“Senora， un momento por favor？” she turned her head and noticed the small shriveled man， his brown face lined with a map to places only he knew. “Thanks for helping my grandson Julio to read，” the gentleman said in his faltering broken English. She immediately thought of Julio， who once as unreachable as a hardened walnut， slowly cracked opened to reveal the eager child inside. She thought of the inner struggle Julio must have had as he tried to make sense of the foreign letters and the sudden joy when he had unbroken the mysterious code. Was the grandfather the same？ She looked up at this elderly gentleman， probably his grandfather， and quickly recognized the sameness of the two. “Gracias Senora” a weathered hand came out and firmly grasped hers with warmth that radiated from his soul to hers. Just as abruptly he removed his hand and left her. As he walked away she thought of that exotic sun and realized maybe it was closer to her than she thought.
今天周幾，周二還是周三？她一直帶著學生們進行那似乎永無休止的複習。這件事我好像昨天剛剛做過啊？還是去年做的？煩死了，怎麽都趕到一塊兒了。“史密斯小姐，我去下洗手間可以嗎？”正要邁腿跑出去的喬治，停下來問道。我是第幾次聽到這樣的話了？她想著，隨口答道：“好的。”然後她看著他跑出了教室。
她坐在桌旁，眼睛凝視著學生，腦子卻不停地在想下班後該做些什麽事情。我今晚該去健身房或是該去市場買點吃的東西。她機械地繼續上她的課，給學生講字母“a”。“‘a’怎麽讀？”“a，a，a……”學生們異口同聲幹巴巴地讀著。時間一分一秒地過去了，似乎在嘲笑她這無聊單調的一天。
該下課了吧？正想著，教室的電話響了，她歎口氣，起身，走過學生的課桌去接電話。話筒那端的聲音似乎傳自百英裏之外。哦，我多希望我現在不是在這兒，而身處異國他鄉啊。她的思緒飛到了異國情調濃鬱的墨西哥卡波海灘，去年她在那兒度過了愉快的暑假：慵懶地躺在沙灘上，任由陣陣微風輕吻她的肌膚，那種愜意、恬靜的感覺，至今記憶猶新。