读者文摘:我和我的父亲(2)（在线收听）

But as we put the new bulkhead together piece by piece, my dad knowing exactly what went where, I looked at him.

但当我们把新的隔板一块一块地组装起来时，我爸爸知道什么装在了哪里，我看着他。

“How do you know how to build a bulkhead?” The heavy mallet he was swinging paused in midair.

“你怎么知道如何建造舱壁？”他挥动着的大锤停在了半空中。

“I spent a summer in college building them on the Jersey Shore.” “You did?”

“我在大学里花了一个夏天的时间在泽西海岸建造它们。”“你做的？”

I thought I knew everything about my dad—all his random jobs.

我以为我了解我爸爸的一切——他所有的工作。

I knew about the apple orchard, the summer at the horseradish manufacturing plant that burned his hands raw,

我知道苹果园，那个夏天在辣根制造厂灼痛了他的手，

and even the diner line-cook position, where he learned how to make the best omelet in the Western hemisphere.

甚至在排队做饭的位置，他学会了如何做西半球最好的煎蛋卷。

But I never knew this. “Yep. Now come up here and let me teach you how to use this circular saw.”

但我从来不知道这些。“是的。现在上来，让我教你如何使用这个圆锯。”

As he explained the importance of not setting the blade too deep

他解释了不要把刀片放得太深的重要性，

(information I quickly tucked away in the same place I store the information about how to use the tire gauge),

（我很快就把如何使用轮胎表的信息放在了同一个地方），

I realized that maybe it’s not that there’s nothing left to say.

我意识到也许并不是没有什么可说的。

Maybe it’s just that I’ve spent my life asking him the wrong questions.

也许我这辈子都在问他一些错误的问题。

A few weeks later, after my family and I moved back into our renovated house, I called my parents.

几周后，当我和家人搬回我们翻修过的房子后，我给父母打了电话。

Dad answered. “Hi, sweets,” he said. “Here’s Mom.” “Wait, Dad,” I said.

爸爸回答说。“嗨，甜心，”他说。“这是妈妈。“等等，爸爸，”我说。

“How are you?” We ended up talking about the consulting gig he was working on,

“你好吗？”最后我们聊到了他正在做的咨询工作，

a new battery he’d bought for his sail-boat, a refi my husband and I were looking into to bundle our home-renovation loan.

他为他的帆船买了一个新电池，我丈夫和我正在考虑把我们的房屋装修贷款打包。

Nothing life-changing, nothing earth-shattering.

没有什么改变生活的事，没有什么惊天动地的事。

To anyone else, it would sound like a normal conversation between a dad and his daughter.

对任何其他人来说，对其他人来说，这听起来就像爸爸和女儿之间的正常对话。

But to me, it was novel. A new beginning. I spent the first part of my life needing to talk to my dad.

但对我来说，这很新奇。一个新的开始。我生命的前一段时间是需要和我父亲说话。

Now I talk to him because I want to.

现在我跟他说话是因为我想这么做。