Maile Meloy: âThe Proxy Marriageâ
William was tall and thin and shy and awkward in school.
威廉在学校里又高又瘦，害羞又笨拙。
His best social tool was that he played the piano, and so was recruited for school musicals, which placed him at rehearsals and cast parties with kids he would otherwise scarcely have known.
他最好的社交工具是弹钢琴，因此被招募参加学校音乐剧，这使他能够与他几乎不认识的孩子们一起排练和演员聚会。
He thought he would be either a pianist or a physicist, although he didn’t know anyone in Montana who did those things professionally.
他认为自己要么成为一名钢琴家，要么成为一名物理学家，尽管他不认识蒙大拿州有谁专业从事这些事情。
His piano teacher was a banker’s widow who gave lessons in her lace-curtained house, and his physics teacher was primarily the wrestling coach.
他的钢琴老师是一位银行家的遗孀，她在她的蕾丝窗帘房子里上课，而他的物理老师主要是摔跤教练。
But William could imagine another kind of life.
但威廉可以想象另一种生活。
Through the musicals, he became friends with Bridey Taylor.
通过音乐剧，他与布莱迪·泰勒成为了朋友。
Bridey had golden curls, like a Botticelli angel, and a face that didn’t go with them: a long, straight nose, dark eyes.
布莱迪有一头金色的卷发，就像波提切利的天使，但她的脸却与它们不相配：长而直的鼻子，黑眼睛。
She had a clear, bright mezzo-soprano voice and she wanted to be an actress.
她有一副清晰、明亮的女中音嗓音，她想成为一名演员。
Her mother had left when Bridey was nine, and she had grown up with her father, a lawyer, who adored her.
布莱迪九岁时，她的母亲就离开了，她和她的父亲（一名律师）一起长大，父亲很爱她。
Bridey was confident, even a little vain, and she was good at school, except for math, which didn’t interest her.
布莱迪很自信，甚至有点虚荣，她在学校成绩很好，除了数学，她对数学不感兴趣。
William helped her through trigonometry, teaching her the concepts at lunch before tests so she could forget them immediately afterward.
威廉帮助她学习三角学，在考试前的午餐时教她这些概念，这样她就可以在考试后立即忘记它们。
William had no girlfriends in high school, and his mother once sat him down at the table in her spotless kitchen and asked if he was gay.
威廉在高中时没有女朋友，有一次他的母亲在一尘不染的厨房里让他坐在桌子旁，问他是否是同性恋。
She said it would be fine with her.
她说她会没事的。
She loved him unconditionally, and they would figure out a way to tell his father.
她无条件地爱他，他们会想办法告诉他的父亲。
But William wasn’t gay.
但威廉并不是同性恋。
He was just absurdly, painfully in love with Bridey Taylor, who leaned on the piano and sang while he played, and he had no way of telling her.
他只是荒谬地、痛苦地爱上了布莱迪·泰勒，布莱迪·泰勒靠在钢琴上，一边弹一边唱，而他却无法告诉她。
He was too shy to pursue other girls, even when the payoff seemed either likely or worth the agony.
他太害羞而不敢追求其他女孩，即使回报看起来可能或值得付出痛苦。
But he didn’t tell his mother that.
但他没有告诉他的母亲。
It was too humiliating.
太丢人了。
He just stammered an unconvincing denial.
他只是结结巴巴地否认。
Other boys asked Bridey out, and William suffered through it.
其他男孩约布莱迪出去，威廉也受了苦。
She viewed them with amusement, but she accepted most invitations.
她饶有兴趣地看着他们，但她还是接受了大多数邀请。
Encouraged, in their junior year William decided to ask her to the winter formal.
受到鼓舞，大三时威廉决定邀请她参加冬季正式舞会。
He was getting ready, vibrating with anticipation, when Bridey told him that a tennis-playing senior named Monty had invited her.
当布莱迪告诉他，一位名叫蒙蒂的网球高年级学生邀请了她时，他正准备着，充满期待。
William excused himself from homeroom and went to the disinfectant-smelling tiled bathroom.
威廉离开了教室，去了充满消毒剂味道的瓷砖浴室。
He waited until he was sure that no one else was there, then threw up in a green graffiti-marked stall.
他一直等到确定那里没有其他人，然后吐在一个绿色涂鸦的隔间里。
He hadn’t thrown up since he was six, when he had the flu, and it was harrowing.
自从六岁得流感以来，他就没有呕吐过，这令人痛苦。
His body seemed to have been taken over by some alien force.
他的身体仿佛被某种异域力量所占据。
But Monty made a mistake.
