雙語(yǔ)讀?。篊all me by ...（一）53:如果我嚇著你了，對(duì)不起

“Oliver, meet Vimini, literally our next-door neighbor.”
She offered him her hand and he shook it.
“Vimini and I have the same birthday, but she is ten years old. Vimini is also a genius. Isn’t it true you’re a genius, Vimini?”
“So they say. But it seems to me that I may not be.”
“Why is that?” Oliver inquired, trying not to sound too patronizing.
“It would be in rather bad taste for nature to have made me a genius.”
Oliver looked more startled than ever: “Come again?”
“He doesn’t know, does he?” she was asking me in front of him.
I shook my head.
“They say I may not live long.”
“Why do you say that?” He looked totally stunned. “How do you know?”
“Everyone knows. Because I have leukemia.”
“But you’re so beautiful, so healthy-looking, and so smart,” he protested.
“As I said, a bad joke.”
Oliver, who was now kneeling on the grass, had literally dropped his book on the ground.
“Maybe you can come over one day and read to me,” she said. “I’m really very nice—and you look very nice too. Well, goodbye.”
She climbed over the wall. “And sorry if I spooked you—well—”
You could almost watch her trying to withdraw the ill-chosen metaphor.
 
“奧利弗，認(rèn)識(shí)一下薇米妮，我們真正的隔壁鄰居。”
她伸出手來(lái)，奧利弗跟她握了握手。
“薇米妮的生日和我同一天，不過(guò)她才十歲。薇米妮也是個(gè)天才。對(duì)不對(duì)，你是個(gè)天才吧，薇米妮？”
“他們是這么說(shuō)沒(méi)錯(cuò)。但在我看來(lái)可能不是。”
“為什么？”奧利弗問(wèn)，語(yǔ)氣盡量不顯得太屈尊俯就。
“如果老天把我造就成天才，品味也未免太差了點(diǎn)。”
奧利弗看起來(lái)吃驚得不得了。“你說(shuō)什么？”
“他不知道吧？”她當(dāng)著奧利弗的面問(wèn)我。
我搖搖頭。
“他們說(shuō)我可能活不久。”
“你為什么這么說(shuō)？”他看起來(lái)震驚極了。“你怎么知道？”
“大家都知道。因?yàn)槲矣邪籽　?rdquo;
“可是你這么漂亮，看起來(lái)這么健康，而且又這么聰明。”他反駁。
“我說(shuō)啦，一個(gè)冷笑話而已。”
跪在草地上的奧利弗這下愣是把手里的書掉在了地上。
“說(shuō)不定你哪天可以來(lái)讀書給我聽(tīng)。我人真的很好——你看起來(lái)也很好。那么，再見(jiàn)嘍。”
她翻過(guò)墻。“如果我嚇著你了，對(duì)不起，嗯……”
你幾乎能看見(jiàn)她想要收回那不恰當(dāng)?shù)碾[喻。