餅干小偷 The Cookie Thief

李殊 選

A woman was waiting at an airport one night, with several long hours before her flight. She hunted for a book in the airport shops, bought a bag of cookies and found a place to sit.

She was engrossed in her book but happened to see that the man sitting beside her, as bold as he could be, grabbed a cookie or two from the bag in between them. She tried to ignore it to avoid a scene, so she munched some cookies and watched the clock, as the gutsy cookie thief kept eating.

She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by, thinking, “If I weren’t so nice, I would blacken his eyes.” With each cookie she took, he took one, too; when only one was left, she wondered what he would do.

With a smile on his face, and a nervous laugh, he took the last cookie and broke it in half. He offered her a half, and ate the other. She snatched it from him and thought, “Oooh, brother. This guy has some nerve and he’s so rude! Why he didn’t even show any gratitude !”

She had never known when she had been so angry, and sighed with relief when her flight was called. She gathered her belongings and headed to the gate, refusing to look back at the rude thief. She boarded the plane, sank in her seat, and looked for her book, which was almost complete.

As she reached in her baggage, she gasped with surprise—there was her bag of cookies, in front of her eyes. “If mine is here,” she moaned in despair, “the others were his, and he tried to share!”

Too late to apologize, she realized with grief, that she was the rude one, the thief.

詞匯:

engross:使全神貫注；grab: 抓取，攫取。

avoid a scene: 免得大吵大鬧；munch:用力咀嚼；gusty:津津有味的，興致勃勃的。

irritate: 激怒，使惱怒；tick by: 使（分、秒等）滴答滴答過去；blacken:使變黑。

snatch: 奪走，抓走。

nerve: 勇氣，膽量。

gratitude：感激之情。

sigh: 嘆氣；relief: （痛苦、憂愁等消除后感到的）輕松，寬慰。

board: 上飛機。

moaned: 呻吟，嗚咽；despair: 絕望。