887: Two Is One, One Is None! - This American Life
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00:00 00:00 Transcript Share This American Life Life Partners How to Listen Episodes Recommended About Overview Staff Announcements Fellowships Jobs Music Make Radio On The Road FAQ Submissions Merch Contact Us Our Other Shows Merch Follow Us Life Partners Subscribe to our newsletter Full episode Toggle Audio and Transcript Sync Transcript | Episode #887 | May 15, 2026 887: Two Is One, One Is None!
00:00 00:00 文字记录 分享此 美国生活 生活伙伴 如何收听 剧集 推荐 关于 概述 员工公告 奖学金 工作 音乐 在路上制作电台 常见问题解答 提交 商品 联系我们 我们的其他节目 商品 关注我们 生活伙伴 订阅我们的时事通讯 整集 切换音频和文字记录同步 文字记录 | 内容第 887 集 | 2026 年 5 月 15 日 887：二即一，一即无！
Note: This American Life is produced for the ear and designed to be heard.
注：《美国生活》是为耳朵而制作的，旨在让人们听到。
If you are able, we strongly encourage you to listen to the audio, which includes emotion and emphasis that's not on the page.
如果可以的话，我们强烈建议您收听音频，其中包括页面上没有的情感和重点。
Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors.
文字记录是使用语音识别软件和人工转录员结合生成的，可能包含错误。
Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print.
请在印刷版引用前检查相应的音频。
Prologue: Prologue Laura Starecheski From WBEZ Chicago, it's This American Life.
序言：序言 来自 WBEZ 芝加哥的 Laura Starecheski，这就是《美国生活》。
I'm Laura Starecheski, sitting in for Ira Glass.
我是劳拉·斯塔莱切斯基 (Laura Starecheski)，代理艾拉·格拉斯 (Ira Glass)。
I'd been waiting for months for a certain moment to arrive.
为了某个时刻的到来，我已经等待了几个月。
Geirid had mentioned it.
盖里德曾提到过这一点。
Chrissy had mentioned it.
克莉丝曾提到过。
And here we all were, sitting in their house in the suburbs of DC.
我们都坐在他们位于华盛顿郊区的房子里。
We were in their living room.
我们在他们的客厅里。
Their son was hopping around with an icy popsicle in his hand.
他们的儿子手里拿着一根冰棒跳来跳去。
[EXHALES] This was left in the freezer overnight.
[呼气]这被放在冰箱里过夜了。
Feel it.
感受一下。
And Geirid's laptop was right there-- wasn't open yet, but I was on the edge of my seat.
盖里德的笔记本电脑就在那里——还没打开，但我已经坐到了座位的边缘。
And finally, she asked me--
最后，她问我——
Are you ready for this?
你准备好了吗？
Laura Starecheski I'm ready.
劳拉·斯塔莱切斯基 我准备好了。
It's beautiful.
很美丽。
It's excellent.
太棒了。
Yeah, it's a thing of beauty.
是的，这是一件美丽的事情。
And Geirid opened the laptop and pulled up a file on her computer called Valkyrie, after the Norse women warriors.
盖里德打开笔记本电脑，在她的电脑上调出一个文件，名为“瓦尔基里”（Valkyrie），以挪威女战士的名字命名。
They were very into the Thor movies around this time.
他们当时非常喜欢雷神电影。
And suddenly, it appeared, a spreadsheet.
突然，一个电子表格出现了。
Hold for applause.
等待掌声。
I was looking at many tabs, many rows, many columns, thousands of data points.
我查看了许多选项卡、许多行、许多列、数千个数据点。
This is where Geirid is mapping out their whole future.
这就是盖里德规划他们整个未来的地方。
We're getting deep into the inner workings of my mind.
我们正在深入了解我思想的内部运作。
OK.
好的。
I'm a data person by training.
我是一个受过训练的数据人。
And by nature.
本质上。
Geirid And by nature.
Geirid 本质上。
This is very much part of my DNA.
这是我 DNA 的一部分。
It's also part of their DNA as a couple.
这也是他们夫妻 DNA 的一部分。
Spreadsheets are how they make all their decisions as a family.
电子表格是他们作为一个家庭做出所有决定的方式。
Like, after Geirid finished a PhD in molecular biology, should she go into academia, get a government job?
就像，盖里德获得分子生物学博士学位后，她应该进入学术界，找到一份政府工作吗？
Spreadsheet.
电子表格。
She crunched the numbers, decided to rejoin the Navy as an active-duty scientist.
她计算了数据，决定以现役科学家的身份重新加入海军。
She and Chrissy had a whole plan.
她和克丽丝有一个完整的计划。
She'd serve for 20 years, retire, get a pension, health care, a stable life.
她会服役20年，退休，领取养老金，享受医疗保健，过上稳定的生活。
Where to live, the kids' schools-- each and every one, spreadsheeted with Chrissy's help.
住在哪里、孩子们的学校——每一所学校都在克丽丝的帮助下以电子表格形式列出。
Normally, we're pretty good at doing really concrete game planning.
通常，我们非常擅长进行真正具体的游戏规划。
I get on the mental carousel and predict the future, and then she makes a spreadsheet to, like, wrangle it in.
我登上心理旋转木马并预测未来，然后她制作了一个电子表格来进行争论。
So that's how things normally go.
事情通常就是这样进行的。
But about a year ago, this family found themselves facing a big, complicated, very uncertain new situation.
但大约一年前，这个家庭发现自己面临着一个巨大的、复杂的、非常不确定的新情况。
Geirid's trans and a lieutenant commander in the Navy.
盖里德的跨性别者和海军中尉。
And last winter, President Trump signed an executive order banning trans people from the military.
去年冬天，特朗普总统签署了一项禁止跨性别者参军的行政命令。
The order claimed that trans people are dishonest, unfit, and harm troop readiness.
该命令声称跨性别者不诚实、不健康，并且会损害部队的准备状态。
Geirid and other trans service members immediately brought lawsuits against the ban.
盖里德和其他跨性别军人立即对该禁令提起诉讼。
So everyone was in limbo.
于是大家都陷入了困境。
Are we all about to get kicked out?
难道我们都要被赶出去了吗？
Are we going to be allowed to stay and keep serving?
我们可以留下来继续服务吗？
What's going to happen, and when?
将会发生什么、什么时候发生？
There was just so little data.
数据太少了。
All these hypothetical things that could happen, could not happen, all the stress of trying to play chess around them and plan and spreadsheet around all these hypotheticals.
所有这些假设的事情可能发生，不可能发生，试图围绕它们下棋并围绕所有这些假设进行计划和电子表格的所有压力。
Yeah.
是的。
I mean, you can't make decisions if you don't have information.
我的意思是，如果你没有信息，你就无法做出决定。
No matter.
不管。
They would make a new spreadsheet and more spreadsheets.
他们将制作一个新的电子表格和更多电子表格。
They would be on alert.
他们会保持警惕。
They would be light on their feet.
他们会脚步轻盈。
Because something big was coming for them.
因为有一件大事正在向他们袭来。
And they were going to plan and bring all their skill and diligence and available data to be sure that they had control over how this was going to go down.
他们将计划并利用他们所有的技能、勤奋和可用数据，以确保他们能够控制事情的发展。
Today's show-- how is this going to go down?
今天的节目——这将如何进行？
This family finds out.
这家人发现了。
And it's not at all how they-- or I-- expected it to go.
这根本不是他们——或者我——所期望的。
And another story of two people determined to make the exact right plans for the moment when everything's going to change-- stay with us.
还有另一个故事，讲述的是两个人决心在一切即将发生变化的时刻制定正确的计划——留在我们身边。
It's This American Life, Act One, Freak in the Spreadsheets.
这是《美国生活》第一幕《电子表格中的怪胎》。
So we're going to continue to hang out in Geirid and Chrissy's living room, with their kids running in and out as they strategize together.
因此，我们将继续在盖里德和克丽丝的客厅里闲逛，他们的孩子在他们一起制定策略时跑进跑出。
The first time I was there was last March.
我第一次去那里是去年三月。
It was less than two months after Trump had issued his executive order.
此时距特朗普发布行政命令还不到两个月。
And the little family scene I saw with them stood out to me because one quirk-- let's call it a quirk-- that I've noticed, as a trans person reading all the coverage of Trump's military ban this past year, is that the service members often appear like these islands-- no family around them, no relationships, no community, just a lone, isolated person.
我和他们一起看到的小家庭场景对我来说很突出，因为有一个怪癖——让我们称之为怪癖——作为一个跨性别者，我注意到，在过去的一年里，阅读了特朗普军事禁令的所有报道，军人常常看起来像这些孤岛——周围没有家人，没有人际关系，没有社区，只是一个孤独、孤立的人。
I've talked to a bunch of trans service members over the past year, and that isn't any of them.
在过去的一年里，我和一群跨性别军人交谈过，但那不是他们中的任何一个。
They all have their people-- spouses, kids, families-- whose fates are tied to theirs, depending on them, like Geirid.
他们都有自己的家人——配偶、孩子、家庭——他们的命运与他们息息相关，取决于他们，就像盖里德一样。
She's the main breadwinner here.
她是这里的主要养家糊口的人。
They've been a military family from the start.
他们从一开始就是一个军人家庭。
Geirid enlisted at 17 and became a Navy diver.
盖里德 17 岁时入伍，成为一名海军潜水员。
She and Chrissy met a few years later.
几年后，她和克丽丝认识了。
They're both from military families.
他们都出身于军人家庭。
They have two kids-- a daughter, 11, and a son, 9.
他们有两个孩子——一个 11 岁的女儿和一个 9 岁的儿子。
Right now, their son has his face in a video game-- zombies, skeletons, lava.
现在，他们的儿子的脸出现在电子游戏中——僵尸、骷髅、熔岩。
Geirid and Chrissy are good at keeping it moving.
盖里德和克丽丝很擅长让事情继续下去。
Chrissy's intense, blunt, but kind of dreamy too.
克丽丝热情、直率，但也有点梦幻。
She's an illustrator, loves to paint floaty undersea creatures, a lot of invertebrates.
她是一名插画家，喜欢画漂浮的海底生物，很多无脊椎动物。
Geirid is smiley and tall, notably tall next to Chrissy.
盖里德面带微笑，身材高大，尤其是与克丽丝相比更高。
She's got a bob haircut that she tucks behind her ears with great effort.
她留着波波头，费力地把头发别到耳后。
Her hair's always falling in her face.
她的头发总是垂在脸上。
She tucks it back again.
她又把它塞回去。
Their house is full of nerdy hobby zones-- in the kitchen, historical cooking, with a focus on accuracy rather than deliciousness.
他们的房子里充满了书呆子的爱好区——厨房里，历史悠久的烹饪，注重准确性而不是美味。
Think cabbage stew every single week.
想想每周炖一碗卷心菜。
For the last year or so, I've been doing medieval Europe, basically, and have worked my way up from the Viking Age to Tudor England.
