CampbellIT’S RAINING.

　　When I come out to the living room, Judge has his nose pressed against the plate glass wall that makes upone whole side of the apartment. He whines¹ at the drops that zigzag² past him. “You can’t get them,” I say,patting him on the head. “You can’t get to the other side.”

I sit down on the rug beside him, knowing I need to get up and get dressed and go to court; knowing that Iought to be reviewing my closing argument again and not sitting here idle. But there is somethingmesmerizing about this weather. I used to sit in the front seat of my father’s Jag, watching the raindrops runtheir kamikaze suicide missions from one edge of the windshield to the wiper blade. He liked to leave thewipers on intermittent³, so that the world went runny on my side of the glass for whole blocks of time. It mademe crazy. When you drive, my father used to say when I complained, you can do what you want.

“You want the shower first?”

Julia stands in the open doorway⁴ of the bedroom, wearing one of my T-shirts. It hits her at mid-thigh. Shecurls her toes into the carpet.

“You go ahead,” I tell her. “I could always just step out on the balcony instead.”

She notices the weather. “Awful out, isn’t it?”

“Good day to be stuck in court,” I answer, but without any great conviction. I don’t want to face JudgeDeSalvo’s decision today, and for once it has nothing to do with fear of losing this case. I’ve done the best Icould, given what Anna admitted on the stand. And I hope like hell that I’ve made her feel a little better aboutwhat she’s done, too. She doesn’t look like an indecisive kid anymore, that much is true. She doesn’t lookselfish. She just looks like the rest of us—trying to figure out exactly who she is, and what to make of it.

The truth is, as Anna once told me, nobody’s going to win. We are going to give our closing arguments andhear the judge’s opinion and even then, it won’t be over.

Instead of heading back to the bathroom, Julia approaches. She sits down cross-legged beside me and touchesher fingers to the plate of glass. “Campbell,” she says, “I don’t know how to tell you this.”

Everything inside me goes still. “Fast,” I suggest.

“I hate your apartment.”

I follow her eyes from the gray carpet to the black couch, to the mirrored wall and the lacquered bookshelves.

It is full of sharp edges and expensive art. It has the most advanced electronic gadgets⁵ and bells and whistles.

It is a dream residence, but it is nobody’s home.

“You know,” I say. “I hate it, too.”

1 whines   

n.悲嗥声( whine的名词复数 )；哀鸣者v.哀号( whine的第三人称单数 )；哀诉，诉怨

参考例句：

• The colony whines a centerless loud drone that vibrates the neighborhood. 蜂群嗡嗡喧闹的哀鸣振动邻里。 来自互联网
• The web whines with the sound of countless mosquitoes and flies trapped in its folds. 蜘蛛网内发出无数只被困在蜘蛛丝间的蚊子与苍蝇所发出来的声音。 来自互联网

2 zigzag   

n.曲折，之字形；adj.曲折的，锯齿形的；adv.曲折地，成锯齿形地；vt.使曲折；vi.曲折前行

参考例句：

• The lightning made a zigzag in the sky.闪电在天空划出一道Z字形。
• The path runs zigzag up the hill.小径向山顶蜿蜒盘旋。

3 intermittent   

adj.间歇的，断断续续的

参考例句：

• Did you hear the intermittent sound outside?你听见外面时断时续的声音了吗？
• In the daytime intermittent rains freshened all the earth.白天里，时断时续地下着雨，使整个大地都生气勃勃了。

4 doorway   

n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径

参考例句：

• They huddled in the shop doorway to shelter from the rain.他们挤在商店门口躲雨。
• Mary suddenly appeared in the doorway.玛丽突然出现在门口。

5 gadgets   

n.小机械，小器具（ gadget的名词复数 ）

参考例句：

• Certainly. The idea is not to have a house full of gadgets. 当然。设想是房屋不再充满小配件。 来自超越目标英语 第4册
• This meant more gadgets and more experiments. 这意味着要设计出更多的装置，做更多的实验。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史