Unit 2 - All The Cabbie Had Was A Letter（出租车司机的一封信）
How do you feel when old friends are far away? Do you make an effort to keep in touch? Sometimes it is easy to put off writing a letter, thinking that there will be plenty of time tomorrow. But then sometimes, as this story shows, we leave it too late. Perhaps reading it will make you want to reach for your pen.
ALL THE CABBIE HAD WAS A LETTER
Foster Furcolo
He must have been completely lost in something he was reading because I had to tap on the windshield to get his attention.
"Is your cab available?" I asked when he finally looked up at me. He nodded, then said apologetically as I settled into the back seat, "I'm sorry, but I was reading a letter." He sounded as if he had a cold or something.
"I'm in no hurry," I told him. "Go ahead and finish your letter."
He shook his head. "I've read it several times already. I guess I almost know it by heart."
"Letters from home always mean a lot," I said. "At least they do with me because I'm on the road so much." Then, estimating that he was 60 or 70 years old, I guessed: "From a child or maybe a grandchild?"
"This isn't family," he replied. "Although," he went on, "come to think of it", it might just as well have been family. Old Ed was my oldest friend. In fact, we used to call each other 'Old Friend' — when we'd meet, that is. I'm not much of a hand at writing."
"I don't think any of us keep up our correspondence too well," I said. "I know I don't. But I take it he's someone you've known quite a while?"
"All my life, practically. We were kids together, so we go way back."
"Went to school together?"
"All the way through high school. We were in the same class, in fact, through both grade and high school."
"There are not too many people who've had such a long friendship," I said.
"Actually," the driver went on, "I hadn't seen him more than once or twice a year over the past 25 or 30 years because I moved away from the old neighborhood and you kind of lose touch even though you never forget. He was a great guy."
"You said 'was'. Does that mean —?"
He nodded. "Died a couple of weeks ago."
"I'm sorry," I said. "It's no fun to lose any friend — and losing a real old one is even tougher."
He didn't reply to that, and we rode on in silence for a few minutes. But I realized that Old Ed was still on his mind when he spoke again, almost more to himself than to me: "I should have kept in touch. Yes," he repeated, "I should have kept in touch."
"Well," I agreed, "we should all keep in touch with old friends more than we do. But things come up and we just don't seem to find the time."
He shrugged. "We used to find the time," he said. "That's even mentioned in the letter." He handed it over to me. "Take a look."
"Thanks," I said, "but I don't want to read your mail. That's pretty personal."
The driver shrugged. "Old Ed's dead. There's nothing personal now. Go ahead," he urged me.
The letter was written in pencil. It began with the greeting "Old Friend," and the first sentence reminded me of myself. I've been meaning to write for some time, but I've always postponed it. It then went on to say that he often thought about the good times they had had together when they both lived in the same neighborhood. It had references to things that probably meant something to the driver, such as the time Tim Shea broke the window, the Halloween that we tied Old Mr. Parker's gate, and when Mrs. Culver used to keep us after school.
"You must have spent a lot of time together," I said to him.
"Like it says there," he answered, "about all we had to spend in those days was time." He shook his head: "Time."
I thought the next paragraph of the letter was a little sad: I began the letter with "Old Friend" because that's what we've become over the years — old friends. And there aren't many of us left.
"You know," I said to him, "when it says here that there aren't many of us left, that's absolutely right. Every time I go to a class reunion, for example, there are fewer and fewer still around."
"Time goes by," the driver said.
"Did you two work at the same place?" I asked him.
"No, but we hung out on the same corner when we were single. And then, when we were married, we used to go to each other's house every now and then. But for the last 20 or 30 years it's been mostly just Christmas cards. Of course there'd be always a note we'd each add to the cards — usually some news about our families, you know, what the kids were doing, who moved where, a new grandchild, things like that — but never a real letter or anything like that."
"This is a good part here," I said. "Where it says Your friendship over the years has meant an awful lot to me, more than I can say because I'm not good at saying things like that. " I found myself nodding in agreement. "That must have made you feel good, didn't it?"
The driver said something that I couldn't understand because he seemed to be all choked up, so I continued: "I know I'd like to receive a letter like that from my oldest friend."
We were getting close to our destination so I skipped to the last paragraph. So I thought you'd like to know that I was thinking of you. And it was signed，Your Old Friend, Tom.
