The Paw Print That Didn’t Match- 適合中高級的英語短篇故事

The waiting-room tiles were bright under amber bulbs, but a single muddy paw print spoiled the neat row beside the magazine rack. A second, fainter smear curved toward the hallway, as though a small creature had slipped through before the morning mop.

Sam shifted his plastic chair to see more clearly. Antiseptic mixed with a peculiar aroma of damp fur, hinting at something unseen. Numbers blinked on the screen above reception, calling patients out of order and leaving rows of chairs half-filled, half-empty. While Sam waited, his gaze followed the meandering line of smudges that crossed the ochre linoleum and vanished under a door marked “Staff Only.” The form he was clutching had been stamped by an earlier clerk, yet one section remained blank; a pen refused to write on the glossy patch, and the queue shuffled forward without him. He rubbed the pen tip, then leaned closer to the first print. In the warm glow it looked too broad for a cat and too round for a dog, a peculiar shape with almost triangular pads.

When his number finally flashed, he hesitated, rose, and instead pushed the staff door just enough for lamplight to slip through. A slender emergency torch rested on a shelf, and beside it lay a tuft of misty grey hair. Sam tilted the strand toward the light; dark flecks revealed faint spots, the sort a lynx would wear high in the mountains. The discovery made the earlier paw marks suddenly larger in his mind. He tucked the hair into his pocket, stepped back into the hallway, and chose to rejoin the moving line. A soft announcement echoed, and the queue inched again.

Out near the parking lot, golden sunlight brushed against the recycling bins. At the same moment, a striped shadow crossed behind a van, and the security guard lifted a flashlight toward the bushes.

候診室的瓷磚在暖黃色燈光下十分明亮，但雜誌架旁邊卻有一枚泥濘的爪印破壞了整齊的行列。第二道較淡的污痕向走廊彎去，好像某隻小動物在早晨拖把清掃前溜了進來。

山姆把塑膠椅挪動，想看得更清楚。消毒水混著一股濕毛皮的奇特氣味，暗示著看不見的來客。號碼屏在接待臺上閃動，順序被打亂，椅子排成半滿半空。等待期間，他的視線沿著那條在赭色地板上蜿蜒的痕跡，直到消失在寫著「員工專用」的門下。他手上的表格早已被前一位職員蓋章，卻有一欄還是空的；筆尖在光滑處寫不出字，隊伍沒有等他就往前移。他搓了搓筆尖，又俯身靠近第一個爪印。暖光下的印痕既不像貓也不像狗，形狀古怪，幾乎呈三角墊狀。

號碼終於亮起時，他遲疑了一下，起身反而輕推員工門，讓燈光透進窄縫。架子上擺著細長的應急手電，旁邊是一撮霧灰色毛髮。他把毛髮舉向光線；深色斑點隱隱可見，正是高山猞猁的花紋。這發現讓先前的爪印在他腦中變得更大。山姆把毛髮塞進口袋，走回走廊，再度排入移動的隊伍。柔和的廣播聲迴盪，隊列又向前挪動。

停車場邊，金色陽光掠過回收桶。同一時間，一道條紋影子閃過廂型車後方，保全舉起手電筒朝灌木叢照去。