美国小镇药剂师的平凡生活——唐医生

美国小镇药剂师的平凡生活——唐医生
译者：lava1983  本文转自译言网，感谢翻译：lava1983
原文链接：http://select.yeeyan.org/view/247612/235648
发布：2011-11-29 13:05:11

In the southwestern corner of Colorado, where the Uncompahgre Plateau descends through spruce forest and scrubland toward the Utah border, there is a region of more than four thousand square miles which has no hospitals, no department stores, and only one pharmacy. The pharmacist is Don Colcord, who lives in the town of Nucla. More than a century ago, Nucla was founded by idealists who hoped their community would become the “center of Socialistic government for the world.” But these days it feels like the edge of the earth. Highway 97 dead-ends at the top of Main Street; the population is around seven hundred and falling. The nearest traffic light is an hour and a half away. When old ranching couples drive their pickups into Nucla, the wives leave the passenger’s side empty and sit in the middle of the front seat, close enough to touch their husbands. It’s as if something about the landscape—those endless hills, that vacant sky—makes a person appreciate the intimacy of a Ford F-150 cab.

作者：Peter Hessler （何伟）

翻译：lava1983

在科罗拉多州西南角，安肯帕格里高原潜入云杉林与灌木林中，向犹他州的边界延伸，有一片超过四千平方英里的地区，没有医院，没有百货店，只有一间药房。药剂师叫唐.克尔克特，就住在纽克拉镇上。一个世纪以前，一群理想主义者建立了纽克拉，他们幻想自己的社区会成为“世界共产主义政府的中心”。但现今这里更像是世界的边缘。镇上的主路连着97号高速公路的尽头；人口只有大约七百还在下降。最近的交通灯在一个半小时车程以外。上了年纪的牧场主夫妇把皮卡开进纽克拉的时候，妻子总是空出乘客一边的座位，坐到前排座椅的中间，紧挨着丈夫。可能是风景——连绵的山丘，空旷的天空——的原因，让人在福特F-150的驾驶室里想更加亲密一点。

Don Colcord has owned Nucla’s Apothecary Shoppe for more than thirty years. In the past, such stores played a key role in American rural health care, and this region had three more pharmacies, but all of them have closed. Some people drive eighty miles just to visit the Apothecary Shoppe. It consists of a few rows of grocery shelves, a gift-card rack, a Pepsi fountain, and a diabetes section, which is decorated with the mounted heads of two mule deer and an antelope. Next to the game heads is the pharmacist’s counter. Customers don’t line up at a discreet distance, the way city folk do; in Nucla they crowd the counter and talk loudly about health problems.

唐.克尔克特在纽克拉经营一家叫“药剂师专柜”的药店已经三十多年了。过去，这样的药店在美国乡村医疗体系里不可或缺，这个地区以前还有另外三家药房，但现在都关张了。有些人为了来一趟“药剂师专柜”要开八十英里的车。店里有几排货架，一个贺卡架，一台百事自动售货机，一个为糖尿病患开设的专区，店墙上装饰着两个黑尾鹿头、一个羚羊头。猎物装饰旁边就是药剂师的柜台。这里的顾客不像城里人排队还要保持距离；在纽克拉他们围着柜台高声谈论健康问题。

“What have you heard about sticking your head in a beehive?” This on a Tuesday afternoon, from a heavyset man suffering from arthritis and an acute desire to find low-cost treatment.

“你看要是让蜜蜂蛰几下能行吗？”星期二下午，一个体格健壮的男人问道。他患有关节炎，急于寻找便宜的治疗方法。

“It’s been used, progressive bee-sting therapy,” Don says. “When you get stung, your body produces cortisol. It reduces swelling, but it goes away. And you don’t know when you’re going to have that one reaction and go into anaphylactic shock and maybe drop dead. It’s highly risky. You don’t know where that bee has been. You don’t know what proteins it’s been getting.”

“过去是有人用过这种渐进的蜂蜇疗法，”唐说，“被蛰了以后，你的身体会产生可的松。这可以缓解疼痛，但这法子已经过时了。因为无法预料你会产生什么反应，可能会出现过敏性休克甚至死掉。风险太大了。你不知道蜜蜂的来源，更不知道它们体内蛋白质的类型。”

“You’re a helpful guy. Thank you.”

“你真是救了我了，谢谢你。”

“I would recommend hyaluronic acid. It’s kind of expensive, about twenty-five dollars a month. But it works for some people. They make it out of rooster combs.”

“我建议你用玻尿酸。就是有点贵，大约二十五美元一个月。但确实管用。这是从公鸡鸡冠提取出来的。”

Somebody else asks about decongestants; a young woman inquires about the risk of birth defects while using a collagen stimulator. A preacher from the Abundant Life Church asks about drugs for a paralyzed vocal cord. (“When I do a sermon, it needs to last for thirty minutes.”) Others stop by just to chat. Don, in addition to being the only pharmacist, is probably the most talkative and friendly person within four thousand square miles. The first time I visited his counter, he asked about my family, and I mentioned my newborn twin daughters. He filled a jar with thick brown ointment that he had recently compounded. “It’s tincture of benzoin,” he said. “Rodeo cowboys use it while riding a bull or a bronc. They put it on their hands; it makes the hands tacky. It’s a respiratory stimulant, mostly used in wound care. You won’t find anything better for diaper rash.”

有一个年轻女人要买消肿药；她还询问在孕期使用胶原蛋白刺激药物会不会导致婴儿先天缺陷。一位基督教丰盛生命堂（the Abundant Life Church）的牧师想买治疗声带麻痹的药。（“我做布道的时候，一讲就是三十分钟。”）另外一些人只是过来聊聊天。这里唯一的药剂师唐可能是方圆四千英里内最健谈最友善的人。我第一次造访他的柜台时，他问到我的家里人，我说起我最近降生的双胞胎女儿。他给我装了一罐新配制的浓稠的棕色药膏。“这是安息香酊，”他说，“参加竞技表演的牛仔在骑牛或者骑野马的时候会用它。他们把它抹在手上；让手有点粘性。它还能调节呼吸系统，主要用来治疗外伤。用它治尿布疹再好不过了。”

Don Colcord was born in Nucla, and he has spent all of his sixty years in Colorado, where community-minded individuals often develop some qualities that may seem contradictory. Don sells cigarettes at his pharmacy, because he believes that people have the right to do unhealthy things. He votes Democratic, a rarity in this region. He listens to Bocelli and drives a Lexus. At Easter, the Colcord family tradition is to dye eggs, line them up in a pasture, and fire away with a 25-06 Remington. A loyal N.R.A. member, Don describes shooting as essentially peaceful. “Your arm moves up and down every time you breathe, so you control your breathing,” he says. “It’s very similar to meditation.” He was once the star marksman of the University of Colorado’s rifle team, and for many years he held a range record for standing shooting at the Air Force Academy.