I handed back the letter as we stopped at my hotel. "Enjoyed talking with you," I said as I took my suitcase out of the cab. Tom? The letter was signed Tom?
"I thought your friend's name was Ed," I said. "Why did he sign it Tom?"
"The letter was not from Ed to me," he explained. "I'm Tom. It's a letter I wrote to him before I knew he'd died. So I never mailed it."
He looked sort of sorrowful, or as if he were trying to see something in the distance. "I guess I should have written it sooner."
When I got to my hotel room I didn't unpack right away. First I had to write a letter — and mail it.
参考译文——出租车司机的一封信
当你的老朋友离世时你有什么感觉？在他生前，你努力与他保持联系了吗？我们总是以为明天会有充足的时间，而将给朋友写封信这件事一推再推。但有时候——正如这个故事所讲述的——我们推迟的太晚了。也许当你读完这个故事后，你会想着拿起你的笔。
出租车司机的一封信
他一定是完全沉浸在阅读之中了，因为我不得不敲挡风玻璃来引起他的注意。
“您的车走不走？”当他最后抬起头看我时我问道。他点头，继而我在后座坐好后他说道：“抱歉，我刚才正在读一封信”。他的声音听起来好像得了感冒什么的。
“我不着急”，我对他说。“那你继续看你的信吧。”
他摇了摇头。“我已经读了好多遍了。我想我几乎都能背下来了。”
“来自家人的信总是意味深长。”我说到，“至少对我来说是，因为我总是在旅途中。”接着，估计着他有六七十岁了，我猜道“这封信是你的子女还是孙辈写给你的？”
“不是家人，”他回答道“尽管如此，”他又继续说“想来我们就好像是家人一样。老艾德是我最久的朋友了。实际上，我们以前总是称呼彼此‘老朋友’——当我们碰面时，就这样称呼。我不怎么会写信。”
“我想并不是我们任何人都能很好地保持通信，我也一样。” 我说，“但我认为他是你认识了很久的某个人吧？”
“几乎一辈子了。我们从孩子时就在一起，所以可是老交情了。”
“一起上学？”
“一直到高中。我们一直在同一个班级，从小学到高中。”
“还真没有那么多人有如此长久的友情，”我说到。
“实际上，”司机继续开着车，“在过去的二十五年到三十年里，我也就看见过他一两次。因为我从老的小区里搬走了，尽管没有忘，但联系自然就少了。他曾是个非常好的人”
“你说曾经，那是什么意思？”
他点头道“几周以前去世了。”
“真遗憾”，我说道“失去任何朋友都不是闹着玩的，况且失去一个真正的朋友更加痛苦。”
他没有回复，我们继续开着车，沉默了几分钟。但是当他再次开口差不多是对他自己而不是对我说到“我本该保持联系的。”时，我意识到老艾德仍然在他的思绪之中。
“是啊，”我赞同着，“我们应该和老朋友保持联络的。但是一有事我们似乎就找不到时间了。”
他耸耸肩。“我们以前总是找时间一起玩的。”他说道“这在信中也提到了”。他把它递给我说“看看吧。”
“谢谢，”我说道“但我不能读您的信件，那是隐私。”
司机耸了耸肩，“老艾德已经去世了，现在没什么隐私的了，你看吧。”，他劝我说。
信是用铅笔写的。用“老朋友”开头来问候，然后第一句话就让我想起了我自己。我已经好几次想写信了，但是我总是拖延。信里继续说道他经常想起他们一起住在同一个社区时的美好时光。提起了一些对司机可能有意义的某些事情，对诸如提姆打碎了窗户，拴住帕克老先生家的门的那个万圣节，还有卡尔弗女士总是放学后让他们留校。
“你们一定在一起度过了很久”，我对他说道。
“就像信上说的，”他回答说，“那些日子里我们唯一拥有的就是时光。”。他摇着头又强调了一下，“时光！”
我想接下来那一段他的信有点悲伤：我用“老朋友”开头因为我们成为老朋友已经很多年了。而我们之中剩下的人不多了。
“你知道，”我对他说，“当说到我们剩下的人不多了这里，那绝对是真的。比如每次我去班级重聚时，还在身边的人越来越少。”
“时光匆匆啊”，司机说道。
“你们俩原来在一个地方工作吗？”我问他。
“不，但是我们单身的时候总是在同一地带游逛。后来，我们都结婚了，我们仍然不时去对方家中做客。但最近二三十年几乎仅仅是圣诞卡了。当然卡片上也经常会加上一些说明——经常是一些我们家庭的消息，就像你知道的，孩子在做什么啦，谁搬到了哪里啦，一个新诞生的孙辈啦，诸如那些事情——但是从没有一封真正的信或像那样的东西。”
“这部分很好，”我说到，“说起你们多年以来的友谊，对我意味着很多，无法表达，因为我不善于那样的言辞。”我发现自己在赞成地点着头，“那一定让你感觉很好，不是么？”
司机说起了一些我听不清楚的话来，因为他看起来哽咽住了，所以我继续道：“我想我是愿意收到来自我最久的朋友像那样的来信的。”
