A smile.
Lopsided.
Hardly there.
But there.
Behind us, kids were scampering, and a melee of screaming kite runners was chasing the loose kite drifting high above the trees. I blinked and the smile was gone. But it had been there. I had seen it.
“Do you want me to run that kite for you?”His Adam’s apple rose and fell as he swallowed. The wind lifted his hair. I thought I saw him nod.
“For you, a thousand times over,” I heard myself say.
Then I turned and ran.
It was only a smile, nothing more. It didn’t make everything all right. It didn’t make anything all right. Only a smile. A tiny thing. A leaf in the woods, shaking in the wake of a startled bird’s flight.
But I’ll take it. With open arms. Because when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time, and maybe I just witnessed the first flake melting.
I ran. A grown man running with a swarm of screaming children. But I didn’t care. I ran with the wind blowing in my face, and a smile as wide as the Valley of Panjsher on my lips.
I ran.
微笑。
斜斜的。
几乎看不见。
但就在那儿。
在我们后面，孩子们在飞奔，追风筝的人不断尖叫，乱成一团，追逐那只在树顶高高之上飘摇的断线风筝。我眨眼，微笑不见了。但它在那儿出现过，我看见了。
“你想要我追那只风筝给你吗？”他的喉结吞咽着上下蠕动。风掠起他的头发。我想我看到他点头。
“为你，千千万万遍。”我听见自己说。
然后我转过身。

我追。它只是一个微笑，没有别的了。它没有让所有事情恢复正常。它没有让任何事情恢复正常。只是一个微笑，一件小小的事情，像是树林中的一片叶子，在惊鸟的飞起中晃动着。
但我会迎接它，张开双臂。因为每逢春天到来，它总是每次融化一片雪花；而也许我刚刚看到的，正是第一片雪花的融化。
我追。一个成年人在一群尖叫的孩子中奔跑。但我不在乎。我追，风拂过我的脸庞，我唇上挂着一个像潘杰希尔峡谷那样大大的微笑。
我追。