唐·克尔克特出生在纽克拉，他这一辈子都生活在科罗拉多州，一住就是六十年。在这里，有社区意识的个人总会有一些看起来矛盾的行为。唐在他的药店里卖香烟，因为他坚信大家有权力做不利于健康的事。他投票给民主党，在这个地区可不多见。他听波切利的歌（译注：意大利古典音乐演唱家），开雷克萨斯牌的车子。到了复活节，克尔克特家的传统是在草地上把彩蛋一字排开，用25-06型的雷明顿猎枪把彩蛋挨个打爆。唐是全国枪支协会的忠实成员，他认为射击从本质讲上是平静的活动。“你的胳膊会随着你的呼吸上下晃动，所以你得屏气凝神，”他说，“和冥想的感觉很相像。”他曾是科罗拉多大学射击队的明星射手，在空军学院留下的立式射击纪录保持了很多年。

Calmness is one reason that he has such influence in the community. He’s short and slight, with owlish glasses, and he seems as comfortable talking to women as to men. “It’s like Don looks you in the eye and the rest of the world disappears,” one local tells me. Faith in Don’s judgment is all but absolute. People sometimes telephone him at two o’clock in the morning, describe their symptoms, and ask if they should call an ambulance for the two-hour trip to the nearest hospital. Occasionally, they show up at his house. A few years ago, a Mexican immigrant family had an eight-year-old son who was sick; twice they visited a clinic in another community, where they were told that the boy was dehydrated. But the child didn’t improve, and finally all eight family members showed up one evening in Don’s driveway. He did a quick evaluation—the boy’s belly was distended and felt hot to the touch. He told the parents to take him to the emergency room. They went to the nearest hospital, in Montrose, where the staff diagnosed severe brucellosis and immediately evacuated the boy on a plane to Denver. He spent two weeks in the I.C.U. before making a complete recovery. One of the Denver doctors told Don that the boy would have died if they had waited any longer to get him to a hospital.

冷静是他在社区里如此有影响力的原因之一。他长得又矮又瘦，带着一副大眼镜，和社区里的男男女女都能聊得来。“唐看着你时那种专注就好像世界的其他部分都消失了。”一个当地人告诉我。唐绝对是个实诚人。时常有人会在凌晨两点给他打电话，向他描述病情，并询问是否有必要叫救护车，好赶到离此最近的两小时车程外的医院去。偶尔也会有病人到家里去找他。几年前，一个墨西哥移民家的八岁男孩病了；他们到另一个社区的诊所去了两趟，被告知男孩只是脱水。但孩子始终不见好转，最后这一家子八口人跑到唐医生家。他快速地作了诊断——男孩肚子发胀还发着高烧。他让家长快送孩子去急诊室。他们赶到了最近的位于蒙特罗斯的医院，那里的医务人员诊断出病人患有严重的波状热并迅速用飞机把男孩送到了丹佛。他在重症监护室住了两个星期才完全康复。一位丹佛的医生跟唐说要是他们再耽搁一会儿，孩子就没命了。

At the Apothecary Shoppe, Don never wears a white coat. He takes people’s blood pressure, and he often gives injections; if it has to be done in the backside, he escorts the customer into the bathroom for privacy. Elderly folks refer to him as “Dr. Don,” although he has no medical degree and discourages people from using this title. He doesn’t wear a nametag. “I wear old Levi’s,” he says. “People want to talk to somebody who looks like them, talks like them, is part of the community. I know a lot of pharmacists wear a coat because it makes you look more professional. But it’s different here.” He would rather be known as a druggist. “A druggist is the guy who repairs your watch and your glasses,” he explains. “A pharmacist is the guy who works at Walmart.”

在“药剂师专柜”，唐从不穿白大褂。他给大家量血压，还时常给人打针；要是为了保护隐私需要在背人的地方打，他会陪着顾客到洗手间去。他没有医学学位所以不愿意别人叫他“唐医生”，但当地的老人还是喜欢这样称呼他。他不穿带牌子的衣服。“我就穿旧牛仔裤，”他说，“大家愿意跟穿着谈吐和自己一样的人交谈，那样的人才是社区的一分子。我知道有好些药剂师喜欢穿大褂，就为了显得专业。但在这儿可不一样。”他更愿意别人当他是个杂货店主。“杂货店主可以给人修表、修眼镜。”他解释说，“药剂师就像个沃尔玛超市的员工。”

He keeps watch-repair tools behind the counter, and he uses them almost as frequently as he complains about Walmart, insurance companies, and Medicare Part D. Since 2006, the program has provided prescription-drug coverage for the elderly and disabled, insuring that millions of people get their medication. But it’s also had the unintended effect of driving rural pharmacies out of business. Instead of establishing a national formulary with standard drug prices, the way many countries do, the U.S. government allows private insurance plans to negotiate with drug providers. Big chains and mail-order pharmacies receive much better rates than independent stores, because of volume. Within the first two years of the program, more than five hundred rural pharmacies went out of business. Don gives the example of a local customer who needs Humira for rheumatoid arthritis. The insurance company reimburses $1,721.83 for a month’s supply, but Don pays $1,765.23 for the drug. “I lose $43.40 every time I fill it, once a month,” he says. Don’s customer doesn’t like using mail-order pharmacies; he worries about missing a delivery, and he wants to be able to ask a pharmacist questions face to face. “I like the guy,” Don says. “So I keep doing it.” Don’s margins have grown so small that on three occasions he has had to put his savings into the Apothecary Shoppe in order to keep the doors open.

