The Shoveled Walk

Every time it snowed that winter, Mrs. Petrov's front walk was cleared before eight in the morning, and nobody in the building could say for certain who was doing it.

那年冬天，每次下雪，彼得罗夫太太家门前的小路，早上八点前都已经被清扫干净了，而楼里没有人能确定是谁干的。

Kwame had his suspicions, none of which involved Otis, the boy who lived in 3B and kept to himself so thoroughly that Kwame wasn't sure he had ever heard him say a full sentence. Otis wore the same gray hoodie regardless of weather, left for school later than everyone else, and, as far as the building's unofficial gossip network could establish, had no particular fondness for Mrs. Petrov or anyone else on the floor.

夸梅有自己的怀疑，但没有一个涉及奥蒂斯，那个住在3B的男孩，他是那么彻底地独来独往，夸梅都不确定自己是否听他说过一句完整的话。奥蒂斯不管什么天气，都穿同一件灰色连帽衫，比所有人上学出门都晚，而且据这栋楼里非正式的八卦网络所能查到的，他对彼得罗夫太太或这一层的任何人，都没有什么特别的好感。

Kwame's money, if he'd had to place a bet, was on Mr. Alvarez from the ground floor, a retired man who was already outside most mornings anyway, or possibly on Mrs. Petrov's own daughter, who visited on weekends and might have arranged something through a paid service without mentioning it.

要是非得下注，夸梅的钱会押在一楼的阿尔瓦雷斯先生身上，一位退休的老人，反正大多数早晨都已经在外面了，或者也可能是彼得罗夫太太自己的女儿，她周末会来看望，说不定是通过付费服务安排了这件事，却没有说起。

He decided to find out properly rather than keep guessing, which meant setting an alarm for six a.m. on the morning after the next snowfall and watching from his kitchen window with a mug of coffee he didn't really want. Had he known how uneventful the first two mornings would be, he might not have bothered setting the alarm a third time. It was on the third morning, not the first or the second, that everything finally became clear.

他决定彻底查清楚，而不是继续瞎猜，这意味着在下一场雪的次日清晨，把闹钟定在早上六点，端着一杯他其实并不想喝的咖啡，从厨房窗口往下看。要是他早知道头两个早晨会多么平淡无奇，也许第三次就不会费事定闹钟了。偏偏是在第三个早晨，不是第一个，也不是第二个，一切终于真相大白。

At six-forty, moving with none of the reluctance Kwame associated with him, Otis came out the side door in his gray hoodie, shovel already in hand, and cleared Mrs. Petrov's walk from end to end without once looking up at the windows above him. He finished in under ten minutes and went back inside as quietly as he'd come out.

六点四十分，奥蒂斯穿着那件灰色连帽衫从侧门走了出来，动作里没有一丝夸梅印象中他会有的不情愿，铲子已经握在手里，他把彼得罗夫太太的小路从头到尾清扫了一遍，一次也没抬头看上方的窗户。他用了不到十分钟就干完了，又像出来时一样悄无声息地回了屋。

Kwame caught him in the stairwell two days later. "It's you. The walk."

两天后，夸梅在楼梯间拦住了他。“是你。扫路的人。”

Otis's face did something complicated, somewhere between annoyance and relief at not having to explain it unprompted. "She used to leave food out for my cat when I first moved in and didn't know anyone. I never really said thank you properly. This is easier than saying it out loud."

奥蒂斯的脸上闪过一阵复杂的表情，介于恼火和松了一口气之间，终于不必再主动解释了。“我刚搬来、还谁都不认识的时候，她以前常给我的猫留吃的。我从来没好好说过谢谢。这样比说出口容易。”

"You could just say it out loud."

“你可以直接说出口啊。”

"I could," Otis said, and didn't elaborate further, which told Kwame everything the sentence itself hadn't.

“我可以，”奥蒂斯说，没有再多说什么，而这反倒告诉了夸梅那句话本身没说出来的一切。

Kwame never told anyone else in the building who was doing it. He started leaving his own boots by the door on snowy nights, and one morning, without either of them discussing it, there were two shovels working the walk instead of one.

夸梅从没告诉楼里的任何人，是谁在扫那条路。下雪的夜晚，他开始把自己的靴子放在门边，有一天早晨，没有谁提过这件事，扫那条路的就从一把铲子变成了两把。