has pressed her button late and his button early. She has told herself that she was only being careful. But the real reason is smaller and harder. The show is in two weeks. After that, there is no reason for them to meet at six in the morning.
她看着自己的手套。这是真的，被他说破之后，一眼就看得出来。每天早晨，她按自己按钮都晚了一点，按他的按钮又早了一点。她对自己说，她只是在谨慎。可真正的原因更小，也更难说出口。演出就在两周后。那以后，他们就没有理由在早晨六点碰面了。
"I wanted our routine to be perfect," she says. "If it is perfect, then maybe we will keep skating together."
“我想让我们的节目完美，”她说，“如果它完美，也许我们就能继续一起滑冰。”
"That is a strange way to ask," Gus says.
“这是一种奇怪的邀请方式，”格斯说。
"I know. I am sorry. It was a mistake, and a silly one."
“我知道。对不起。这是个错误，一个很傻的错误。”
He nods. He does not look angry. He looks like a man who has solved a puzzle and wishes the answer were kinder. "Thank you for telling me," he says. "I mean it."
他点点头。他看上去并不生气。他像一个解开了谜题、却希望答案更温和一点的人。“谢谢你告诉我，”他说，“我是认真的。”
"What do we do now?"
“我们现在怎么办？”
Gus gets up and walks to the edge of the ice. "We do the morning again, and this time we do it properly. I press your button, and you press mine. Then neither of us can cheat."
格斯站起来，走到冰面的边缘。“我们把这个早晨重来一遍，这次好好来。我来按你的按钮，你来按我的。这样我们谁也作不了弊。”
"That is the most sensible thing anyone has said to me this month," Mirza says.
“这是这个月里别人对我说过的最明智的话，”米尔扎说。
They skate. Gus presses her button, and she stands at the barrier with her arms crossed, watching his boat-curve again. It is even prettier than she remembered. When her own twenty minutes begin, he presses his button with one finger. Her side starts to tick.
他们开始滑冰。格斯按下她的按钮，她抱着双臂站在护栏边，又一次看他的船形弧线。它比她记忆中的还要好看。轮到她自己的二十分钟时，他用一根手指按下了自己的按钮。她这一边开始滴答作响。
She leads him into the spin, and for once she explains it slowly. She shows him where to put his foot and when to let go. Gus follows, and he does not fall. On the third try, the spin is so smooth that they both laugh out loud. A cleaner polishing the barrier looks up in surprise.
她带着他练旋转，这一次，她慢慢地讲解。她告诉他脚该放在哪里，什么时候松手。格斯跟着做，没有摔倒。第三次尝试，旋转顺滑得让两个人都放声大笑。一位正在擦护栏的清洁工吃惊地抬起头。
They test the lift next. It frightens Mirza more than it frightens Gus. A carpenter, she finds, knows exactly how much weight a good pair of arms can hold. He checks her grip twice and tells her to count to three. On three, she goes up into the cold air. For a second she can see the whole empty rink, white and bright.
接着他们试了托举。米尔扎比格斯更害怕。她发现，木匠清楚地知道一双好手臂能承受多少重量。他把她的握法检查了两遍，让她数到三。数到三，她升进了寒冷的空气里。有那么一秒，她能看到整个空荡荡的滑冰场，白茫茫，亮晶晶。
When Gus puts her down, she is smiling so widely that her cheeks hurt.
格斯把她放下时，她笑得太开心，脸颊都疼了。
"That was not in the plan," he says.
“这可不在计划里，”他说。
"It was always in the plan."
“它一直都在计划里。”
"Then why did you take it out?"
“那你为什么把它拿掉了？”
She does not answer. The clock ticks, and the two of them stand on the ice and listen to it.
她没有回答。钟在滴答作响，两个人站在冰上，听着它。
In the second week, the routine changes shape. The fast spins stay, but they come after the slow curve instead of before it. The jump disappears, and the bow in the middle grows bigger. Neither of them would have made it alone. Mirza begins to like it more than her first plan.
第二周，节目的样子变了。快速旋转还在，但放到了慢速弧线的后面，而不是前面。跳跃没有了，中间的鞠躬变大了。他们两个谁也不可能单独做出这样的节目。米尔扎渐渐比喜欢她最初的方案更喜欢它。
On the morning of the show, the rink is full of lights and folding chairs. Mirza stands at the barrier in a plain blue dress. Gus stands beside her in a jacket with new, shorter sleeves. In his pocket, he carries the clock. He says it brings luck.
演出那天早晨，滑冰场里挂满了灯，摆满了折叠椅。米尔扎穿着一条朴素的蓝裙子，站在护栏边。格斯站在她旁边，穿着一件袖子改短了的新外套。他的口袋里装着那只钟。他说它能带来好运。
"Are you nervous?" she asks.
“你紧张吗？”她问。
"Terrified. I have a hammer in my bag in case the ice breaks."
“吓坏了。我包里还放了一把锤子，以防冰面裂开。”
"The ice will not break."
“冰不会裂的。”
"Then I have a hammer for no reason, which is how I like to live." He takes out the clock and sets it on the barrier. For a moment they both look at the two brass buttons, one for each of them.
“那我就是无缘无故带了把锤子，这正是我喜欢的生活方式。”他拿出钟，放在护栏上。有一刻，他们两人都看着那两个黄铜按钮，一人一个。
The music starts, softly, from the speakers. Mirza reaches out and presses his button. Gus smiles and presses hers.
音乐从扬声器里轻轻响起。米尔扎伸手按下了他的按钮。格斯笑了笑，按下了她的。
"Your move," she says.
“该你了，”她说。