他在柜台后备了一套修眼镜工具，经常能派上用场，使用的次数和他对沃尔玛、保险公司、医疗保险处方药计划（Medicare Part D）发牢骚的次数差不多。从2006年开始，这项计划向老人和残疾人提供处方药，确保了数百万的人能得到药物治疗。但也意外地搅了乡村药房的生意。美国政府没有像很多国家一样建立一套全国通行的标准药价表，而是允许私人保险计划与供药商进行谈判。大型连锁以及邮购药店因为进货量大得到了比个体药店便宜得多的价格。实行计划的头两年里，超过五百家乡村药店关了张。唐举了一个本地顾客的例子，他患有风湿性关节炎需要注射阿达木单抗（Humira）。保险公司每月只赔付1721.83美元，可唐进药要花1765.23美元。“每月一次，我一装好药就损失43.4美元。”他说。唐的顾客不愿意从邮购药店买药；他担心药被寄丢了，而且他希望能当面向药剂师咨询问题。“我喜欢那家伙，”唐说，“所以我坚持这么干。”唐的利润实在太微薄了，为了继续经营下去他不得不三次用自己的积蓄贴补“药剂师专柜”。

He is, by the strictest definition, a bad businessman. If a customer can’t pay, Don often rings up the order anyway and tapes the receipt to the inside wall above his counter. “This one said he was covered by insurance, but it wasn’t,” he explains, pointing at a slip of paper on a wall full of them. “This one said he’ll be in on Tuesday. This one is a patient who is going on an extended vacation.” Most of his customers simply don’t have the money. Each year, Don writes off between ten and twenty thousand dollars, and he estimates that he is owed around three hundred thousand dollars in total. His annual salary is sixty-five thousand dollars. Over the course of many days at the Apothecary Shoppe, I never saw a customer walk in whom Don doesn’t know by name.

严格地说，他不是个好的生意人。如果顾客付不出钱，唐还是会提供药物，然后把收据贴到柜台后面的墙上。“这个说他入了保险，但是没那么回事，”他指着满是纸条的墙讲解道，“这个说他礼拜二会来。这是个要去度长假的病人。”绝大多数顾客纯粹是没钱。每年唐都要收下一两万美元的欠条，据他估算总数有三十万美元。他的年薪是六万五千美元。我在“药剂师专柜”待了这么些时日，来店里的客人没有一个是唐叫不上名字的。

“It’s just a cost of doing business in a small town,” he says. “I don’t know how you can look your neighbor in the eye and say, ‘I know you’re having a tough time, but I can’t help you and your kid can’t get well.’ ”

“这是在小城镇做生意的代价，”他说，“我可没办法看着邻居的眼睛对他说：‘我知道你日子不好过，但我帮不了你，你的孩子也康复不了了。’”

During the eighteen-nineties, a group called the Colorado Co-operative Colony hoped to build a utopian community in the region. Its Declaration of Principles explained that market-oriented competition makes it “almost impossible for an honest man or woman to make a comfortable living, and that a co-operative system, if properly carried out, will give the best opportunity to develop all that is good and noble in humanity.” (The history of the colony and its values is described in a 2001 dissertation by Pamela J. Clark at the University of Wyoming.)

开拓者来到这个偏远的地方原本是为了建立一种不同于资本主义的制度。在十九世纪九十年代，一个叫做科罗拉多合作移民队的组织希望在这个地区建立一个理想化的社区。该组织的原则声明认为市场化的竞争“不可能让诚实的人过上舒适的生活，而这个合作系统如果实施得当，会是发扬人性善良与高贵的绝好机会。”（关于移民队的历史及意义可参看2001年Pamela J. Clark于怀俄明州大学发表的论文。）

At the end of the nineteenth century, socialist communities weren’t uncommon in the West. The arid landscape required extensive irrigation systems, and principles of shared labor made sense to people who were inspired by the theories of Karl Marx and Robert Owen. Anaheim, California, was settled through a coöperative water venture, as was nearby Riverside. Others failed but left idealistic names on the map: Equality, Freeland, Altruria. The Colorado Co-operative Colony published a newspaper called theAltrurian, which tracked the progress of the colony’s founding project, an eighteen-mile irrigation ditch that was intended to carry water from the San Miguel River. Settlers also planned to do away with debt, interest, and rent. TheAltruriandreamed of a glorious future: “If a small colony of outlaws and refugees could build Rome and maintain the state for twelve hundred years, who could guess what a well organized colony of intelligent Americans may accomplish.”

在十九世纪末，社会主义社区在西部并不少见。干旱地区需要大量灌溉系统，受卡尔·马克思和罗伯特·欧文的理论鼓舞，接受共同劳动原则的民众能够提供劳动力。加利福尼亚州的阿纳海姆位于河岸附近，通过协作建立了供水企业。其他一些社区虽然没落了，却在地图上留下了一些富有理想主义特色的名字：Equality（平等）、 Freeland（自由之地）、 Altruria（利他主义）。科罗拉多合作移民队出版了一份叫《利他主义者》的报纸，报纸跟踪报道了移民队发起的工程的进展，修建一条十八英里长的灌溉渠，从圣米格尔河引水。拓荒者们还打算通过发债、出售产权和出租的方式进行扩展。《利他主义者》憧憬着光辉的未来：“既然一小撮歹徒与流亡者能够建立起罗马，并将那个国家维持了一千二百年，那么一群组织有序的聪明的美国人岂不是前途无量。”

Within a year, they held their first purge. Ten members were expelled for being too communistic, and after that the newspaper often published aphorisms that clarified theories. (“Communism may be co-operation, but co-operation is not necessarily communism.”) By the winter of 1898, settlers were running out of food. (“Competition is a product of Hell; Co-operation will make a paradise of earth.”) In 1901, a member of the board revealed that the colony was bankrupt. A former president committed suicide. (“So long as you think of yourself alone, you cannot be a good cooperator.”)

不到一年，他们就搞了第一次整肃。十名成员因为过于共产主义化而被驱逐，打那以后报纸时常刊登些警句来阐明他们的观点。（“共产主义是种合作的形式，但合作不必以共产主义的形式。”）到了1898年冬天，拓荒者的食物告罄。（“竞争是地狱的产物；合作能把人间化为天堂。”）1901年，董事会的一名成员透露移民组织已经破产了。一名前主席自杀。（“如果总想着自己，你就不能成为一名好社员。”）

Eventually, the settlers abandoned the principle of shared labor and contracted out to private work crews. In 1904, water flowed through the completed ditch; six years later, they decided on the name Nucla, after “nucleus.” The socialist dreams were never realized, but the irrigation canal continues to function today. And there’s still a Colorado Cooperative Company, which employs a full-time “ditch-rider” to monitor the system. His name is Dean Naslund, and both his father and his grandfather worked on the ditch. Like most Nucla residents, Naslund doesn’t talk about his ancestors in terms of sociopolitical theories. (“They called him Daddy Joe. He kinda cowboyed. He liked to hop around. Maybe play cards all week sometimes and then work a little.”)

