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從外面走進來三個只穿著泳衣的女孩。我站在第三個收銀臺后，背對著門，所以直到她們越過面包架的時候我才看到她們。因為是周四下午，店里的顧客寥寥無幾，所以我也沒有什么事可做，就靠在出納機旁等那些女孩購物完畢后過來付錢。

過了一會兒，她們從較遠處的陳列著電燈泡的過道走了過來。那個領(lǐng)頭的“小皇后”放下手中的罐子，我用手指頭把它拿了起來，指尖感到一陣冰涼。那是一罐魚王牌什錦鯡魚點心，用純酸奶油浸制的，3元。

接下來，每個人都開始走霉運了。倫格爾與賣主進行一番討價還價后買了一卡車卷心菜。他走進店來，并準備躲進那間寫著“經(jīng)理室”的房間。他只要一看到女人，就會在那里躲上一整天。倫格爾性格極其沉悶，他在主日學校教書，還有其他諸如此類的事情要做。不過，他可不會什么事都看不到。他走過來說：“姑娘們，這里可不是海灘。”

“小皇后”臉紅了。她現(xiàn)在離我很近，我才注意到那可能不過是被曬紅的�！拔夷赣H叫我來買一罐鯡魚點心回去�！彼�的聲音讓我感到有些吃驚。可能初次跟某人見面，聽到這樣的聲音總會有這樣的反應(yīng)：那聲音聽起來很平淡且含混不清，但又略帶高貴和華麗，特別是當她把重音放在“買”和“點心”的時候。突然間，我從她的口音似乎一下子看到了她家起居室的情景：她父親和其他男人站成一圈，身穿冰淇淋色的大衣，打著領(lǐng)結(jié)；女人們則腳穿涼鞋，從一個大盤子里用牙簽取鯡魚點心吃；他們都端著顏色看起來像水的飲料，里面放著橄欖和薄荷葉。“這當然沒錯，” 倫格爾說�！安贿^這里可不是海灘�！彼�重復這句話的時候，我感到滑稽極了，就好像他才剛剛想起這句話，而之前這么多年來他一直認為A&P超級市場是海邊的大沙丘，而他則是救生員的隊長�？吹轿倚λ�，他很不高興——我說過，他可不會什么事都看不到——不過，他這時正全神貫注于用主日學校校長充滿悲傷的眼神盯著這些姑娘。

這會兒，“小皇后”的臉又紅了起來，這次可不是太陽曬的緣故。那個穿格子泳衣的胖姑娘——我更喜歡看她的背影，真是迷人極了——突然說道：“我們可不是專門來逛商店的。我們只是為了這罐東西才進來的�！�

“那也沒有什么區(qū)別，”倫格爾對她說。我從他轉(zhuǎn)動的眼睛看得出來他先前并沒有注意到這姑娘穿的是兩件套的泳裝。“我們希望你們來這里時穿著得體些�！薄拔覀兺Φ皿w的，”“小皇后”突然說道，撅起下嘴唇。想想經(jīng)營A&P超市的這幫人糟糕的態(tài)度，她略顯慍怒。什錦鯡魚點心在她的藍眼睛里閃了一下。

“姑娘們，我可不想和你們斗嘴。下次再來的時候穿上一點能遮住肩膀的東西。這是我們的規(guī)章制度。”他說完轉(zhuǎn)過身去。我感覺得到，在這種無聲無息的氣氛里，人人都變得神經(jīng)緊張起來，最緊張的是倫格爾，他問我：“薩米，她們結(jié)帳了沒有？”

我想了想，然后說道：“還沒有�！辈贿^我想的不是這個，我按下了出納機上的按鍵：4,9，副食，總價——這可比你想的要復雜得多。我把她遞給我的那張鈔票展平，然后把一枚5角和一枚1分的硬幣放在她那修長的粉紅手掌里，把鯡魚裝在一個袋子里，把袋子的上端擰好之后遞給她。做這些事的時候，我一直在默默思考

著。

看著那些姑娘——和指責她們的人——急急忙忙準備要走的時候，我沖倫格爾說道：“我不干了。”我有意說得很快，好讓她們都能聽到，滿心希望她們能夠停下來看著我——她們意料之外的英雄。她們繼續(xù)向前走，到了電子眼的范圍后，門自動打開了。她們在停車場上一閃就進了汽車。“小皇后”“格子姑娘”和另外一個“傻大個兒”（這里可不是指她長得不是天生麗質(zhì)）撇下我走了，倫格爾站在我旁邊，眉毛皺成了一團。

“你剛才說什么，薩米?”

