繪◎秋林夕

當(dāng)月光女孩遇見陽(yáng)光男孩

繪◎秋林夕

When Moonlight Girl Meets Sunshine Boy

I stumbled across①stumble across 偶然發(fā)現(xiàn)Justin's online dating profile while waiting for water to boil. It was just after 4 a.m.

"Message me if you want to talk about anything and everything until the wee hours of the night," his profile said.

The phrase "wee hours", as it turns out, means different things to different people. I have a circadian②circadian 英 [s??'ke?d??n] 美 [s?'ked??n] adj. 生理節(jié)奏的rhythm disorder③disorder 英 [d?s'??d?] 美 [d?s'?rd?] n. 混亂；騷亂vt. 使失調(diào)；擾亂called delayed sleep phase syndrome. It's that

在等待水燒開的空當(dāng)，我偶然看到了賈斯汀的在線約會(huì)個(gè)人主頁(yè)。當(dāng)時(shí)剛過(guò)凌晨四點(diǎn)。

“如果你想探討任何事情，請(qǐng)發(fā)信息給我，凌晨之前都可以?！彼趥€(gè)人主頁(yè)上寫道。

事實(shí)證明，在不同的人看來(lái)，“凌晨”有著不同的含義。我有晝夜節(jié)奏紊亂的問(wèn)題，即睡眠相位后移綜合癥。我的生物鐘會(huì)在日出時(shí)告訴我該上床休息了，在日落時(shí)告訴我該醒來(lái)了?；揪拖裎硪粯印x被社會(huì)認(rèn)可的時(shí)鐘約八小時(shí)。my circadian clock tells me it's time for bed when the sun is rising and time to wake up as it's setting. As a vampire, basically — offset from society's clock by approximately eight hours.

Now, as a freelance writer making my own schedule, I aways going to bed around 8 or 9 a.m. and waking around 4 or 5 p.m. Alone with my books and my thoughts, I write about physics. The dark of night is perfect for contemplating the universe.

Of course, my chronologic freedom comes with a few technical difficulties, such as an inability to take calls from editors, listen to music without headphones or remember what day of the week it is, since my days are always changing in the middle.

Then there's dating.

On my first date with Justin, we went to an art museum at 7 p.m, I learned that he had a 9-to-5 job and enjoyed cycling and being "out in the sunshine".

I didn't mention that I was midway through a regimen of prescription vitamin D. "Sunshine" was not in my vocabulary.

For our second date, it was my turn to make plans. "I know you're on a normal human schedule④schedule 英 [???dju?l] 美 ['sk?d?ul] vt. 安排，計(jì)劃；編制目錄；將……列入計(jì)劃表," I texted him. "But the Perseid meteor shower peaks tomorrow night. Want to find a dark spot and watch?"

At midnight, we found a cozy spot by the Charles River and gazed upward. Despite the city lights, we saw three meteors blaze above the Boston skyline.

We talked about starlight, how it had begun its journey thousands of years ago and we were looking back in time. I thought how in a sense that's always true: My now is not the same as his and never will be. There's always a delay⑤delay 英 [d?'le?] 美 [d?'le] vi. 延期；耽擱vt. 延期；耽擱n.被耽擱或推遲的時(shí)間, each of us living in the immediate past of the other, regardless of how tightly he wrapped his arms around my waist. We are all trapped in our own time zones. The best we can do is try to meet in an imaginary middle.

So that's what we did. He booked us a trip to go night skiing. I made it to the beach in time to feel the sun on my skin. He rigged up a high-powered bike light and took me for

現(xiàn)在，作為一名自行制定個(gè)人日程表的自由撰稿人，我每天早上八九點(diǎn)鐘上床，下午四五點(diǎn)鐘醒來(lái)。當(dāng)我書寫與物理有關(guān)的文字時(shí)，唯有我自己的書籍和思想為伴。在暗夜中思索宇宙的奧秘，是再合適不過(guò)的。

當(dāng)然，我在作息方面的自由遭遇了幾個(gè)技術(shù)上的難題，比如無(wú)法接編輯打來(lái)的電話，無(wú)法不戴耳機(jī)聽音樂(lè)，無(wú)法記住每一天是星期幾，因?yàn)槲业囊惶炜偸菑陌虢貎核闫稹?/p>

