The Sounds of Silence寂靜之聲

Carol McCollister 張寧

Late one evening， my unrelenting1 yawns2 made me retire for the night. I puton a comfortable cotton gown， turned the lights low， and crawled3 into bed betweenthe cool， crisp sheets. To get a good nights rest， I called out to the kitchen，“Alexa， play sounds to sleep by.”I felt at peace with my cat Bella snuggled upbeside me.

一天深夜，不停的呵欠讓我不得不就寢。我穿上一件舒適的棉袍，把燈調暗，爬進鋪著涼快、清爽的床單的床上。為了保證晚上休息得好，我向廚房喊道：“亞歷克莎，播放睡眠背景聲音?！蔽业呢堌惱蕾嗽谖疑磉叄屛腋械胶芷届o。

During the night， a heavy object landed on my stomach， causing me to shriek4and sit up—only to discover that it was Bella. She had a habit of waking me up toget her a snack， but the hands on the clock said 3：00 a.m.， and I was annoyed shehad interrupted5 a happy dream. I fell back against the pillow and promised Idfeed her in the morning. That wasnt acceptable to her， so she continued to walk ontop of me while pressing her paws into my body.

晚上，一個重物落在我的肚子上，我尖叫著坐了起來——結果我發現是貝拉。她有叫我起床給她喂零食的習慣，但鐘上的指針顯示是凌晨3 點，我很生氣她打斷了一個美夢。我靠回枕頭上，答應早上給她喂飯。這是她無法接受的，所以她繼續在我身上爬，同時用爪子摁我的身體。

Because that proved to be unsuccessful， she jumped over to the bedside tableand deliberately6 used her paw to knock things onto the floor， one at a time， tokeep me from going back to sleep. Her efforts paid off as I looked over in thedimly7 lit room and knew the smug8 look on her face conveyed9 a serious demand.“Get up， human. Im ready for my nightly treat.”

因為這證明是不成功的，于是她跳到床頭柜前，故意用爪子一次一個把東西拍到地板上，以防止我再次入睡。當我在燈光昏暗的房間里看了看，知道她臉上得意的表情傳達了一種嚴肅的要求時，她的努力得到了回報。“起來吧，人類。我已經準備好享用每晚的晚餐了。”

Knowing she would keep pestering10 me until she got her snack， I took a fewminutes to focus my eyes and heard what sounded like running water or someonepressure-washing a wall. I couldnt imagine our apartment staff doing main -tenance11 in the middle of the night， so I assumed12 I had left on a faucet13. I wouldregret the large water bill it would generate， so I grudgingly14 got up and movedinto the kitchen. I found nothing out of the ordinary so I continued to search，with Bella still hot on my heels. The other logical place to check was thebathroom， where I found no running water. Could I be wrong？ Could I be hearingsomething outside？

我知道她會一直纏著我，直到她吃到零食，我花了幾分鐘的時間集中注意力，聽到了什么聲音，像是流水或是有人在用高壓水清洗墻。我無法想象我們的公寓工作人員會在半夜做維護，所以我認為我沒關水龍頭。我會后悔它將產生的高額水費，于是我不情愿地站起來，挪進廚房。我沒有發現什么異常，于是繼續尋找，而貝拉仍然緊追著我的腳后跟。另一個合乎邏輯要檢查的地點是浴室，在那里我沒有發現正在流的自來水。我可能弄錯了嗎？我聽到的會是外面的聲音嗎？

Since the sound was still evident15， I realized the gravity16 of the situation andthe need to solve the mystery. I returned to the kitchen， and stood like a statue17trying my best to identify18 the sound. Despite Bellas loud yowling objection19 tobeing ignored， I was still able to hear the strange noise， which seemed to be comingfrom inside the wall between my apartment and the unit next door. I could feel myhands shake because now I was certain that a pipe had burst， and water could beflooding the apartment next door.

由于聲音仍然很明顯，我意識到了事態的嚴重和解開謎團的必要。……