Daily English Jun 13,2011

Charlie had really been fairly nice genuinely pleased that I was coming with any degree of permanence. He'd school and was going to help me get about the whole thing.

He seemed to live with him for the first time already gotten me registered for high a car.

But it was sure to be awkward with Charlie. Neither of us was what anyone would call verbose, and I didn't know what there was to say regardless. I knew he was more

than a little confused by my decision — like my mother before me, I hadn't made a secret of my distaste for Forks.When I landed in Port Angeles, it was raining. I

didn't see it as an omen— just unavoidable. I'd already said my goodbyes to the sun.Charlie was waiting for me with the cruiser. This I was expecting, too.Charlie is

Police Chief Swan to the good people of Forks. My primary motivation behind buying a car, despite the scarcity of my funds, was that I refused to be driven around town

in a car with red and blue lights on top. Nothing slows down traffic like a cop.

Charlie gave me an awkward, one-armed hug when I stumbled my way off the plane."It's good to see you, Bells," he said, smiling as he automatically caught and steadied

me. "You haven't changed much. How's Renée?""Mom's fine. It's good to see you, too, Dad." I wasn't allowed to call him Charlie to his face.I had only a few bags. Most

of my Arizona clothes were too permeable for Washington. My mom and I had pooled our resources to supplement my winter wardrobe, but it was still scanty. It all fit

easily into the trunk of the cruiser.
"I found a good car for you, really cheap," he announced when we were strapped in."What kind of car?" I was suspicious of the way he said "good car for you" as opposed

to just "good car."
"Well, it's a truck actually, a Chevy."
"Where did you find it?"
"Do you remember Billy Black down at La Push?" La Push is the tiny Indian reservation on the coast.
"No."
"He used to go fishing with us during the summer," Charlie prompted.
That would explain why I didn't remember him. I do a good job of blocking painful, unnecessary things from my memory.
"He's in a wheelchair now," Charlie continued when I didn't respond, "so he can't drive anymore, and he offered to sell me his truck cheap."
"What year is it?" I could see from his change of expression that this was the question he was hoping I wouldn't ask.
"Well, Billy's done a lot of work on the engine — it's only a few years old, really."
I hoped he didn't think so little of me as to believe I would give up that easily. "When did he buy it?"
"He bought it in 1984, I think."
"Did he buy it new?"
"Well, no. I think it was new in the early sixties — or late fifties at the earliest," he admitted sheepishly.
"Ch — Dad, I don't really know anything about cars. I wouldn't be able to fix it if anything went wrong, and I couldn't afford a mechanic…"
"Really, Bella, the thing runs great. They don't build them like that anymore."
The thing, I thought to myself… it had possibilities — as a nickname, at the very least.
"How cheap is cheap?" After all, that was the part I couldn't compromise on.
"Well, honey, I kind of already bought it for you. As a homecoming gift."
Charlie peeked sideways at me with a hopeful expression.Wow. Free.
"You didn't need to do that, Dad. I was going to buy myself a car."
"I don't mind. I want you to be happy here." He was looking ahead at the road when he said this. Charlie wasn't comfortable with expressing his emotions out loud. I

inherited that from him. So I was looking straight ahead as I responded.
"That's really nice, Dad. Thanks. I really appreciate it." No need to add that my being happy in Forks is an impossibility. He didn't need to suffer along with me. And

I never looked a free truck in the mouth — or engine.
"Well, now, you're welcome," he mumbled, embarrassed by my thanks.We exchanged a few more comments on the weather, which was wet, and that was pretty much it for

Conversation. We stared out the windows in silence.
It was beautiful, of course; I couldn't deny that. Everything was green:the trees, their trunks covered with moss, their branches hanging with a canopy of it, the

ground covered with ferns. Even the air filtered down greenly through the leaves.
It was too green — an alien planet.
Eventually we made it to Charlie's. He still lived in the small,two-bedroom house that he'd bought with my mother in the early days of their marriage. Those were the

only kind of days their marriage had — the early ones. There, parked on the street in front of the house that never changed, was my new — well, new to me — truck.

It was a faded red color,with big, rounded fenders and a bulbous cab. To my intense surprise, I loved it. I didn't know if it would run, but I could see myself in it.
Plus, it was one of those solid iron affairs that never gets damaged —the kind you see at the scene of an accident, paint unscratched,surrounded by the pieces of the

foreign car it had destroyed.

