The Talent Show Technical Difficulties

Fern had practiced her violin solo for the school talent show so many times that her family had started leaving the room. They left whenever she picked up the instrument. She wasn't nervous about the music itself. She was nervous about the backing track, which her friend Enzo had promised to handle from the sound booth.

为了学校的才艺表演，弗恩把她的小提琴独奏练了太多遍，家人都开始躲出房间。只要她一拿起琴，他们就离开。她并不担心音乐本身。她担心的是伴奏音轨，朋友恩佐答应在音控室负责放。

"I've done this before," Enzo assured her backstage. "Twice, actually. It's basically foolproof."

“这个我做过，”恩佐在后台向她保证，“其实做过两次。基本上不会出错。”

It was not, in fact, foolproof. When Fern walked out and nodded for her cue, the gymnasium speakers didn't play her carefully rehearsed piano accompaniment. Instead, they produced three seconds of what sounded like a startled cat, followed by silence.

可事实上，还是出错了。弗恩走上台，点头示意开始，体育馆的音箱却没有播出她精心排练过的钢琴伴奏。相反，它发出了三秒钟像是受惊的猫叫的声音，然后就是一片寂静。

She stood there, bow raised, waiting for a fix that clearly wasn't coming. From the sound booth, she could see Enzo frantically clicking through folders, his face lit an unflattering blue by the laptop screen.

她站在那里，弓子举着，等一个显然不会来的补救。从音控室里，她能看到恩佐正手忙脚乱地点开一个又一个文件夹，笔记本电脑的屏幕把他的脸照成一种不太好看的蓝色。

Rather than walk off, Fern made a decision that surprised even her. She started playing anyway, completely unaccompanied, and adjusted the tempo to something that might charitably be called dramatic.

弗恩没有退场，而是做了一个连她自己都吃惊的决定。她开始演奏，完全没有伴奏，还把速度调成了一种可以勉强称为戏剧化的节奏。

The audience, unsure whether this was intentional, began to applaud the boldness of it, which only encouraged her further. Somewhere around measure twenty, the missing piano track finally roared back to life, three full measures behind where it should have been.

观众不确定这是不是故意安排的，开始为这份大胆鼓掌，这反而给了她更多鼓励。大约演奏到第二十小节，消失的钢琴音轨终于轰然响起，比应有的位置整整慢了三小节。

Fern had two options: stop and restart, humiliatingly, or simply catch up to the track as if this had been the plan all along. She chose the second option, sawing through a slightly frantic passage until the two parts, violin and piano, converged into something resembling the same song.

弗恩有两个选择：停下来重新开始，那样很丢人；或者干脆追上音轨，装作这一切本来就是计划好的。她选了第二种，拼命拉过一段有点慌乱的乐句，直到两个声部，小提琴和钢琴，汇合成听起来像同一首曲子的东西。

By the final note, she was breathing harder than the piece technically required. But the audience was on its feet, apparently under the impression that the chaos had been a deliberate artistic choice.

到最后一个音符时，她喘得比这首曲子本来需要的还要厉害。但观众全体起立，显然以为这场混乱是一种刻意的艺术选择。

Backstage, Enzo looked physically relieved. "That," he said, "looked completely intentional. I'm taking full credit."

在后台，恩佐看上去如释重负。“那，”他说，“看起来完全是故意的。功劳我全包了。”

"You should be taking full blame," Fern said, though she was too pleased with herself to actually be angry. "But sure. Take the credit. I'll take the trophy."

“你应该全包的是责任，”弗恩说，不过她太得意了，根本生不起气来，“但行吧，功劳归你。奖杯归我。”