在过去一年左右的时间里，我基本上一直在研究中世纪的欧洲，并从维京时代一直到都铎时期的英格兰。
Nerd alert.
书呆子警报。
Laura Starecheski The kids are in and out of the room as we're talking.
Laura Starecheski：我们说话时，孩子们进出房间。
I'm not going to name them here.
我不会在这里说出他们的名字。
We're just going to bleep out their names.
我们只是要大声喊出他们的名字。
What do you both know about what's going on with your mama's job?
你们对你们妈妈的工作情况了解多少？
A lot.
很多。
Laura Starecheski Their daughter, the older one, answers first.
Laura Starecheski 他们的女儿（大女儿）第一个回答。
OK.
好的。
So the thing that I know-- she filed a lawsuit.
据我所知，她提起了诉讼。
And then it went through one of the courts.
然后它通过了其中一个法庭。
And now she stares at the computer all day.
现在她整天盯着电脑。
That's all I know.
我只知道这些。
All this staring at the computer, it's because Geirid's always reading court filings about the ban, and memos from the military, and Signal messages with this whole network of trans service members, who are all trying to figure out what to do.
所有这一切都盯着电脑，因为盖里德总是阅读有关禁令的法庭文件、军方的备忘录，以及整个跨性别服务成员网络的信号消息，他们都在试图弄清楚该怎么做。
Now their son chimes in.
现在他们的儿子插话了。
And which is bad for me because [BLEEP] never plays with me, and Mom plays Stardew Valley a lot.
这对我来说很糟糕，因为[BLEEP]从来不和我一起玩，而妈妈经常玩《星露谷物语》。
And the only thing I know about her job is that she might get fired soon.
关于她的工作我唯一知道的是她可能很快就会被解雇。
It's true.
这是真的。
This was the situation.
情况就是这样。
And if Geirid did get pushed out, their whole life could go over a cliff, fast.
如果盖里德真的被推出去，他们的一生可能很快就会跌入悬崖。
They could be forced to sell their house because they wouldn't be able to make their mortgage payment.
他们可能会被迫出售房屋，因为他们无法支付抵押贷款。
They would lose their health insurance, which they really need, because their son has a medical condition that they estimate would cost more than $500,000 a year to treat without it.
他们将失去他们真正需要的健康保险，因为他们的儿子患有某种疾病，他们估计如果没有保险，每年的治疗费用将超过 50 万美元。
So it's hard to overstate the existential threat they were living under.
因此，无论怎样强调他们所面临的生存威胁都不为过。
But Geirid, like almost every service member in her position, was still quietly continuing to do her job.
但盖里德和几乎所有处于她职位的军人一样，仍然默默地继续做她的工作。
She'd commute to a military research office nearby, spend the day making decisions about where the Navy should invest millions of dollars in research money.
她会通勤到附近的军事研究办公室，花一天的时间来决定海军应该在哪里投资数百万美元的研究资金。
None of that work had stopped.
所有这些工作都没有停止。
So it was like, life as you know it may be about to end, but also, act like none of this is happening.
所以这就好像，你所知道的生活可能即将结束，但也要表现得好像这一切都没有发生一样。
It was dizzying, all this uncertainty.
所有这些不确定性令人眼花缭乱。
The only way to deal with all of it at once was to develop the most extreme, thorough, multivalent family planning process I have ever seen.
一次性解决所有问题的唯一方法是制定我所见过的最极端、彻底、多方面的计划生育程序。
Geirid and Chrissy decided that they would make every possible version of a good future for their family come alive.
盖里德和克丽丝决定，他们要为家人创造一切可能的美好未来。
Exhibit A-- a spreadsheet, of course, a sort of "in case of emergency, break glass" spreadsheet, gaming out their options if everything went completely to hell.
证据A——当然，是一个电子表格，一种“在紧急情况下，打破玻璃”的电子表格，如果一切都完全陷入困境，他们会考虑自己的选择。
Say Geirid not only got kicked out of the Navy, but also, the overall backlash against trans people in America got even more extreme-- more states passing anti-trans laws, new executive orders targeting trans people.
说盖里德不仅被踢出了海军，而且美国对跨性别者的整体抵制变得更加极端——更多的州通过了反跨性别法律，针对跨性别者的新行政命令。
If all that happened, and Geirid and Chrissy decided the whole family needed to leave the US--
如果这一切发生了，盖里德和克丽丝决定全家需要离开美国——
She's developed a very deep and complex spreadsheet of the best places to live, based on her own rubric of quality of life that applies to only our family.
她根据自己的生活质量标准（仅适用于我们家庭）开发了一份非常深入且复杂的最佳居住地电子表格。
They needed to find a place where they could make a living, be safe, and have access to specialized medical care for their son.
他们需要找到一个可以谋生、安全并能让儿子获得专门医疗护理的地方。
It's a short list but a hard needle to thread.
这是一个简短的清单，但很难理清。
And not only that--
不仅如此——
I'm very particular about data sources and where you get data from.
我对数据源和获取数据的来源非常挑剔。
Most of the stuff, it's never clear what the methodology was, how reliable it is.
大多数东西，我们永远不清楚方法是什么，它有多可靠。
So frustrating, all the subpar data just floating around out there.
令人沮丧的是，所有低于标准的数据都在那里漂浮。
So Geirid unearthed sprawling files of original raw data from all kinds of studies.
因此，盖里德从各种研究中挖掘出大量原始数据文件。
She ran her own analysis on it, tracking quality of life and values, happiness scales, the rights of queer people and women.
她对此进行了自己的分析，追踪生活质量和价值观、幸福感、酷儿和女性的权利。
I feel like there's something else that I--
我觉得我还有别的事——
The weather that we like.
我们喜欢的天气。
'Cause we're not moving to Malta.
因为我们不会搬到马耳他。
We're cold weather people.
我们是寒冷天气的人。
[LAUGHS] Yeah.
[笑]是的。
Chrissy and the kids have Italian citizenship, so Europe is on the table.
克丽丝和孩子们拥有意大利公民身份，因此欧洲是可以考虑的。
But so are approximately 5,000 other places and subplaces.
但大约 5,000 个其他地点和子地点也是如此。
I couldn't even focus my eyes, looking at it.
我什至无法集中注意力，看着它。
But Geirid filled me in.
但盖里德告诉了我答案。
So far, the place that's come out on top-- Germany, so far.
到目前为止，排名最高的地方是德国。
Geirid was always adding new data whenever she found some, running the numbers again.
盖里德总是在发现新数据时添加新数据，并再次运行数字。
When do you look at it?
你什么时候看？
Geirid Whenever I get super stressed out and I just need to look at some math to calm myself down.
Geirid 每当我感到压力很大时，我只需要看一些数学来让自己平静下来。
[LAUGHS] It's my way of touching grass.
[笑]这是我接触草地的方式。
It's worked in the past, but lately, not so much.
这在过去很有效，但最近却没那么有效了。
What does that look like?
那看起来像什么？
Well, lately, it's looked like a lot of crying.
嗯，最近好像哭的次数很多。
And Chrissy doesn't like crying.
克丽丝不喜欢哭。
She--
她——
So she would find me in bathrooms at 1 o'clock in the morning because I got up to pee and just decided to start crying.
所以她会在凌晨 1 点在浴室找到我，因为我起床去小便，然后决定开始哭泣。
And I'd secretly roll my eyes but also give her a hug.
我会偷偷地翻白眼，但也会给她一个拥抱。
[LAUGHS] God, get it together.
[笑]上帝啊，把它放在一起吧。
We'll talk about things, or I'll talk at her about things until too early in the morning.
我们会谈论一些事情，或者我会和她谈论一些事情，直到凌晨。
And she either falls asleep or gets frustrated because I'm keeping her awake.
她要么睡着了，要么因为我让她睡不着而感到沮丧。
And so then I'll be like, OK, next time, I'm just going to keep it to myself.
所以我会说，好吧，下次，我会保守秘密。
Which is sad.
这是悲伤的。
I don't want you to do that.
我不想让你这么做。
But we also can't be up till 2:00 in the morning every night.
但我们每天晚上也不能熬到凌晨2:00。
Yeah.
是的。
And I just want my partner to feel my feelings with me.
我只是想让我的伴侣和我一起感受我的感受。
I do feel your feelings with you.
我确实感受到你对你的感情。
I'm actually really good at it.
事实上我真的很擅长。
You are really good at it.
你真的很擅长。
Chrissy But you exhaust me.
克丽丝 但你让我筋疲力尽。
[LAUGHS]
[笑]
Laura Starecheski Here's how fast things were coming at them.
Laura Starecheski 事情来得如此之快。
The Trump administration banned trans service members from the military.
特朗普政府禁止跨性别军人参军。
That was last January.
那是去年一月的事。
They were out.
他们出去了。
The service members challenged it.
服役人员对此提出质疑。
They could stay in.
他们可以留在里面。
Weeks later, a federal judge wrote that the ban was most likely unconstitutional.
几周后，一名联邦法官写道，该禁令很可能违宪。
Stay in.
留在里面。
The same month, another federal judge-- I agree.
同月，另一位联邦法官——我同意。
Stay in.
留在里面。
Then the Trump administration went to the Supreme Court, claiming it was an urgent matter of national security.
随后特朗普政府向最高法院提起诉讼，声称这是国家安全的紧急问题。
All the trans people had to go.
所有跨性别者都必须离开。
Can't we just do this ban now while all these lawsuits happen?
难道我们不能在所有这些诉讼发生的时候就实施这项禁令吗？
Will you allow it?
你会允许吗？
A Supreme Court ruling on that question could come out at any time, which, for Geirid and Chrissy, was like, whoa, we're about to get a real answer on this.
最高法院对这个问题的裁决随时可能公布，对于盖里德和克丽丝来说，这就像，哇，我们即将得到关于这个问题的真正答案。
And that's when, in their perpetual effort to never be caught off guard, Geirid and Chrissy decided Chrissy would travel to Germany.
就在那时，盖里德和克丽丝决定让克丽丝去德国旅行，他们一直努力不让自己措手不及。
In May, she got on a plane to see if she could actually picture their family living there.
五月，她登上了飞机，想看看她是否能想象他们一家人住在那里的情景。
She'd been sussing out job possibilities, checking out neighborhoods and cities-- Frankfurt, Berlin.
她一直在寻找工作机会，考察社区和城市——法兰克福、柏林。
Tonight, at the bar I went to, called Mr. Susan-- fabulous bar.
今晚，我去了一家叫做苏珊先生的酒吧——很棒的酒吧。
Everybody should go.
每个人都应该去。
[LAUGHS]
[笑]
Great name.
好名字。
Chrissy Yeah.
克丽丝 是的。
Five Americans bellied up to this bar.
五个美国人大吃大喝来到这家酒吧。
Like, I was the fifth that walked in.
