The Swapped Carousel

Wren was flying alone for the first time. That was why she had arrived at baggage claim early and nervous, determined not to miss her suitcase. She watched carousel six turn for twenty minutes without a single bag from her flight appearing. An older man beside her kept checking his ticket, muttering that this couldn't be right.

雷恩第一次一个人坐飞机。所以她早早地、紧张地来到了行李提取处，一心不想错过自己的行李箱。她看着六号转盘转了二十分钟，却没有一件来自她航班的行李出现。她旁边一位年长的男士不停地查看自己的机票，嘟囔着这不可能对。

An announcement crackled overhead, apologising for a delay, but nobody explained why. Around her, a small crowd was forming, mostly people from her own flight, all equally confused. A woman with two young children was close to tears, worried she would miss her connecting bus. Wren usually let other people take charge in situations like this. This time, though, she found herself walking over to the information desk instead of waiting.

头顶上传来一阵带着杂音的广播，为延误道歉，却没有人解释原因。她周围正聚起一小群人，大多是同一航班的乘客，大家都同样一头雾水。一位带着两个小孩的女士快要哭出来了，担心赶不上转乘的大巴。遇到这种情形，雷恩通常会让别人出面。可这一次，她却发现自己朝问询台走去，而不是原地等着。

The agent there, Simone, was clearly overwhelmed, fielding questions from every direction. Wren explained calmly what she had noticed. The screen above carousel six still showed her flight number, but a completely different flight had been displayed on carousel nine the whole time. That other flight had a very similar number. She had spotted the mismatch while scrolling through her boarding pass, comparing the digits out of boredom.

那里的工作人员西蒙娜显然已经应接不暇，各个方向都有人向她提问。雷恩平静地讲了自己的发现。六号转盘上方的屏幕仍然显示着她的航班号，可另一个完全不同的航班，一直显示在九号转盘上。那个航班的编号和她的非常相似。她是在翻看登机牌的时候，无聊地对比数字，才发现了这个对不上的地方。

Simone checked the system and confirmed it immediately. Two flights, arriving within minutes of each other, had numbers different by only one digit. Whoever had updated the display screens that morning had swapped them by mistake. The bags from Wren's flight had been sitting on carousel nine the entire time. They had been circling past a crowd of people who assumed the bags belonged to someone else.

西蒙娜查了系统，立刻确认了。两个航班，到达时间相差不过几分钟，航班号只差一个数字。早上更新显示屏的人，错把它们对调了。雷恩那班航班的行李，一直就在九号转盘上。它们一圈又一圈地从一群人面前转过，而那些人以为那些行李是别人的。

Once Simone made an announcement correcting the carousel number, the confused group at carousel six turned as one. They hurried toward carousel nine together. Wren helped the woman with the young children carry one of her bags, since her hands were already full with a toddler.

西蒙娜广播更正了转盘号之后，六号转盘边那群困惑的人齐刷刷地转过身，一起匆匆赶往九号转盘。雷恩帮那位带着小孩的女士拎了一个包，因为她的手里已经抱着一个蹒跚学步的孩子，腾不出来了。

Walking out of the terminal afterward, dragging her own suitcase behind her, Wren realised something. She hadn't felt nervous once since noticing the mismatched numbers. She had spent the whole flight worrying about managing everything on her own. In the end, it was everyone else who had needed a hand.

后来，她拖着自己的行李箱走出航站楼，意识到了一件事。自从发现那两个航班号对不上之后，她就再没有紧张过。整趟飞行中，她一直担心自己一个人能不能应付所有事情。到头来，需要别人搭把手的，反倒是其他所有人。