三个月后，我和朋友又相聚在同一家餐厅里。我们互相碰杯，欢呼道：“为了纽约的新生活！”我们聊了几个小时，我总说这是我生命中的一次机遇。我告诉他们为省钱我决定搬出海边的小木屋，准备在离开前的几个月内租一个房间住。“我有一个来自南非的朋友。”一个朋友主动提出，“他叫巴里，是个很不错的家伙。”“这是他的电话，”他在一张餐巾纸上写下了号码，“他是个42岁坚定的单身主义者。他戏言自己忙于做一个单身父亲而没有时间再做丈夫。”
当天，我便预约去看房子。我正朝那所大房子走去时，门开了。“你一定是米歇尔。”他说着，卷起他宽松外套的衣袖，脸上漾起迷人的微笑。这不就是几个月前饭店里的那个男人——那个我想要嫁的男人！
我目瞪口呆地站在那里，希望自己没有失态。
“你就是米歇尔，对吗？”他打断了我的思绪，说道：“你想看看房间吗？”
我便随着他参观了一下房子，并接受了他的邀请，喝了一杯茶。巴里沉稳而耐心，他专心地听我喋喋不休地谈论着自己。他那银镶边的眼镜使他深色头发中的几缕白发格外醒目。很快，他灿烂、热情的微笑令我放松。在接下来的两个小时里，我们随意地聊着。最后，我决定不租那房间，并依依不舍地和他道别。
之后，我整天忙于搬家的事，几个月飞快地过去了。这段日子里，尽管我常常想到巴里，却不曾想过要打电话给他。
一天，当我和斯泰西离开我的办公室走向饭厅时，我说：“再过三个星期，我就要去纽约了，再见他一面，只会使我的生活变得一团糟。”
“那么，就让它一团糟吧！”斯泰西低语道，朝着门那边点了点头。是巴里，他用那双蔚蓝色的眼睛望着我，脸上带着摄人心魄的微笑，走进了饭店。
“你好，”他温柔地说道，“现在有空喝杯咖啡吗？”“当然！”我试着不让自己窒息。
我们拐进了一家路边小店，接着上次的话题聊了起来。从他的谈话中，我得知他也正要换一份工作，回到南非去。他的行程先于我一个星期。现在我明白我必须让自己冲动的心冷静一下。很明显，我们俩不会有结果。他问了我的电话号码，说以后会请我吃饭。我强忍着悲痛接受了，因为我知道两个星期后我将离开，这可能是永远都无法实现的约会。
可它竟然实现了！几天后，他来接我，我们一起看电影，吃晚饭。我们聊了几个小时，聊生活，聊希望，聊我们各自的梦想——我的在纽约，而他的在南非。我从不曾和一个男人谈得如此畅快，如此舒服。他握住我的手。从他的眼神里，我想我看到了正在我心中急剧膨胀的爱。他说。“我真的很遗憾，走前的一个星期才遇到你。”
“可我们还有整整七天。”我无限深情地答道。
“那么就让我们充分地享受它们吧。”说着，他帮我穿上外套。我们手牵着手走向汽车，计划着我们的明天以及明天的明天。在他开车送我回家的路上，我心中响起了特蕾西·查普曼的歌——“给我一个留下的理由，我将会回头……”不知他心里是否也在和我一起歌唱呢？
Silence Is Bliss寂静的狂欢
Will and Lyra followed the stream into the wood, walking carefully, saying little, until they were in the very center.
There was a little clearing in the middle of the grove, which was floored with soft grass and moss covered rocks. The branches laced across overhead, almost shutting out the sky and letting through little moving spangles and sequins of sunlight, so that everything was dappled with gold and silver.
And it was quiet. Only the trickle of the stream, and the occasional rustle of leaves high up in a little curl of breeze, broke the silence.
Will put down the package of food; Lyra put down her little rucksack. There was no sign of the daemon- shadows anywhere. They were completely alone.