最终，拓荒者放弃了共同劳动的原则，改由私人组织承包。1904年，水渠完工，引水成功；六年后，他们决定把这里命名为纽克拉，纽克拉（Nucla）源自“nucleus” （意为核心）这个词。社会主义梦想未能实现，但灌溉渠今日还在继续发挥作用。水渠由科罗拉多合作公司负责。公司雇佣了一个全职“水渠巡视员”来监管水渠系统。他叫迪安·尼斯伦，他的父亲和祖父都参与过水渠的建设。和纽克拉的其他居民一样，尼斯伦不去谈论先辈的政治观念。（“他们叫他乔老爹。他有股牛仔的作派。喜欢四处闲逛。有时候会先玩上一星期牌才去干一点活儿。”）

Nucla has a reputation as a tough town. It boomed in the nineteen-fifties and sixties, when the region’s uranium mining and processing thrived. But the nuclear industry collapsed after the Three Mile Island accident, in 1979, and the population continues to drop in Nucla and its sister town of Naturita, which is four miles away. In both these towns, the per-capita income is less than fourteen thousand dollars a year, a little higher than half the state figure, and only eight per cent of the adult population holds a college degree. This year, the school board decided to switch to a four-day school week, because of lack of funds. There’s only one restaurant in Nucla, one hamburger joint in Naturita, and one bar for both towns. It’s called the 141 Saloon, named for the state highway that passes through Naturita. On a Thursday night I’m the only customer, and the bartender, a woman named Casey, tells me that she just bought a three-bedroom house in Nucla for fifty-three thousand dollars. That’s a mortgage of two-fifty a month.

纽克拉是个公认的苦地方。它在二十世纪五六十年代曾经繁荣过，当时这个地区铀矿的开采与加工很兴旺。但在1979年三里岛发生事故以后，当地的核工业停产了，纽克拉和四英里外的姐妹镇纳丘利塔的人口持续下降。这两个镇的人均年收入不到一万四千美元，比州里的一半高一点，而且只有百分之八的成年人有大学文凭。今年，由于资金不足，学校的董事会决定每周只上四天课。纽克拉只有家餐馆，纳丘利塔只有个汉堡店，两个镇子一共就一间酒吧。酒吧叫141号沙龙，是用途径纳丘利塔的州道命名的。某个周四的晚上，酒吧里就我一个客人，女酒保凯西告诉我，她刚在纽克拉花五万三千美元买了一座三居的房子。每月还两百五的抵押贷款。

“Only problem is the siding is asbestos,” she says.

“唯一的毛病是外墙是石棉的。”她说。

“Is that a big problem?”

“这是个大问题吗？”

“It’s not a problem as long as you don’t touch it. Asbestos lasts forever.” She leans on the wooden bar. “What’ll it be?”

“只要你不碰它就没事。石棉倒是坚固耐用。”她倚着木质吧台，“喝点什么？”

“What do you have on tap?”

“你这儿有什么？”

She smiles and says, “Only thing we got on tap is Jägermeister.”

她笑着说：“只有野格酒。”

he knew that he wanted to be a druggist. He grew up in Uravan, a mining town near Nucla, and his mother was a clerk in the pharmacy, where Don liked to hang around and watch the druggist. As a teen-ager, he began breaking into the place. Along with some friends, he stole beer,Playboy, and condoms. (“The condoms went to waste.”) When the boys finally got caught, they were forced to pay for the goods by working at the store for twenty-five cents an hour. “Everybody knew why you were there,” Don says. “It was probably the best thing that happened to me.”

唐·克尔克特从八岁开始就想当个药剂师。他是在纽克拉附近的矿镇尤拉文长大的，他母亲在药店工作，他就喜欢泡在药店里看药剂师工作。青少年时期，他开始不安分了。他和几个朋友一起偷罐啤酒，揣走本《花花公子》再顺几个避孕套。（“避孕套都给浪费了。”）最后男孩们被逮到了，他们被强令用工作抵偿商店的损失，工钱每小时二十五美分。“每个人都知道你为什么在那里，”唐说，“这可能是对我最好的惩罚。”

During his teen-age years, Don shared a room with his brother Jim, and one day he found a magazine hidden under the bed. It featured photographs of naked men. When Jim came home, Don asked, “Is this yours?”

在青少年时期，唐和他的哥哥吉姆共用一个房间。有一天他在床底下捡到一本杂志，里面有些裸男的照片。吉姆回来以后，唐问：“这是你的？”

“Yes,” said Jim, who didn’t seem embarrassed. He took the magazine back, and neither of them mentioned it again.

“是。”吉姆说，并没有显得难为情。他拿回了杂志，他们谁都没再提过这件事。

Jim was three years older than Don. He was six feet three and well built, but he didn’t enjoy sports or hunting, like most local kids. He spent a lot of time by himself, and in high school he became an excellent student. He was a source of disappointment to his father, who nagged at Jim to behave like a normal boy. In 1972, a couple of years after Jim left for college, he sent his family a letter explaining that he was gay and that he knew his father would never accept it. He asked them not to look for him; he was leaving Colorado for good. And for the next twelve years nobody heard from Jim.

吉姆比唐大三岁。他身高六英尺三、体格健壮，但却不像其他本地小孩一样喜欢运动和打猎。他多数时间都一个人待着，在高中里是个优等生。父亲对他很失望，总抱怨他的举止不像个正常男孩。1972年，在吉姆离开家去上大学以后两年，他给家里写了封信解释说他是个同性恋，而他知道父亲永远不会接受这件事。他要家里人别去寻找他；他离开科罗拉多会好些。之后的十二年里他音信全无。

At the age of eighteen, Don married his high-school girlfriend, Kretha; eventually, they settled in Nucla and opened the Apothecary Shoppe. In 1983, Don’s father died, and one of the first things his widow did was hire a private investigator. The detective found Jim in Chicago, where he was a clerk in the county court. He said he’d had a feeling that something had happened back home.

在十八岁那年，唐和他在高中结识的女友科瑞莎结婚了；后来，他们在纽克拉定居并开了“药剂师专柜”。1983年，唐的父亲逝世了，母亲马上就雇了一个私人侦探。侦探在芝加哥找到了吉姆，他在当地法院工作。他说他当时也有种家里出事了的感觉。

The following year, Jim made a four-day visit to Nucla. He went for long drives with his mother, who told him that she had always known he was gay and that she was sorry she hadn’t been able to change his father’s attitude. In the evenings, Jim and Don sat up late talking. One night, Jim told Don that he had been infected with H.I.V., and that his doctor said he was likely to develop full-blownAIDS. Jim told Don where he wanted his ashes scattered. And he asked him to visit Chicago, where Jim lived with his longtime boyfriend.

