????我生活在位于波士頓以西8英里的阿靈頓地區。不過，恐怖的爆炸事件在離我家這么近的地方發生時，我剛好在8000英里以外的香港出差。等到天亮我醒來時（當時香港已經是星期二了），看見手機上有許多呼叫提示，我就有一種不詳的預感，于是我下意識地尋找眼鏡。就在這時，手機響了——紐約的一個朋友為了證實一下我是否還活著而打過來的電話。

????我也效仿了那位朋友的做法，給每一個我認識的人、我愛的人打電話，確認他們都安然無恙。接下來的幾天，就跟所有人一樣，我每天都在CNN上跟蹤關注案件的發展。

????正常情況下，我是在博伊斯頓街上班，那兒距離波士頓馬拉松終點線僅三個街區。我想，要不是出差，爆炸發生的時候，我可能剛好就在那兒，盡管我通常會在馬拉松比賽日避免擁擠的人群。馬拉松是我不感興趣的波士頓賽事之一，盡管我在阿靈頓生活了近25年，而且我的太太出生于阿靈頓，我們一起在阿靈頓將孩子撫養成人，我們將來也很可能繼續在那快樂地生活，共度余生。盡管如此，阿靈頓、劍橋、還有波士頓本身，以及以此為中心的整個區域，對我來說，從來就沒有歸屬感。這么說吧，2004年波士頓紅襪隊終于打破魔咒、奪得美國聯盟冠軍賽冠軍的時候，我很高興（主要還是因為女兒和女婿的原因），但08年我所追隨的費城費城人隊奪冠的時候，我激動萬分——盡管從1973年以后，我就再也沒有在離費城較近的地方生活過。而波士頓，我不知道為什么，它一直不是我心的歸屬。

????不過，現在我對波士頓的感情不一樣了，忽然就不一樣了——因為我有了離爆炸地點一步之遙的朋友的消息，因為我知道其中一名遇難者——29歲的克里斯多?坎貝爾，就曾住在阿靈頓，而她曾在我和我太太有時下班后會光顧的一家位于劍橋的餐廳當經理。坎貝爾的媽媽在她位于梅德福家中的門廊里哽咽著說：“我女兒是最優秀的。我不能相信發生了這種事。她無論做什么事都是那么努力。”而這時，她的兒子戴著一頂紅襪子隊的帽子堅定地站在她身旁。看到這一幕，我想到了波士頓這個大家庭里其他的媽媽、其他的女兒、其他的兒子。當然，還有那口音，那獨特的波士頓口音——在香港通過電波聽到這樣的口音，感覺很奇妙、很親切。

????但是，因為在香港生活了兩個月，看了兩個月的香港報紙，經常到大陸出差或旅行，我突然意識到我與家鄉之間的關系多了一層之前沒有預見到的涵義。

????當三個年輕的中國女孩站在波士頓馬拉松終點線附近的時候，一枚炸彈在她們中間炸響了——其中一名未受傷、一名受傷，還有一名竟以如此令人毛骨悚然的方式命殞他鄉。5天后，一個星期六的下午，波士頓紅襪隊在芬威球場迎接爆炸案后的第一場主場比賽，紀念遇難者，并向爆炸案發生后第一時間前往救助的人們表示敬意。

????有一張紅襪子球隊12名球員站成一排的照，就是那天拍的。照片上我們看到的是穿著印有紅色號碼的白色主場隊服的球員的背影——不關注這個球隊的人根本認不出他們。照片上，他們沒有戴棒球帽，一些球員低著頭，另一些則正在抬頭觀看記分牌——記分牌上是一個女孩的頭像，黑色的長發、中分式發型、含蓄的微笑。頭像旁邊配著字幕：“來自中國沈陽的呂令子”。橫跨半個地球的大洋彼岸，甚至在人們把四川地震遇難者的遺體從廢墟中抬出來的時候，這張圖片依然在微博上如病毒般迅速地傳播著。（財富中文網）

????譯者：默默

????I live in Arlington, Mass., eight miles west of Boston. On the day that terror struck close to home, however, I was 8,000 miles away, on assignment in Hong Kong. I woke up at dawn on what for me was Tuesday morning, saw the ominous clutter of alerts on my phone, and was searching for my glasses when the phone started ringing. It was a friend calling from New York. Just making sure I was alive.

????I caught up quickly, confirmed that everyone I know and love was safe, and then like you, probably, I spent the next few days tracking developments on CNN.

????Normally, I work on Boylston St., about three blocks from the finish line. I could have been right there when the bombs went off, I suppose, although I usually avoid the crowds on Marathon day. It's one of those Boston things I've never really warmed to, even though I've been in Arlington for nearly 25 years. My wife was born in Arlington. We raised our kids there. We'll probably live there, happily, for the rest of our lives. And yet … Arlington, Cambridge, Boston itself — that whole Hub universe — has never really felt like home to me. Let me put it this way: I was glad (mainly for my daughters and my in-laws) when the Red Sox finally broke the damn curse in '04. But I was elated when my Phillies won in '08, even though I haven't lived anywhere near Philadelphia since 1973. Boston, I don't know. Just not my tribe.

????Except it's different now, suddenly different. Now that I've heard from friends who were close enough to hear the explosions. And now that I know that one of the victims, 29-year-old Krystle Campbell, lived in Arlington and used to be a manager at the restaurant in Cambridge where my wife and I sometimes meet after work. Watching Campbell's mother struggling for words on the porch of her Medford home — "You couldn't ask for a better daughter. I can't believe this has happened. She was such a hard worker at everything she did" — while her son stood bravely beside her in a Red Sox hat, I was reminded of other mothers, other daughters, and other sons in my wife's big Boston family. And the accent, of course; that unmistakable Boston accent. So strange to hear it coming over the airwaves in Hong Kong. Almost made me feel at home.

????But having been in Hong Kong for the past two months, reading the local papers, traveling often to the Mainland, I realize I have a second, unexpected connection to the events in my hometown.

????Three young Chinese women were standing near the finish line when one of the bombs exploded in their midst. One was unscathed. One was wounded. And one suffered a gruesome death in a faraway land. Five days later, on a Saturday afternoon at Fenway Park, the Red Sox remembered the victims and honored the first responders.

????There's a picture that was taken that day, of a dozen Red Sox all in a line. We see them from behind, anonymous to the uninitiated in their red-numbered home whites. Their caps are off. Some have bowed their heads while others are looking up at the scoreboard, at an image of a young woman with long black hair, parted in the middle, and a shy smile. "Lingzi Lu of Shenyang, China" says the caption on the scoreboard. "Age 23." Half a world away, even as bodies were being pulled from the rubble in Sichuan, the picture went viral on Weibo.