楼道里的灯
The stairwell light
Name: ________________ Date: ________
何老师退休以后，一直住在这栋老楼的四楼。楼里没有电梯，楼道又窄又暗，全靠每层一盏声控灯。
上个月，三楼和四楼之间的那盏灯坏了。晚上上楼，走到那里就是一片黑，只能扶着墙，一级一级地数台阶。
邻居们在业主群里为这件事吵了好几天。有人说该物业负责，有人抱怨物业早就不管这栋楼了；有人发了维修电话，也有人说打过了，根本没人接。说来说去，灯还是不亮。
何老师在网上买了一个灯泡。东西到了，她才发现自己够不着：灯装得太高，家里的椅子不够高，她又不敢站到桌子上去。她犹豫了一下，只好把灯泡放在门口的鞋柜上，打算周末让儿子回来帮忙。
没想到，第二天晚上她买菜回来，那盏灯亮了。
她在楼梯上站了一会儿，灯灭了；她咳嗽一声，灯又亮了。回到门口一看，鞋柜上的灯泡不见了。
会是谁呢？何老师心里猜，可能是五楼那个年轻人。他好像是送外卖的，每天半夜才回来，脚步很轻，偶尔碰到邻居，也很少打招呼。何老师只在楼道里见过他几次，连他姓什么都不知道。
她写了一张纸条，贴在五楼的门上：“灯是你修的吧？谢谢你。灯泡的钱我还没给你。四楼 何”
第二天早上，她的门上也多了一张纸条，字写得歪歪扭扭：
“不用给钱，灯泡本来就是您买的。那天看见您鞋柜上的灯泡，我就悄悄拿去换上了。其实我早就想谢谢您了。我每天回来都很晚，楼道里黑，上楼总是看不清台阶。这半年，您家门口那盏小灯一直开着，我每天晚上就是看着它上楼的。五楼 小江”
何老师拿着纸条，仔细看了两遍，在门口站了很久。她门口那盏小灯，是老伴去世以前装的。他总说，晚上回家的人，远远看见有灯，心里就踏实。老伴走了以后，她一直舍不得关。
那天晚上，她在纸条下面又加了一句，贴回五楼的门上：
“以后回来晚了，饿了，就敲门。我一个人做饭，总是做多。”
Key words
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 全 | quán | whole; all; entire; complete; completely; entirely |
| 之间 | zhījiān | between; among |
| 负责 | fùzé | to be in charge of; to be responsible for |
| 亮 | liàng | bright; shiny; to shine; to light up |
| 装 | zhuāng | to pack; to load; to install |
| 只好 | zhíhǎo | to have no choice but to; to be forced to |
| 咳嗽 | késou | to cough; cough |
| 猜 | cāi | to guess |
| 偶尔 | óu’ěr | occasionally; once in a while |
| 打招呼 | dǎzhāohu | to greet; to say hello |
| 仔细 | zǐxì | careful; attentive; carefully |
| 退休 | tuìxiū | to retire; retirement |
English (for the teacher)
Since she retired, Teacher He had lived on the fourth floor of this old building. The building had no lift, and the stairwell was narrow and dark, lit only by one sound-activated light on each floor.
Last month, the light between the third and fourth floors broke. Going up at night, everything went black at that spot, and she could only hold on to the wall and count the steps one by one.
The neighbours argued about it in the residents’ group chat for days. Some said the management company should take care of it, some complained the management company had stopped looking after this building long ago; someone posted the repair number, and someone else said they’d called and nobody ever answered. For all the talk, the light still didn’t come on.
Teacher He bought a light bulb online. Only when it arrived did she find she couldn’t reach: the light was too high, the chairs at home weren’t tall enough, and she didn’t dare stand on the table. She hesitated, then left the bulb on the shoe cabinet by her door, planning to have her son come and help at the weekend.
To her surprise, when she came back from buying groceries the next evening, the light was on.
She stood on the stairs for a while and the light went out; she coughed, and it came on again. Back at her door, she saw the bulb on the shoe cabinet was gone.
Who could it be? Teacher He guessed it might be the young man on the fifth floor. He seemed to deliver takeaways; he came home every night after midnight, with very light footsteps, and when he ran into neighbours he rarely said hello. Teacher He had only seen him in the stairwell a few times and didn’t even know his surname.
She wrote a note and stuck it on the fifth-floor door: “You fixed the light, didn’t you? Thank you. I still haven’t paid you for the bulb. 4th floor, He”
The next morning, there was a note on her door too, in wobbly handwriting:
“No need to pay; you bought the bulb yourself. That day I saw the bulb on your shoe cabinet, so I quietly took it and put it in. Actually, I’ve wanted to thank you for a long time. I always get back very late, the stairwell is dark, and I can never see the steps going up. For the past six months, the little light at your door has always been on, and every night I go up the stairs by it. 5th floor, Xiao Jiang”
Teacher He held the note, read it carefully twice, and stood at her door for a long time. The little light at her door had been put up by her husband before he died. He always said that when someone coming home at night sees a light from far away, they feel at ease. Since he passed away, she had never been able to bring herself to turn it off.
That evening, she added a line under the note and stuck it back on the fifth-floor door:
“From now on, if you get back late and you’re hungry, just knock. I cook for one, and I always make too much.”