第二年，吉姆来纽克拉住了四天。他和母亲开车出去转了一大圈。母亲对他说，自己一直就知道他是同性恋，并为没能改变父亲的态度感到抱歉。晚上，吉姆和唐聊到深夜。一晚，吉姆告诉唐他感染了艾滋病病毒，而且他的医生说他会发展成晚期艾滋病。吉姆还告诉唐他希望自己的骨灰要撒到什么地方。然后他邀请唐到芝加哥去，吉姆与他多年的男友一起住在那里。

That year, they talked frequently on the phone. But whenever the topic of a Chicago visit came up there was always a reason Don couldn’t go: he was too busy at the store; his son and his daughter had school activities. Kretha tried to persuade him to make the trip, but he never did.

那一年，他们常常通电话。但每次聊到去芝加哥的话题时，唐总是有事走不开：店里活儿太忙；儿女有学校活动。科瑞莎总劝他去，但一直没成行。

When Jim died, one of his colleagues telephoned with the news. She sent the ashes in a box, with a copy of Jim’s will, some awards from work, and a few photographs. One of the pictures was taken at Wrigley Field, where Jim stands with his boyfriend in front of a “Go Cubs” sign. When Don looked at the photograph, he realized that he knew virtually nothing about his brother. He had seen Jim for all of four days in the past decade; he didn’t even know his boyfriend’s name. And he understood the real reason that he hadn’t made a trip to Chicago. “I was angry with myself for not being comfortable in a house where two men were sleeping together,” he says. “I didn’t want to see two men kissing each other. It wouldn’t bother me now, but it did then. I really regret it.”

吉姆的死讯是他的同事打电话告知的。她寄来了一盒骨灰，还有一份吉姆的遗嘱、一些工作上的奖状和几张照片。其中一张是在瑞格利球场拍的，吉姆和他的男友一起站在“小熊队加油”的牌子前。唐在看到照片的那一刻才意识到自己几乎不了解哥哥。过去十几年里，他一共只和吉姆一起待了四天；连他男友的名字都不知道。他也明白自己没去芝加哥的真实原因。“我为自己感到懊恼，因为我在两个男人一起睡觉的屋子里会不自在，”他说，“我也不想看两个男的接吻。现在这种想法已经不再困扰我了，但当时可不行。我真的很后悔。”

Along with his mother and his younger sister, Don scattered Jim’s ashes at the juncture of the San Miguel and the Dolores Rivers. The Dolores flows from the south, where it crosses the great salt dome of Paradox Valley, and the water is saline and has no fish. If you swim there, you float as if you were in the ocean, a thousand miles away.

唐和母亲还有妹妹一起将吉姆的骨灰撒在了圣米格尔河与多洛雷斯河交汇处。多洛雷斯河从南面流过来，流经帕拉多克斯河谷的大盐丘，因此河水是咸的没有鱼类。如果你到河里游泳，会像在千里之外的海洋中一样浮起来。

There’s a small health clinic, and recently it contracted with a doctor in another part of Colorado to visit two days a week. But the mainstay is Ken Jenks, a physician’s assistant who is on call twenty-four hours a day. Jenks has lived in rural Colorado for a decade, and during that time he has learned that electrical tape is harder to remove from a wound than duct tape. Twice he has had patients suffer cervical fractures and drive themselves into the clinic rather than wait for an ambulance. It’s not unusual for somebody to sign out of the clinic A.M.A.—against medical advice. A couple of times, Jenks has told heart-attack victims that they needed to be evacuated by helicopter, only to have the patients decline because they believed they could get there cheaper. Jenks signed the forms, unhooked the I.V.s, and the patients got into their pickups to drive the two hours to a hospital. “And they made it,” Jenks says. “So they were right!”

纳丘利塔的最后一个医生死于十五年前。那里有一间小诊所，最近约聘了一位来自科罗拉多州其他地方的医生，他每周来坐诊两天。诊所的主心骨是肯·詹克斯，一位全天值守的助理医师。詹克斯在科罗拉多州的乡下一住就是十年，这段时间他明白了电工胶带比管道胶带更难从伤口上揭下来。他遇到过两个颈部骨折的患者不等救护车，自己开车来诊所。有人不遵医嘱就签字出院也不是新鲜事。好几次詹金斯告诉犯心脏病的患者要用直升机去接他们，都被患者拒绝了，因为他们相信自己有更便宜的办法去医院。詹金斯签署表格，准备好静脉注射，而患者乘上他们的皮卡花两个小时开到医院。“他们是对的，”詹金斯说，“因为他们真的办到了。”

Jenks grew up in Salt Lake City, but he has spent most of his working life in small towns. “Maybe I can describe it this way,” he says. “I like to play chess. I moved to a small town, and nobody played chess there, but one guy challenged me to checkers. I always thought it was kind of a simple game, but I accepted. And he beat me nine or ten games in a row. That’s sort of like living in a small town. It’s a simpler game, but it’s played to a higher level.” Jenks says that he is forced to have “a working relationship” with local methamphetamine users, treating their ailments in confidence. He explains that small towns might have a reputation for being closed-minded, but actually residents often learn to be nonjudgmental, because contact is so intense. “Someday I might be on the side of the road, and the person who pulls me out is going to be a meth user,” Jenks says. “The circle is much tighter.” He believes there is less gossip than one would assume, simply because so much is already known.

詹金斯在盐湖城长大，但他多数时间都在小城镇里工作。“这么说吧，”他讲，“我喜欢下国际象棋。我到小镇上以后找不到人下象棋，但有人想和我下西洋跳棋。我总觉得跳棋太简单，但还是接受了。结果他连赢了我九盘或是十盘。这就像小镇生活一样，更简单，但却需要更高水平。”詹金斯说他被迫与当地的冰毒吸毒者建立“工作关系”，要私下里给他们治病。他解释说小镇看似思想保守，但实际上居民们一般没什么成见，因为大家的关系太紧密了。“某些时候，我在路边搭便车，载我一程的就是吸毒的人。”詹金斯说，“生活圈子太小了。”他相信那里不会像一般人猜测的那样有那么多流言蜚语，因为许多事都是大家皆知的。

One morning, a young woman arrives at the Apothecary Shoppe after spending the weekend in jail. She had an argument with her husband, who called the police; Colorado law requires officers to make an arrest whenever they respond to a domestic dispute. The law is intended to protect women from being coerced into dropping charges, but in this case the husband claimed thathehad been attacked. In the drugstore, the woman is approached by half a dozen neighbors who have read about the arrest in the local newspaper.

