Charles saw them both at the same time: a small white bird and the girl wheeling down the walk. The bird glided downward and rested in the grass; the girl directed the chair smoothly along the sunlit, shadowy walk. She stopped to watch the ducks on the pond and when she shoved the wheels again, Charles stood up. "May I push you?" he called, running across the grass to her. The white bird flew to the top of a tree.

查尔斯是在同一时刻看到他们俩的：一只白色的小鸟和坐着轮椅沿着小径悠然而来的女孩。小鸟滑翔而下，栖息在草地上；女孩则平稳地驾着轮椅，穿行在阳光下婆娑的树影之间。她停下来看了看池塘里的鸭子，当她再次用手推动轮椅时，查尔斯一下子站了起来。“我来推你好吗？”他一边喊道，一边穿过草地朝她奔去。那只小鸟嗖地飞上了树梢。

It was mostly he who talked and he seemed afraid to stop for fear she'd ask him to leave her by herself. Nothing in her face had supported the idea of helplessness conveyed by the wheelchair, and he knew that his assistance was not viewed as a favor. He asked the cause of her handicap.

大部分时间都是他在喋喋不休，他似乎害怕话一停，她就会请他离开，好让她独自呆着。从她的脸上看不出有任何缘于轮椅的无助表情，因而他知道，他的帮助并没有被看作是一种恩惠。他问起她致残的原因。

"It was an automobile accident when I was 12," Amy explained.

“我12岁那年出了一场车祸，”艾米解释说。

They went for lunch, and he would have felt awkward except that she knew completely how to take care of herself.

他们一起去吃午餐。幸好她能完全照料自己，不然他可就尴尬了。

"Do you live with someone?" he asked the next day when they met.

“你和什么人住在一起吗？”第二天见面时他问。

"Just myself," she answered. Asking the question made him feel uneasy because of his own loneliness even though he was hoping for this answer.

“就我自己，”她答道。尽管他希望得到这样一个答案，但是问这个问题仍然让他有些不安，因为他自己也过得很孤独。

He came to like to feel the white handles in his grasp, to walk between the two white-rimmed metal wheels. And he grew almost more familiar with the slight wave at the back of her hair than with her eyes or her mouth. Once, he said to the wave at the back of her hair, "I hope I'm the only chair-pusher in your life," but she had only smiled a little and her eyes had admitted nothing.

他开始喜欢把轮椅的白色手柄握在手里的感觉，喜欢在那两只镶有白边的金属轮子中间推车行走。他对她披在身后的、微微起伏的长发愈加熟悉，几乎超过了对她的眼睛和嘴唇的熟悉程度。有一次，他对着她波浪一般起伏的长发说：“真希望我是你生命中惟一为你推轮椅的人。”但她只是莞尔一笑，眼里没有任何表示。