Charlie had really been fairly nice genuinely pleased that I was coming with any degree of permanence

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查理对整件事相当的接受。他真的很高兴，因为这是我第一次，也几乎是永久性的搬来和他住在一起。他甚至为我办好了高中入学手续，还打算帮我弄辆车。
　　但和查理相处仍毫无疑问地是件尴尬事。我们都不擅长谈话，我也不知道有什么事情可以让我们毫无顾忌地谈论。我知道他对我的决定仍有些困惑，就像我母亲在我面前表现的那样，因

为我从未掩饰过我对福克斯的厌恶。
　　当我抵达天使港时，天下着雨。我不打算把这视为某种征兆——这只是不可避免的现实。我已经和阳光作别了。
　　查理在一辆巡逻车旁等着我，这也是我预料之中的事。查理是福克斯镇的良好市民的史温警长。我虽然囊中羞涩也要买辆车的主要动机，就是不想坐着顶上有红蓝色灯的车在镇里乱晃。

警察可是造成交通堵塞的万恶之首。
　　我跌跌绊绊地从飞机上下来以后，查理只伸出一只手有些尴尬地拥抱了我一下。
　　“很高兴见到你，贝拉。”他微笑着说，不假思索地抓住我让我稳住。“你没多大变化。蕾妮好吗？”
　　“妈妈很好。我也很高兴见到你，爸爸。”他们不让我当面叫他查理。
　　我只带了几袋行李，我在亚利桑那州的大部分衣物对华盛顿州的气候来说都太薄了。我母亲和我把钱凑起来给我添置了一些冬装，但这仍远远不够。这几袋行李很容易就塞进了巡逻车的

后备箱。
　　“我弄了辆适合你的好车，相当便宜。”当我们系上安全带时，他宣布道。
　　“什么样的车？”我对他放着简简单单的“好车”不说，却故意说是“适合你的好车”这点很是怀疑。
　　“嗯，确切地说是辆卡车，一辆雪佛兰。”
　　“你在哪儿弄到的？”
　　“你还记得拉普什的黑仔比利吧？”拉普什是在海岸线上的一个小小的印第安人保留区。
　　“不记得。”
　　“夏天时他曾经跟我们一起去钓鱼。”查理提示我。
　　这解释了我为什么不记得他。把那些充满痛苦的，不必要的回忆抹去是我的拿手好戏。
　　“他现在坐轮椅了，”我不作声，查理只得继续说道：“所以他再也不能开车了，他主动把他的卡车便宜卖我了。”
　　“哪年的车？”我可以从他骤变的神色看出，这是一个他不希望我提起的问题。
　　“嗯，比利在引擎上下了不少力气——才几年的车，真的。”
　　我希望他不要这样小看我，认为我会轻易放弃。“他哪年买的？”
　　“我想，他是在1984年买的。”
　　“他买的时候是辆新车吗？”
　　“嗯，不，我想它是六十年代早期的车——最早也是五十年代的。”他爽快地承认了。
　　“查——爸爸，我对汽车一无所知。如果它坏了我没办法自己去修理它，我也没有钱请个修理工……”
　　“真的，贝拉。这家伙跑得棒极了。他们再也没有生产过像这样的好车。”
　　这家伙，我暗自思索着……这可能是——是个昵称，极有可能。
　　“好了，宝贝，作为欢迎你回家的礼物，我几乎已经算是买下来了。”查理满怀希望地偷看着我。
　　哈，免费。
　　“你不必这样做的，爸爸。我打算自己买辆车的。”
　　“我不介意。我只想让你在这里过得快乐。”他说这些时直视着前方的路面。查理不擅长坦白地表达自己的感受。在这方面我受他的遗传。于是作为回应我也直直地向前看着。
　　“真的太棒了，爸爸。谢谢。我真的很感激。”不必补充我在福克斯感到快乐是个不可能事件。他本不必忍受与我相处的漫长时光。更何况，馈赠之马不看牙——或者引擎。
　　“嗯，现在，欢迎回来。”他喃喃道，对我的感谢尴尬不已。
　　我们交换了一点对天气的看法，包括今天是否有些潮湿。在没有更多的话题可供讨论以后，我们都沉默地看着窗外。
　　当然，这里很美。我不能否认这一点。一切都是绿色的：那些树，树干上长满了苔藓，枝干上挂着的绿叶宛如穹庐，地面覆盖着蕨科植物。就连空气都像被叶子过滤了一样弥漫着绿意。
　　这里太绿了——对我来说像外星球一样。
　　最终我们抵达了查理的房子。他依然住在那栋小小的、只有两个卧室的房子里。那是他和我母亲新婚燕尔时他买下来的房子。他们的婚姻也只持续了那些日子——较早的那些。在那儿，

停靠在房子前的街道上的，确凿无疑，是我的新——嗯，对我来说是新的——卡车。它是辆褪色的红色卡车，有着巨大的圆形的挡泥板，还有一个灯泡状的驾驶室。让我十分吃惊的是，我喜

欢这辆车。我不知道它还能不能动，但我从它身上看到了我自己。它是那种永远也撞不坏坚硬的铁家伙——就是那种你在事故现场看到的车，漆都没蹭掉半块，周围全是它毁坏的外国汽车的

碎片。

Charlie had really been fairly 公平公正 相当完全地 nice genuinely 由衷的 真诚的 pleased that I was coming with any degree 程度 of permanence 永久(性),永恒 2. 持久(性),长期不变

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