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The girls as well as the boys were divided into two sides. Each girl had her own pile of balls and was working for particular soldiers, and when a soldier fell wounded he would call out a girl's name, so that she could drag him away and dress his wounds as quickly as possible. I made weapons for Mike, and mine was the name he called. There was a keen alarm when the cry came, a wire zinging through your whole body, a fanatic feeling of devotion. When Mike was wounded he never opened his eyes. He lay limp and still while I pressed slimy large leaves to his forehead and throat and—pulling out his shirt—"to his pale tender stomach, with its sweet and vulnerable belly button.
同男孩子一样，女孩儿们也分成两队。每个女孩儿都有她自己的一堆球，并且为特定的士兵服务。当某个士兵受伤时，他将喊出某个特定女孩儿的名字，那么这个女孩便会把他拉走，然后以最快的速度帮他包扎伤口。我当然是帮迈克制造武器的，而当他受伤时所喊的女孩儿也是我。当他喊我的名字时，我会紧张万分，全身蹭地就像过了电似的，一种狂热的忠诚感油然而生。当迈克受伤的时候，他总是闭着双眼，无力地躺着，一动不动，我则把黏的大叶子拍在他的额头和喉咙上，还要撩起他的外衣，拍在他的白嫩的肚皮上，那上长着可爱而又没有任何保护的肚脐。
Nobody won. The game disintegrated, after a long while, in arguments and mass resurrections. We tried to get some of the clay off us, on the way home, by lying down flat in the river water. Our shorts and shirts were filthy and dripping.
没有胜利者。玩过一段时间，游戏就会在争执谁是胜者中结束。而刚刚在战争中阵亡的战士也都复活。在回家的路上，我们平躺在河水里，试着把身上的泥土冲掉。我们的外衣被弄得又脏又湿，一直滴着水。
One morning, of course, the job was all finished, the well capped, the pump reinstated, the fresh water marvelled at. And the truck did not come. There were two fewer chairs at the table for the noon meal. Mike and I had barely looked at each other during those meals. He liked to put ketchup on his bread. His father talked to my father, and the talk was mostly about wells, accidents, water tables. A serious man. All work, my father said. Yet he—Mike's father—ended nearly every speech with a laugh. The laugh had a lonely boom in it, as if he were still down the well.
一天早晨，工作全部完成，这是意料中的事。井上了盖子，水泵重新安装好了，大家对清新的井水赞叹不已。那辆卡车也没有来。中午吃饭时餐桌边少了两张椅子。回想以前我们吃饭时，迈克和我很少注视对方。他喜欢把番茄酱涂到面包上。迈克的父亲同我的父亲交谈，而内容大都关于掘井、事故以及地下水位。我父亲称他是一个严谨的人，他全心倾注于工作。迈克的父亲几乎每次说完话都会大笑。他的笑声深沉而孤独，带着回音，似乎还在井底干活一样。
It turned out that this job was the last one that the well-driller had to do in our part of the country. He had other jobs lined up elsewhere, and he wanted to get to them as soon as he could, while the good weather lasted. Living as he did, in the hotel, he could just pack up and be gone. And that was what he had done. I must have known that Mike would be leaving. Future absence I accepted—it was just that I had no idea, until Mike disappeared, of what absence could be like. How all my own territory would be altered, as if a landslide had gone through it and skimmed off all meaning except loss of Mike.
到头来，在我家干的这份活是这位掘井人在我们这片村上的最后一项活儿。其他地方还有很多活在等着他。所以他希望能趁着好天气，尽快赶到那去，像他这样住旅店的人，只需要收拾收拾行李就可以离开了，这也正是他所做的。我早就知道总有一天迈克将离开。我会接受他的离去，可直到迈克真的离开，我才理解他的离去意味着什么。我的世界发生了天翻地覆的变化，就像发生了山崩，除了迈克的离去，其余的所有记忆都被冲掉了。
