The Turkey That Got Away逃走的火雞

Kayann Short

The day before Thanksgiving， I finished setting the table in our farmscommunity room for the next days feast1. On the way back to the house， I stoppedin the barn2 to check on the thirty-pound turkey in the barn fridge， the only coldplace large enough to hold it. In fact， we didnt need a thirty-pound turkey， butsomehow my order had ended up in the “extra-large”category3. I wasnt evensure it would fit in our oven， not to mention having to get up earlier to give thoseextra pounds time to roast4.

感恩節(jié)前一天，我在我們農(nóng)場的公共活動室里為第二天的盛宴擺好了桌子。在回屋的路上，我在谷倉逗留了一會兒，查看谷倉冰箱里那只30 磅重的火雞，谷倉冰箱是唯一一個大到足以裝下它的地方。事實上，我們不需要一只30磅重的火雞，但不知怎的，我的訂單最后變成了“超大”。我甚至不確定它是否能放進(jìn)我們的烤箱里，更別提還得早點起床，騰出時間烤制多余重量的肉了。

As I opened the barn fridge door， I expected the top shelf to be full of turkey，but I found an empty space instead. I stared at the shelf long enough to confirm5 itreally was gone. I checked the second and third shelves， which were much toosmall for the turkey， but they were empty， too. I even looked in all the fridgedrawers6 and door shelves where a thirty-pound turkey obviously7 could not hide.

當(dāng)我打開谷倉冰箱的門時，我以為最上面的架子上會被火雞塞滿，但我卻發(fā)現(xiàn)取而代之的是一個空位。我盯著架子看了好久，才確認(rèn)它真的不見了。我檢查了第二和第三層架子，對火雞來說它們太小了，但它們也空空如也。我甚至翻遍了所有顯然藏不住一只30 磅重火雞的冰箱抽屜和門擱架。

Next， I looked all over the barn， thinking John had left the turkey outaccidentally， but there wasnt a turkey in sight. I even looked in the fridgeagain to be sure I wasnt overlooking it. Nothing， not even a drumstick8，did I find. By then， I was pretty sure I wasnt going to find the thing inthe barn. I might have laughed at my antics9 if fifteen people werentcoming for Thanksgiving the very next day.

然后，我找遍了整個谷倉，以為約翰不小心把火雞放在外面了，但我并沒有看到火雞。我甚至在冰箱里又找了一遍，以確保我沒有看漏。我什么也沒找到，甚至連個雞腿也沒有找到。那時，我很確定我不可能在谷倉里找到那東西。如果不是第二天有15 個人來過感恩節(jié)，我可能會嘲笑自己的滑稽舉動。

What to do but go ask John if he had brought the turkey into the housewithout my having seen it. Of course， he hadnt. So， where could that turkey be？

除了去問約翰他是不是在我沒看見的情況下把火雞拿進(jìn)屋了，還能怎么辦？

當(dāng)然，他沒有那樣做。那只火雞會在哪里呢？

Then I remembered it was Wednesday， the day the food-pantry10 people comefor the vegetables we donate to community families each week. Every Tuesday， I sendan e-mail to the friend who picks up our vegetables to tell her what we have. I lookedback at that weeks e-mail and saw that I had mentioned the turkey on the top shelfbecause I needed to let her know the vegetables would be on the second shelf thatweek. Re-reading the note， I realized that she must have sent someone else for thepick-up. Even though the turkey part of the message was vague11， I knew she wouldnever have understood it as “take the turkey”. On the other hand， someone lessfamiliar with our arrangement12 certainly could think of a turkey donation accompanied13the vegetables so close to Thanksgiving.

然后我想起星期三那天，“食品銀行”的人來拿我們每周捐贈給社區(qū)家庭的蔬菜。每周二，我都會給來取蔬菜的朋友發(fā)一封電子郵件，告訴她我們有什么菜。我回頭看了看那周的電子郵件，發(fā)現(xiàn)我提到過最上面架子上的火雞，因為我需要讓她知道那周的蔬菜會放在第二層架子上。……