Before long, the entire class was smiling. "Really?" I heard the whispers. "I never knew that meant anything to anyone!" "I didn't know others liked me so much!" Then Mark said, "Thank you for teaching me, Sister."
很快全班同学脸上都扬起了笑容。“真有这么好？”我听见有人轻声说。“我从不知道那会对别人有意义！”还有人说：“原来大家这么喜欢我啊！”而马克说：“修女，感谢你的教导。”
No one ever mentioned those pieces of paper in class again. I never knew if they discussed them after class or with their parents.
后来再没人在课堂上提起过这些纸，我也不清楚他们有没有在课下与同学或者父母谈论过。
Soon I was asked to teach junior-high math. The years flew by, and before I knew it Mark was in my classroom again. He was more handsome and more polite than ever. Maybe since he had to listen carefully to my instruction in the "new math", he did not talk as much in the ninth grade as he had in the third.
很快我就被调去教初中数学了。几年的时间一晃而过，在我还未意识到的时候，马克又出现在了我的课堂。他比以前帅气了，人也更加彬彬有礼。也许是因为他必须认真听我用“新数学”法讲课，九年级的他不再像三年级时那样爱讲话了。
That group of students moved on.
就这样，这一批学生毕业了。
Several years later, after I returned from vacation, my parents met me at the airport. Mother gave Dad a side-ways glance and simply said, "Dad?" My father cleared his throat as he usually did before saying something important. "The Eklunds called last night," he began. "Really?" I said. "I haven't heard from them in years. I wonder how Mark is." Dad responded quietly. "Mark was killed in Vietnam," he said. "The funeral is tomorrow, and his parents would like it if you could attend."
几年后的一天，我度假归来，父母来机场接我。妈妈斜斜地瞟了爸爸一眼，只说了两个字：“她爸？”爸爸清了清嗓子—但凡有要事宣布，他都会这样。说：“埃克隆家昨晚打了个电话过来。”“是吗？”我说，“好几年没他们的消息了，不知道马克怎么样了。”爸爸轻声地回答道：“马克在越战中牺牲了，葬礼在明天举行。他父母希望你能去参加。”