Lunch Over the Edge- 適合中級的英語短篇故事

"That beam wobbles in the swell." The narrow wooden beam under Eve's boot dipped and sprayed cold water across her socks. She placed her canvas lunch pouch on the deck, but the pouch slid toward the beam’s lower end and wedged itself beneath a dented steel toolbox. Inside the pouch waited a burger that looked tasty and smelled yummy even through its wax paper. Eve bent her knees and pushed upward on the toolbox. The lid rattled, yet the heavy case refused to rise. Each new wave pressed the beam lower, tightening the pinch around the pouch. A brown crab crawled from between two planks of the pier, tapped the toolbox, and vanished again. Rust freckles on the wet wood formed wild shapes that only imagination turned into tiny islands.

Eve straightened, scanning for anything heavy enough to cheat gravity. A round orange mooring buoy lay nearby, its chain coiled like a snake. She rolled the buoy onto the higher end of the beam, then nudged it farther toward the midpoint. As the buoy’s weight crossed the pivot, the lower end lifted; the toolbox slipped backward, and the pouch slid free. The sudden shift sent the buoy tumbling off the beam. It splashed into the harbor, bobbed once, and drifted under a stack of crab pots, nudging them until several toppled with hollow thuds. Water dripped from the loosened pots while Eve grabbed her pouch and stepped away from the edge. The lifted toolbox rested crookedly against a piling. Salt spray reached the beam’s new angle. Rising tidewater lapped over the fresh marks left by the toppled pots.

「那根木梁在浪裡晃。」伊芙的靴底踩著的窄木梁下沉，冷水濺濕了她的襪子。她把帆布午餐袋放在甲板上，但袋子順著傾斜的木梁向低端滑去，最後卡在一個凹凹的鋼製工具箱下。袋子裡是一個看起來可口、聞起來香噴噴的漢堡，即使隔著蠟紙也聞得到味道。伊芙彎膝想抬起工具箱，箱蓋咯噔響，但沉重的箱子絲毫不動。每一道新波浪都把木梁壓得更低，午餐袋被夾得更緊。一隻褐色的小螃蟹從碼頭兩塊板條縫間爬出，拍了拍工具箱又消失。濕木上斑駁的鐵鏽排成各種圖形，只有想像力才能把它們變成小島。

伊芙站直身子，尋找足夠重的東西來對抗重力。旁邊躺著一顆橘色繫船浮球，鏈條像蛇一樣盤著。她把浮球推到木梁較高的一端，再推向支點。當浮球的重量越過支點，低端抬起；工具箱滑回去，午餐袋脫困。突如其來的傾斜讓浮球滾下木梁，撲通掉進港水裡，先浮起一下，再漂到一堆蟹籠下，頂得幾個蟹籠咚咚倒地。水從被碰亂的籠子滴落，伊芙抓起午餐袋，退到邊緣外。被抬起的工具箱歪在一根木樁旁。鹽霧打在木梁新形成的斜面上。上漲的潮水拍過那些剛被蟹籠印出的新痕。