就像，我是第五个走进来的。
The couple on my right work for the State Department.
我右边的夫妇在国务院工作。
One of them had just retired.
其中一位刚刚退休。
The other one was close to retirement.
另一位则接近退休。
And they were beside themselves with the stuff that was going on.
他们对正在发生的事情感到疯狂。
Everybody's like, do it.
大家都说，做吧。
Bring your kids here.
带你的孩子来这里。
Get them out of there, which is heartening to hear.
把他们从那里救出来，这真是令人振奋。
It makes me feel like we're not being stupid, we're not being thoughtless.
这让我觉得我们并不愚蠢，我们并不粗心。
Is there a part of you that feels like you have to justify this idea of moving out of the United States right now?
你是否觉得自己必须证明现在离开美国的想法是合理的？
Absolutely, absolutely.
绝对，绝对。
To ourselves, we've had to justify it.
对我们自己来说，我们必须证明它是合理的。
It kind of feels drastic.
感觉有点剧烈。
But at the same time, I don't want to be complacent.
但与此同时，我不想自满。
I don't want to pretend like nothing's happening.
我不想假装什么都没发生。
I'm walking to get the kids.
我正步行去接孩子们。
I only have a couple minutes.
我只有几分钟的时间。
Yeah.
是的。
Laura Starecheski I called Geirid, because while Chrissy was in Germany, the Supreme Court ruling came out.
Laura Starecheski 我给 Geirid 打了电话，因为当 Chrissy 在德国时，最高法院的裁决已经出来了。
It was bad news.
这是个坏消息。
The Court had sided with the Trump administration.
法院站在特朗普政府一边。
The military could go forward and kick everybody out.
军队可以挺身而出，把所有人都赶出去。
So for Geirid and everybody else, this ban that had been looming in a theoretical realm for months was all of a sudden real and imminent.
因此，对于盖里德和其他人来说，几个月来一直在理论上隐现的这项禁令突然变得真实且迫在眉睫。
[SIGHS] Laura Starecheski Are you kind of in shock or--
[叹气] Laura Starecheski 你是感到震惊还是——
A little bit.
一点点。
Laura Starecheski What's your mental state?
Laura Starecheski 你的精神状态如何？
I can't tell.
我不知道。
I know you also have to be a parent in, like, three minutes, probably.
我知道你可能还必须在三分钟内成为父母。
Yeah.
是的。
I mean, it's a little shocking.
我的意思是，这有点令人震惊。
I think as it's setting in, I guess, as we're talking, it's a little surprising that they didn't even carve out room for the plaintiffs.
我认为，当它开始时，我想，正如我们正在谈论的那样，他们甚至没有为原告留出空间，这有点令人惊讶。
Because that means that now we're going to be processed out of the military, just like everyone else, before the case even gets back to the Supreme Court to be ruled on its merits.
因为这意味着现在我们将像其他人一样被从军队中处理出来，甚至在案件返回最高法院根据案情做出裁决之前。
Will you say anything to your kids, or are you trying to spare them from the blow-by-blow stuff?
你会对你的孩子说些什么吗？或者你会试图让他们免受那些琐碎的事情的困扰吗？
I don't know.
我不知道。
I think, yeah, I might talk to them in the next day or so, because they get triggered by all this big time.
我想，是的，我可能会在第二天左右与他们交谈，因为他们会被所有这些重大事件所触发。
So I don't want to freak them out about that kind of stuff if I don't have to.
所以如果没有必要的话，我不想让他们因为这类事情而感到害怕。
I didn't read the opinion, but I did talk to Geirid about it at length.
我没有阅读该意见，但我确实与盖里德详细讨论了这个问题。
I reached Chrissy the next day in her hotel room in Germany.
第二天，我在德国的酒店房间里找到了克莉丝。
It was late at night, almost midnight her time.
当时已经是深夜了，她的时间已经快到午夜了。
I think that what she's feeling guilty about is feeling like her transition is creating these problems for us.
我认为她感到内疚的是感觉她的转变给我们带来了这些问题。
So I just tried to talk her down a little.
所以我只是试图说服她一点。
And I don't want to catastrophize.
我不想把事情搞砸。
I'm trying to look forward instead of getting hung up on what a bunch of bully fucking pricks think about us.
我试着向前看，而不是纠结于一群恶霸他妈的混蛋对我们的看法。
Because I don't care what they think.
因为我不在乎他们怎么想。
I'm here in Germany with the intention of marching forward.
我来到德国是为了继续前进。
Speaking of marching forward, now that the ban was real, here was the military's new policy.
说到前进，既然禁令已经生效，那就是军方的新政策。
Trans service members had less than a month to make a choice-- leave voluntarily, or wait for someone to find you and make you leave.
跨性别军人有不到一个月的时间做出选择——自愿离开，或者等待有人找到你并让你离开。
Basically, the Department of Defense was saying, we can do this the easy way or the hard way.
基本上，国防部的意思是，我们可以通过简单的方法或困难的方法来做到这一点。
You choose.
你选择。
Coming up, Geirid and Chrissy try to find another way.
接下来，盖里德和克丽丝试图寻找另一种方法。
That's in a minute from Chicago Public Radio when our program continues.
芝加哥公共广播电台一分钟后我们的节目仍在继续。
It's This American Life.
这就是美国生活。
I'm Laura Starecheski, sitting in for Ira Glass.
我是劳拉·斯塔莱切斯基 (Laura Starecheski)，代理艾拉·格拉斯 (Ira Glass)。
This is the story of Geirid Morgan and her wife, Chrissy, trying to navigate the military's ban on trans people and keep some control over what's going to happen to their family.
这是盖里德·摩根和她的妻子克丽丝的故事，他们试图绕过军方对跨性别者的禁令，并对他们的家庭将要发生的事情保持一定的控制。
So one thing I asked Geirid-- have you ever had any issues with your commanders, your colleagues, since you came out as trans, any problems with anybody serving in the Navy with you?
所以我问盖里德一件事——自从你作为跨性别者出柜以来，你与你的指挥官、同事之间有过任何问题吗？与与你一起在海军服役的任何人有过任何问题吗？
No, she told me, not once-- which is wild.
不，她告诉我，一次都没有——这太疯狂了。
I asked a bunch of other service members from different branches of the military, different ranks.
我问了一群来自不同军种、不同军衔的其他军人。
What was their experience?
他们的经历是什么？
And overwhelmingly, people said, it was good.
人们绝大多数都说，这很好。
I actually got a lot of support.
我实际上得到了很多支持。
I got a round of applause when I came out to my unit, one Army captain told me.
一位陆军上尉告诉我，当我回到部队时，我得到了热烈的掌声。
This surprised me because I was at least expecting more of a mixed bag.
这让我感到惊讶，因为我至少期待更多的混合包。
I'd read a few horror stories.
我读过一些恐怖故事。
Those were documented in the court cases.
这些都记录在法庭案件中。
But so many people had been serving through multiple administrations without issues.
但这么多人已经在多个政府任职，没有出现任何问题。
There's about a decade of experience to draw on, look at, study on how it's affected the military, having trans people serve openly.
我们有大约十年的经验可以借鉴、观察和研究跨性别者公开服役对军队的影响。
And it's been kind of a nothingburger, I have to say.
我不得不说，这简直就是一个无足轻重的汉堡。
I mean, there's been no catastrophic failure of unit cohesion, no indication that trans service members somehow harm troop readiness, as the Trump administration has argued without evidence.
我的意思是，部队凝聚力并没有发生灾难性的失败，也没有迹象表明跨性别军人在某种程度上损害了部队的战备状态，正如特朗普政府在没有证据的情况下所声称的那样。
That's been true for years, which is why it was particularly hard to believe that what the Trump administration was claiming about trans people, that was going to carry the day, and not the reality everybody was living in.
多年来一直如此，这就是为什么人们特别难以相信特朗普政府对跨性别者的主张会占上风，而不是每个人所生活的现实。
But now the ban was here, and trans service members had less than 30 days to decide-- would they go voluntarily or involuntarily, the easy way or the hard way?
但现在禁令来了，跨性别军人有不到 30 天的时间来决定——他们是自愿还是非自愿，走简单的路还是走艰难的路？
Presenting just these two unfavorable options is really just such a maniacally effective way to get people to do something they really do not want to do.
仅仅提出这两个不利的选择确实是一种非常有效的方法，可以让人们做他们真正不想做的事情。
This is evil genius stuff, mob boss stuff.
这是邪恶天才的东西，黑帮老大的东西。
So I just want to spend a minute on this choice, voluntary versus involuntary separation.
所以我只想花一点时间讨论自愿与非自愿分离的选择。
Voluntary separation, the first option, would mean you'd raise your hand, self-identify, and your branch would start the process of discharging you.
自愿离职是第一个选择，意味着你举手，自我表明身份，你的部门将开始解雇你的过程。
You'd be eligible for an honorable discharge, and you'd get separation pay.
您将有资格光荣退伍，并获得离职费。
Involuntary separation-- there was way less information about what that would look like.
非自愿分离——关于那会是什么样子的信息要少得多。
How exactly would the military find everybody and identify them?
军方究竟如何找到每个人并识别他们的身份？
Was there any real way to challenge it if they did find you?
如果他们找到了你，有什么真正的方法可以挑战它吗？
And if you were pushed out involuntarily and got discharged, would you get an honorable discharge or something else, even a dishonorable discharge?
如果你非自愿地被驱逐并被解雇，你会得到光荣退伍还是其他什么，甚至是不光彩退伍？
Was that possible?
这可能吗？
Because that follows you out into the civilian world forever.
因为它会永远跟随你进入平民世界。
It shows up on background checks.
它会出现在背景调查中。
You can never get any VA benefits.
您永远无法获得任何 VA 福利。
It's a big deal.
这是一件大事。
But those details weren't part of the policy memo.
但这些细节并不是政策备忘录的一部分。
Nobody seemed to know.
似乎没有人知道。
And there was one more penalty to choosing that path.
选择那条路还有一个惩罚。
You'd get just half the separation pay that you would have gotten if you'd gone voluntarily.
如果您自愿离开，您只能获得一半的离职费。
People had different ways of thinking about this non-choice when I asked about it.
当我问起这个问题时，人们对这种非选择有不同的看法。
One thing that came up was the weirdness of volunteering to not do something, to quit.
出现的一件事是自愿不做某事、退出是很奇怪的。
It went against all their training.
这违背了他们所有的训练。
Hank Young is a staff sergeant in the Army at Fort Drum in far upstate New York.
汉克·杨（Hank Young）是纽约州北部德拉姆堡陆军的一名上士。
He operates artillery pieces.
他操作火炮。
He's served for nine years, done a deployment to Afghanistan.
他已经服役九年，曾被部署到阿富汗。
And Hank told me that of the two options, voluntary felt like the only way to have any control over this process.
