Rain on the Other Side of the Partition- 適合中高級的英語短篇故事

A pale stripe of silver dust traced a vacant shape on the main bench where Tara’s block plane had once occupied the wood. She bent low, her inquisitive gaze sweeping beneath clamps and chisels to discover where the tool had drifted.

The drawer front of blue-grey ash still waited, its edges rough. Tara reached for a notebook to jot down yesterday’s measurements; the page confirmed she had marked the exact depth already. A slight perturbation in the tidy row of shavings beside the vise suggested something had fallen. She brushed the curls aside and exposed a narrow gap between two floor planks. Light from the north window slid over the crack and revealed the gleam of steel deep below. The plane had lodged out of reach.

First, she tried a slender dowel, sliding it into the seam; the angle refused to cooperate. Next, she unhooked a magnet tied to twine, lowering the improvised fishing line until metal clicked faintly against metal, yet the plane remained wedged. Searching for more leverage, she spotted a thin pry bar that had been forged from tempered scrap; it waited beside a ceramic pot where thyme stems dried in cool shade. Using the bar as a lever, she widened the gap just enough for the magnet to pull the plane upward. Wood fibers whispered as the blade emerged, carrying with it a tiny wooden yak that must have fallen earlier from a shelf display. Tara set both objects on the bench, turned the plane over, and ensured no tooth had been damaged before returning to the ash board.

Behind her, unnoticed, a pencil rolled across the newly disturbed floor and settled against the wall. At the same hour, on the other side of the thin partition, rain began ticking on metal sheets stacked for tomorrow’s projects.

主工作桌上，一條銀灰色的粉塵痕跡勾勒出一個空缺的形狀，原本放著塔拉的削角鉋。她彎下身，探尋的目光在夾具與鑿刀下方搜尋那件跑掉的工具。

一塊藍灰色梣木抽屜面板還擱在旁邊，邊緣粗糙。塔拉拿起筆記本，記下昨天標出的深度；頁面證實她已標好確切尺寸。虎鉗旁整齊的木屑行列中出現微微的擾動，她撥開木屑，看見兩片木地板間的狹縫。北窗射來的光劃過裂縫，深處鋼鐵反射出微光——鉋刀正卡在那裡，手伸不進去。

她先用細圓木棒試插，角度卻不順。接著，她把磁鐵綁在細繩上，像釣魚般放進縫裡，金屬雖吸到了金屬，鉋刀仍動不了。她尋找更好的支點，瞥見一旁乾燥百里香陶罐邊放著用廢鋼打成的薄撬棒。她把撬棒塞入縫隙，稍稍撬開，磁鐵便成功提起鉋刀。刀身伴隨微聲升出，還順帶帶出一隻從架上掉落的小木犛牛。塔拉把兩件物品放回桌面，翻檢刀口無損後，再次面向那塊梣木。

她身後，一支鉛筆順著被撬動的地板滾到牆邊。在同一時刻，隔壁儲料間的金屬板上開始響起雨點輕輕敲擊的聲音。