某天早晨，一个年轻女人来到“药剂师专柜”，她拘留所里关了一个周末。之前，她和丈夫发生了争执，丈夫报了警；科罗拉多州的法律要求警官在遇到家庭纠纷时，要拘捕当事人。这项法律的本意是保护妇女不会因受胁迫而放弃起诉，但是这一次丈夫声称受到攻击的是他。在药店里，几个邻居围着这位女士，他们在当地报纸上看到她被拘捕的事。

“It’s not what it sounds like,” she tells one elderly woman. “He’s lying about the whole thing, and he’s going to get in trouble for that.”

“不是那么回事，”她对一个年长些的女人说，“他从头到尾都在撒谎，他会遭报应的。”

They stand at the pharmacy counter. “It’s terrible when I have the criminal element in the store,” Don jokes.

她们站在药剂师柜台旁。“我店里有个犯罪分子可不好哦。”唐打趣说。

The young woman reads the police blotter in the newspaper. “He said I attacked him with a frying pan. He said I hit him in the arm. If I’d attacked him with a frying pan, I’d a hit him in the head.”

年轻女人读了报纸上的警情通报。“他说我用煎锅打他。他说我打了他的胳膊。我要是真的用煎锅打他，我肯定要照他脑袋打。”

“Let me tell you what you should do,” the old woman says. She is in her seventies, with curly white hair and a sweet, grandmotherly smile. “Get you some wasp spray,” she says. “It’ll put their eyes out.”

“听我告诉你该怎么办。”老太太说。她已经七十多岁了，一头卷卷的白发，带着亲切慈祥的微笑。“你去搞罐杀虫喷雾剂，”她说，“喷瞎他们。”

“I can’t even have Mace, because it’s a weapon.”

“我连锤子都不能带，只要是武器就不行。”

With the wisdom of age, the elderly woman explains that wasp spray is not classified as a weapon and is thus available to people who are out on bail. “It’s better than pepper spray,” she says.

年纪大的人就是见多识广，老太太解释说杀虫喷雾剂不算是武器，保释期间的人也可以用。“比胡椒喷雾剂还好用。”她说。

A while later, I see the young woman cutting out the arrest listing. “This way, if I’m ever stupid enough to think about taking him back, I’ll look at this,” she tells me. “I’ll keep it in my scrapbook.” (Eventually, all charges were dropped, and they divorced.)

过了一阵子，我看到年轻女人把逮捕名单剪了下来。“要是我什么时候蠢到想让他回来，我就看看这个，”她告诉我，“我要把它保存在剪贴簿里。”（最后，所有的起诉都撤销了，他们也离婚了。）

At the store, Don never discusses anyone’s situation with a third party, but he frequently mentions his own problems. Twenty years ago, Kretha was diagnosed with a rare degenerative form of spina bifida, and now she rarely leaves home. Their oldest son flies F-16s for the Air Force, but their daughter has struggled with alcoholism. After she had difficulties caring for her son, Gavin, Don and Kretha took custody of the boy. Don often mentions such issues to a customer. “If I’m dealing with somebody who has an alcoholic in the family, it helps for them to know about my daughter,” he says. “You can’t pretend that your family is perfect. My daughter is not perfect, but she’s trying.” He continues, “Almost all druggists in a small town will tell you the same thing. You are part and parcel of the community. Nobody’s better, nobody’s worse.”

唐从不在店里背后议论别人，但他常常提到自己的事。二十年前，科瑞莎被诊断出患上了一种罕见的退行性脊柱裂，现在她几乎不出家门了。他们的大儿子是驾驶F-16的空军飞行员，但他们的女儿在努力摆脱酗酒。她没法照顾她的儿子加文，唐和科瑞莎接过了监护权。唐常和顾客提起这些事。“家里有酗酒者的人更能理解我女儿的状况。”他说。“你不可能假装自己的家庭是完美的。我的女儿就有缺点，但她正在努力克服。”他接着说，“几乎所有小镇上的药剂师都会跟你说同样的话。你是这社区的一部分。不会比别人好多少，也不会差多少。”

Wednesday is bowling league night. The local alley shut down to the public long ago, because there are so few people left, but the facility opens twice a week for community leagues. The alley was built in 1962 and all its equipment is original, with an exuberant use of steel that you don’t see anymore: long, shiny Brunswick ball racks, dining tables with heavy flared legs. Scorecards advertise businesses that have been dead for decades: Miracle Roofing and Insulation, Sir Speedy Instant Printing Center (“Instant Copies While You Wait!”). Don is the league’s president, and he certifies the lanes every year. He took a course in Montrose in order to be licensed to use a bowling-lane micrometer.

在纽克拉，星期三是保龄球联赛之夜。当地的球馆因为人太少早就停业了，但每周还是会为社区联赛开放两次。球馆建于1962年，所有的设备都还是原来的，你在别的地方可见不到有这么多钢结构的球馆：长长的发亮的布伦斯威客牌球架，带有闪亮桌腿的餐桌。在记分牌上做广告的企业几十年前就不存在了：奇迹牌屋顶及隔热层，速度先生速印中心（“立等可取！”）。唐是联赛的主席，他每年都会校正球道。他为了取得使用保龄球道测微计的证书在蒙特罗斯学了一门课程。

Don’s collection of certifications is impressively esoteric. He has taken CPR courses, and he’s qualified to use an electric defibrillator. He has a pyrotechnics-display license, so that Nucla can have fireworks on the Fourth of July. When he heard about a new type of hormone therapy, he flew to California to attend two days of classes, and now he compounds medicine for four transgendered patients who live in various parts of the West. Every three months, Don talks with them on the phone and prepares their drugs; he finds this interesting. On Friday nights, he announces Nucla High football games. They play eight-man ball, although if a bigger school comes to town they switch numbers with every possession, so that each side can practice its plays. When Nucla is on offense, it’s eight-on-eight, but it becomes eleven-on-eleven when the other team has the ball. Occasionally, somebody gets confused, and Don’s voice rings out over the loudspeakers: “There’s eleven white guys and eight blue guys, and that won’t work.” The football might not be first-rate, but the players’ names are a novelist’s dream. Nucla has Seth Knob, Chad Stoner, and Seldon Riddle. Dove Creek has a player named Tommy Fury. Blanding has Talon Jack and Sterling Black, Tecohda Tom and Herschel Todachinnie. Shilo Stanley, Terrance Tate, Dillon Daves: if alliteration ever needs an offensive line, recruiting should begin around the Colorado-Utah border.