汉克告诉我，在这两种选择中，自愿似乎是控制这一过程的唯一方法。
So he'd put in his paperwork, checking the box that said, I'm here, I'm trans, and you can kick me out now.
所以他会提交文件，勾选上面写着“我在这里，我是变性人，你现在可以把我踢出去”的方框。
How did that feel, to be communicating that?
传达这一点感觉如何？
It was scary.
太可怕了。
I weirdly was-- I was actually more concerned-- in my head, I was a little bit more concerned that I was going to get judged for electing to get out than I was for being trans.
奇怪的是，我实际上更担心，在我的脑海里，我更担心我会因为选择退出而受到评判，而不是因为我是跨性别者。
I really cannot emphasize how strongly the Army frowns upon anybody trying to get out of anything, ever, for any reason.
我真的无法强调陆军对任何试图以任何理由试图摆脱任何事情的人的强烈不满。
So that was actually probably the part that made me the most nervous.
所以这实际上可能是让我最紧张的部分。
I heard this concern a lot, that leaving voluntarily would mean letting other people down.
我经常听到这样的担忧，认为自愿离开意味着让别人失望。
Everyone felt responsible for the people in their units, the people they supervised, even their commanders.
每个人都对自己单位的人、自己所监督的人、甚至自己的指挥官负有责任。
Brianna is a sergeant first class, Army aviation.
布莱恩娜是陆军航空兵一级军士。
She's done everything from helicopter mechanic to drill sergeant, two deployments to Afghanistan.
她做过从直升机机械师到教官的各种工作，还两次被派往阿富汗。
She's only out as trans to her family and one close friend and her immediate commanders and was still showing up to work as a male officer.
她只是在她的家人、一位密友和她的直接指挥官面前以变性人的身份出现，并且仍然以男性军官的身份出现在工作中。
So to protect her, I'm only going to use her first name.
所以为了保护她，我只会使用她的名字。
Brianna was hoping to take the involuntary separation.
布丽安娜希望接受非自愿的分离。
She didn't want to capitulate.
她不想屈服。
But her main worry seemed to be that her commanders could be blamed or punished for not turning her in.
但她主要担心的似乎是，她的指挥官可能会因为不交出她而受到指责或惩罚。
She didn't know what to expect.
她不知道会发生什么。
I have no idea.
我不知道。
I'm honestly prepared for a witch hunt, so to speak.
老实说，我已经做好了政治迫害的准备。
And that's really the last thing that I want to experience myself.
这确实是我最不想经历的事情。
And I don't want my commander, an excellent commander, my first sergeant, an excellent first sergeant, or any of my peers-- I don't want to put them in this position of loyalty to the service or loyalty to a human being.
我不想要我的指挥官，一个优秀的指挥官，我的第一军士长，一个优秀的第一军士长，或者我的任何同僚——我不想让他们处于忠诚于军队或忠诚于人类的位置。
So to me, that would be a very compromised and difficult decision to make.
所以对我来说，这将是一个非常妥协且困难的决定。
And I don't want to do that to them.
我不想对他们这样做。
In the end, Brianna decided to take the voluntary too.
最终，布丽安娜也决定自愿参加。
Most people I talked to did.
我交谈过的大多数人都这么做了。
Geirid is one of the few people I talked to who did not choose voluntary separation.
盖里德是我交谈过的少数几个没有选择自愿分离的人之一。
She didn't submit any paperwork at all.
她根本没有提交任何文件。
She decided to dare the military to come and find her, betting that she could find a way through before they could kick her out, which brings us to act two.
她决定挑战军方来找她，并打赌她能在他们把她赶出去之前找到一条出路，这让我们进入了第二幕。
Act Two, When the Bureaucratic Shark Bites.
第二幕，当官僚鲨鱼咬人时。
One quick thing I need to say before we keep going-- Geirid and all the service people I talked to did not speak to me in any official Department of Defense capacity.
在我们继续前进之前，我需要先说一件事——盖里德和所有与我交谈过的军人并没有以国防部的任何官方身份与我交谈。
They shared their own thoughts and feelings, their personal views.
他们分享了自己的想法和感受，以及个人观点。
And the Department of Defense wouldn't answer any of my questions about the military ban.
国防部不会回答我有关军事禁令的任何问题。
They said they don't comment on ongoing litigation.
他们表示不会对正在进行的诉讼发表评论。
OK.
好的。
So the clock had started.
于是，时钟开始计时了。
There was less than a month left.
只剩下不到一个月的时间了。
Volunteer, or we will find you.
做志愿者，否则我们会找到你。
Geirid entered this new, intense phase with the same focus she'd brought before.
盖里德进入了这个新的、紧张的阶段，与之前一样专注。
She would master every element of this bureaucracy, watching out for traps, gathering data, staying two steps ahead if she could.
她会掌握这个官僚机构的每一个要素，提防陷阱，收集数据，如果可以的话，保持领先两步。
One small example-- once the countdown started, Geirid learned that the military was on the verge of adding a new question to this mandatory health assessment that every service member has to fill out online once a year.
举一个小例子，倒计时开始后，盖里德得知军方即将在这项强制性健康评估中添加一个新问题，每个军人每年都必须在线填写一次。
The new question would ask if you'd ever experienced gender dysphoria.
新问题会问您是否曾经经历过性别不安。
Basically, are you trans?
基本上，你是变性人吗？
If you clicked yes, a notification would appear, saying you'd been rendered nondeployable, not fit to serve, and telling you to await next steps.
如果您单击“是”，则会出现一条通知，表示您已无法部署，不适合服务，并告诉您等待下一步。
So Geirid jumped online before they could change the form and quickly filled out the old version before the new question was added.
因此，盖里德在他们更改表格之前就跳到了网上，并在添加新问题之前快速填写了旧版本。
She figured, correctly, that would buy her time.
她正确地认为这会为她赢得时间。
This was the kind of careful maneuver she was executing on four different fronts simultaneously, keeping all the possible realities alive.
这是她同时在四个不同战线上执行的那种谨慎策略，让所有可能的现实都保持活力。
Scenario one, a court victory-- she and the other plaintiffs win the court case.
场景一，法庭胜利——她和其他原告赢得了官司。
Could be years away, and sure, maybe they'd all have gotten kicked out by then.
可能还需要几年的时间，当然，也许到那时他们都已经被赶出去了。
But it was still possible.
但这仍然是可能的。
Scenario two, medical retirement-- a while back, Geirid saw a doctor about an old injury that was giving her trouble.
场景二，医疗退休——不久前，盖里德去看医生，因为她的旧伤给她带来了麻烦。
And he referred her to be assessed by what's called a medical evaluation board.
他建议她接受所谓的医学评估委员会的评估。
If the military deemed her too disabled to serve, she could be medically retired.
如果军方认为她伤残严重而无法服役，她可能会因病退休。
And now that seemed like it could actually be a good option, since the threat of getting pushed out was looming.
现在看来这实际上可能是一个不错的选择，因为被驱逐的威胁迫在眉睫。
So Geirid threw herself into this notoriously arduous and unpredictable process-- going to doctor's appointments, getting assessed, putting in a mountain of paperwork-- to document every injury from her service.
因此，盖里德全身心投入到这个众所周知的艰巨且不可预测的过程中——去看医生、接受评估、提交堆积如山的文书工作——记录她在服役期间的每一次伤害。
And then she waited.
然后她等待着。
Scenario three, someone could turn Geirid in, and she'd be forced into the involuntary separation process.
情况三，有人可以举报盖里德，她将被迫进入非自愿的分离过程。
Normally, there are options to appeal and make your case if the military's trying to kick you out.
通常，如果军方试图将您驱逐出境，您可以选择上诉并提出申诉。
Geirid could request to go before a panel of officers called a separation board.
盖里德可以向一个名为“分离委员会”的官员小组提出离职请求。
But it was unclear if that process would actually help her or just be humiliating.
但目前还不清楚这个过程是否真的会对她有帮助，或者只是让她感到羞辱。
And then after all that, she could just get separated anyway.
毕竟，无论如何，她都可以分开。
Scenario four, Germany, if necessary.
场景四，德国，如果有必要的话。
She and Chrissy kept up with the house repairs in case they had to sell, had the kids start learning German.
她和克丽丝继续修缮房屋，以防万一必须卖掉，并让孩子们开始学习德语。
I could not imagine, in all my trying, any base that was not covered here, any possible path out of this maze that was unexplored, any blank on any form that was left unfilled out.
在我所有的努力中，我无法想象这里没有涵盖的任何基地，任何走出这个未经探索的迷宫的可能路径，任何未填写的表格上的任何空白。
But the stakes of involuntary separation seemed to keep getting higher.
但非自愿分离的风险似乎越来越高。
The more time passed, the more Geirid learned.
时间越长，盖里德学到的东西就越多。
A few weeks from the deadline, Geirid found out about an alarming detail buried in a memo from the Department of Defense.
距离截止日期还有几周，盖里德发现了国防部一份备忘录中隐藏的令人震惊的细节。
It said that if officers-- Geirid is an officer, as lieutenant commander-- if officers did not self-identify, when they were eventually discharged, they'd get a special code assigned to them.
它说，如果军官——盖里德是一名军官，担任中尉——如果军官没有自我表明身份，当他们最终退役时，他们会得到一个分配给他们的特殊代码。
It would go on their DD214.
它将安装在他们的 DD214 上。
That's a piece of paper that summarizes your military service.
这是一张总结你的兵役经历的纸。
It's an official document.
这是一份官方文件。
Geirid likened it to a birth certificate.
盖里德将其比作出生证明。
You show it for jobs or to prove you've served.
您出示它是为了找工作或证明您已经服务过。
A JKQ code means serious misconduct.
JKQ 代码意味着严重不当行为。
BDU means alcohol abuse.
BDU 的意思是酗酒。
The code for trans officers who failed to come forward?
未能挺身而出的跨性别官员的代码？
JDK.
JDK。
And so JDK is going to essentially designate us as national security risks.
因此，JDK 本质上会将我们指定为国家安全风险。
What?
什么？
Geirid Yeah.
盖里德 是的。
And so it was sort of buried in there, and we didn't really know what to make of it.
所以它有点埋在那里，我们真的不知道该怎么处理它。
And the lawyers got into it.
律师也介入其中。
And it was like, oh, this isn't good.
就好像，哦，这不好。
And it was like, oh, shit, this is actually really bad.
就好像，哦，妈的，这实际上真的很糟糕。
And it just feels so unnecessary.
而且感觉完全没有必要。
Like, if you don't self-identify, if you don't make it easy on us, and if you drag this out and make us come and find you, we're going to make it as painful as possible for you and as risky as possible for you.
比如说，如果你不自我认同，如果你不让我们轻松，如果你拖延时间让我们来找你，我们会让你尽可能痛苦，也尽可能冒险。
That's the message, I think.
