On Saturday, February 12 two thousand, two things happened that changed everything in my life. The first was that on this day my baby sister was married. She was twenty-six this day, and yet to me she was still my baby sister. I suppose that I pictured her as a little girl, and treated her like one in order to hold onto and preserve my own youth. Until I saw her in her wedding dress I still had a vision of her with chubby little cheeks and long, dark-brown pigtails blowing in the wind, perhaps even a permanent smudge of chocolate around her pink lips. I guess it’s true that you see only what you want to see. Where did this beautiful woman with the glowing complexion and gentle curves come from?

2000年2月12日，星期六，那天發生的兩件事改變了我的此后的生活。第一件是小妹妹那天結婚了。當時她已經26歲了，但對我來說，她還是我的小妹妹。我總是把她看作小女孩，也把她當一個小女孩來對待。我想這是因為我希望通過這種方式來永葆青春。直到看到她身著婚紗的那一刻，浮現在我腦海的還是那個小圓臉蛋，長長的褐色馬尾巴在風中擺動的小女孩;也許還有一塊巧克力總是粘在她那粉紅色的嘴唇上。我想人總是看見自己想看的東西。眼前這位容光煥發、線條優美的女人是誰呢?

I was happy that day, and also sad. Gone were the days of me bossing her around and telling her what she should do with her life. My bossy behavior had earned me the nickname Lucy. If you are a Peanuts fan then you can clearly imagine my behavior as an older sister. To me it wasn’t an insult; I rather like the nickname Lucy. I happen to think that Lucy is strong and has incredible self-confidence, although she is a little overbearing at times. I did my best to live up to the standards set forth by this dynamic cartoon character.

那天我既高興又傷心。過去我對她呼來喚去，告訴她生活應該怎樣過的日子已經一去不回了。因為獨斷蠻橫我得到了露西這個外號。如果你也喜歡看《花生》這部動畫片，那你一定可以想象我作為一個大姐姐的樣子。我不覺得這個外號是一種侮辱，反倒很喜歡它。我有時還想，強大的露西自信得令人難以置信，雖然她有時也讓人難以忍受。我努力向這個生氣勃勃的卡通形象看齊。

I left the reception to get some air because suddenly I was overcome with grief at the realization that I was no longer a child. I went outside and walked to a nearby playground where there were children playing on the slide, the swings and digging in the dirt. There was a little girl twirling around on a bar, one knee wrapped tightly around the bar and fashioned behind her knee. It was all I could do to sit there and just watch, for I too wanted to get on that bar with her and see if I could still hold the all-time twirling record (ninety-nine times in fifth grade). Somewhere inside I knew that I would break my neck, and I was wearing a bridesmaid dress. Not exactly play ground material. And so I sat watching the children play. I’m not sure how long I sat there before my sister came and joined me. We talked about how we are grown up now and shed a few tears for our childhood days gone by. As she wiped a tear from my eye she lovingly said, "you’ll always be Lucy to me." We hugged.

我離開了婚禮現場，到外面去呼吸些新鮮空氣。我突然傷感不已，因為自己已經不再是個孩子了。我走到外面，來到附近的一個運動場邊，小孩子正在那里玩滑梯、蕩秋千、玩泥沙。有個小女孩正在一個杠上快速地轉動，一條腿緊緊地勾在杠上。而我所能做的只是坐在那里看看，我也想跟她一起玩，看看能否再重現當年自己轉圈的最高記錄(五年級時一次達到99次)。但我很清楚，這樣我可能會扭斷脖子。再說我正穿著伴娘服，不適合運動。于是我只好坐在那里看孩子們玩耍。不知過了多久，妹妹來到我身邊。我們談起自己已經長大了，并為逝去的孩童時光流下了淚。她替我擦干眼淚，充滿愛意地說：“你永遠都是我的露西。” 我們擁抱在了一起。