They took off their shoes and socks and sat down on the mossy rocks at the edge of the stream, dipping their feet in the cold water and feeling the shock of it invigorate their blood.
“I’m hungry,” Will said
“Me too,” said Lyra, though she was feeling more than that, something subdued and pressing and half happy and half painful, so that she wasn’t quite sure what it was.
They unfolded the cloth and ate some bread and cheese. For some reason their hands were slow and clumsy, and they hardly tasted the food, although the bread was floury and crisp from the hot baking stones, and the cheese was flaky and salty and very fresh.
Then Lyra took one of those little red fruits. With a fast beating heart, she turned to him and said, “Will...”
And she lifted the fruit gently to his mouth.
She could see from his eyes that he knew at once what she meant, and that he was too joyful to speak. Her fingers were still at his lips, and he felt them tremble, and he put his own hand up to hold hers there, and then neither of them could look; they were confused; they were brimming with happiness.
Like two moths clumsily bumping together, with no more weight than that, their lips touched. Then before they knew how it happened, they were clinging together, blindly pressing their faces towards each other.
“Like Mary said，” he whispered，“you know straight away when you like someone，when you were asleep on the mountain, before she took you away ，I told Pan.”
“I heard,” she whispered, “I was awake and I wanted to tell you the same and now I know what I must have felt all the time: I love you, Will, I love you…”
The word love set his nerves ablaze. All his body thrilled with it, and he answered her in the same words, kissing her hot face over and over again, drinking in with adoration the scent of her body and her warm honey fragrant hair and her sweet moist mouth that tasted of the little red fruit.
Around them there was nothing but silence, as if the whole world were holding its breath…
威尔和莱拉沿着溪流来到树林里，他们小心翼翼地走着，一路无语，就这样一直走到了树林中央。
树林中央有一小块空地，上面长着软软的草，岩石上还长满了苔藓。头顶的树枝交错着，将天空遮了个严严实实。阳光穿过树枝间的空隙，漏下缕缕闪闪发光的金线，一切都被渲染成金色和银色了。
树林里非常寂静。只有溪流缓缓地流淌的声音，还有徐徐的微风吹动树叶的沙沙声，才会偶尔打破这里的寂静。
威尔把食品包放下，莱拉也把她的帆布背包放下，四处根本没有一点阴森森的感觉，这里只有他们两个。
他们把鞋和袜子脱掉，在小溪边的长有青苔的石头上坐了下来。他们把脚丫伸进冰冷的溪水里，顿时感到他们的血液有一种浑然一振的冲击感。
“我饿了。”威尔说。
“我也饿了。”莱拉说，尽管她感到有什么东西在压迫着自己，那是一种喜悲参半的感觉，所以到现在，她并没有真正弄明白那是一种什么样的感觉。
他们把布打开，吃了一些面包和奶酪。面包刚出炉不久，很新鲜好吃的，成片的咸奶酪也是非常可口的，可不知道怎么回事，他们的手都反应很慢，好像还有些笨拙，他们没有仔细品味食物的味道。
莱拉从那些水果中挑了一个，然后满脸羞涩，紧张地转过身去，对威尔说：“威尔……”
然后，她轻轻地把水果递到威尔的嘴边。
从威尔的眼神里莱拉看出来了他马上明白了自己的意思，他非常高兴，都不知道该说什么。她的手还在他的唇边。威尔感到自己的嘴唇在颤抖。他抬手，紧紧抓住莱拉的手，然后，他们两人的眼中便没有了其他东西；他们俩心情很复杂，可也荡漾着无言的幸福。
就像两只毛虫笨拙地碰到了一起一样，他们的嘴唇也很自然地碰到了一起。当他们还未来得及明白这一切是如何发生的时候，他们俩已经拥抱在了一起……
“玛丽说过，”他轻声对她耳语道，“当你喜欢上一个人的时候，你能马上感觉得到。当你在山上睡觉的时候，在她夺走你的心之前，你就能感觉得到。我曾经告诉过帕恩。”