我想这就是信息。
The JDK code would make it hard or impossible to get any kind of job where you'd need a national security clearance, which is the kind of job a lot of people hoped to get after they were kicked out.
JDK 代码将使您很难或不可能获得任何需要国家安全许可的工作，而这是很多人在被开除后希望获得的工作。
As it was all kind of sinking in, it was really hurtful and felt very scary.
因为一切都陷入了困境，真的很受伤，而且感觉很可怕。
But honestly, the next-- like, a day or two later, I just started feeling really indignant.
但老实说，接下来——比如，一两天后，我开始感到非常愤怒。
And I was like, you know what?
我当时想，你知道吗？
That sounds like a cool new tattoo, JDK.
JDK，这听起来像是一个很酷的新纹身。
Did that make you want to do anything differently, knowing about this code?
了解这段代码后，这是否让您想做一些不同的事情？
I guess it just sort of steeled my resolve to not self-identify.
我想这只是坚定了我不自我认同的决心。
And I'm going to try to make my exit from the military as much on my terms as possible.
我将尽可能按照自己的意愿退出军队。
I'd never heard Geirid sound like this, just openly defiant.
我从来没有听过盖里德发出这样的声音，公然挑衅。
But I was worried this was all going to end in the worst-case scenario for her.
但我担心这一切都会以对她来说最坏的情况结束。
She'd get singled out, punished for not self-identifying, and walk away with nothing.
她会被单独挑出来，因为没有自我认同而受到惩罚，然后一无所获。
It was getting hard to see it going some other way.
很难看到它会以其他方式发展。
The deadline came and went.
截止日期来了又去了。
Geirid was still going to work, waiting.
盖里德仍然要去工作，等待着。
But nothing happened.
但什么也没发生。
One by one, almost all the trans service members she knew were put on leave, pending separation.
她认识的几乎所有跨性别军人都一一被停职，等待离职。
One guy Geirid knew, who had also chosen involuntary, got a notice after the deadline passed.
盖里德认识的一个人，也选择了非自愿，在截止日期过后收到了通知。
He's an instructor at West Point, was up for a promotion, but his name got flagged, and he was put on leave.
他是西点军校的一名教官，本来想升职，但他的名字被标记了，他被停职了。
I couldn't understand why Geirid's name hadn't been flagged too, but it hadn't.
我不明白为什么盖里德的名字没有被标记，但事实确实如此。
She'd drive to work, check in, sit at her desk, look around.
她会开车去上班，办理登机手续，坐在办公桌前，环顾四周。
I'm really starting to feel kind of like, out on this island while everybody else is back on the mainland.
我真的开始感觉有点像，在这个岛上，而其他人都回到了大陆。
And I'm like, am I the only one out here?
我想，我是这里唯一的人吗？
Geirid worried that somebody at her duty station would report her for continuing to show up.
盖里德担心她的工作地点有人会举报她继续出现。
At work, she started avoiding the bathroom and the locker rooms, changing in her office or in a closed bathroom stall.
在工作中，她开始避开浴室和更衣室，在办公室或封闭的浴室隔间里更衣。
She didn't want to raise any alarms.
她不想引起任何警报。
A few weeks later, Geirid got an order to start working from home.
几周后，盖里德接到命令开始在家工作。
It was like one more door closing-- still have a job, can't show up at work.
这就好像又关上了一扇门——还有工作，不能上班。
But she'd just work from home as long as she could.
但她会尽可能在家工作。
And then, in the beginning of August, Geirid texted me.
然后，八月初，盖里德给我发短信。
She had some news.
她有一些消息。
She said I should call her.
她说我应该给她打电话。
It was gigantic news, it turned out.
事实证明，这是一个巨大的新闻。
And it was a good thing.
这是一件好事。
Her medical retirement had come through.
她的医疗退休已经结束。
When I called, it sounded like she was afraid to get too excited or she'd jinx it.
当我打电话时，听起来她好像害怕太兴奋，否则就会发霉。
It's slowly been sinking in.
已经慢慢的陷入了。
And I've been getting more positive feels about it every day as it's sort of sinking in, the reality of what this means.
我每天都对它有更积极的感觉，因为它有点深入，这意味着什么。
Here's what it means.
这就是它的意思。
Geirid would get a pension for the rest of her life, health insurance for life for her and Chrissy and for both kids until they were adults.
盖里德将获得余生的养老金，她和克丽丝以及两个孩子的终身健康保险，直到他们成年。
She'd be a regular retired veteran, no special JDK code branding her.
她将是一名普通的退休老兵，没有特殊的 JDK 代码来标记她。
She'd get an honorable discharge.
她会光荣退伍。
And so I've got somewhere between, say, like 50 days to 90 days to where I'll be a civilian.
因此，我还有 50 天到 90 天的时间才能成为一名平民。
Oh my gosh.
天哪。
Geirid I know.
盖里德我知道。
Holy shit.
天哪。
Like, that's really soon.
就像，那真的很快了。
Turns out, somehow, the best-case scenario in all this was that Geirid had been deemed a permanently and fully disabled veteran.
事实证明，不知何故，最好的情况是盖里德被视为一名永久完全残疾的退伍军人。
Chrissy's sitting next to me now.
克丽丝现在坐在我旁边。
She said that she's worried I'm going to use it to get out of doing dishes, [LAUGHS] which I am now.
她说她担心我会用它来逃避洗碗，[笑]我现在就是这样。
Chrissy, what do you feel about all this?
克丽丝，你对这一切有何感想？
I feel really lucky, to be honest with you.
老实说，我感到非常幸运。
It took a minute for it to sink in with me, as it usually does.
像往常一样，我花了一分钟才理解它。
I noticed that that day, I felt happy.
我注意到那天我感到很高兴。
[LAUGHS] There's a moment in the movie Bad Guys where the wolf shakes his tail because he did something nice, and his tail wags.
[笑]电影《坏家伙们》中有一个场景，狼因为做了好事而摇尾巴，然后他的尾巴就摇了。
I, like, turned around, and my tail was wagging.
我，就像，转过身来，我的尾巴在摇动。
It's like, what is this?
就像，这是什么？
So how do you square this kind of process of persecution for who you are leading to this outcome?
那么，你如何调整这种迫害过程，让你导致这样的结果呢？
I was thinking about a way to answer a question like that while Chrissy was talking, and I don't have a good answer.
当克丽丝说话时，我正在思考如何回答这样的问题，但我没有一个好的答案。
I think this is all really raw right now.
我认为现在这一切都还很原始。
So the most clear way to look at it, I think, at this moment--
所以我认为目前最清晰的看待它的方式是——
Geirid started talking about this outcome in a really passive way, as if she and Chrissy hadn't been meticulously planning and mapping out all the different options, as if she hadn't pushed to submit all the paperwork for the medical retirement and stayed on top of every detail.
盖里德开始以一种非常被动的方式谈论这个结果，就好像她和克丽丝没有仔细计划和制定所有不同的选择，就好像她没有推动提交医疗退休的所有文件并掌握每一个细节。
It was fortuitous that the medical review board process got started before all of the policies started rolling out after the executive order.
幸运的是，在行政命令发布后所有政策开始推出之前，医学审查委员会程序就开始了。
Yeah.
是的。
I mean, that was a hope, to try to get that option on the table.
我的意思是，这是一个希望，试图将这个选项摆上桌面。
[CLEARS THROAT] Hi.
[清嗓子]嗨。
I think that Geirid's trying to sound very circumspect and not like we made this happen 100,000% and everybody just needs to deal with it.
我认为 Geirid 试图让自己听起来非常谨慎，而不是我们让这种情况 100,000% 发生，每个人只需要处理它。
But we have been gaming this.
但我们一直在玩这个游戏。
What?
什么？
Like, not gaming, but we've built a future.
就像，不是游戏，但我们已经建立了未来。
We knew this shit would happen.
我们知道这件事会发生。
And we worked to build a future based on-- we worked to make lemonade out of these fucking lemons.
我们努力建立一个基于的未来——我们努力用这些该死的柠檬制作柠檬水。
And then you get to have a pension and be rewarded for the sacrifice you made to join the military to take care of us.
然后你就可以获得养老金，并因为你参军照顾我们而做出的牺牲而得到奖励。
I mean--
我的意思是——
I just don't like the gaming.
我只是不喜欢玩游戏。
That sounds like--
听起来就像——
That's not sneaky.
这并不偷偷摸摸。
That's not Bad News Bears.
这不是坏消息熊。
You made a plan.
你制定了一个计划。
And our plan worked.
我们的计划成功了。
That's OK.
没关系。
Oh, god.
哦，上帝。
Chrissy What?
克莉丝 什么？
Give yourself some credit.
给自己一些信任。
I'm feeling like I'm still drawing a military paycheck, so I cannot agree or disagree with anything my wife just said on the record.
我感觉我还在领军饷，所以我无法同意或不同意我妻子刚刚记录在案的任何内容。
[LAUGHS] We are just protecting our family.
[笑]我们只是在保护我们的家人。
Yeah, strategically and methodically marching through the halls of a very complex bureaucratic system until we found the right door to open.
是的，战略性地、有条理地穿过一个非常复杂的官僚系统的大厅，直到我们找到合适的门打开。
And now we're going to walk through it.
现在我们将详细介绍它。
The happy solution that Geirid and Chrissy found, it was pretty rare.
盖里德和克丽丝找到的令人愉快的解决方案是相当罕见的。
Most of the people I talked to got discharged over the winter.
我采访过的大多数人在冬天都出院了。
And even the ones who pivoted really fast-- started school or found a new job-- they told me they were struggling and disoriented, wrecks, mental health wise.
即使是那些转变得非常快的人——开始上学或找到新工作——他们也告诉我，他们正在挣扎、迷失方向、崩溃、心理健康。
Geirid and Chrissy's safe landing was like one bright spot, borne out of skill and a smile from some god of fortune that most people weren't going to get.
盖里德和克丽丝的安全着陆就像一个亮点，这得益于技巧和幸运之神的微笑，而大多数人都无法得到这一点。
There are so many efforts right now by our federal government to pry entire groups of people away from their jobs, their communities, their lives as they've been living them.
我们的联邦政府现在做出了很多努力，试图将整个群体从他们的工作、他们的社区、他们一直以来的生活中夺走。
This particular effort to purge trans people from the military stands out to me, not only because all of them are serving their country, making sacrifices so many people have no interest in making, but also because who is allowed in the military tends to be a kind of signal for the rest of America.
这种将跨性别者从军队中清除的特殊努力对我来说很引人注目，不仅因为他们所有人都在为自己的国家服务，做出了很多人没有兴趣做出的牺牲，而且还因为谁被允许参军往往对美国其他地区来说是一种信号。
Who is allowed to wear our uniform?
谁可以穿我们的制服？
Who belongs here?
谁属于这里？
Who are we as a country?
我们作为一个国家是谁？
And for the last year, the government has been putting on a pretty flashy show of forcing out this one group of people only because of who they are.