唐拥有的各种证书令人眼花缭乱。他学过心肺复苏术课程，还有使用电击除颤器的资格。他有制造烟火并燃放的执照，所以在纽克拉每到独立日就有烟火表演。当听说有种新的荷尔蒙疗法时，他乘飞机到加利福尼亚州上了两天课，现在他为四名分布在西部不同地区做过变性的患者配制药物。每隔三个月，唐就会一边和他们打电话聊天一边给他们配药；他觉得这实在很有趣。在周五晚上，他负责播报纽克拉高中的美式足球比赛。他们按八人制的规则打球，如果来镇上比赛的学校人比较多，他们就会在每次控球权转换时调整人数，这样双方都能按自己习惯的规则打球。纽克拉进攻时就是八对八，对方得球以后就变成十一对十一。偶尔会有人把人数搞错了，扩音器里就会传出唐的声音：“场上有十一个穿白队服的，八个穿绿队服的，乱了套了。”比赛算不上一流，但运动员的名字可说是小说家的梦之队。纽克拉队有塞斯·疙瘩（Seth Knob）、乍得·碎石机（Chad Stoner）和塞尔登·谜团（Seldon Riddle）。鸽子溪队有个队员叫汤米·狂怒（Tommy Fury）。布兰丁队则拥有利爪·杰克（Talon Jack）和银币·布莱克（Sterling Black），疯子·汤姆（Tecohda Tom）和天王星·陶达奇尼（Herschel Todachinnie）。如果想组一个队员名字首音押韵的进攻线，那就该来科罗拉多州与犹他州交界的地方招人：希罗·斯坦利、特伦斯·泰特、狄龙·戴夫斯（Shilo Stanley, Terrance Tate, Dillon Daves）。

When outsiders come to town—loners, drifters—they often find their way to Don. A number of years ago, a man in his seventies named Tim Brick moved to Naturita and rented a mobile home. He placed special orders at the Apothecary Shoppe: echinacea, goldenseal, chamomile teas. He distrusted doctors, and often had Don check his blood pressure. It was high, and eventually Don persuaded him to get on regular medication. Soon, he was visiting every four or five days, mostly to talk.

外人——独身的人、流浪汉——来到镇上以后，通常会找上唐。几年以前，一个叫做蒂姆·布瑞克的七十多岁的老人搬到纳丘利塔，租了间拖车屋。他到“药剂师专柜”买了些特别的东西：紫锥菊、白毛茛、洋甘菊茶。他不信任医生，常叫唐帮他量血压。他的血压挺高，唐最终说服他定期接受治疗。不久，他每隔四五天就要来一趟，主要为了聊聊天。

Don referred to him as Mr. Brick. He had no other local friends, and he was cagey about his past, although certain details emerged over time. His birth name had been Penrose Brick—he was a descendant of the Penrose family, which came from Philadelphia and had made a fortune from mining claims around Cripple Creek. But for some reason Mr. Brick had been estranged from all his relatives for decades. He had changed his first name, and he had spent most of his working life as an auto mechanic.

唐叫他布瑞克先生。他在本地没有朋友，也不愿意谈论自己的过去，但时间久了也难免透露出一些。他本名叫彭罗斯·布瑞克——是彭罗斯家族的后裔，这个家族来自费城，靠跛溪镇周围的探矿权发了财。但为了某些原因，布瑞克先生和亲人疏远了几十年。他改了名，一直干修车工维生。

One day, his mobile home was broken into, and thieves made off with some stock certificates. Mr. Brick had never used a broker—to him, they were just as untrustworthy as doctors—so he went to the Apothecary Shoppe for help. Before long, Don was making dozens of trips across Disappointment Valley, driving two hours each way, in order to get documents certified at the bank in Cortez, Colorado. Eventually, he sorted out Mr. Brick’s finances, but then the older man’s health began to decline. Don managed his care, helping him move out of various residences; on a couple of occasions, Mr. Brick lived at Don’s house for an extended stretch. At the age of ninety-one, Mr. Brick became seriously ill and went to see a doctor in Montrose. The doctor said that prostate cancer had spread to his stomach; with surgery, he might live another six months. Mr. Brick said he had never had surgery and he wasn’t going to start now.

一天有贼闯入了他的拖车屋，偷走了一些股票凭证。布瑞克先生从没有过股票经纪人——对他来说，他们和医生一样不值得信任——所以他到“药剂师专柜”去求助。很快，唐为了拿到证明文件，往科罗拉多州科特兹的银行跑了十几趟，每次都要穿过失望山谷，单程就要开两个小时车。终于，他把布瑞克先生的财产都打理好了，可老人的健康开始走下坡路了。唐照顾他的健康，帮他搬出了混杂的住处；好几次，布瑞克先生都一再延长住在唐家的时间。布瑞克先生在九十一岁那年生了重病，到蒙特罗斯去看医生。医生说前列腺癌已经扩散到他胃部了；进行手术治疗的话，他还能多活六个月。布瑞克先生说他从没做过手术，现在也不打算开这个头儿。

Don spent the next night at the old man’s bedside. At one point in the evening, Mr. Brick was lucid enough to have a conversation. “I think you’re dying,” Don said.

接下来的一夜，唐都守在老人床前。夜里一点钟，布瑞克先生清醒过来，能够与人交流了。“我恐怕你快死了。”唐说。

“I’m not dying,” Mr. Brick said. “I’m just going to pray now.”

“我不是要死，”布瑞克先生说，“我现在只是要祈祷一下。”

“Well, you better pray pretty hard,” Don said. “But I think you’re dying.” He asked if Mr. Brick needed to see a lawyer. The old man declined; he said his affairs were in order.

