When he was very young, he waved his arms, gnashed the teeth of his massive jaws, and tromped around the house so that the dishes trembled in the china cabinet. 那时他还小。他挥动双臂,张开大嘴,把牙齿咬得咯咯作响,踏着重重的步子在屋子里巡行,把碗橱里的碟子惹得叮叮当当。“Oh, for goodness sake,” his mother said. “You are not a dinosaur! You are a human being!” “喂,看在老天的份上,”他母亲说,“你又不是恐龙!你是个人耶!”Since he was not a dinosaur, he thought for a time that he might be a pirate. 那就不是恐龙吧。有段时间,他觉得自己可能是个海盗。“Seriously,” his father said at some point, “what do you want to be?” “说真的,”他父亲有一天问他,“你以后想当个什么呀?”A fireman, then. Or a policeman. Or a soldier. Some kind of hero. 那就当个消防员吧。要么当个警察。当兵也行。总之是英雄之类的。But in high school they gave him tests and told him he was very good with numbers. 谁知道上了高中,他们给他做测验,然后通知他,他数学很好。Perhaps he would like to be a math teacher? That was respectable. 也许他愿意当个数学老师?那倒挺受人尊敬的。Or a tax accountant? He could make a lot of money doing that. 或者当个税务师?那样的话他能赚一大笔钱。It seemed a good idea to make money, what with falling in love and thinking about raising a family. 赚钱似乎是个不错的主意。有了钱,就讨得到老婆,养得起家。So he was a tax accountant, even though he sometimes regretted that it made him, well, small.于是他当了税务师,当然偶尔也会不甘心,觉得那让他——怎么说呢——卑微。And he felt even smaller when he was no longer a tax accountant, but a retired tax accountant. 后来他又不再是税务师了,他成了一个退休的税务师,还要卑微。Still worse, a retired tax accountant who forgot things. 一个退休税务师,还老是忘东忘西,更糟糕。He forgot to take the garbage to the curb, forgot to take his pill, forgot to turn his hearing aid back on.忘了扔垃圾,忘了吃药,忘了开助听器。Every day it seemed he had forgotten more things, important things, like which of his children lived in San Francisco and which of his children were married or divorced.他好像每天都在忘掉更多的事情,重要的事情,像是他的孩子们里面,谁住三藩市,谁结婚了,谁又离了。Then one day when he was out for a walk by the lake, he forgot what his mother had told him. He forgot that he was not a dinosaur. He stood blinking his dinosaur eyes in the bright sunlight, feeling the familiar warmth on his dinosaur skin, watching dragonflies flitting among the horsetails at the water’s edge.有一天,他出门沿着湖边散步,他一下子忘了母亲和他说过的话。他忘了,他不是一条恐龙。阳光明媚,他眨着那双恐龙眼睛,用恐龙的皮肤感觉那种熟悉的暖意,打量着水边蕨草丛中,汲汲营营的蜻蜓。