Arizona: переводы

→Aloysius the hero.

→For a moment I thought I was hallucinating. Her hair was so black she almost melted into the dark sky. But, looking more closely, I could see it was a girl, standing with her back to me on the cliff edge. She was so still, just her hair blowing slightly in the breeze. It was a beautiful vision, you know? Not so arty farty that I didn’t realize that she was totally hot, mind you. She seemed to be the only girl not wearing one of those retarded hoodies in Newquay, just a thin T-shirt, pretty tight, and some little shorts that showed off her long brown legs. But you couldn’t get around the fact that she was standing on the cliff edge, silently, alone.

→And that’s when I saw the love of my life.

→I walked slowly along the top ridge, passing the bit where you can walk down on to the beach and continuing along the cliff.

→In the end I decided to head down to the beach to see if anything was going on down there. But it was a wet night, and by the look of the group who just passed me on their way back up to the camp-site, people had already headed back to their tents.

→Needless to say that plan hadn’t gone so well tonight. I'd joined a mixed group but then been categorically ignored while I was sat by the side of the fire. When I heard someone say, ‘Who the hell is that guy?’ I felt it time to leave. I headed towards a group of all girls who were also sat агоund and ВВQ, and looked promising, but then I realized one of the girls was crying, hard, the other girls hopelessly trying to console her.

→I’d been wandering around the campsite for a couple of hours, doing that excruciating thing of trying to join in on other people’s fun. You kind of sidle up and look for the least threatening one - a girl with clearly no boyfriend, or one of those geeky guys who sits at the edge of the group nursing one beer the whole night and is constantly tensed, trying to interject something witty into the conversation. I should know, I’ve been that guy. Well once you’ve found one of these you sidle up, start off with something like, ‘Hey, you from Bristol?' and then hope to fuck that they are and that then you can do the whole, ‘So, do you know so-and-so? I swear he went to your school. Dark hair, glasses? No? Must be thinking of a different guy’ thing until they maybe invite you to corne join them in whatever they’re doing.

→‘Who the fuck was she?’

→The Cliff Jump, Newquay, 10.00pm

→I knew what I wanted to do. This was exactly what I was looking for. Maybe I wouldn’t have an audience or people run down to congratulate me afterwards, but I would know that I had done it. I was going to jump.

→A noise escaped my lips, I could feel it, completely unstoppable from my body, but no one was looking at me. The group had surged forward as he jumped, clutching at each other as they peered over the edge. I followed their eyes and watched as his small head popped up from the water. He was beaming and he punched the air and then the water, spraying it up all around him. I looked back up to the group who were all jumping up and down, mouths wide. I read a girl’s lips who was saying, ‘Oh My God! Oh My Fucking God! over and over again. Then they disappeared, reappearing a couple of minutes later to meet the jumping guy out of the water. They clapped him on the back, spinning him round. One guy made a lunge to pull his shorts down and everyone laughed. They made their way back up the each towards the camp-site. No one noticed me. Or if they did and called out I wouldn’t know.

→I was transfixed, literally couldn’t take my eyes off him. And then he smiled quickly and leapt forward, his body glinting in the light. He waved his arms madly as if trying to keep his balance, and entered the water poker straight - there was barely a splash.

→I looked up and saw them then. I could tell they were probably being really loud. A tall, slick, gorgeous guy was stood on the cliff ledge above me, his arms outstretched, all his muscles tensed. There was a group behind him, guys and girls, all with their mouths open wide, shouting and chanting it looked like, egging him on.

→I wandered out of the hall, quickly striding down towards the beach. It’s beautiful in this light. The sun was about to disappear and all the less pretty things like tarmac and bottles and fag ends were sort of hidden in the gloom. The sand could be white and clean if you didn’t look too closely, and the water was all still and treacly.

→I nodded, smiling, and then made for the door.

→‘Don’t get drunk, and don’t take any drugs OK?’

→‘Go out. I’m not going to tell on you.’ Her eyes twinkled-I didn’t need telling twice. I gave her the thumbs up and went to turn away. She grabbed my shoulder.

→‘What?’

→‘So, go find out.’

→‘I want to talk about real stuff y’know? Like, how do уou go about talking to boys when you don’t know what your voice sounds like? Will I get pregnant if I have sex standing up, or when I’m on my period? People don’t seem to want to give normal teen advice to girls like me. It’s as if being deaf is meant to somehow take away your teenage hormon» You can almost see them thinking, “Well at least we don’t need to worry about her getting pregnant, she won’t be having normal relationships with boys.” Truth is, they’re probably right. There are some nice guys in my year but it’s a small group and there’s no one to fancy. Hard to fancy someone you’ve been in class with since you were eight. I want to meet people, go places, be kissed, be touched have sex!’ I signed the last bit with a flourish, making Laura laugh loudly.