還有就是約會(huì)。

第一次和賈斯汀約會(huì)，我們?cè)谕砩掀唿c(diǎn)去了一家藝術(shù)博物館。我得知他有一份朝九晚五的工作，喜歡騎自行車，喜歡沐浴在“戶外的陽(yáng)光里”。

我沒(méi)提及自己正按照醫(yī)生的處方猛補(bǔ)維生素D。我的字典里根本沒(méi)有“陽(yáng)光”這個(gè)詞。

第二次約會(huì)時(shí)，輪到我制訂計(jì)劃了。“我知道你是一個(gè)作息時(shí)間正常的人，”我在發(fā)給他的信息中寫道，“但英仙座流星雨將在明晚達(dá)到高潮。想要找個(gè)黑暗的角落一起觀賞嗎？”

午夜時(shí)分，我們?cè)诓槔硭购舆呎业搅艘粋€(gè)舒服的地方。盡管城市里閃耀著燈火，我們還是看到三顆流星在波士頓天際線上方劃過(guò)。

我們談?wù)撔枪?，說(shuō)起它如何于數(shù)千年前就踏上旅程，而我們其實(shí)是在回望過(guò)去。我發(fā)現(xiàn)在某種意義上，事情竟然總是如此：我的現(xiàn)在和他的現(xiàn)在不是一回事，而且永遠(yuǎn)也不會(huì)是一回事。延遲永遠(yuǎn)存在，我們倆都活在對(duì)方剛剛度過(guò)的時(shí)間里，不論他如何緊緊地?fù)е业难?。我們都被困在各自的時(shí)區(qū)里，最好的情況是設(shè)法在想象中的鐘點(diǎn)碰頭。

于是我們這樣做了。他為我們倆預(yù)定了一趟夜間滑雪的行程。我也及時(shí)趕到海灘上，體會(huì)了陽(yáng)光灑在皮膚上的感覺(jué)。他給自行車配備了一盞高功率的車燈，載著我在一個(gè)夏夜里騎行了好長(zhǎng)一段路。我拿泰國(guó)風(fēng)味的食物當(dāng)早餐；他則拿薄餅當(dāng)晚餐。

然而，這種持續(xù)不斷的妥協(xié)最終造就了兩具脾氣暴躁、睡眼惺忪的軀殼。他回到位于緬因州的故鄉(xiāng)去厘清思路。我則回歸了黑夜。a long ride in the summer dark. I ate Thai food for breakfast; he ate pancakes for dinner.

Eventually, however, the constant compromise made for two grumpy, bleary-eyed shells of human beings. He went back to his hometown in Maineto clear his head. I returned to the night.

One afternoon (i.e., just after midnight), I got an email from him suggesting we try a new approach.

"There is no world we both occupy at the same time," he wrote. "It's an illusion⑥illusion 英 [?'l(j)u??(?)n] 美 [?'lu?n] n. 幻覺(jué)，錯(cuò)覺(jué). We don't actually need to find that." Instead of fighting our difference, he said, let's just love each other from across the clock.

As a token of our new living arrangement, I gave Justin an illustrated edition of "The Day Boyand the Night Girl". In the story, a witch raises two children in captivity, allowing the boy to see only day and the girl only night. But one day, the boy stays out longer than he's supposed to, and when it gets dark, he becomes terrified. The girl finds him shaking in the garden and tries to comfort him, explaining "how gentle and sweet the darkness is, how kind and friendly, how soft and velvety⑦velvety 英 ['velv?t?] 美 ['v?lv?ti] adj. 天鵝絨般柔軟的；醇和的，可口的!"

Since she's wide awake, she promises to watch over him while he sleeps. When the sun rises, he awakens to find that now she's scared, a stranger to the sun, and so he carries her in his arms while she sleeps until dark.

Justin and I figured we would do the same. I always made sure to wake up before he got home from work so we could cook and eat together — his dinner, my breakfast. Then he'd go to bed, and I'd write for hours beneath the moon. Eventually, I would craw quietly into his arms and we'd dream happily alongside each other — for a few minutes, anyway, before he had to get up.

