司氏姐妹 （The Switch Sisters) 翻译连载：序曲

序曲

我们都已不记得是在什么遥远的年代司氏姐妹们搬进塔马尼巷的房子里。似乎象所有人一样，我们是在每天听有关她们的睡前故事中长大的，虽然她们与我们年龄相仿。而且，我们还会有机会遇到她们－－在超市里，在孩子们玩耍的场所，在学校课休和午餐的时候——并意识到他们只是像我们一样的人。 因为一旦我们习惯于她们的黑头发，中国人的小眼睛和扁鼻子， 她们看上去就像我们一样。当然，她们比想象的更美丽，尤其在这样一个小镇里。她们也用脚走路，靠水和食物存活，就像镇里所有的乡亲一样。我们会惊呀传说中有关她们的故事，并自己传播更多这类故事，渴望在传播这些故事中，证明自己认识她们。我们惊奇是否有一种与她们的美丽相关的东西迷住了我们，给我们下了咒语，我们就这样被吸引，去爱他们。我们坠入爱河，并害怕她们的魔力加在我们身上。司维曲们，这个被大家称咐的名号，包括四姐妹和一个似乎永远年轻的母亲。他们的存在像一个带着生命气息的神话，一片阴森的迷雾徘徊在小镇。

Prologue

It’s hard to remember a time when the Switch sisters didn’t live in the house on Tamany Lane. It seemed like all of us grew up hearing about them in our bedtime stories, even though they must have been not so much older than ourselves. Eventually, we would meet them–in the supermarket, on the playground, during recess and lunch at school–and realize that they were just people like us. For they looked more or less like us, once we were accustomed to the black hair, Chinese eyes, and flat noses. Certainly, they were more beautiful than to be expected, especially in a small town, but they walked with their feet and survived on water and food just like the worst and best of the townsfolk. We would wonder about the things we had been told, and tell more stories, spreading rumors in our eagerness to prove we knew them. We would wonder if there was something about their beauty that captivated us, put a spell over us, so that we would be drawn to them and love them. We fell in love with them, and feared them for the power they held over us. The Switches, they were called, four Switch sisters with a mother who seemed to never age. Their presence lingered over the town like an eerie mist of living, breathing myth.