Niamh borrowed Leandro's car for the weekend to move a few boxes across town. She promised to return it by Sunday evening exactly as she found it. She was careful backing out of tight parking spaces and avoided the narrow alley behind her building entirely, at least on purpose.
尼夫借了利安德罗的车用一个周末，把几个箱子搬到城的另一头。她答应星期天傍晚前，原样把车还回去。她倒车出狭窄的车位时格外小心，也完全避开了她住的那栋楼后面的窄巷，至少是有意避开。
It was on Saturday, while parking outside a hardware store, that she misjudged the distance to a low concrete post. She heard a faint scrape rather than a crash, and when she stepped out to check, a thin silver line ran along the rear bumper. It wasn't deep, but it was undeniably there.
星期六，她在一家五金店门外停车时，错估了与一根低矮水泥桩之间的距离。她听到的是一声轻微的刮擦声，而不是撞击声，等她下车查看，只见后保险杠上有一道细细的银色划痕。划得不深，但确确实实在那里。
Her first instinct was to hope Leandro simply wouldn't notice, since the scratch was small and the car was already a few years old. She told herself he might have scratches there already that she hadn't paid attention to. That thought didn't sit well with her for more than a few minutes.
她的第一反应是希望利安德罗根本不会注意到，因为划痕很小，而且这辆车也已经开了好几年了。她对自己说，那个位置说不定本来就有她没留意的划痕。这个念头在她心里只待了几分钟，就让她觉得不对劲。
By Sunday morning, Niamh had decided that hiding it wasn't something she could do and still feel right about returning the car. If their positions were reversed, she would have wanted Leandro to tell her the truth immediately, not to let her discover it herself weeks later.
到了星期天早上，尼夫已经决定，把这件事瞒下来，她就没法心安理得地还车。要是两人的位置对换，她会希望利安德罗立刻告诉她实情，而不是让她几个星期后自己发现。
She returned the car early and parked it exactly where she had found it. Instead of just dropping the keys through his mail slot as planned, she waited for Leandro on his front steps. When he came out, she pointed straight to the bumper.
她提前把车还了回去，原样停在她取车的地方。她没有像原计划那样把钥匙直接丢进他家的信箱，而是在他家的前台阶上等着利安德罗。他一出来，她就径直指了指保险杠。
"I scratched it yesterday," she said. "I misjudged a parking post. I'm really sorry, and I want to pay to have it fixed properly."
“昨天我把它刮了，”她说，“我错估了一根停车桩的距离。我真的很抱歉，我想出钱把它好好修好。”
Leandro crouched down to look, running a thumb lightly over the mark. "Huh. That's smaller than I expected you to sound," he said, almost smiling. "Thanks for telling me instead of just handing back the keys."
利安德罗蹲下身去看，用拇指轻轻抚过那道痕迹。“嗯。比我预想的你说话的口气要轻多了，”他说，几乎笑了出来，“谢谢你告诉我，而不是直接把钥匙还给我。”
"I almost didn't," Niamh admitted. "But you'd have found out eventually, and I would have felt worse the longer I waited."
“我差点就没说，”尼夫坦白道，“可你迟早会发现的，而且我拖得越久，心里就会越难受。”
They agreed she would cover the cost of a small touch-up at the shop Leandro usually used. He waved off her offer to also cover gas for the weekend. "Honesty's worth more to me than a perfect bumper," he said, tossing the keys once in the air before catching them again.
他们商定，由她出钱，在利安德罗常去的那家店做一次小的补漆。她提出还要补偿这个周末的油费，他挥手谢绝了。“对我来说，诚实比一个完美的保险杠更有价值，”他说着，把钥匙往空中抛了一下，又接住了。
