A Walk to Remember 精彩片段：
Chapter 5
The next day I talked to Miss Garber, went through the audition, and got the part. Eddie, by the way, wasnt upset at all. In fact, I could tell he was actually relieved about the whole thing. When Miss Garber asked him if hed be willing to let me play the role of Tom Thornton, his face sort of relaxed right there and one of his eyes popped back open. "Y-y-yes, a-a-absolutely," he said, stuttering. "I-I-I un-un-understand." It took him practically ten seconds to get the words out.
For his generosity, however, Miss Garber gave him the role of the bum, and we knew hed do fairly well in that role. The bum, you see, was completely mute, but the angel always knew what he was thinking. At one point in the play she has to tell the mute bum that God will always watch out for him because God especially cares for the poor and downtrodden. That was one of the tip-offs to the audience that shed been sent from heaven. Like I said earlier, Hegbert wanted it to be real clear who offered redemption and salvation, and it certainly wasnt going to be a few rickety ghosts who just popped up out of nowhere.
Rehearsals started the next week, and we rehearsed in the classroom, because the Playhouse wouldnt open their doors for us until wed got all the "little bugs" out of our performance. By little bugs, I mean our tendency to accidentally knock over the props. The props had been made about fifteen years ago, when the play was in its first year, by Toby Bush, a sort of roving handyman who had done a few projects for the Playhouse in the past. He was a roving handyman because he drank beer all day long while he worked, and by about two oclock or so hed really be flying. I guess he couldnt see straight, because hed accidentally whack his fingers with the hammer at least once a day. Whenever that happened, hed throw down the hammer and jump up and down, holding his fingers, cursing everyone from his mother to the devil. When he finally calmed down, hed have another beer to soothe the pain before going back to work. His knuckles were the size of walnuts, permanently swollen from years of whacking, and no one was willing to hire him on a permanent basis. The only reason Hegbert had hired him at all was because he was far and away the lowest bidder in town.
But Hegbert wouldnt allow drinking or cursing, and Toby really didnt know how to work within such a strict environment. As a result, the work was kind of sloppy, though it wasnt obvious right off the bat. After a few years the props began to fall apart, and Hegbert took it upon himself to keep the things together. But while Hegbert was good at thumping the Bible, he wasnt too good at thumping nails, and the props had bent, rusty nails sticking out all over, poking through the plywood in so many places that we had to be careful to walk exactly where we were supposed to. If we bumped them the wrong way, wed either cut ourselves or the props would topple over, making little nail holes all over the stage floor. After a couple of years the Playhouse stage had to be resurfaced, and though they couldnt exactly close their doors to Hegbert, they made a deal with him to be more careful in the future. That meant we had to practice in the classroom until wed worked out the "little bugs."
Fortunately Hegbert wasnt involved with the actual production of the play, because of all his ministering duties. That role fell to Miss Garber, and the first thing she told us to do was to memorize our lines as quickly as possible. We didnt have as much time as was usually allotted for rehearsals because Thanksgiving came on the last possible day in November, and Hegbert didnt want the play to be performed too close to Christmas, so as not to interfere with "its true meaning." That left us only three weeks to get the play just right, which was about a week shorter than usual.
The rehearsals began at three oclock, and Jamie knew all her lines the first day there, which wasnt really surprising. What was surprising was that she knew all my lines, too, as well as everyone elses. Wed be going over a scene, shed be doing it without the script, and Id be looking down at a stack of pages, trying to figure out what my next line should be, and whenever I looked up she had this real shiny look about her, as if waiting for a burning bush or something. The only lines I knew were the mute bums, at least on that first day, and all of a sudden I was actually envious of Eddie, at least in that regard. This was going to be a lot of work, not exactly what Id expected when Id signed up for the class.
My noble feelings about doing the play had worn off by the second day of rehearsals. Even though I knew I was doing the "right thing," my friends didnt understand it at all, and theyd been riding me since theyd found out. "Youre doing what?" Eric asked when he learned about it. "Youre doing the play with Jamie Sullivan? Are you insane or just plain stupid?" I sort of mumbled that I had a good reason, but he wouldnt let it drop, and he told everyone around us that I had a crush on her. I denied it, of course, which just made them assume it was true, and theyd laugh all the louder and tell the next person they saw. The stories kept getting wilder, too-by lunchtime Id heard from Sally that I was thinking of getting engaged. I actually think Sally was jealous about it. Shed had a crush on me for years, and the feeling might have been mutual except for the fact that she had a glass eye, and that was something I just couldnt ignore. Her bad eye reminded me of something youd see stuffed into the head of a mounted owl in a tacky antique shop, and to be honest, it sort of gave me the willies.
I guess that was when I started to resent Jamie again. I know it wasnt her fault, but I was the one who was taking the arrows for Hegbert, who hadnt exactly gone out of his way the night of homecoming to make me feel welcome. I began to stumble through my lines in class for the next few days, not really even attempting to learn them, and occasionally Id crack a joke or two, which everyone laughed at, except for Jamie and Miss Garber. After rehearsal was over Id head home to put the play out of my mind, and I wouldnt even bother to pick up the script. Instead Id joke with my friends about the weird things Jamie did and tell fibs about how it was Miss Garber who had forced me into the whole thing.
Jamie, though, wasnt going to let me off that easy. No, she got me right where it hurts, right smack in the old ego.
I was out with Eric on Saturday night following Beauforts third consecutive state championship in football, about a week after rehearsals had started. We were hanging out at the waterfront outside of Cecils Diner, eating hushpuppies and watching people cruising in their cars, when I saw Jamie walking down the street. She was still a hundred yards away, turning her head from side to side, wearing that old brown sweater again and carrying her Bible in one hand. It must have been nine oclock or so, which was late for her to be out, and it was even stranger to see her in this part of town. I turned my back to her and pulled the collar up on my jacket, but even Margaret-who had banana pudding where her brain should have been-was smart enough to figure out who she was looking for.
"Landon, your girlfriend is here."
"Shes not my girlfriend," I said. "I dont have a girlfriend."
"Your fiancée, then."
I guess shed talked to Sally, too.