By the time the second recount ended, Sebastian had handled every one of the 1,846 ballots at least four times, and the result had not moved. Nell and Quincy, rivals for the one open seat on the town council, had received exactly 923 votes each. Never in his twenty-two years as election clerk had a tie come to him in person. He had read about the procedure, naturally, in the way one reads the instructions on a fire extinguisher.
第二次重新计票结束时，塞巴斯蒂安已经把一千八百四十六张选票中的每一张至少经手了四遍，结果却纹丝不动。奈尔和昆西争夺镇议会唯一空出的席位，两人各得了整整九百二十三票。在他二十二年的选举书记员生涯里，平票从未亲自找上过门。当然，他读过处理程序，就像人们读灭火器上的说明那样。
The law was clear and a hundred and forty years old. Where a recount produced equal numbers, the winner was to be "determined by lot, in the presence of the public." It said nothing about what a lot was or where the public should sit. Nor did it say what to do if the public consisted, as it did that Thursday evening, of thirty-one people on folding chairs and one man who had come about a parking permit.
法律条文很明确，已有一百四十年历史。重新计票后票数相等的，胜者须“当着公众的面，抽签决定”。条文里没有说抽签用的是什么，也没有说公众该坐在哪里。更没有说，要是公众就像那个星期四晚上这样，只有三十一个坐在折叠椅上的人，外加一个为停车许可证而来的男人，该怎么办。
Sebastian had searched the town hall for a hat and found none. What he found instead was the large ceramic soup tureen from the retirement party, which was clean, opaque and, he decided, dignified enough. If the town had bought a proper ballot box in 1990, he would not now be standing at the front of the council chamber holding a tureen. There was no use thinking about that.
塞巴斯蒂安把镇政厅翻了个遍，想找一顶帽子，没找到。他找到的是退休聚会上用过的那只大陶瓷汤盆，它干净、不透明，他认为，也足够庄重。要是镇上在一九九〇年买过一只像样的投票箱，他现在就不会站在议会厅最前面，手里捧着一只汤盆了。去想这个没有用。
Nell and Quincy had spent five months disagreeing in public about whether the weekly market should move to the car park. Now they sat in the front row, a chair apart, not looking at each other with great concentration. Each had insisted on a third recount, and each had been refused. Had either asked a fourth time, Sebastian suspected, he would have gone home and let the town run itself.
奈尔和昆西已经公开争论了五个月，吵的是每周的集市该不该搬到停车场去。此刻他们坐在第一排，隔着一把椅子，极其专注地不看对方。两人都坚持要第三次重新计票，都被拒绝了。塞巴斯蒂安猜想，要是哪一位再提第四次，他就会回家去，让这个镇子自己运转。
What made the ceremony absurd was its solemnity. He wore his jacket and read the statute aloud in full. Then he asked the man with the parking permit to confirm that the two slips of paper were identical, which the man did with the gravity of someone signing a treaty. One slip was blank. On the other Sebastian had written, in his best clerk's hand, the word ELECTED. What made it oddly moving, though he could not have said why, was the silence that followed, in which thirty-odd adults stood listening to a soup tureen.
让这场仪式显得荒唐的，是它的庄重。他穿上外套，把法规从头到尾大声朗读了一遍。然后他请那位为停车许可证而来的男人确认两张纸条完全一样，那人以签署条约般的郑重照做了。一张纸条是空白的。另一张上，塞巴斯蒂安用他最好的书记员笔迹写了“当选”两个字。让这场仪式莫名动人的，他也说不清为什么，是随后的那片寂静，三十来个成年人站在那里，听着一只汤盆。
"Alphabetical order," said Quincy, without turning. "Nell first. I've never liked being the last to find out."
“按字母顺序吧。”昆西头也不回地说，“奈尔先来。我一向不喜欢最后一个知道。”
Nell rose, put her hand into the tureen as if into cold water, and drew out a slip. Quincy drew the other. Neither unfolded theirs. They stood facing each other across the tureen, and Sebastian, who had rehearsed this moment in his head, discovered that his voice had gone.
奈尔站起身，把手伸进汤盆，像伸进冷水里，抽出一张纸条。昆西抽走了另一张。两人都没有展开。他们隔着汤盆面对面站着，塞巴斯蒂安在脑子里排练过这一刻，却发现自己的声音不见了。
"On three, then," Nell said. "Together."
“那就数三下，”奈尔说，“一起。”
They opened the slips. Quincy's was blank. Nell looked at hers for a long time, and when she finally held it up to the room, nobody applauded; the chamber was too quiet, and the thing too strange. Quincy crossed the floor and shook her hand with real warmth, then held on to it a second longer than strictly necessary.
他们打开纸条。昆西的是空白。奈尔盯着自己的看了很久，当她终于把它举给全场看时，没有人鼓掌；议会厅太安静了，这件事也太奇怪了。昆西穿过地板，真心实意地和她握了握手，然后多握了一秒，比严格需要的时间还长。
"The market stays where it is until we've talked," Nell said. "That was always going to be my first act."
“在我们谈过之前，集市原地不动，”奈尔说，“这本来就是我的第一道命令。”
"It was always going to be mine," said Quincy. He turned to the clerk. "Best of three?"
“这本来也是我的。”昆西说。他转向书记员：“三局两胜？”
"The statute is silent on that," Sebastian said, lowering the tureen, "and I intend to keep it that way."
“法规对此没有规定，”塞巴斯蒂安放低了汤盆，说，“我打算让它一直这样。”
