灿烂美丽的烟花，是为了庆祝用的。别人庆祝的，往往是令人开怀的喜事，而她庆祝的，却是一种深深的悲哀。

By Tom Gillespie 　

夏栀 选注

She started in the bathroom. She put the shaving brush, the disposable razor, the toothbrush and the dental floss in a large black bin bag.[1] Then she moved to the bedroom. She picked up the laundry basket and deposited its entire contents into the bag.[2] She opened a drawer and cleared out the underwear.[3] By now her movements were becoming more frantic[4]. She went to the wardrobe and filled another three bags with suits, shirts, ties, jeans, jogging pants, sweaters and shoes.[5] She pulled out the boxes from under the bed and removed the junk that had collected there. Downstairs, she rifled through the CD’s, and after that the books; the graphic novels, thrillers, travel companions, computer guides and poetry anthologies.[6] Then, without coming up for air, she moved on to the photo albums and the letters and the framed pictures and the small porcelain gifts.[7] All of it she bagged and binned, ready for tomorrow’s collection. Finally, she went out to the shed[8]. There she found the toolbox and assorted DIY equipment, and trashed the lot.[9] She searched the shelves and drawers for any other items to dispose of, and in the bottom of a cupboard, beneath the gardening gloves, she discovered them.

It was her 40th birthday, and he had bought her fireworks to celebrate. But she never set them off[10] because he had been called away to a conference in Sweden and she was left alone. So now, five months later, they had shown up. She looked at them for a minute, feeling some kind of sadness. Then she threw them in the dustbin along with those tools. Back in the house, she poured herself a brandy and sank down exhausted on the sofa.

It was starting to get dark. After she had polished off[11] another glass, she started thinking about the fireworks again. She went outside and retrieved[12] the box from the bin. She returned to the kitchen to examine the contents more carefully. There was all the usual stuff, a catherine wheel, a couple of fountains, a jack-in-the-box and two or three rockets.[13] As she lifted them out, a note fell to the floor. On it, he had written,

To my love rocket

You fill my sky with light

Love, R

She put the fireworks back in the box and went out into the garden.

She set up the catherine wheel on the back gatepost. She twisted his note into a long thin strip and put a match to it. It burned slowly, just like a real taper[14]. She lit the fuse and within seconds the catherine wheel started to spin.[15] Sparks flew off into the darkness. Soon, a child appeared at the fence.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Celebrating.”

Then she lit the jack-in-the-box and it bounced and fizzed[16] across the lawn. The little girl got scared and moved back. After a while, she was joined by more inquisitive visitors, as some of the neighbours gathered at the fence.

“Where did you get fireworks at this time of year?”

“What’s all this for?”

But she ignored them and continued to empty the box.

Eventually, she was down to the last rocket. She had saved the biggest till last and this was her grand finale[17]. She stuck the tail in the ground and lit the fuse paper with the remnants of his screwed up inscription.[18] She stood well back and waited. The fuse paper glowed, fizzled and then went out. The neighbours sighed. She tried again. Nothing. She went into the kitchen and found a box of household matches. She returned and put a match to the fuse. Nothing still. She tore off a strip of card from the fireworks box and used that as a taper. The cardboard produced a healthy flame and this time the fuse sparked back into life. The rocket screamed and shot straight up into the air. The neighbours gasped and applauded and the little girl ran into her house. Then, with one almighty bang, a spectacular display of light filled the sky.[19] Multicoloured balls of fire scattered in all directions and then exploded as they dropped back to earth. Then, with one last whimper[20], it was all over and darkness returned again.

The neighbours wandered back to their evening rituals. She bundled up the empty firework cases and laid them out with all the rest of his stuff. It was cold now and a frost was beginning to settle on the lawn. She buttoned up her coat and went back inside.

Vocabulary

1. 她把修面刷、一次性剃须刀、牙刷和牙线塞进一个黑色的大垃圾袋里。下文中出现的bag、bin以及trash（垃圾）有时作动词用。

2. laundry: 待洗的衣物；deposit: 放入。

3. drawer: 抽屉；underwear: 内衣。

4. frantic: 疯狂的，狂乱的。

5. suit: 套装；jogging pants: 慢跑用长运动裤；sweater: 运动衫。

6. rifle: 快速搜寻，匆忙翻找；graphic novel: 绘图小说；thriller: 恐怖小说；anthology:（诗、文等的）选集。

7. come up for air: 稍作休息；porcelain: 瓷制的。

8. shed: 货棚。

9. toolbox: 工具箱；assorted: 各式各样的；the lot: 整个，全部。

10. set off: 点燃。

11. polish off: 飞快地吃（或喝）完。

12. retrieve: 找回。

13. 一个凯萨琳车轮式烟花、几个花筒、一个玩偶匣式烟花和两三个火箭式烟花。

14. taper: 纸媒（点火用）。

15. fuse: 引信，信管；spin: 旋转。

16. fizz: 嘶嘶作响。

17. grand finale:（歌剧等）高潮性的结尾。

18. 她把烟花的底部戳在地上，用他那张被揉乱了笔迹的残余纸片点燃了导火纸。

19. almighty: 巨大的；spectacular: 壮观的。

20. whimper: 哀鸣，呜咽。

（来源：英语学习杂志）