“我說我不干了�！�

“我也覺得你是這么說的。”

“你不該把她們弄得這么難堪�！�

“是她們把我們弄得很難堪。我看你根本不明白自己在說什么，”倫格爾說。

“我知道你不明白，”我說，“可是我明白�！蔽依�開圍裙后面的活結(jié)，把它從肩膀上脫下來。見此情景，兩個原本向我所在的收銀臺走過來的顧客遲疑不定地撞到了一起，就好像豬圈里受了驚嚇的豬一樣。

倫格爾嘆了口氣，臉上露出充滿耐心又蒼老的神色。他和我父母是多年的好友�！八_米，你總不會這么對待你的爸媽吧？”他對我說。的確，我不會這么做。

但是，在我看來，一旦表明態(tài)度，不堅持到底的話真是要命。我把那件口袋上繡著紅色“薩米”字樣的圍裙疊好，然后放在柜臺上，把領(lǐng)結(jié)放在它上面。領(lǐng)結(jié)也是他們的——如果你想知道的話�！澳阋院罂隙〞�后悔的�！眰惛駹栒f。我也知道這是實話。但是一想到他讓那些漂亮姑娘們?nèi)绱穗y堪我就很難受。按下了“無交易”的

按鈕，收款機發(fā)出“嗶卟”的響聲，抽屜嘩啦一下開了。這種事發(fā)生在夏天的好處就是我可以干凈利索地一走了之，用不著麻煩去找大衣和雪靴。我穿著母親前一天晚上幫我熨燙好的白襯衫，瀟灑地走向電子眼的范圍內(nèi)，門自動打開了，陽光灑滿了外面的柏油路面。

我向四周望了望，想看看我的姑娘們在哪里。可是，她們已經(jīng)走了，這一點兒也不出乎意料。路上空空蕩蕩，只有一個年輕的婦人站在一輛淺藍色的獵鷹牌旅行汽車門前，因為沒有買到糖果在跟她的孩子們大聲叫嚷。我的視線越過人行道上堆放著的許多袋泥苔蘚和鋁制除草用具，向身后的大窗戶望過去，我看到倫格爾站在我的位置上，正在幫一個顧客結(jié)賬。他的臉色陰沉沉的，背挺得筆直，好像剛剛才注射過鐵水。從今以后，這個世界會對我多么嚴酷無情啊。想到這里，我的心情開始沉重起來。

In walks these three girls in nothing but bathing suits. I’m in the third check-outslot, with my back to the door, so I don’t see them until they’re over by the bread.

The store’s pretty empty, it being Thursday afternoon, so there was nothing much to do except lean on the register and wait for the girls to show up again. After a while they come around out of the far aisle, around the light bulbs. Queenie puts down the jar and I take it into my fingers icy cold. Kingfish Fancy Herring Snacks in Pure Sour Cream:49.

Then everybody’s luck begins to run out. Lengel comes in from haggling with a truck full of cabbages on the lot and is about to scuttle into that door marked MANAGER behind which he hides all day when the girls touch his eye. Lengel’s pretty dreary, teaches Sunday school and the rest, but he doesn’t miss that much. He comes over and says, “Girls, this isn’t the beach.”

Queenie blushes, though maybe it’s just a brush of sunburn I was noticing for the first time, now that she was so close. “My mother asked me to pick up a jar of herring snacks.” Her voice kind of startled me, the way voices do when you see the people first, coming out so flat and dumb yet kind of tony, too, the way it ticked over “pick up” and “snacks.” All of a sudden I slid right down her voice into her living room.

