美文：忘记邀请的朋友 却成为真正的童年挚友
52fw.cn 05-27 次遇见39 The Forgotten Friend
(By Judith Burnett Schneider)
(朱迪斯·伯内特施耐德)
It was my tenth birthday - double digits - and I would have the biggest party ever. The guest list, which I kept at the back of my homework assignment folder, began with a few close friends. But in the two weeks before that special Friday night, it had quickly grown from seven girls to seventeen. Nearly every girl in my fifth-grade class had been invited to sleep over at my house for a big celebration. I was especially happy when each guest I invited excitedly accepted the invitation. It would be a night of scary stories, pizza and lots of presents. But as I later realized, I would truly treasure only one gift I received that night.
事情发生在我第一个两位数的生日——10岁生日那天，我举办了一个前所未有的大型生日聚会。在我夹在家庭作业夹后面的客人名单中，最初只有几个亲密朋友的名字。但是在那个特别的星期五晚上到来的头两个星期里，名单已经由7个女孩迅速增加到17个了，几乎我们五年级班里的每一个女孩都被邀请到我家里来过夜，参加盛大的庆祝会。当看到我所邀请的每一位客人都兴奋地接受了邀请时，我甭提有多高兴了。这个晚上一定会有恐怖故事、比萨和很多礼物。但是后来我才意识到，在那天晚上所收到的礼物中，我真正珍爱的只有一 份。
The family room was a flurry of shouts and bursts of laughter. We had just finished a game of Twister and were lining up for the limbo when the doorbell rang. I hardly paid attention to who might be at the door. What did it matter, really? Everyone I liked from school was there, in my family room, preparing to lean under the stick held by my two sisters.
家中的房间里充满了接连不断的叫嚷声和阵阵的欢笑声。我们刚刚做完“妞妞乐”游戏，正在排队准备跳林波舞的时候，门铃响了。我几乎没有注意谁会在门口。说真的，这有什么关系呢？我在学校里所喜欢的每一个人都在这儿，在我家里，正准备后仰着从我两个姐姐举着的木棍下面过去呢。
Judy, come here for a minute, Mom called from the front door.
“朱蒂，过来一下。”妈妈在前门口喊我。
I rolled my eyes and shrugged to my friends as if to say, "Now who would dare bother me at a time like this?" What I really wanted to say was, "It's tough being popular!"
我翻了一个白眼，跟朋友们耸了耸肩，就像是在说：“谁敢在这个时候来打扰我？”其实我真正想说的是：“做一个受欢迎的人真麻烦啊！”
I rounded the bend toward the front door, and then stopped. I knew my mouth dropped open and I could feel my face turning red, for there on the front porch stood Sarah Westly - the quiet girl who sat next to me in music class - and she was holding a gift.
我恼火地跑到前门，停下脚步。我知道我张大了嘴巴，我甚至能够感觉到自己的脸在变红，因为在前廊上正站着萨拉·韦斯特利——那个在音乐课上坐在我邻座的文静女孩——她的手里拿着一份礼物。
I thought about the growing list in the back of my assignment folder.How had I forgotten to invite Sarah?
我回忆着夹在我的作业夹后面的那份客人名单。我怎么能够忘记邀请萨拉呢？
I remembered that I only added a name to the list when someone had shown an interest in me. But Sarah had never done that. Never once had she asked me about my birthday party. Never once did she squeeze into the kids surrounding me at lunch time. And once she even helped me carry my backpack while I lugged my science project to our third-floor classroom.
我记起我只是把那些对我表现出兴趣的人的名字加到了名单的后面。但是萨拉却不那样。她从来没有问过我有关我生日聚会的事情。她从来没有在午餐时间里加入到围在我身边的同学们中间。可是有一次在我拖着我的科学设计去三楼教室的时候，她却帮我拿过书包。
I guess I had forgotten to invite her simply because she wasn't pushing to be invited. I accepted the gift from Sarah and asked her to join the party.
我想我忘记邀请她只是因为她没有表现出想要被邀请的意思。我接受了萨拉的礼物，请她加入聚会。
I can't stay, she said, looking down. "My dad's waiting in the car."
“我不能留下来，”她低下头说，“我爸爸在车里等着我呢。”
Can you come in for a little while? I nearly begged. By now I felt pretty bad about forgetting to invite her and really did want her to stay.
“你能进来待一小会儿吗？”我近乎恳求地说。直到那时，我才觉得忘记邀请她是一件多么糟糕的事情，我真的希望她能够留下来。
Thanks, but I have to go, she said, turning toward the door. "See you Monday."
“谢谢你，但是我必须得走了，”她说完就转身走向门口，“星期一见。”
I stood in the foyer with Sarah's gift in my hands and an empty feeling in my heart.
我手里拿着萨拉的礼物站在客厅里，心里空落落的。
I didn't open the gift until hours after the games, the food, the ghost stories, the pillow fights, the pranks on those first to fall asleep and the snores.
在游戏、美食、鬼故事、枕头大战，还有捉弄完那些先睡着的人和打鼾的人几个小时以后，我才拆开萨拉的礼物。
Inside the small box was a ceramic tabby cat about three inches tall. In my mind, it was the best gift I had received, even though I never really liked cats. I later found out that the figurine looked exactly like Sarah's cat, Seymour.
小盒子里是一只三英寸左右高的陶瓷虎斑猫。我想这是我收到过的最可爱的礼物，即使我从来没有真正喜欢过猫。后来我发现这个小瓷雕酷似萨拉的小猫西摩。
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I didn't know it then, but now I realize that Sarah was my one true childhood friend. While the other girls drifted away , Sarah was always there for me, ever loyal and supportive. She was an unconditional friend who stood by me, always encouraging and understanding me.
虽然当时我还没有意识到，但是现在我知道萨拉是一位真正的童年挚友。当其他女孩们逐渐离开，萨拉仍然一如既往地留在那里，一直忠诚地帮助我，始终无条件地站在我的身边鼓励我、理解我。
Although I always feel bad about forgetting her, I also realize that I might not have discovered Sarah as a friend had I remembered to invite her to that unforgettable tenth birthday party.