爱华网The Lost Thing
So you want to hear a story?
Well, I used to know a whole lot of pretty interesting ones.
Some of them so funny, you laugh yourself unconscious.
Others, so terrible you never wanna repeat them.
But now I can't remember any of those.
So maybe I'll just tell you about the time I found the lostthing.
This all happened many summers ago, down on the beach.
I was, as usual, working tirelessly on my bottle topcollection,
at least, until I saw the thing.
Itsure wasn't doing much.
Itjust sat there, with a real weird look aboutit.
You know, a sad, lost sort of look.
Nobody else seemed to notice it was there.
They are all too busy doing other stuff, I guess.
"Hello?"
It turned out to be really friendly,
and I played with the thing for most of the afternoon.
It was great fun.
Yet the whole time I couldn't help feeling that something wasn'tquite right.
As the hours slashed by, it seemed less and less likely thatanyone was coming to take this thing home.
Soon there was no denying the unhappy truth:
It was lost.
I asked a few people if they knew anything about it.
I took the lost thing over to Pete's place.
Pete has an opinion onjustabouteverything.
"Cool!" he said.
Pete didn't know what the thing was exactly,
but he saidwhat healwaysdoes,
that all physical manifestations could beidentifiedempiricallythroughcareful observation, calibrated measurement,and controlledexperimentation.
In the end, Pete just shrugged.
He didn't think the lost thing came from anywhere and didn'tbelong anywhere.
Some things are like that, he said, they are just plainlost.
There was nothing left to do but take the thing home withme.
As for my parents,well I already knew my mom would be concernedhow filthy it'sfeet were,
and that dadwould beworriedabout allsorts ofstrangediseases,
and they both just wanted me to take it back to where I foundit.
"But it's lost", I said, not that it made any difference.
I decided to hide this thing in our back shed.
At least I could figure out what's to do next.
I mean I couldn't just leave it wandering in the streets.
The lost thing seemed happy then, but I sure could keep it intheshed forever.
Mom and Dad would eventually notice it when theycameout looking for a hammer or something.
It was a real dilemma.
(Ads on TV)
“Are you finding that the order of day-to-day life isunexpectedly disrupted?
Do you suffer from unclaimed property?
Objects without name?
Troublesome artifact of unknown origin?
Things that just don't belong?
Don't panic!
We've got a pigeonhole to stick it in.
The Federal Department of Odds and Ends!"
The next morning we caught a tram, all the way to the city.
We arrived at the tall, grey building with no windows.
It smelled like disinfectant.
"Hmm,I have a lost thing," I called the receptionist.
"Fill in the forms," she said.
I was looking around for a desk, and I suddenly felt somethingtouch my elbow,
and then there was a tiny voice:
"If you really care about that thing,you shouldn't leave ithere.
This is a place for forgetting, leaving behind. Here, takethis!"
"Em,cheers!" I said.
It was some kind of sign, I guess, not very important looking,but did seem to point somewhere.
Eventually we found what seemed to be the right place, in a darklittle gap of some anonymous street, the kind of place you've neverknown existed unless you are actually looking for it.
I still think about that thing from time to time,
especially when I see something out of the corner of my eye thatdoesn't quite fit.
You know, something with a wierd, sad, lost sort of look.
I see that kind of thing less and less these days.
Maybe there aren't many lost things around anymore.
Or maybe, maybe I've just stopped noticing.
Too busy doing other stuff, I guess.