我们接近目的地了，所以我略读最后一段：所以我想你会想知道我有多么想你。并且那上面署名，你的朋友，汤姆。
当我们停在我的酒店时，我递回了信。“很高兴和您交谈，”我从车里取出了我的手提箱说到，“汤姆？信的署名是汤姆？”
“我想你的朋友叫艾德吧，”我说道，“怎么署名是汤姆？”
“这信并不是艾德写给我的，”他解释道“我是汤姆。这是我在我知道他死去以前写给他的，只是我一直没有寄给他。”
他看起来有些悲伤的样子，好像在试着看远处的什么。“我想我本应该早点写的。”
当我回到酒店房间以后，我没有马上打开行李。首先我必须写一封信，并且寄出去。
New Words and Expressions
cabbie
n. (infml) a taxi driver
be lost in/lose oneself in
be absorbed in, be fully occupied with 专心致志于
windshield
n. (AmE) the glass window in the front of a car, truck, etc. （汽车的）挡风玻璃
cab
n. a taxi 出租车
available
a. able to be used, had or reached 可用的；可得到的
apologetically
ad. showing or saying that one is sorry for some fault or wrong 道歉地，带着歉意地
or something
(infml)(used when you are not very sure about what you have just said) 诸如此类的事
go ahead
continue; begin
know/learn by heart
memorize, remember exactly 记住，能背出
estimate
vt. form a judgement about 估计
might/may(just) as well
不妨，（也）无妨
not much of a
not a good 不太好的
keep up
continue without stopping 保持
correspondence
n. the act of writing, receiving or sending letters; letters 通信（联系）；信件
practically
ad. almost
kid
n. (infml) a child
all the way
自始至终，一直
neighborhood
n. 街坊；四邻
kind/sort of
(infml) a little bit, in some way or degree 有几分，有点儿
lose touch
失去联系
a couple of
几个；一对，一双
guy
n. 家伙；伙计
tough
a. (infml) unfortunate; difficult; strong 不幸的；困难的；坚固的；坚强的
on one's mind
挂记在心头
keep in touch (with)
（与…）保持联系，保持接触
come up
happen, occur, esp. unexpectedly （尤指意想不到地）发生，出现
shrug
v. lift (the shoulders) slightly 耸（肩）
urge
v. try very hard to persuade 力劝，催促
postpone
vt. delay 推迟，使延期
reference
n. 提及，谈到；参考，查阅
absolutely
ad. completely 完全地，极其
absolute a.
reunion
n. （家人、朋友、同事等久别后的）重聚
go by
(of time) pass （时间）逝去
hang out
(infml) stay in or near a place, not doing very much 闲荡；徘徊
every now and then
sometimes, at times
mostly
ad. almost all; generally 几乎全部；多半，大体
awful
a. (infml) (used to add force) very great; very bad or unpleasant 非常的，极大的；可怕的，糟糕的
choke
v. （使）窒息，堵塞
choke up
become too upset to speak （因激动等）哽得说不出话；堵塞
destination
n. 目的地
skip
v. 略过，跳过；跳跃
sorrowful
a. showing or causing sadness 伤心的，悲伤的
sorrow n.
in the distance
far away
unpack
v. take out (things) from (a suitcase, etc.) 打开
right away
at once
Proper Names
Foster Furcolo
福斯特·弗克洛
Ed
埃德（男子名）
Tim Shea
蒂姆·谢
Parker
帕克（姓氏或男子名）
Culver
卡尔弗（姓氏）
Tom
汤姆（男子名）
参考资料：
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