The heat wave had lasted nine days when the power finally went out. It was a little after eight in the evening, and Karim was cooking pasta. The kitchen light died, the fan stopped, and the whole building went quiet.
热浪已经持续了九天，电终于断了。那是晚上八点刚过，卡里姆正在煮意面。厨房的灯灭了，风扇停了，整栋楼都安静下来。
He waited for it to come back. It didn't. Through the window, the city was completely dark. Only a few car headlights moved in the streets below.
他等着电来。电没有来。透过窗户，整座城市一片漆黑。只有几辆汽车的车灯在下面的街道上缓缓移动。
Karim had lived in the building for six years. He had never spoken to most of his neighbors. He nodded to them on the stairs, and that was all. Now he could hear doors opening and worried voices in the corridor.
卡里姆在这栋楼里住了六年。大多数邻居他从没说过话。在楼梯上点点头，仅此而已。现在，他能听见一扇扇门被打开，走廊里响起担忧的说话声。
"Is it just us?" someone asked.
“只有我们这儿停电吗？”有人问。
"It's everywhere," Karim heard himself say. He stepped out with his phone light. "The whole city is out. Does anyone know how long it will last?"
“到处都停了，”卡里姆听见自己说。他打着手机的灯走了出去。“整座城市都没电了。有人知道会停多久吗？”
Nobody did. The apartments were already as hot as ovens, and some of the older residents looked frightened. Karim thought of the basement, which stayed cool even in July. "We could sit downstairs," he said. "It's the only place that isn't hot."
没有人知道。各家的屋子已经热得像烤箱，有些年纪大的住户看起来很害怕。卡里姆想到了地下室，那里即使在七月也很凉爽。“我们可以去楼下坐，”他说，“那是唯一不热的地方。”
Within an hour, he was doing things he had never done in his life. A neighbor brought candles. A teenager carried chairs down the stairs. A woman from the second floor shared bottles of water from her freezer, which was already half melted.
不到一个小时，他就做起了自己一辈子从没做过的事。一位邻居拿来了蜡烛。一个十几岁的男孩把椅子搬下了楼。二楼的一位女士把冰箱冷冻室里的瓶装水分给大家，那些水已经化了一半。
Then Yosef, an old man from the fourth floor, quietly told Karim that his wife needed insulin. It had to stay cold. Karim found a sheet of paper and made a list. It showed who needed medicine, which fridge it was in, and who had a cooler box.
然后，四楼的老人约瑟夫悄悄告诉卡里姆，他的妻子需要胰岛素。药必须保持低温。卡里姆找来一张纸，列了一份清单。上面写着谁需要药，药放在哪台冰箱里，谁家有保冷箱。
Soon there was a cooler in the basement, full of ice from everyone's freezers. The medicine sat safely inside, and the list hung on the wall above it.
很快，地下室里就摆上了一个保冷箱，里面装满了从各家冷冻室里拿来的冰。药品安全地放在里面，清单就挂在它上方的墙上。
They sat in the dark for hours. People shared bread, fruit, and cold tea. Somebody told a story about a blackout from their childhood. A small boy fell asleep on his mother's coat. Karim learned more names that night than in six years.
他们在黑暗中坐了好几个小时。大家分着吃面包、水果，喝凉茶。有人讲起了小时候经历过的一次停电。一个小男孩在妈妈的外套上睡着了。那一晚，卡里姆记住的名字比六年里记住的还多。
At three in the morning, the lights flickered, and the basement filled with a yellow glow. Upstairs, the fans began to hum. For a moment, nobody moved. Then everyone laughed and clapped.
凌晨三点，灯闪了几下，地下室里亮起一片黄色的光。楼上，风扇开始嗡嗡作响。有那么一会儿，没有人动。接着大家都笑了，鼓起掌来。
Karim climbed the stairs with the others. At the top, he stopped, went back down, and took the list from the wall. He folded it carefully and put it in his pocket, just in case.
卡里姆和其他人一起爬上楼梯。到了楼梯顶，他停住了，又走回下面，从墙上取下那张清单。他把它小心地折好，放进口袋，以防万一。