但蒙蒂犯了一个错误。
He sat Bridey down in his parents’ living room, two days after the dance, and told her that he’d wanted three things out of high school: to be captain of the tennis team, to get into Berkeley, and to have a serious girlfriend.
舞会两天后，他让布莱迪坐在父母的客厅里，告诉她高中毕业后他想要做三件事：成为网球队队长、进入伯克利大学、拥有一个认真的女朋友。
The first two had already happened, and Bridey would be perfect for the third.
前两个已经发生了，布莱迪非常适合第三个。
She reported the conversation to William, laughing.
她笑着向威廉报告了这次谈话。
“He was so earnest ,” she said.
“他非常认真，”她说。
“About his goals .”
“关于他的目标。”
In September of their senior year, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked and the towers fell.
大四那年九月，世界贸易中心和五角大楼遭到袭击，双塔倒塌。
William’s parents were out of town, and he overslept, waking when Bridey called him.
威廉的父母出城了，他睡过头了，当布莱迪打电话给他时他就醒了。
At school, teachers brought out television sets on A.V.
在学校，老师们拿出了 A.V. 电视机。
carts, and they all watched the news, silent and dazed.
他们都看着新闻，沉默而茫然。
In November, troops were sent to Afghanistan.
11月，部队被派往阿富汗。
In December, Bridey’s father came to her and William with a request.
十二月，布莱迪的父亲向她和威廉提出了一个请求。
He’d been asked to arrange a proxy wedding for a Marine corporal in Kandahar and his fiancée, who was in North Carolina and pregnant.
他被要求为坎大哈的一名海军陆战队下士和他在北卡罗来纳州怀孕的未婚妻安排一场代理婚礼。
They wanted to give the child his father’s name and a death benefit if something went wrong.
他们想给孩子保留他父亲的名字，并在出现问题时提供死亡抚恤金。
Most states didn’t allow proxy marriages, and Montana was the only one that allowed double-proxy weddings, in which neither party had to be present.
大多数州不允许代理婚姻，蒙大拿州是唯一允许双重代理婚礼的州，任何一方都不必出席。
The practice seemed to have been allowed before statehood, and had been used for soldiers during the Second World War, but no one knew exactly why it had arisen: possibly because it was difficult to travel long distances to a courthouse to marry an out-of-state sweetheart.
这种做法似乎在建州之前就已被允许，并且在第二次世界大战期间被用于士兵，但没有人确切知道它为何出现：可能是因为很难长途跋涉到法院与外州的情人结婚。
Mr. Taylor asked Bridey and William to be the proxies.
泰勒先生请布莱迪和威廉担任代理人。
He’d asked his secretary and his paralegal first, but they’d had no interest.
他首先询问了他的秘书和律师助理，但他们没有兴趣。
William’s mother thought that it was a good idea, and a way to do something for the country when everyone felt helpless: a small offering.
威廉的母亲认为这是一个好主意，也是当每个人都感到无助时为国家做点什么的一种方式：一点小小的捐助。
William thought that she hadn’t believed his claims of heterosexuality before, and was happy with the idea of his marrying a girl.
威廉认为她以前并不相信他关于异性恋的说法，并对他娶一个女孩的想法感到高兴。
He wondered if Bridey’s father thought he was gay, too—or just dickless and unthreatening.
他想知道布莱迪的父亲是否也认为他是同性恋——或者只是没有鸡鸡并且没有威胁性。
But William took the thing seriously; he couldn’t help it.
但威廉认真对待这件事。他情不自禁。
Even a fake marriage to Bridey Taylor filled his heart with unaccountable joy, and he went home after school and put on his dark-gray recital suit and a tie.
即使是与布莱迪·泰勒的假结婚也让他心中充满了莫名的喜悦，放学后他回到家，穿上深灰色的演奏服，打上领带。
He and Bridey were getting fifty dollars each, and he thought he should dress for the job.
他和布莱迪每人拿五十美元，他认为他应该穿适合这份工作的衣服。
At the county courthouse, he found Bridey with her sneakered feet up on a heavy wooden table.
在县法院，他发现布莱迪穿着运动鞋，双脚放在一张沉重的木桌上。
Her hair was pulled back in a stubby, curly ponytail, and she wore the jeans and sweatshirt she’d put on for school.
她的头发向后扎成一个又短又卷的马尾辫，穿着上学时穿的牛仔裤和运动衫。
She glanced from William’s face to his suit.
她的目光从威廉的脸转向他的西装。
“You look nice,” she said.
“你看起来不错，”她说。
There was annoyance in her voice.
她的声音里带着恼怒。