去年，政府一直在上演一场相当华丽的表演，仅仅因为他们是谁就将他们驱逐出境。
There have, of course, been decades of case law making that extremely hard to do because it's discriminatory and unconstitutional.
当然，几十年来的判例法使得这一点变得极其困难，因为它具有歧视性和违宪性。
But here we are.
但我们到了。
Geirid finally retired a few weeks ago.
盖里德终于在几周前退休了。
She and Chrissy thought about having her ceremony at a gay bar but decided just to do something small with family.
她和克丽丝考虑在同性恋酒吧举行仪式，但决定只和家人一起做一些小事。
They're planning a trip to Germany later this summer for them and the kids, you know, keeping their options open.
他们计划在今年夏天晚些时候为他们和孩子们去德国旅行，你知道，保留他们的选择余地。
That story was produced by Miki Meek and edited by Nancy Updike and Chana Joffe-Walt.
该故事由 Miki Meek 制作，Nancy Updike 和 Chana Joffe-Walt 编辑。
Act Three, Beast Friends Furr-Ever.
第三幕，野兽朋友毛茸茸的。
To end our show today, another story of two people facing a huge disruption to life as they know it.
今天我们的节目结束时，我们再讲一个关于两个人的故事，他们的生活面临着巨大的破坏。
But instead of making a million different plans, they have just one single, very consequential choice to make.
但他们并没有制定一百万个不同的计划，而是只需要做出一个非常重要的选择。
It's from a new book of short stories by Rachel Khong.
这是雷切尔·孔（Rachel Khong）的一本新短篇小说集。
In this one, God has given up on humans.
在这一次，上帝已经放弃了人类。
It starts like this.
事情是这样开始的。
"And on the 2,556,750,000th day, God reconsidered what he had made and decided that the world would be much better off if humans were other animals entirely, if there were no such thing as human beings at all." And then God gives every single person one choice.
“在第 2,556,750,000 天，上帝重新考虑了他的创造，并决定，如果人类完全是其他动物，如果根本没有人类这样的东西，世界会变得更好。”然后上帝给每个人一个选择。
Here's the story.
故事是这样的。
Jade was at her best friend Ruby's house when both of their phones pinged with the news, like it was an Amber Alert or a hurricane warning.
当杰德在她最好的朋友鲁比家时，他们的两个手机都响起了这条消息，就像是安珀警报或飓风警告一样。
At the end of the month, God declared, all people would be transformed.
到了月底，上帝宣布，所有人都会被改变。
Ruby, Jade, and the rest of humanity would have 30 days to select what they wanted to spend the rest of their lives as.
鲁比、杰德和其他人类将有 30 天的时间来选择他们想做什么来度过余生。
They had the entire animal kingdom to choose from.
他们有整个动物王国可供选择。
After the deadline, humans would not exist.
截止日期过后，人类将不复存在。
Jade was straining pasta over Ruby's sink.
杰德正在鲁比的水槽上过滤意大利面。
The hot steam rose into her face, a carbohydrate facial.
热蒸汽升到她的脸上，这是一张碳水化合物面部护理。
Ruby stirred the pot of sauce over the stove.
鲁比在炉子上搅拌着一锅酱汁。
"What animals have friends?" Jade asked Ruby.
“什么动物有朋友？”杰德问鲁比。
"Cetaceans are capable of true friendship," Ruby read.
“鲸类动物能够建立真正的友谊，”鲁比读道。
"Higher primates, elephants, camelids, certain members of the horse family."
“高等灵长类动物、大象、骆驼科动物、马科动物的某些成员。”
"And llamas and alpacas." They sat down to eat their dinner.
“还有美洲驼和羊驼。”他们坐下来吃晚饭。
Ruby poured their wine into her favorite little museum-store glasses, which were shaped like egg cups.
鲁比将他们的酒倒入她最喜欢的博物馆商店小玻璃杯中，这些玻璃杯的形状像蛋杯。
"That one I know," Jade laughed.
“那个我认识，”杰德笑道。
Elephants and parrots.
大象和鹦鹉。
Deer, moose, bats.
鹿、驼鹿、蝙蝠。
"So elephants have friends and get drunk," Ruby mused.
“所以大象有朋友，也会喝醉，”鲁比若有所思地说。
Jade twirled spaghetti around her fork and conveyed it to her mouth.
杰德用叉子转动着意大利面，然后送进嘴里。
"What'd you put in this?
“你在这里面放了什么？
It's so good."
太好了。”
"Fish sauce.
“鱼露。
You like it?" "I'm going to miss your cooking."
你喜欢吗？” “我会想念你做的饭菜的。”
"You won't, though," Ruby said, laughing sadly.
“不过你不会的，”鲁比悲伤地笑道。
"I mean, that's the kind of beautiful thing."
“我的意思是，这就是一种美丽的东西。”
For the first two weeks after the announcement, political bickering paused.
消息公布后的头两周，政治争论暂停了。
Instead, zoologists were in high demand, appearing on television shows, looking a bit confused by their newfound fame.
相反，动物学家的需求量很大，他们出现在电视节目中，看起来对他们新获得的名声感到有点困惑。
Nature programs saw a surge in viewership and revenue.
自然节目的收视率和收入激增。
"What's your choice?" people asked one another.
“你的选择是什么？”人们互相问道。
Everyone everywhere was trying to make sense of things, ferret out the superior choice.
世界各地的每个人都在试图弄清楚事情的意义，寻找更好的选择。
Ruby thought it was ludicrous.
鲁比觉得这很可笑。
The point was to be freed of trivial human concerns, and yet, humans were already trying to extrapolate based on human social conventions, like romance and marriage.
重点是要摆脱人类琐碎的担忧，然而，人类已经在尝试根据人类社会习俗（例如浪漫和婚姻）进行推断。
Penguins were well publicized as animals that mated it for life.
企鹅作为终生交配的动物而广为人知。
Many, many people wanted to be penguins.
很多很多人想成为企鹅。
But were we going to have a world full of penguins when it was getting so warm?
但是当天气变得如此温暖时，我们的世界会充满企鹅吗？
28 days before the deadline, Jade and Ruby met at their favorite old movie theater.
截止日期前 28 天，Jade 和 Ruby 在他们最喜欢的老电影院见面。
At the concession stand, Jade ordered a large popcorn from an acne-riddled teen named Halvor.
在小卖部，杰德向一位长满粉刺、名叫哈沃的青少年订购了一大份爆米花。
"What's your choice?" Jade asked Halvor.
“你的选择是什么？”杰德问哈尔沃。
It was small talk now.
现在只是闲聊了。
"Electric eel," Halvor said.
“电鳗，”哈尔沃说。
"Very cool," Jade replied.
“非常酷，”杰德回答道。
In the darkened theater, Ruby produced the friends' preferred condiments from her purse-- furikake, sea salt, a double-bagged baby food jar of melted real butter.
在漆黑的剧院里，鲁比从钱包里拿出了朋友们最喜欢的调味品——香松、海盐、一罐装有融化的真正黄油的双袋婴儿食品罐。
They had been friends since they were six years old.
他们从六岁起就一直是朋友。
That was 30 years of being friends.
那是30年的朋友关系。
At six, they'd made perfume together by steeping rose petals in water.
六岁时，他们一起将玫瑰花瓣浸泡在水中来制作香水。
At 12, they practiced freak dancing.
12岁时，他们开始练习怪胎舞蹈。
At 18, Ruby held Jade's hair back as she puked from too many Jell-O shots.
18 岁那年，杰德因为喝了太多果冻而呕吐，鲁比将她的头发拢在脑后。
They knew which movie the other wanted to see without asking.
他们不用问就知道对方想看哪部电影。
The friends emerge from the darkened theater, their eyes squinting to adjust to the light.
朋友们从黑暗的剧院里出来，眯着眼睛适应光线。
Ruby loved the movie.
鲁比很喜欢这部电影。
But she could tell from the neutral expression on Jade's face that Jade hadn't liked the film, so she tempered her enthusiasm.
但她从杰德脸上平静的表情看出，杰德不喜欢这部电影，所以她收敛了自己的热情。
It happened more frequently than you would think, that someone you loved loved different things than you.
你所爱的人所爱的事物与你所爱的事物不同，这种情况比你想象的要频繁得多。
At their favorite pho restaurant, Jade ordered for the both of them.
在他们最喜欢的河粉餐厅，杰德为他们俩点了菜。
"Animals that get the most sleep," Ruby said, "are sloths, koalas, bats, armadillos, cats."
“睡眠最多的动物，”鲁比说，“是树懒、考拉、蝙蝠、犰狳和猫。”
"You know, bats sleep a lot and get drunk, so those are pluses," said Jade.
“你知道，蝙蝠睡得很多，而且会喝醉，所以这些都是优点，”杰德说。
"But they gross me out."
“但他们让我感到恶心。”
"You're only finding them gross because of your humanness.
“你只是因为你的人性而觉得它们很恶心。
You wouldn't find yourself gross as a bat.
你不会发现自己像蝙蝠一样恶心。
You wouldn't, like, consider yourself in any reflective surfaces."
你不会认为自己处在任何反光表面上。”
Their pho arrived, pink lily pads of rare meat, thin rings of white onion.
他们的河粉到了，粉红色的百合花，稀有的肉，薄薄的白洋葱圈。
They were both artists, Jade a painter and Ruby a novelist, but Ruby had always been the more practical of the two.
他们都是艺术家，杰德是画家，鲁比是小说家，但鲁比一直是两人中更实际的一个。
It was what it was.
事情就是这样。
Ruby disliked her own practicality.
鲁比不喜欢自己的实际。
While everyone was busy being upset that they would be transformed into non-Homo sapiens, Ruby had come up with a spreadsheet of animals, listing the pros and cons of each.
当每个人都忙着为自己会变成非智人而感到不安时，鲁比已经拿出了一份动物电子表格，列出了每种动物的优缺点。
"Don't make fun of me," Jade admitted, "but I'm thinking of seeing an astrologer."
“别取笑我，”杰德承认，“但我正在考虑去看占星家。”
"Jade!" Ruby said, shocked.
“玉！”鲁比震惊地说。
"I knew I shouldn't mention it."
“我知道我不应该提起这件事。”
"No. I'm sorry.
“不。对不起。”
Of course you should.
当然你应该。
I'll be curious to hear what they think."
我很想听听他们的想法。”
Even though there was less than a month left of capitalism itself, businesses were still springing up, consultants who claimed to be able to look into your soul via your eyes and tell you exactly what animal you were meant to be.
尽管资本主义本身还剩下不到一个月的时间，但企业仍然如雨后春笋般涌现，顾问声称能够通过你的眼睛洞察你的灵魂，并准确地告诉你你应该成为什么样的动物。
"What animals experience sexual pleasure?" Jade asked Ruby.