丢失的东西
你想听故事？
嗯，我以前知道好多有意思的故事，
有些真的很好笑，可以把你笑晕了，
有些却很烂，烂到你再也不想讲它们了。
但是那些故事我现在却一个也不记得了。
所以我还是给你讲讲我找到了丢失的东西的那一次吧。
那件事发生在很多年以前，在海滩上，
当时我正在跟往常一样不知疲倦地收集瓶盖，
这时我看到了那个东西。
它当时确实没干什么事，
就只是坐在那里，带着一种很奇怪的表情，
你知道的，就是那种悲伤的，迷茫的表情，
其他人似乎都没有注意到它，
他们都在忙的别的事吧，我想。
“你好？”
原来那个东西很友善，
我跟它玩了快一下午，
真的很开心。
但是我总是觉得有什么事情不大对劲。
时间一点点地过去了，看起来越来越不像有人会过来接这个东西回家的样子。
最后，事情确信无疑：
它走丢了。
我问了一些人是否认识这个东西。
我把这个丢失的东西带到了彼得家。
彼得对什么事情都有自己的看法。
“真酷！”他说。
彼得不知道这个东西到底是什么，
不过他说了他经常说的话，
那就是，所有的物理现象都可以通过细心的观察，标准化的检测和严格的实验来鉴定。
最后，彼得只是耸了耸肩。
他不知道这个丢失的东西从何处来，又该往哪儿去。
有些东西就是那样的，他说，就只是丢了。
我别无他法，只有把这个东西带回家。
至于我的父母，
我已经知道妈妈会嫌它的触角很脏，
而爸爸担心着各种各样的病菌，
他们俩都想让我把它带回找到它的那个地方。
“但是它走丢了啊！”我说。说了也没用。
我决定把这个东西藏在后面的小仓库里，
至少先想想下一步怎么办吧。
我总不能把它丢在街上流浪吧。
这时走丢的东西很满意，但是我肯定不能永远都把它藏在那儿啊。
如果爸妈要出来找个锤子什么的，总会发现它的。
真是左右为难啊。
(电视广告)
“你有没有觉得日常生活的秩序被意外地打乱了？
你是不是很烦那些没人要的物品？
一些莫名的东西？
来历不明的麻烦物件？
别急！
我们这里有箱子可以把它们通通塞进去！
联邦稀奇古怪物品办公室！”
第二天我们搭电车直接去了城里，
到了那个高大灰暗的没有窗子的楼房前，
房子闻起来像消毒剂。
“嗯，我这有一个走丢了的东西。”我对接待员说。
“先填表。”她说。
我四处张望着想找一张桌子，突然我感觉到有什么东西碰到我的手肘，
然后有个很小的声音说：
“如果你真的在乎这个东西，就不要把它丢在这儿。
这里是给遗忘和丢弃的东西的地方。
给，这个给你。”
“嗯，谢谢。”我说。
他给我的像是一个什么标志，看起来不像很重要的样子，但似乎的确是指向什么地方的。
最后我们终于好像找对了地方，
在一条无名小路上的一个灰暗的巷子里，
就是那种你不找根本就不会注意到它存在的地方。
我还是时不时地会想起那个东西，
特别是当眼角不经意瞟到什么不对劲的东西时，
你知道的，就是那种样子很奇怪，悲伤，迷失的东西。
现在我已经越来越少见到这种东西了，
也许如今已经没有那么多丢失的东西了，
也许，也许只是我没注意吧，
去忙别的事了，我想。
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/Q4fBtsPE2w4/
网上偶尔看到的，本届奥斯卡最佳动画片，《丢失的东西》。怀着好奇的心情打开看了一下，被小小地感动了一下。
很多东西，都像那个丢失的东西一样，没有什么作用（didn't domuch），看起来很奇怪（wierd），与周围环境格格不入（doesn'tfit），也没有人在乎，拥有它似乎只能带来麻烦。像一台不能正常放映的电视机，或者一个无法画圆的圆规，都是独特而没有实际用途的。这个东西，或者是一个没用的小玩意，一个不能用来谋生的爱好，或者是一个小小的不切实际的梦想，又或者是一段不得不放弃的感情，在曾经生活还很简单的时候，给我们带来过很多快乐，然而，当生活越来越忙碌的时候，有一天我们突然发现，曾经很重要的东西，已经被丢弃了，找不到了，想起来时，也许只是些许讶异。
那些东西都去了哪了？有的被勉强塞进一个箱子，然后被遗忘或者丢弃了，永远都不可能找回来了。
也许真有那么一个专门收纳丢失的东西的地方，你不去找，就不会注意到它的存在。它静静地在那里，被丢失的东西都好好保存着。在一个安静的下午，突然有个小小的声音指引着你，找到了它，发现曾经丢失的东西都还在，只是我们太忙碌，没有注意到。
