英语经典美文诵读100篇：010.the smile
[00:13.38]I was sure that I was to be killed. I became terribly nervous.
[00:18.94]I fumbled in my pockets to see if there were any cigarettes, which had escaped their search.
[00:25.00]I found one and because of my shaking hands, I could barely get it to my lips. But I had no matches,
[00:33.41]they had taken those. I looked through the bars at my jailer. He did not make eye contact with me.
[00:41.55]I called out to him, “Have you got a light?” He looked at me, shrugged and came over to light my cigarette.
[00:50.02]As he came close and lit the match, his eyes inadvertently locked with mine.
[00:56.17]At that moment, I smiled. I don’t know why I did that.
[01:01.88]Perhaps it was nervousness, perhaps it was because, when you get very close, one to another,
[01:10.00]it is very hard not to smile. In any case, I smiled.
[01:15.74]In that instant, it was as though a spark jumped across the gap between our two hearts,
[01:21.50]our two human souls. I know he didn’t want to, but my smile leaped through the bars and generated a smile on his lips, too.
[01:32.04]He lit my cigarette but stayed near, looking at me directly in the eyes and continuing to smile.
[01:39.56]I kept smiling at him, now aware of him as a person and not just a jailer.
[01:46.13]And his looking at me seemed to have a new dimension too.
[01:50.65]“Do you have kids?” he asked.
[01:53.19]“Yes, here, here.”
[01:54.79]I took out my wallet and nervously fumbled for the pictures of my family.
[01:58.91]He, too, took out the pictures of his family and began to talk about his plans and hopes for them.
[02:05.95]My eyes filled with tears. I said that I feared that I’d never see my family again,
[02:11.56]never have the chance to see them grow up. Tears came to his eyes, too.
[02:17.51]Suddenly, without another word, he unlocked my cell and silently led me out.
[02:23.92]Out of the jail, quietly and by back routes, out of the town.
[02:29.29]There, at the edge of town, he released me. And without another word, he turned back toward the town.
[02:38.10]My life was saved by a smile. Yes, the smile - the unaffected, unplanned, natural connection between people.
[02:46.77]I really believe that if that part of you and that part of me could recognize each other, we wouldn’t be enemies.
[02:54.07]We couldn’t have hate or envy or fear.
