熊镇Beartown | 两个男孩的荒岛Island of two boys

“That hockey team . . . that bloody hockey team . . . I know you all love each other. How loyal you all are. Sometimes I don’t know if that’s a blessing or a curse. I remember when you made catapults(弹弓) when you were nine years old, and Kevin broke the neighbor’s window—do you remember? You got the blame. Because when all the other boys ran away, you stayed where you were, because you realized that someone had to take the blame, and that it would be worse for Kevin, if he got the blame than it would be for you.”

Benji wipes his eyes. She pats him and smiles.

That afternoon, Benji receives a text message. He holds his phone in his hand until the screen is damp with sweat. He gets out in the middle of the forest, takes his crutches(拐杖), and walks straight into it. No one ever sees the text; no one would have understood it anyway. It says simply: “Island?”

It won’t be summer for another couple of months,but the water in the lake has started to stir in its winter sleep,and the ice above it, is slowly yielding to a few more cracks each day. 

If you stand on the shore,it’s all still a peaceful scene, in a hundred shades of white,but here and there are tiny promises of green. A new season will come,followed by a new year,life will go on and people will forget. Sometimes because they can’t remember,and sometimes because they don’t want to.

Kevin is sitting on a rock looking out at his and Benji’s island,the place that used to be a secret,and which as a result, was the only place where they never had any secrets from each other.