Her father and the other men were standing around in ice-cream coats and bow ties and the women were in sandals picking up herring snacks on toothpicks off a big plate and they were all holding drinks the color of water with olives and sprigs of mint in them.

“That’s all right,” Lengel said. “But this isn’t the beach.” His repeating this struck me as funny, as if it had just occurred to him, and he had been thinking all these years the A & P was a great big dune and he was the head lifeguard. He didn’t like my smiling—as I say he doesn’t miss much—but he concentrates on giving the girls that sad Sunday-school-superintendent stare.

Queenie’s blush is no sunburn now, and the plump one in plaid, that I liked better from the back—a really sweet can—pipes up, “We weren’t doing any shopping. We just came in for the one thing.”

“That makes no difference,” Lengel tells her, and I could see from the way his eyes went that he hadn’t noticed she was wearing a two-piece before. “We want you decently dressed when you come in here.”

“We are decent,” Queenie says suddenly, her lower lip pushing, getting sore now that she remembers her place, a place from which the crowd that runs the A & P must look pretty crummy. Fancy Herring Snacks flashed in her very blue eyes.

“Girls, I don’t want to argue with you. After this come in here with your shoulders covered. It’s our policy.” He turns his back. I could feel in the silence everybody getting nervous, most of all Lengel, who asks me, “Sammy, have you rung up this purchase?”

I thought and said “No”, but it wasn’t about that I was thinking. I go through the punches, 4, 9, GROC, TOT—it’s more complicated than you think. I uncrease the bill, and pass a half and a penny into her narrow pink palm, and nestle the herrings in a bag and twist its neck and hand it over, all the time thinking.

The girls, and who’d blame them, are in a hurry to get out, so I say “I quit”to Lengel quick enough for them to hear, hoping they’ll stop and watch me, their unsuspected hero. They keep right on going, into the electric eye; the door flies open and they flicker across the lot to their car, Queenie and Plaid and Big Tall Goony—Goony (not that as raw material she was so bad), leaving me with Lengel and a kink in his eyebrow.

“Did you say something, Sammy?”

“I said I quit.”

“I thought you did.”

“You didn’t have to embarrass them.”

“It was they who were embarrassing us. I don’t think you know what you’re saying,” Lengel said.

“I know you don’t,” I said. “But I do.” I pull the bow at the back of my apron and start shrugging it off my shoulders. A couple customers that had been heading for my slot begin to knock against each other, like scared pigs in a chute.

Lengel sighs and begins to look very patient and old and gray. He’s been a friend of my parents for years. “Sammy, you don’t want to do this to your Mom and Dad,”

he tells me. It’s true, I don’t. But it seems to me that once you begin a gesture it’s fatal not to go through with it. I fold the apron, “Sammy” stitched in red on the pocket, and put it on the counter, and drop the bow tie on top of it. The bow tie is theirs, if you’ve ever wondered. “You’ll feel this for the rest of your life,” Lengel says, and I know that’s true, too, but remembering how he made that pretty girl blush makes me so scrunchy inside. I punch the No Sale tab and the machine whirs “pee-pul” and the drawer splats out. One advantage to this scene taking place in summer, I can follow this up with a clean exit, there’s no fumbling around getting your coat and galoshes, I just saunter into the electric eye in my white shirt that my mother ironed the night before, and the door heaves itself open, and outside the sunshine is skating around on the asphalt.

I look around for my girls, but they’re gone, of course. There wasn’t anybody but some young married screaming with her children about some candy they didn’t get by the door of a powder-blue Falcon station wagon. Looking back in the big windows,over the bags of peat moss and aluminum lawn furniture stacked on the pavement, I could see Lengel in my place in the slot, checking the sheep through. His face was dark gray and his back stiff, as if he’d just had an injection of iron, and my stomach kind of fell as I felt how hard the world was going to be to me hereafter.