Seeing a Friend off
It never occurred to me that it would take me seven hours to see my friend off. My friend, who was my former neighbor, was going to Hawaii. On Thursday, she had the farewell dinner at a Thai restaurant. I was invited. After the dinner, I told her I was going to call on her before she left.
送人
方壶斋
我从未想到送一个朋友离开竟会用了我七个小时。 我的朋友是我过去的邻居， 要去夏威夷定居了。 星期四她在泰国饭馆举行了一个告别晚餐并且邀请了我。 吃完饭以后， 我说她离开之前我会去看她。
I called her on Friday afternoon and learned that she was not sure what time to drive her car out of Monterey and down to Palms Spring where her parents live, but she told me she would be in around 10 a.m.
星期五下午我给她打了个电话， 得知她还不知道什么时间开车离开梦特瑞去棕榈泉她父母家， 不过她告诉我可能是在十点钟左右。
On Sunday, I cooked my lunch, put it in my bike basket and went to her place. I had planned to say a quick goodbye and then go to the computer lab of the college to do some stuff. When I walked into her apartment however, I was shocked to find her stuff laying on the floor here and there. I asked her when she was supposed to empty the apartment for the landlady to inspect. She said it was 12:30. According to my experience, there was no way she could empty the apartment in two and half hours. What surprised me more was that she had not arranged for someone to help her with carrying her stuff down and load them into the car. Her stuff included six or seven boxes of books and paperwork, one backpack full of I did not know what, two fully packed travel bags, two half empty big trash bags filled with clean and dirty clothes respectively, one big pile of fabrics wrapped up with a sheet, two guitars, one big and one medium sized, and more than twenty acrylic paintings she did since she came to Monterey three years ago. The worst thing is that when I arrived, she had unsorted things here and there in the apartment.
星期天， 我做了午饭， 放在自行车筐子里到她那里去了。 我计划很快地跟她告别一下就去学校的电脑房干活。 可是我走进她的公寓的时候，吃惊地发现她的东西这一堆那一堆地堆满了一地。 我问她她应该几点钟腾出房间让房东检查。 她说 12 点半。 按照我的经验， 她不可能在两个半小时内腾空公寓。更让我吃惊的是她竟然没有安排什么人来帮她把东西搬下去装车。 她的东西有七八个纸箱子的书和文件， 一个不知道装了什么的背包， 两个满满的旅行包， 两个半满的大垃圾袋， 分别装的是干净的和穿脏了的衣服， 一大包纺织品， 包在一个床单里， 两把吉他， 一个大的， 一个中号的， 还有她来蒙特瑞以后画的二十多幅丙稀画。最坏的是我到的时候， 她的公寓的角角落落里还有未经筛选的东西。
I saw immediately that it left nobody but me to move her stuff downstairs and help her to load them. How could I say goodbye and walk away with the realization that a girl would have to move all that stuff down and up into her car? It would have been disturbing to me the rest of my life. Although I did not see her often despite that we lived one street apart after I moved out of that apartment complex, she was a friend and the only American friend who could asked me for help and whom I could ask for help, such as offering a lift. All the other Americans I know here are from church activities and parties and the acquaintance is of a nodding nature. I am poor at making friends out of my own ethnic stock, much less to say from folks of other colors. So I valued my friendship with her no matter how infrequently we had seen each other.
我马上看到除了我以外， 没有人能把她的东西搬下去并且帮她装车。 我怎么能够明知一个女孩子要自己把东西搬下楼装车而说一声再见就走人呢？那我会一辈子都不得安生。虽然自从我搬出那个隔了一条街的院子以后我们不常见面， 她是一个朋友， 唯一的一个可以请我帮忙， 我也可以请她帮忙， 比如说开车接送一下，的美国朋友。我所认识的其他的美国人都是在教会或者聚会的时候认识的， 都是点头之交。我连在同胞中交朋友都不太会， 更不用说其他肤色的人了。所以不管我们多么不常见面， 我还是很在乎跟她的朋友关系。
Besides, I saw this day as the completion of a cycle in my friendship with her: I helped her to move into that apartment when she arrived. It was either a Saturday or Sunday. I was about to leave my apartment on my bike to the college when I saw two cars in the yard and two girls unloading stuff. One of them was my new neighbor. I asked if she needed help. She said that would be nice. I was surprised at how much stuff she brought from Southern California. She even brought a piece of furniture that she said was antique, plus a couch that seemed to me rather worn out. She could have bought a better one from garage sales here for less than 30 bucks.
此外， 我也把这一天看作是我跟她的友谊中的一个循环的终结。 她到的时候， 我曾经帮助她把东西搬进公寓。那是一个星期六或者星期天， 我正要骑车出去， 看见院子里有两辆车， 两个女孩正在卸车。我问她要不要帮忙。 她说那太好了。 她从南加州带来的东西之多， 让我吃惊。她甚至带了一件她说是古董的家具， 加上一个看起来很破旧的长沙发。其实，她用30 块钱可以在这里的院售上买到一个更好的。
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2023 校对