企鹅给我上的一课

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  我一生大多数时间都是做旅行推销商,所以孤独成了一种职业病。但有一年,我的小女儿珍宁送给了我一副想家的解药。
   那是一只玩具企鹅,它有一双乌溜溜的眼睛,打着红色蝴蝶结,长着一双橘黄色的脚———大约有五英寸高。它的左腿上粘着一个小牌子,上面手绘着:“我爱我爸!”我马上在我的梳妆台上给企鹅提供了一席之地。
   下一次旅行时,我就将企鹅放进了手提箱。当夜我给家里打电话时,珍宁忐忑不安地说企鹅不见了。“宝贝儿,它跟我在一块呢,”我解释说,“我把它带在了身边。”
   从那以后,企鹅就跟我一路同行———就像我的公文包或剃须用具一样必不可少。而且我们一路上成了朋友。在阿尔伯克基市,我登记住进一家旅馆,倒出手提包里的东西后便匆匆赶去参加一个会议。当我回来时,女服务员已经铺过床,并将企鹅放在了枕头上。在波士顿,我发现它卧在床头几上的一只玻璃杯里。有一次,在纽约市肯尼迪机场,一位报关代理人从我的手提箱里搜出了企鹅,将它举起来,说:“谢天谢地我们对爱是不收税的,否则你就要欠一大笔钱喽。”
   有天晚上,我发现企鹅不翼而飞;在疯狂地打了一番电话之后,我才得知我将它忘在我先前住的旅馆房间里了,旅馆的一名服务员已经把它收起来了。我驱车一百英里去取;我午夜赶到那里时,企鹅正在前台等着我呢。在大厅里,满脸倦容的生意人在旁边看着我们的重逢———我想,他们有点嫉妒。
   珍宁现在已经上了大学,而我也不像以前那样经常旅行了。企鹅放在我的梳妆台上,它时刻提醒着我爱是妙不可言的旅伴。我出门在外在路上颠簸的那些岁月,它是我从不离身的一件东西。
  摘译自Enjoy English
  
  I’ve spent most of my career as a traveling salesman, and so I know that battling loneliness is an occupational hazard1. But one year, my little girl Jeanine gave me the cure medicine for my homesickness.
   It had black beady eyes, a red bow tie and orange feet—a stuffed penguin that stood about five inches tall. Attached to its left wing was a little sign bearing the hand-painted declaration “I Love My Dad!”.I immediately granted the penguin a special place on my dresser.
   On my next trip, I threw the penguin in my suit-case. That night when I called home, Jeanine was upset that the penguin had disappeared. “Honey, he’s here with me,” I explained, “I brought him along.”
   From then on, the penguin came with me—as es-sential as my briefcase or shaving kit. And we made friends along the way. In Albuquerque2, I checked into a hotel, dumped out my bag and dashed to a meeting. When I returned, the maid had turned down the bed and stood the penguin on the pillow. In Boston, I found it perched3 in a glass on the nightstand. Once a customs agent at New York’s Kennedy Airport dug the penguin out of my suitcase and, holding it up, said, “Thank God we don’t charge a tax on love, or you’d owe a bundle.”
   One night, I discovered the penguin missing, and after a frantic phone call, I learned I’d left it in my previous hotel room, where it had been rescued by a maid. I drove a hundred miles to retrieve4 it, and when I arrived at midnight, the penguin was waiting at the front desk. In the lobby, tired business travelers looked on at the reunion—I think with a touch of envy.
   Jeanine is in college now, and I don’t travel as much. The penguin sits on my dresser, a reminder that love is a wonderful traveling companion. All those years on the road, it was the one thing I never left home without.
  

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