On weekends, he played guitar, saw friends, soaked in

一天下午（意即午夜過(guò)后），他發(fā)來(lái)一封郵件，建議我們采取一種新的相處模式。

“我們倆同時(shí)占據(jù)的世界并不存在，”他寫道，“它是一種幻覺(jué)。我們其實(shí)不必尋找它?！迸c其對(duì)抗我們的差異，他說(shuō)，我們不如隔著時(shí)間相愛。

作為我們?nèi)碌纳畎才诺南笳?，我送給賈斯汀一本插畫版《日之少年與夜之少女》，在這個(gè)故事里，一個(gè)女巫圈養(yǎng)著兩個(gè)孩子，讓男孩只能看到白天，讓女孩只能看到黑夜。但有一天，男孩待在外邊的時(shí)間超出了規(guī)定，當(dāng)天色變暗的時(shí)候，他很害怕。女孩發(fā)現(xiàn)他在花園里瑟瑟發(fā)抖，試圖安慰他，向他解釋“黑暗是多么溫柔甜蜜，多么善良友好，多么柔軟光滑！”

由于她正處于完全清醒的狀態(tài)，于是承諾在他睡覺(jué)時(shí)看護(hù)他。當(dāng)他在太陽(yáng)升起之際醒來(lái)，發(fā)現(xiàn)她正驚魂未定，因?yàn)閺奈匆娺^(guò)太陽(yáng)，于是讓她在自己懷中睡去，直到黑夜降臨。

我和賈斯汀認(rèn)為，我們倆也可以如此行事。我總是確保自己在他下班回家之前起床，這樣一來(lái)我們就能一同烹飪和進(jìn)餐——他的晚餐，我的早餐。然后他上床睡覺(jué)，我則在月光下寫上幾個(gè)小時(shí)。最終，我會(huì)悄悄溜進(jìn)他懷里，我們會(huì)一同幸福地進(jìn)入夢(mèng)鄉(xiāng)——盡管只有幾分鐘，在他不得不起床之前。

周末，當(dāng)他彈吉他、見朋友、曬太陽(yáng)的時(shí)候，我仍在夢(mèng)鄉(xiāng)之中。等到我把自己拖到咖啡機(jī)前，他已經(jīng)騎行了35英里，吃過(guò)了兩餐飯。太陽(yáng)下山時(shí)，他會(huì)用一句歡快的“早上好”跟我打招呼。接著，他把自己一天的經(jīng)歷講給我聽；我則把自己前一天的經(jīng)歷講給他聽。

就這樣，地球輪番為我們倆旋轉(zhuǎn)。我們充分利用了兩人生活中相互重合的那些小時(shí)，然后讓對(duì)方在各自的時(shí)間里自得其樂(lè)。

到了8月份，地球像往年一樣，又從那顆古the sunshine, all while I was still dreaming. By the time I dragged myself to the coffee maker, he'd cycled 35 miles and eaten two meals. With the sun setting, he greeted me with a happy "Good morning!" He told me about his day; I told him about my yesterday.

And so it went, the earth spinning for each of us in turn. We made the most of the hours when our lives overlapped⑧overlap 英 [??v?'l?p] 美 ['ov?l?p] n. 重疊；重復(fù), then let each other thrive in our own times, like animals in our wilds.

In August, the earth made its annual pass through the dust and debris of that ancient comet. Late that night, Justin drove me to a secluded beach on the north shore of Massachusetts where a handful of stargazers stared skyward. He put down a blanket as frogs croaked in the distance. Then he fumbled in his camera bag, pulling out a small black box. I couldn't see what was inside, just a glint, like the flicker of a star. Then he asked, "Will you marry me?"

We lay back on the blanket, grinning, as meteors streaked the sky. By then it was nearly 2 a.m, too late to call anyone, to squeal our news to family and friends. Instead we just lay there in our shared place and time, surrounded by sand and ocean and a few hundred billion stars.老彗星的塵埃和碎片中經(jīng)過(guò)。當(dāng)天深夜，賈斯汀開車將我載至馬薩諸塞州北海岸一處僻靜的沙灘，那里只有不多的幾個(gè)人在看星星。他就著遠(yuǎn)處的蛙鳴鋪開一條毯子，又在相機(jī)包里摸索一番，拿出一個(gè)黑色的小盒子。我看不清盒子里裝著什么，只看到閃耀的光芒，就好像星星眨著眼睛。然后他問(wèn)：“你愿意嫁給我嗎？”

我們仰面躺在毯子上，在流行劃過(guò)夜空之際咧著嘴笑。當(dāng)時(shí)已經(jīng)接近凌晨?jī)牲c(diǎn)，太晚了，不好打電話給任何親朋好友匯報(bào)我們的喜訊。因此我們只是躺在那兒，躺在我們共同的時(shí)空里，周圍是沙灘、海洋和數(shù)不清的星星。