While on the walk, Eric loses Nova

散步時，Eric 弄丟 Nova 了，

after she pulls the leash from his hand in pursuit of a rabbit

在牠為了追逐兔子兒將狗繩從他手中拉走時，

that happens to jump out of a bush as they pass by it.

而那隻兔子剛好在他們經過時從樹叢中跳出。

Eric chases after Nova but this only inspires her to run faster,

Eric 追著 Nova 跑，但這讓牠跑得更快了，

until she completely eludes Eric's vision

直到牠完全消失在 Eric 的視線中，

continuing on her pursuit of the rabbit, that has, by now,

繼續追著兔子跑，而那隻兔子現在

hidden somewhere in the other direction.

已經藏到另一個方向的某處了。

After a great deal of time passes, it becomes clear that Nova

過了很長時間後，很明顯 Nova

has outrun her sense of orientation and is now lost.

已經失去了方向感，迷路了。

Eric spends the rest of the day and the days following

Eric 用剩下的時間和接下來的日子

searching for Nova. He notifies neighbors,

尋找 Nova。 他通知鄰居、

enlists friends and family to help,

尋求朋友和家人的幫忙、

puts up signs, and so on.

放上失蹤的傳單等等。

A week goes by, Nova is still missing.

一周過去了，Nova 仍然下落不明。

Eric is devastated beyond comprehension.

Eric 心力交瘁的程度令人費解。

He thinks about how horribly unlucky it was that the rabbit jumped out at just the wrong time and that his hand position was just in the wrong place to allow Nova to pull the leash from him.

他回想著自己的不幸，兔子在不對的時間跳了出來，而他的手又沒抓好繩子，所以 Nova 一使勁繩子就鬆脫了。

About another week later, a woman shows up at Eric's front door, she has Nova.

大約又過了一周，一名女子帶著 Nova 出現在 Eric 家門口。

After Nova and Eric reconnect in a chaotic, heart-warming display of affection, Eric thanks the woman.

Nova 和 Eric 重逢，五味雜陳的激動情緒表露無遺，Eric 向這位女子道謝。

She introduces herself and tells Eric her name is Vanessa.

她自我介紹，並告訴 Eric 她叫 Vanessa。

She's beautiful, and about Eric's same age.

她長得很美，而且和 Eric 年齡相仿。

Eric and Vanessa talk for a little while and seem to hit it off.

Eric 和 Vanessa 聊了一會兒，似乎很合得來。

In the following weeks they hang out several times and things go so well, they soon begin dating.

接下來幾週，他們一起出去玩了幾次，一切進展順利，他們很快就開始交往了。

Eric finds her to be absolutely gorgeous, kind, funny, smart, spontaneous—all the right buzzwords for a perfect romantic partner in a story.

Eric 覺得她迷人、善良、幽默、聰明、隨興，反正就是任何愛情故事中描述完美又浪漫的伴侶的流行語。

Soon, Eric and Vanessa fall in love, the relationship is everything one could reasonably hope a relationship to be.

很快地，Eric 和 Vanessa 墜入愛河，他們的感情令人稱羨。

Eric thinks about how lucky it was that Vanessa was the person who happened to be in the right place at the right time to find and return Nova.

Eric 覺得自己很幸運，Vanessa 恰巧在對的時間出現在對的地方，找到 Nova 並將牠送回家。

A couple months go by, Eric is driving on his way to pick up Vanessa.

幾個月過去了，Eric 開著車要去接 Vanessa。

While driving through an intersection, Eric is T-boned at full speed by a driver who distractedly runs a red light coming from the perpendicular side street.

Eric 經過十字路口時，車身正中央被垂直側，全速闖紅燈的浮躁駕駛撞個正著。

Eric is knocked unconscious as he and his car are sent in a thrashing 1080° spin.

Eric 的車在空中翻轉了 1080 度，他因重擊而陷入昏迷。

An hour or so later, Eric finds himself in a hospital.

大約一小時後，Eric 發現自己進了醫院。

A doctor informs Eric of what has happened, and explains that he has suffered a severe head injury, and that they will need to run some immediate tests as well as a brain scan to determine the severity, and if there's any chance of permanent brain damage or internal bleeding.

醫生告訴 Eric 事情的經過，並說明他的頭部因為受到嚴重的創傷，醫院必須立刻做腦部測試和掃描以確認其嚴重性，以及是否會造成永久性腦損傷和內出血。

As his consciousness begins to more clearly return to him, Erick thinks about how unlucky he was to have been going to get Vanessa in the exact direction at that exact time.

Eric 逐漸恢復意識之後，他開始思考自己有多麼的不幸，因為要去接 Vanessa 而剛好在那個時間點開往那個方向。

He's furious at the possibility that his life could be ruined by this one, random happenstance.

他因為自己的人生可能會被這個偶然的事件毀掉而感到憤怒。

Eric is held overnight at the hospital.

Eric 在醫院住了一晚。

The next day, the doctor comes into Eric's room.

隔天，醫生來到 Eric 的病房。

"Eric, how we doing," the doctor asks.

醫生問：「Eric，你還好嗎？」

"Fine. A little fuzzy I guess," Eric replies.