“什么动物能感受到性快感？”杰德问鲁比。
"Dolphins, maybe." "Don't Dolphins seem so, I don't know, basic?
“也许是海豚。” “我不知道，海豚看起来不是很简单吗？
The golden retrievers of cetaceans."
鲸目动物中的金毛猎犬。”
"Definitely." Jade dipped a raw beansprout in sriracha.
“确实。”杰德将生豆芽浸入拉差酱中。
"We should be together, though, you and me.
“不过，我们应该在一起，你和我。
Don't you think?"
你不觉得吗？”
"Not as penguins," Ruby said.
“不像企鹅，”鲁比说。
"I refuse to be a penguin."
“我拒绝成为一只企鹅。”
"We won't be penguins." "I wonder if God would let us be rocks," Ruby joked.
“我们不会成为企鹅。” “我想知道上帝是否会让我们成为石头，”鲁比开玩笑说。
"Jade and Ruby, stay who we are, forever."
“杰德和鲁比，永远保持我们本来的样子。”
One week remained.
还剩一周时间。
Ruby wanted to bask in the most human things.
鲁比想要享受最人性化的事物。
What were they?
他们是什么？
To her, they were domestic tasks that most others found unspectacular-- cooking noodles, solving crossword puzzles, pumicing her rough feet, responding to emails with "Sorry for my delay in getting back to you." She even savored, for the first time, sitting in traffic on her way to Jade's apartment.
对她来说，这些都是大多数人认为平淡无奇的家务活——煮面条、解决填字游戏、磨磨她粗糙的脚、回复电子邮件“抱歉，我迟迟没有回复你”。她甚至第一次体会到在去杰德公寓的路上堵车的感觉。
"What's the most human thing we could do right now?" Jade asked.
“我们现在能做的最人性化的事情是什么？”杰德问道。
"Escape an escape room?
“逃出密室逃脱？
Bake a multilayered cake?"
烤多层蛋糕吗？”
Jade nodded.
杰德点点头。
"Let's bake a cake and do an escape room."
“我们来烤个蛋糕，然后玩个密室逃脱吧。”
They were frosting the cake when Jade, using the offset spatula to smooth the frosting around the cake sides, spoke up.
他们正在给蛋糕上糖霜，杰德说话了，她正在用抹刀抹平蛋糕两侧的糖霜。
"I think I want to be a whale," Jade said.
“我想我想成为一条鲸鱼，”杰德说。
She seemed nervous to be saying this out loud.
她似乎很紧张大声说出这句话。
And Ruby turned, surprised, to her friend.
鲁比惊讶地转向她的朋友。
It was the first time either of them had expressed a real desire.
这是他们第一次表达出真正的愿望。
Until that moment, they'd only brought up possibilities in a joking way.
在那之前，他们只是以开玩笑的方式提出了可能性。
"Oh, wow," Ruby said.
“哦，哇，”鲁比说。
She tried not to seem too surprised or at all alarmed.
她尽量不显得太惊讶或惊慌。
"What kind?"
“什么样的？”
"Bowhead whales live to 200." "I don't know if I want to live that long," Ruby said slowly.
“弓头鲸的寿命可达 200 岁。” “我不知道我是否想活那么久，”鲁比慢慢地说。
"Really?" Jade asked.
“真的吗？”杰德问道。
"Don't you think it would be fun, being in the same pod for 200 years?"
“你不觉得在同一个吊舱里待上200年会很有趣吗？”
"I would love to be in your pod," Ruby assured.
“我很乐意加入你的小组，”鲁比保证道。
"What if we chose a shorter-lived whale?
“如果我们选择寿命较短的鲸鱼怎么办？
Blue whales only live 80 or 90." Jade's voice had a tinge of desperation in it.
蓝鲸只能活 80 或 90 岁。”杰德的声音里带着一丝绝望。
"Or beluga whales, they live to 50.
“或者白鲸，它们能活到 50 岁。
Plus, they're cute."
另外，它们很可爱。”
"Don't be like that, Ruby," Jade said.
“别这样，鲁比，”杰德说。
Tears were gathering in her eyes.
她的眼里充满了泪水。
"Be honest with me.
“对我诚实。
Could you be a whale?"
你会是鲸鱼吗？”
"I don't know, Jade," Ruby said.
“我不知道，杰德，”鲁比说。
"I have to think about it.
“我必须考虑一下。
I'm sorry."
对不起。”
They sliced and ate the cake in silence.
他们默默地切着蛋糕，吃着。
When it came time for their escape room appointment, Jade told Ruby she wasn't in the mood.
当他们预约密室逃脱时，杰德告诉鲁比她没有心情。
"Actually, I think I'd rather be alone right now," Jade said.
“事实上，我想我现在宁愿一个人呆着，”杰德说。
"OK," Ruby said.
“好吧，”鲁比说。
"Of course.
“当然。
No problem." She took her car keys from Jade's kitchen counter.
没问题。”她从杰德的厨房柜台上拿走了车钥匙。
Then she hugged her friend, who returned her embrace stiffly.
然后她拥抱了她的朋友，朋友僵硬地回应了她的拥抱。
All her life, Ruby had felt like a weirdo.
鲁比一生都觉得自己像个怪人。
What other people had-- groups of friends, romantic partners, weddings, where they were treated like celebrities, spacious houses, adorable and well-behaved children-- Ruby had never wanted.
其他人拥有的——一群朋友、浪漫的伴侣、婚礼、像名人一样的待遇、宽敞的房子、可爱乖巧的孩子——鲁比从来不想要。
She wasn't shirking these things as a point of identity, but simply because she had always viewed them as extraneous, empty.
她并不是把这些东西当作一种身份来逃避，而只是因为她一直认为它们是无关紧要的、空洞的。
Only two things made her feel like she wasn't completely inhuman.
只有两件事让她觉得自己并非完全没有人性。
One was working, immersing herself in her writing.
一个人正在工作，沉浸在写作中。
The other was being around Jade.
另一个是在杰德身边。
Only Jade had witnessed Ruby in every iteration of her life and not fled.
只有杰德见证了鲁比一生的每一次轮回，并且没有逃跑。
Why couldn't Ruby agree to be a whale?
为什么鲁比不同意成为鲸鱼？
It could be so simple.
事情本来可以这么简单。
32 hours remained.
还剩 32 小时。
Jade and Ruby carpooled to their friend Cassandra's house.
杰德和鲁比拼车去他们的朋友卡桑德拉家。
In their larger friend circle, everyone had been throwing extravagant parties, trying to spend all the money they could before money no longer mattered.
在他们更大的朋友圈里，每个人都在举办奢侈的聚会，试图在钱不再重要之前花掉所有的钱。
Last week, they attended a party where a turducken sat on an enormous doily.
上周，他们参加了一个聚会，一只火鸭坐在一块巨大的桌布上。
The host sliced neatly into it with an electric carving knife, exposing the wonders within, a breathtaking meat geode.
主人用电动切肉刀整齐地切开，露出里面的奇景，一个令人叹为观止的肉晶洞。
Cassandra welcomed them.
卡桑德拉欢迎他们。
She wore a silk dress that draped beautifully across her round, uniquely human breasts.
她穿着一件丝绸连衣裙，美丽地垂落在她圆形、独特的人类乳房上。
Servers circulated with champagne flutes and crystal dishes of the finest beluga caviar.
服务员端着香槟酒杯和盛有最好的白鲸鱼子酱的水晶盘子。
Jade and Ruby were pleased to see their friends enjoying themselves, but as usual, the two of them wound up talking to each other.
杰德和鲁比很高兴看到他们的朋友玩得很开心，但像往常一样，两人最终开始互相交谈。
Ruby's parents planned to be turtle doves, and her younger brother would be a partridge.
鲁比的父母计划成为斑鸠，而她的弟弟则成为一只鹧鸪。
They were irritated with her for not wanting to be a bird along with them.
他们对她生气，因为她不想和他们一起成为一只鸟。
Ruby's mother was so bereft that she wouldn't speak to her.
鲁比的母亲非常失落，不肯和她说话。
"What are you thinking?" Jade asked finally.
“你在想什么？”杰德终于问道。
The friends had been avoiding the question all night, wanting to enjoy the party.
朋友们整晚都在回避这个问题，想要享受这个聚会。
"I think," Ruby said slowly, watching her friend's face, "I think I want to be a turtle."
“我想，”鲁比慢慢地说，看着她朋友的脸，“我想我想成为一只乌龟。”
Ruby had abandoned her spreadsheet.
Ruby 放弃了她的电子表格。
She couldn't explain it, but Ruby felt, deep in her bones, that she wanted to be a turtle.
她无法解释，但鲁比从骨子里感觉到，她想成为一只乌龟。
Jade loaded a potato chip with caviar, placed the entirety of it on her tongue, and chewed for a long moment.
杰德将鱼子酱夹在薯片里，整个放在舌头上，咀嚼了好一会儿。
"But turtles live even longer than whales," Jade said, as neutrally as she could manage.
“但是海龟的寿命甚至比鲸鱼还要长，”杰德尽可能保持中立地说道。
"I guess it wasn't about the lifespan at all," Ruby admitted.
“我想这根本与寿命无关，”鲁比承认。
"I don't know if I can explain it."
“我不知道我能否解释一下。”
"A freshwater turtle?" "I don't think I want to be a sea turtle, unfortunately."
“淡水龟？” “不幸的是，我认为我不想成为一只海龟。”
"So we won't even be in the same body of water."
“所以我们甚至不会在同一个水体中。”
"I know, Jade.
“我知道，杰德。
I'm sorry.
对不起。
You can't let me hold you back from being a whale."
你不能让我阻止你成为鲸鱼。”
Jade said nothing.
杰德什么也没说。
"Please, please don't be mad at me," Ruby said.
“拜托，拜托不要生我的气，”鲁比说。
"I couldn't stand it if you were mad at me in our last--" she looked at her watch-- "29 hours."
“如果你在我们最后——”她看了看手表——“29小时，我就无法忍受。”
Jade said nothing still.
杰德仍然没有说话。
"I'm just sad," Jade said finally.
“我只是很难过，”杰德最后说道。
"I'll miss you."
“我会想念你。”
"You won't actually--" "Stop it, Ruby," Jade said angrily.
“你实际上不会——” “住手，鲁比，”杰德生气地说。
"Don't tell me I won't be able to miss." Tears fell down her cheeks in pronounced, dramatic rivulets.
“别告诉我我不会错过。”泪水从她的脸颊上流下来，形成明显的、戏剧性的小溪。
"I will miss you."
“我会想念你。”
"And I'll miss you, Jade," Ruby said.
“我会想念你的，杰德，”鲁比说。
She told herself she wouldn't, but she started crying too.
她告诉自己她不会，但她也开始哭了。
Jade slept over at Ruby's.
杰德在鲁比家过夜。
In the morning, they indulged in a hungover feast of painkillers and waffles and bacon, which Ruby made extra crispy, the way Jade liked.
