Where the Apple Spun- 適合中級的英語短篇故事

A narrow flagstone path lay five steps from the greenhouse door to a low herb bed. Quinn crouched beside the middle stone and nudged a round seedpod with his fingertip. The pod rolled, gathered speed on the smooth slate, and struck a dry bamboo stake. The stake leaned, brushed a string of hanging tin tags, and each tag swung forward like a tiny gate. Their gentle taps knocked a stack of empty snail shells that someone had arranged earlier in the season. The top shell slid off and skittered toward a shallow clay tile pressed into the soil; the tile carried a leaf pattern in raised relief, a small work left by a visiting artist months ago. The shell’s rim met the tile, rocked, and stopped, leaving everything in a new tilted pose.

Quinn tapped his knee against the stone. He then resorted to a longer push, sliding a fallen crab-apple across the same slab. Warm copper light mixed with the earthy smell of wet soil. A moth’s wings flicked against an iris leaf for an instant. The apple bounced over the first seedpod and bumped the already leaning stake. The stake tipped farther until its string snapped free. Loosened tags tumbled, striking the tilted relief tile. The tile shifted, pressing into softer ground opened by yesterday’s rain. A thin stream of water seeped up through the crack it left. The water greased the path. The rolling apple met the waiting snail shell. Together they spun beyond the herb bed and disappeared under the fern bench. The stake remained at an awkward angle. Nearby, the tags kept swaying, tapping uneven rhythms while twilight thickened around the garden.

從溫室門到矮香草床之間，有一道五步長的石板小徑。昆恩蹲在中間的石板旁，用指尖輕推一顆圓形種莢。種莢在平滑的石板上越滾越快，撞到一根乾竹桿。竹桿傾斜，掃過一串懸掛的錫片，每片錫片像小門般依序擺動。它們輕輕敲到一堆早先季節裡有人排好的空蝸殼。最上面的殼滑落，擦過地面，衝向一塊壓在土裡的淺陶瓦；陶瓦上有浮雕的葉紋，是幾個月前到訪藝術家留下的小作品。蝸殼邊緣撞到陶瓦，晃了一下，停住，讓整組物件呈現新的斜角。

昆恩用膝蓋輕碰石板。接著他改用更有力的一推，將一顆掉落的野蘋果沿同一塊石板滑出。溫暖的銅色光線混合濕土氣味飄散開來。一隻蛾子的翅膀在鳶尾葉上掠過一下。蘋果越過第一顆種莢，頂到已傾斜的竹桿。竹桿進一步傾倒，細線應聲斷裂，錫片掉落，撞向傾斜的浮雕陶瓦。陶瓦移動，陷入昨夜雨水軟化的泥土，並留下裂縫，細水從中滲出。水漬潤滑了小徑。滾動的蘋果撞上等待的蝸殼，兩者一起旋轉，越過香草床，消失在蕨類長椅下。竹桿仍保持尷尬的斜度。旁邊的錫片持續搖擺，在黃昏中的花園敲出不規則的節奏。