Fading Light on Flat Paper- 適合中高級的英語短篇故事

"That easel is free now." Reese stepped forward and let her soles scrape lightly across the smooth polished stone floor. A narrow spotlight beam cut across the tray and made the paper gleam brightly for a moment. Their teacher had called this fifteen-minute sketch period playtime, yet the ventilation duct sent gusts that lifted each loose sheet. Reese slid one page under the metal bar, but the front edge curled whenever the draft returned. She rummaged inside the pencil box beside the easel and found a small single clip. During the next lull in the moving air she pressed the clip over the centre top. The sheet stayed level for a breath, then both corners rose again, shadow edges wavering like slow swings. One partial grip was not enough; more weight needed to reach the full span of the page.

A faint reflected gleam on the floor revealed a thin strip of masking tape near the model of a temple structure. Reese waited until a pause in the air, peeled the tape free, and pressed it along the left edge. The opposite side still arched upward, throwing a narrow wedge of brightness across the easel tray. Footsteps from an approaching tour group echoed between display cases and rolled along the ceiling. Reese had already lost two minutes to the lifting corners, so she chose to hasten before the corridor filled. She crossed to a supply shelf, lifted a ruler, laid it along the bottom border, yet the page still fluttered.

Searching near the shelf base, she discovered a twist of soft wire once used to bind brushes. She curved the wire into a shallow hoop and pressed it over the bottom right corner. Even with three supports, the last corner still rose slightly after each short burst. A graphite stick lay in the pencil tray, so Reese placed it along that edge and stepped back. At last the paper stayed flat through a burst of moving air and the cone above held steady. Reese lifted her charcoal pencil, its tip catching fresh glow, and began tracing the deep shadows on the temple structure. Halfway through her first line the spotlight above extinguished without warning, leaving only dim ambient light around the display. At a nearby bench, Blake tilted his head toward the sudden darkness and pressed a fresh sheet onto his own easel.

「那個畫架現在空著。」瑞斯向前一步，鞋底在光滑的石地板上輕輕磨擦。聚光燈窄窄的光束斜切過托盤，紙張瞬間閃亮。老師把這十五分鐘的速寫時間稱作「遊戲時間」，然而通風口送出的陣陣氣流總把鬆動的紙角掀起。瑞斯把一張紙塞進金屬壓條下，但前邊緣一遇風就捲起。她在畫筆盒裡翻找，在畫架旁找到一枚小夾子，等到氣流暫停才把它夾在正中央。紙面僅穩住一瞬，兩角再次翹起，影子的邊線像慢動作中的鞦韆搖晃。單一支點仍嫌不足，她還需要更多重量讓整張紙完全貼平。

地板上微弱的反光洩漏出一條細長的膠帶，貼近一座神殿模型的結構。瑞斯等到空氣再次停歇，撕下膠帶，貼在左側紙邊。右側仍然拱起，在畫架托盤上投出窄窄的亮條。導覽團的腳步聲在展示櫃之間回蕩，瑞斯已經因翹角損失兩分鐘，只好趁走廊被佔滿之前加快動作。她走向補給架，拿起一把尺子，沿下邊緣壓住，但紙張仍然抖動。

她在架子底部發現一圈曾用來綁刷子的軟線，把線彎成淺環，壓在右下角。即使有三處固定，最後一角仍在每次短促的氣流後微微翹起。托盤裡躺著一支石墨棒，瑞斯把它放在那條邊上，然後退後一步。這回紙面在一陣氣流中仍保持平整，頭頂的光錐也穩定不動。瑞斯舉起炭筆，筆尖捕捉到新亮光，開始描繪神殿模型上的深陰影。畫到第一條線的一半，頭頂的聚光燈突然熄滅，只剩展示區周圍微弱的背景光。鄰近的長凳上，布萊克歪著頭看向突如其來的黑暗，隨即把一張新紙壓上自己的畫架。