The Roots Under the Driveway

Agathe stands on her driveway with a cup of tea, looking at a crack she has privately named the River. It runs from the garage door to the street and gets wider every spring.

阿加特端着一杯茶站在自家车道上，望着一道裂缝。她私下给它取了个名字，叫“大河”。它从车库门一直延伸到街边，每到春天就变宽一些。

The cause is no mystery. Her neighbor's oak, which is older than the street itself, has been pushing a thick root under the concrete for years.

原因并不神秘。邻居家的橡树比这条街还要老，多年来一直把一条粗壮的树根顶进水泥板底下。

"If it were my driveway, I would have sent a lawyer's letter months ago," her brother says on the phone. He has even drafted one for her. It begins with the words "Pursuant to," and it makes her stomach hurt.

“要是我家的车道，我几个月前就寄律师函了。”她哥哥在电话里说。他甚至还替她拟好了一封。信的开头是“依据”二字，看得她胃里一阵难受。

"Hedwig hasn't done anything wrong," Agathe says. "It's a tree."

“赫德维希什么错也没有，”阿加特说，“那是一棵树。”

"The tree belongs to her, though. That's the whole point."

“可那棵树是她的。关键就在这儿。”

Agathe thinks about Hedwig, who has lived next door for forty years. Once, after a storm, Hedwig left a jar of plum jam on Agathe's step. Then Agathe folds the draft, puts it in a drawer, and crosses the grass in her slippers.

阿加特想起赫德维希，她已经在隔壁住了四十年。有一次暴风雨过后，赫德维希在阿加特家门前的台阶上留下一罐李子酱。于是阿加特把草稿折好，放进抽屉，穿着拖鞋走过草地。

Hedwig opens the door with flour up to her elbows. "It's the driveway, isn't it?" she says before Agathe can speak. "I've been lying awake about it all week. I should have knocked on your door first."

赫德维希开门时，胳膊肘以下全是面粉。“是车道的事吧？”阿加特还没开口，她就先说了，“我一个星期都没睡好。我应该先去敲你的门才对。”

It turns out that both of them have been rehearsing speeches. Hedwig admits that she looked up the price of cutting the oak down, and then closed the page as if it had bitten her.

原来她们俩一直都在默默排练各自要说的话。赫德维希承认，她查过砍掉那棵橡树要花多少钱，然后像被咬了一口似的，赶紧关掉了网页。

"Nobody has ever cut that tree," she says, "and nobody will while I'm here."

“从来没有人砍过那棵树，”她说，“只要我还在这儿，就没人能砍。”

"I don't want it cut," Agathe says. "I just want to open my car door without checking where my feet are."

“我不想砍它，”阿加特说，“我只是想下车的时候，不用先看看脚往哪儿放。”

A week later a paving contractor crouches over the root, whistling quietly through his teeth. The concrete could be laid in a curve, he explains, with flexible slabs that would rise and fall with the root. It would cost more than a straight pour, although the tree would never be harmed.

一个星期后，一位铺路工人蹲在树根旁，从牙缝里轻轻吹着口哨。他解释说，水泥可以浇成弧形，用柔性板块，能随着树根一起起伏。这样比直接浇平要贵一些，不过树不会受到任何伤害。

"Half each," Hedwig says at once. "And I'll bring the tea."

“一人一半，”赫德维希马上说，“茶我来带。”

When Agathe reports all this by phone, her brother is silent for a moment. "So you saved a tree, kept a neighbor and spent less money than a lawyer would have cost?"

阿加特打电话把这一切告诉哥哥，他沉默了片刻。“所以你保住了一棵树，留住了一位邻居，花的钱还比请律师少？”

"Yes."

“对。”

"I wrote a very good letter, you know."

“你知道吗，我写的那封信可是写得很好的。”

In the autumn, the contractor leaves behind a stack of spare timber. Agathe and Hedwig build a bench from it, directly under the oak. Hedwig lays a spirit level across the seat and frowns, because the bench leans a little, one leg resting on a root. Agathe sits down anyway, and the bench rocks once. Neither of them reaches for a tool.

秋天，工人留下了一堆多余的木料。阿加特和赫德维希用它们做了一条长凳，就放在橡树正下方。赫德维希把水平仪横放在凳面上，皱起了眉头，因为长凳有点倾斜，一条腿架在一条树根上。阿加特还是坐了下去，长凳晃了一下。她们谁也没有伸手去拿工具。