“好吧，你最好祈祷的虔诚一些，”唐说，“但我还是觉得你快死了。”他问布瑞克先生需不需要律师。老人拒绝了；他说自己一切都好。

Don found a hospice nurse, and within two days Mr. Brick died. Don arranged a funeral Mass, and then he went through boxes of Mr. Brick’s effects. There was a collection of old highway maps, an antique cradle telephone, and a Catholic prayer stand. There were many photographs of naked men. Don found checkbooks under four different aliases. There were letters in Mr. Brick’s handwriting asking friends if they could introduce him to other men who were “of the same type as me.” But he must have lost courage, because those letters were never mailed. Don also found unopened letters that Mr. Brick’s mother had sent more than half a century ago. One contained a ten-dollar bill and a message begging her son to make contact. The bill, from the nineteen-forties, still looked brand-new, and seeing that crisp note made Don feel sad. Years ago, he had sensed that Mr. Brick was gay, and that this was the reason he was estranged from his family, but it wasn’t a conversation they ever had.

唐找了位临终护理人员，布瑞克先生不到两天就走了。唐安排了葬礼仪式，然后清点了布瑞克先生的遗物。一堆旧的高速公路地图，一部老式拨盘电话，一座天主教祈祷台。还有很多裸男照片。唐找到本用了四个不同化名的支票簿。一些带有布瑞克先生笔迹的信件询问朋友能否把他介绍给一些“和他一样”的男人。但他却没有勇气把信寄出去。唐还发现几封布瑞克先生母亲超过半个世纪前寄来的未开封的信。其中一封装了一张十美元的钞票还有乞求她儿子与家里联系的信。那张一九四几年的钞票看起来依然崭新，而那封已经发脆的信让唐感到难过。几年前，他就意识到布瑞克先生是个同性恋，而这也是他与家人疏远的原因，但他们从未谈过这事。

In his will, Mr. Brick left more than half a million dollars in cash and stock to the local druggist. After taxes and other expenses, it came to more than three hundred thousand dollars, which was almost exactly what the community owed Don Colcord. But Don didn’t seem to connect these events. He talked about all three subjects—neglecting his dying brother, offering credit to the townspeople, and helping Mr. Brick and receiving his gift—in different conversations that spanned more than a year. He probably never would have mentioned the money that was owed to him, but somebody in Nucla told me and I asked about it. From my perspective, it was tempting to apply a moral calculus, until everything added up to a neat story about redemption and reward in a former utopian community. But Don’s experiences seemed to have taught him that there is something solitary and unknowable about every human life. He saw connections of a different sort: these people and incidents were more like the spokes of a wheel. They didn’t touch directly, but each was linked to something bigger, and Don’s role was to try to keep the whole thing moving the best he could.

在布瑞克先生的遗嘱里，他给本地药剂师留下了超过五十万美元的现金和股票。缴清各种税费以后，还剩下大约三十万美元，和社区欠唐·克尔克特的钱数目相当。但唐似乎没有把这些事联系到一起。他是在一年多的时间里在不同场合提到这三件事的——忽视了自己将死的哥哥，允许镇上的人赊账，帮助布瑞克先生并收到他的遗赠。赊账的事我是在纽克拉听别人说的，要不是我去问他这事，他可能永远都不会提起它。以我的观点看，这就像是一道关于道德的计算题，把这些事加到一起就得出了一个善有善报的完整故事，这一切都发生在一个曾经的乌托邦社区。但唐根据他自己的经验认为每个人的生活中都存在独立而难以预料的事。他以不同的方式看待这些联系：这些人和事好比轮子上的辐条。他们不是直接联在一起的，而是每一个都联到更大的事物上，唐扮演的角色要尽最大努力维持这一切的运转。

s birthday is the Fourth of July. That’s also when Nucla celebrates its annual Water Days, which commemorates the completion of the town’s irrigation system. Today, the theme is “Where the Past Meets the Future,” and Don announces the floats for the parade down Main Street. After that, he helps out at the barbecue in the park, and then he prepares to set off the town’s fireworks. All these events are sponsored by the Lions Club. When Don joined the club, in 1978, he was the youngest member, and he still is. Soon, the Lions Club will be disbanded because of lack of members.

唐·克尔克特的生日是七月四日。纽克拉每年要在这一天庆祝“水日”，以纪念镇上灌溉系统的建成。今天的主题是“过去与未来交汇之处”，会有一场沿主道行进的花车游行，由唐担任解说。接下来，唐会去公园里的烧烤餐会上帮忙，然后他要为镇上的烟火表演做准备。所有这些活动都由狮子俱乐部主办。唐在1978年加入了俱乐部，当时他是最年轻的成员，现在依然如此。过不了多久，狮子俱乐部就要因为缺少会员而解散了。

In the evening, we drive to the top of Nucla Hill. The view is spectacular in all directions: westward, the slate-blue La Sal Mountains, and the Uncompahgre Plateau to the east, where the feathered tops of cottonwoods mark the long line of the irrigation ditch. Three remaining members of the Lions Club are here, along with some volunteer firemen. Trucks and cars arrive from town and park at the bottom of the hill to watch the show. When darkness falls, the Lions prepare the fireworks in metal tubes, and Don ignites them one by one. After it’s over, we watch the pairs of headlights glide in a neat line back up Main Street, dispersing as drivers turn off toward home. Our attention drifts upward—now that the fireworks and the headlights are gone, the stars seem brilliant, clustered together like the lights of some faraway city. Don passes around a few bottles of beer. “I don’t care if it is a small town, we got good fireworks,” he says. He sips his beer and gazes up at the Milky Way. “When you see them from here, they look so close together,” he says. “It’s hard to believe they’re millions of miles apart.”

晚上，我们开车到纽克拉山山顶。周围的景色很是壮观：西面有石蓝色的拉萨尔山脉，还有向东延伸安肯帕格里高原，在那里灌溉渠两岸杨树羽毛状的树冠排成长长一线。狮子俱乐部仅剩的三个成员都在这里，还有几名志愿消防员。人们开着卡车和轿车从镇上和公园来到山脚下等着看烟花。当夜幕垂下，俱乐部成员们将烟花装入金属管，唐将它们挨个点燃。表演结束后，我们看到一对对车灯沿主路一路排回镇上，然后散开来各回各家。我们的注意力转向天上，现在烟火和车灯都散去了，星星看起来特别明亮，聚在一起仿佛远方城市的灯光。唐拿出几瓶啤酒传给大家。“尽管镇子很小，可我们的烟花很漂亮。”他说。他抿了一口啤酒望着天上的银河。“从这边望过去，它们看起来真的很近，”他说，“难以置信它们居然在数百万英里以外。”

很吸引人的文章

分享

分享  ，国外药师的生活札记  

药师是整个社会的一个螺丝钉。