早上，他们尽情享受了一顿解酒大餐，里面有止痛药、华夫饼和培根，鲁比把它们做得特别脆，就像杰德喜欢的那样。
Afterward, they climbed onto Ruby's roof and threw dirty dishes off the side of it because they didn't need to wash them anymore.
之后，他们爬上鲁比的屋顶，把脏盘子扔到一边，因为他们不需要再洗了。
The dishes shattered satisfyingly on the asphalt.
盘子在柏油路上令人满意地碎裂。
That evening, Ruby and Jade visited their families.
那天晚上，鲁比和杰德拜访了他们的家人。
At the front door, Ruby hugged her father and brother.
在前门，鲁比拥抱了她的父亲和兄弟。
Her mother was still too upset to speak with her, so Ruby left a handwritten note that she hoped sufficiently expressed how much she loved her.
她的母亲仍然心烦意乱，无法与她说话，所以鲁比留下了一张手写的便条，她希望充分表达她有多么爱她。
Back at Ruby's house, they popped popcorn and watched Chungking Express.
回到鲁比家，他们一边爆米花，一边看《重庆森林》。
Over the years, they'd found the film charming and then annoying and now charming again.
多年来，他们发现这部电影很迷人，然后很烦人，现在又很迷人。
They brushed and flossed their teeth, not because they had to, but because sleeping with clean teeth felt nice.
他们刷牙并用牙线清洁牙齿，并不是因为他们必须这样做，而是因为带着干净的牙齿睡觉感觉很好。
Lights out, lying side by side, they began to talk the way they had when they were girls having sleepovers.
熄灯后，他们并肩躺着，开始像女孩们在外过夜时那样说话。
Earlier that day, they had texted their final decisions to God-- whale for Jade and turtle for Ruby-- and received brown thumbs-up emojis.
当天早些时候，他们将最终决定发短信给了上帝——鲸鱼决定玉石，乌龟决定红宝石——并收到了棕色的竖起大拇指表情符号。
At 4:00 in the morning their time, all of humanity would evaporate.
在他们的时间凌晨 4:00，全人类都会蒸发。
Each person would be transformed and placed in a suitable habitat.
每个人都会被改造并安置在合适的栖息地。
"Remember that time we raced snails?" Jade asked.
“还记得那次我们和蜗牛赛跑吗？”杰德问道。
Ruby could hear her smiling in the dark.
黑暗中，鲁比能听到她的微笑。
"And my mom got so mad because it was dinnertime and the snails were too slow?"
“我妈妈很生气，因为现在是晚餐时间，蜗牛爬得太慢了？”
"I remember!" said Ruby.
“我记住了！”鲁比说。
"And we brought them inside in our pockets to race in the bathtub."
“我们把它们放在口袋里，在浴缸里比赛。”
"Delilah and Joseph." "I can't believe you remember that."
“黛利拉和约瑟夫。” “我不敢相信你还记得那件事。”
They lay in the silence for a long moment.
他们静静地躺了很长一段时间。
"Do you want to be conscious when this happens," Ruby asked?
“当这种情况发生时，你想保持清醒吗？”鲁比问道？
"Or should we try to get some sleep?"
“或者我们应该试着睡一会儿？”
"I don't know either." There was another long silence.
“我也不知道。”又是一阵长时间的沉默。
There were so many things she needed to apologize for that she didn't even know where to begin-- the time she neglected her friend because she believed her work was paramount, the time she knew Jade was going through difficulties but hadn't known what to say.
她需要道歉的事情太多了，以至于她不知道从哪里开始——有一次她因为相信自己的工作最重要而忽略了她的朋友，有一次她知道杰德正在经历困难，但不知道该说什么。
During those periods, she'd cooked bulk meals for Jade and mopped Jade's floor.
在那段时间里，她为杰德做饭并拖拖杰德的地板。
She knew Jade would have liked verbal reassurance too, but Ruby didn't know how to offer it.
她知道杰德也会喜欢口头保证，但鲁比不知道如何提供。
She never would now.
她现在永远不会了。
"It's OK, Ruby." Jade's voice was clear and steady.
“没关系，露比。”杰德的声音清晰而稳定。
"I know.
“我知道。
I know you."
我认识你。”
"Me neither." "Should we do something else?"
“我也不。” “我们应该做点别的吗？”
Ruby stood up and turned the lights on.
Ruby站起来，打开了灯。
She peeked out the window and saw that other lights were on too.
她向窗外望去，发现其他的灯也都亮着。
"What about--" Ruby thought, "what about YouTube karaoke?"
“那……”鲁比想，“YouTube 卡拉 OK 怎么样？”
"I have a good one.
“我有一个很好的。
Hang on." Ruby angled her laptop away from Jade so that the song selection would be a surprise.
坚持住。”鲁比将她的笔记本电脑与杰德保持一定的角度，这样歌曲的选择就会令人惊讶。
The familiar notes of "Pachelbel's Canon in D" came on.
熟悉的“帕赫贝尔D大调卡农”的音符响起。
Jade broke into laughter, delighted.
杰德高兴地笑起来。
They didn't need the lyrics.
他们不需要歌词。
"La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la," Ruby and Jade sang together at the top of their lungs.
“啦啦啦啦啦啦啦啦啦啦啦”，鲁比和杰德一起用力地唱着。
They put their phones down and, with their arms around each other's waists, were singing as loudly as they had ever sung, when in a moment, a hundredth of a second, Ruby and Jade vaporized with the rest of humanity, atoms scattering, traveling, reassembling, Jade in the Pacific Ocean and Ruby in an Australian pond.
他们放下手机，双臂搂着对方的腰，像以前唱的那样大声唱歌，就在一瞬间，百分之一秒，Ruby 和 Jade 与其他人类一起蒸发了，原子分散、移动、重新组合，Jade 在太平洋中，Ruby 在澳大利亚池塘中。
But, as to be expected with such an enormous undertaking, there was a glitch.
但是，正如预期的那样，如此庞大的任务出现了一个小故障。
For a fraction of a second, Jade, in the body of a blue whale, and Ruby, in the body of a freshwater turtle, sustained human thoughts.
在一瞬间，蓝鲸体内的玉和淡水龟体内的红宝石维持着人类的思想。
Jade thought, Ruby.
杰德心想，鲁比。
And Ruby thought, Jade.
鲁比想，杰德。
Then God put his divine palm to his divine face and corrected the error.
然后上帝将他的神掌放在他的神脸上并纠正了错误。
From then on, Jade swam, and Ruby basked in the sun's warm rays.
从此，杰德开始游泳，而鲁比则沐浴在温暖的阳光下。
And God looked upon everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.
神看着他所造的一切，都甚好。
This story was read for us by actor Melissa Tang and produced by Diane Wu.
这个故事由演员 Melissa Tang 为我们朗读，并由 Diane Wu 制作。
You can read the full version of this story, "D-Day," in Rachel Khong's new book of short stories, My Dear You.
您可以在 Rachel Khong 的新短篇小说集《我亲爱的你》中阅读这个故事“诺曼底登陆”的完整版本。
Our program was produced today by Miki Meek and edited by Chana Joffe-Walt.
今天我们的节目由 Miki Meek 制作，由 Chana Joffe-Walt 编辑。
Editorial help from Sonner Kehrt.
Sonner Kehrt 的编辑帮助。
The people who put together today's show include Phia Bennin, Zoe Chace, Adriene Lilly, Stowe Nelson, Molly Marcello, Katherine Rae Mondo, Ruthie Petitto, Nadia Reiman, Marisa Robertson-Textor, Ryan Rumery, Lilly Sullivan, Frances Swanson, Christopher Swetala, and Julie Whitaker.
今天节目的制作人包括 Phia Bennin、Zoe Chace、Adriene Lilly、Stowe Nelson、Molly Marcello、Katherine Rae Mondo、Ruthie Petitto、Nadia Reiman、Marisa Robertson-Textor、Ryan Rumery、Lilly Sullivan、Frances Swanson、Christopher Swetala 和 Julie Whitaker。
Our managing editor is Sarah Abdurrahman.
我们的总编辑是萨拉·阿卜杜拉赫曼 (Sarah Abdurrahman)。
Our senior editor is David Kestenbaum.
我们的高级编辑是大卫·凯斯滕鲍姆。
Our executive editor is Emanuele Berry.
我们的执行编辑是 Emanuele Berry。
Special thanks to Lieutenant Nicolas Talbott, Commander Emily Shilling, Major Erica Vandal, major Julie Clavier, Captain Gordon Herrero, Senior Master Sergeant Jamie Hash, Specialist Wendelyn O, Priya Rashid, Emily Starbuck Gerson, Shannon Minter, Jennifer Levi, Amanda Johnston, Malkia Hutchinson, Lauren Gray, Sabrina Hyman, Kae Petrin, Yowei Shaw, Kyle Pulley, Lindsay Church and Minority Veterans of America, and the organization SPARTA Pride.
特别感谢尼古拉斯·塔尔博特中尉、艾米丽·希林中校、埃里卡·万达尔少校、朱莉·克拉维尔少校、戈登·埃雷罗上尉、杰米·哈什高级军士长、温德林·O专家、普里亚·拉希德、艾米丽·斯塔巴克·格尔森、香农·明特、詹妮弗·莱维、阿曼达·约翰斯顿、马尔基亚·哈钦森、劳伦·格雷、萨布丽娜·海曼、凯·佩特林、Yowei Shaw、凯尔普利、林赛教堂和美国少数族裔退伍军人组织，以及斯巴达骄傲组织。
This American Life is delivered to public radio stations by PRX, the Public Radio Exchange.
《美国生活》由公共广播电台 PRX 向公共广播电台播出。
Please consider supporting the show as a This American Life partner.
请考虑作为《This American Life》的合作伙伴来支持该节目。
You'll get regular, exclusive bonus episodes, listen ad free, and more.
您将获得定期的独家奖励剧集、无广告收听等等。
Join at thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners.
加入 thisamericanlife.org/lifepartners。
Thanks, as always, to my boss, Ira Glass.
一如既往地感谢我的老板艾拉·格拉斯 (Ira Glass)。
Movie night with him is always the same thing.
和他一起看电影之夜总是一样的。
I brainstorm a ton of ideas, but he only wants to watch his favorite movie for the thousandth time.
我集思广益了很多想法，但他只想看他最喜欢的电影第一千遍。
Any movie I suggest is met with the same response.
我推荐的任何电影都会得到同样的反应。
I'm Laura Starecheski.
我是劳拉·斯塔里切斯基。
We'll be back next week with more stories of This American Life.
下周我们将带来更多《美国生活》的故事。
This American Life is produced in collaboration with WBEZ Chicago and delivered to stations by PRX The Public Radio Exchange.
《This American Life》与 WBEZ Chicago 合作制作，并由 PRX 公共广播电台传送到各电台。