Mara Beside the Reservoir- 適合中高級的英語短篇故事

Mara had spent two weeks building a palm-sized sailboat from scrap balsa. At sunrise she carried it to Brookfield Reservoir, where Luis waited with a stopwatch. Their plan was simple: launch the miniature craft, time its journey to the stone steps on the opposite shore, and record every aspect for the school science fair. A gentle breeze rippled the surface, promising a lively test. The deck had been painted in bright stripes, and a slim rudder had been carefully maneuvered into place the night before. Clouds drifted low, and a yellow construction crane beyond the dam mirrored the delicate mast on Mara’s model.

The first launch ended early; a sideways gust spun the tiny vessel and pressed it against reeds. Mara knelt, tapped the remote servo, and the rudder responded, yet the boat only twitched. She retrieved it, shifted the sail, and tried again. This time a misfired maneuver sent the craft beneath a drifting snack wrapper, hiding it from view. Luis extended a pool skimmer, but the pole slipped from his grip and bobbed away. Their third attempt looked smoother until the battery warning light blinked; the boat slowed, circling aimlessly like an actor lost in dramatics.

While they considered another fix, ripples widened without warning. A tall gray crane lifted from the far bank, glided low, and seized the dangling skimmer handle in its beak. For a breath the friends stood still, then the bird carried the pole—and the attached boat string—across the water and released both near Mara’s shoes, ending its flight as calmly as it had begun. If the bird had not intervened, the model would have drifted toward the spillway and vanished. Mara collected the rescued craft, replaced the battery, and their final timed run crossed the reservoir in forty-eight steady seconds. Evening light rested on the quiet water beside their patched boat.

瑪拉花了兩週用輕木做出一艘掌心大小的帆船。清晨，她把船帶到布魯克菲爾德水庫，路易斯拿著碼表等在那裡。他們的計畫很簡單：把小船放進水裡，計時它航向對岸石階的過程，並記錄每一個細節，作為科學展的資料。陣陣微風讓水面起了細紋，預告一場生動的測試。甲板已經被刷上亮色條紋，而細長的舵在昨晚被仔細裝好。雲層低垂，壩外一座黃色起重機的身影與瑪拉模型船的細桅相互映照。

第一次下水就結束得很快；側吹的風把小船打轉，貼在蘆葦邊。瑪拉跪下，點按遙控伺服器，舵雖然動了，船卻只抽動幾下。她把船撈回，調整船帆，再試一次。這回，一個失準的操控讓船鑽進漂浮的零食包裝下方，整艘船消失不見。路易斯伸出泳池清撈網，但長桿滑出手心，漂走了。他們的第三次嘗試看來較為順利，直到電量警示燈閃爍；小船速度驟降，在水面上像著戲過火的演員一樣打著圈。

他們商量下一個補救方法時，水面忽然擴散出一圈圈波紋。一隻高大的灰鶴自對岸升起，貼水滑行，接住了仍然懸著的清撈網把柄。兩人屏住呼吸，鶴帶著長桿——以及繫在桿上的船線——越過水面，然後在瑪拉鞋尖附近鬆口放下，好像剛完成一段無聲的表演。如果沒有這隻鳥插手，模型船早已被沖向溢洪道而消失。瑪拉收回獲救的小船，換上新電池，最後一次計時航行以四十八秒穩穩抵達終點。傍晚的光線停在他們修補過的小船旁靜靜的水面上。