Colors That Never Reached the Corner- 適合中級的英語短篇故事

"Shine it on the mirror," Cruz said.

The beam jumped across the dusty attic wall.

Light bounced from the round mirror, struck a glass jar, and split into green and red lines that danced under the slanted roof. Colors began to juggle across boxes, trunks, and an upside-down picture frame. A blanket slipped, uncovering a wooden crossbow; a single quarrel rested beside the curved bowstring. Near it, a small ribbon for bravery glimmered inside a cracked frame. Cruz tried to unwind silver tinsel from a spool, hoping the strip might catch the moving lights and stretch the pattern farther. The strip twisted, then snapped free and floated, scattering thin flashes onto a row of tin lids. Glare from the lids chased their own reflections toward a narrow skylight, but a hanging cloth blocked the path and threw a wide shadow back over the floor.

Cruz shifted the mirror again. The first spray of color still lingered on the jar, yet the new angle sent a sharper beam toward the shadowed cloth. The cloth brightened in patches while the rest of the attic stayed dim. Fairness mattered little to the wandering beams; they followed every shiny edge without pattern or order. Each tilt of the mirror added another hop: reflection to lid, lid to marble, marble to prism, prism back to wall. Older flashes faded, but some returned when fresh light struck the tinsel now tangled around a cardboard tube. Cruz crouched, nudged the tube, and watched the tinsel quiver; a rainbow ripple rolled out but lost strength before reaching the far corner. He angled the mirror one last time, lifting it higher. The cloth still blocked the corner patch. Colors crawled over the loose fabric and slipped away before touching the bare boards beyond.

「把光照到那面鏡子上。」克魯茲說。

光束穿過滿是灰塵的閣樓牆面。

光線從圓鏡反射，擊中一個玻璃罐，分裂成綠色和紅色的線條，在傾斜的屋頂下跳動。色彩開始在箱子、木箱和倒置的畫框上變換，好像在雜耍。毯子滑落，露出一把木製弩；一支弩箭靜靜靠在弓弦旁。旁邊，一枚褪色的英勇獎章在破裂相框中閃著微光。克魯茲試著從線軸上解開銀色亮帶，想讓細帶捕捉移動的光並把圖案拉得更遠。亮帶扭動，突然斷開，飄落時把微弱閃光撒到一排錫蓋上。蓋子反射出的強光追逐自己的倒影，衝向窄天窗，但懸掛的布匹擋住去路，大片影子又覆回地板。

克魯茲再次調整鏡子。最初的彩光仍停在玻璃罐上，新角度卻把更銳利的光束射向被影遮住的布匹。布匹部分被照亮，閣樓其他地方仍暗淡。光斑對「公平」毫不在意；它們隨每一處閃亮邊緣四處流竄。每次傾斜鏡子都增加新跳躍：鏡面到蓋子、蓋子到彈珠、彈珠到稜鏡、稜鏡回到牆面。舊閃光逐漸消退，但當新光打到纏在紙筒上的亮帶時，又有些返回。克魯茲蹲下，輕推紙筒，看亮帶顫動；一道彩波向外滾去，在抵達遠角前便耗盡力氣。他最後一次抬高鏡子。布匹仍擋住角落的空斑。色彩爬過鬆垂的布面，還未碰到空木板便消失殆盡。