Eric 回答：「還好，頭腦好像有點模糊不清。」

"Yeah, I would certainly imagine. You took quite the smack," the doctor says.

醫生說：「是的，可以想像，你被撞的不輕！」

"Yeah," Eric responds.

Eric 回答：「是的。」

"So, I've reviewed the CT scan, and I have some bad news, and I also have some good news."

「我看了電腦斷層掃描的結果，有壞消息也有好消息。」

Confused, Eric says: "OK, uhm, I guess I'll take the bad news first."

Eric 困惑地說：「好，我想先聽壞消息。」

"Well, technically they're sort of the same piece of news," says the doctor.

醫生回答：「嚴格來說是同一件事情。」

"What do you mean?" Eric asks with an escalating level of concern and confusion.

Eric 變得更加擔心和困惑，他追問：「這是什麼意思？」

"The bad news is, we found what appears to be a glioma in your brain." The doctor pauses for a moment, and Eric looks at him unaware of what this means.

「壞消息是，我們在你的腦中發現了神經膠瘤。」醫生停頓了一下，而 Eric 看著醫生，不明白他的意思。

"It's a tumor," the doctor goes on to say, "The good news, though, is we found what appears to be a glioma in your brain."

「也就是腫瘤。」醫生接著說：「而好消息是，我們在你的腦中發現了神經膠瘤。」

"What do you mean? How's that good news?" Eric asks.

Eric 回答：「這是什麼意思？這怎麼會是好消息？」

"This tumor has nothing to do with your accident. You actually got out of the accident relatively unharmed, but because of your accident, we ran the brain scan; because of the brain scan, we found the tumor.

「腫瘤跟車禍無關。其實車禍沒有帶給你太大的傷害，但因為發生車禍，我們才會做腦部掃描；而透過腦部掃描，我們發現了腫瘤。」

Normally we only catch a tumor like this after someone realizes something's wrong when they start to feel the symptoms, which is almost always too late.

「一般情況下，我們只有在人們意識到身體不對勁、開始感覺到症狀時，才會發現這種腫瘤，但通常都為時已晚。」

"Because we found the tumor right now, though, we caught it while it's still benign before it became malignant and grew into any other areas of your brain, which in almost all cases becomes fatal."

「因為我們現在就發現了腫瘤，它目前為良性，尚未轉變為惡性腫瘤，也沒有擴散到大腦其他區域，否則其嚴重性足以致命。」

"Since it's still in this stage, though, we should be able to remove it almost entirely without any issue. Eric, in a weird way, this car accident basically saved your life. So I guess, you know, sort of good news disguised as bad news," the doctor concludes.

「由於它還處於這個階段，我們應該可以輕易地切除整顆腫瘤。Eric，奇怪的是這場車禍救了你一命，所以我想這算是因禍得福吧！」醫生總結道。

Eric starts to feel a weird, visceral tingling sensation and becomes slightly disoriented.

Eric 逐漸感到一股奇怪的、發自肺腑的感覺，他的意識變得有點迷糊。

Maybe it's the head injury. Maybe it's the emotion of the situation. Maybe it's the fact that the doctor just essentially said the same thing twice, but Eric experienced two totally different mental responses.

也是因為頭部受傷；也許情境觸動情緒；也許是醫生把同樣的事情說了兩次，但 Eric 卻經歷了兩種截然不同的心理反應。也許是上述所有的事情使然。

Maybe it's everything. Regardless, Eric looks around at the room.

無論如何，Eric 環顧病房。

He thinks about how lucky he was to have been going to get Vanessa in the exact direction at that exact time.

他想著自己真的很幸運，因為要去接 Vanessa 而剛好在那個時間點開往那個方向。

He thinks about how lucky he was to have gotten in a car accident.

他心想，發生車禍真的是太幸運了。

He thinks about how weird it is to think this. For something so bad to be so good, and for something so good to be so bad.

他覺得這種想法很奇怪。如此糟糕的事情變得如此美好，而如此美好的事情變得如此糟糕。

In this moment, Eric realizes how little he knows about what anything actually is.

這一刻，Eric 意識到自己對事物的本質知之甚少。

That he has never and can never know what exists on the other side of anything that happens to him or because of him, no matter how good or bad, lucky or unlucky any of it might seem.

他未曾思考也永遠不會知道，發生在他身上或因他而生的事情的另一面是什麼，無論這些事情看起來是好是壞，是幸還是不幸。

Eric feels a strange, paradoxical sense of helplessness and liberation.

Eric 感受到一股奇怪又矛盾的無助感和解放感。

About a week later, Eric undergoes brain surgery to remove the tumor.

大約一周後，Eric 接受了切除腫瘤的腦部手術。

The surgery is successful.

手術很順利。

Eric is mostly as good as new, with exception of a scar running down the side of his scalp.

Eric 恢復得很好，只是頭皮上多了一道疤。

Several days later, after being released from the hospital, Eric is at home with Vanessa, recovering.

幾天後，Eric 出院了，Vanessa 陪著他在家裡休養。

To get some fresh air, he takes Nova out for a walk.

因為想呼吸新鮮空氣，他帶 Nova 出門散步。