I had just moved to San Antonio, Texas. I had gotten a job working for the tour bus service that would take tourists on a short tour of the city's historic1 places and would end up at the Alamo.
It was near closing time and I was driving back from my last tour of the day. It was a cool February day, and there wasn't anyone on my bus, I was on my way back from the San Fernando Catholic2 church. I was about to keep driving by when I saw a man dressed up in an old buckskin jacket and a large worn out hat. I was thinking to myself, that this person must be a re-enactor or something walking around. I stopped and opened the door and asked the man, "Need a ride?" He looked up at me and I finally saw how young he was. He was a teenager if not a teen or he had to be in his early twenties. Without saying anything he just walked on board and sat down in a seat behind me. I made sure that there wasn't any other people needing a ride somewhere and closed the door.
"Where you heading?" I asked him he looked up into the mirror at me and replied.
"I've got to get to the fort3 and report to Col. Travis that the Mexicans are here!" I laughed to myself thinking that this man was a serious re-enactor.
"I'm guessing you mean the Alamo?" I said back to him. I looked up at him in the mirror and saw that he wasn't smiling nor laughing. I just put my foot on the gas and started to drive away.
All throughout the ride I looked back at him in the mirror above my head and saw that he was staring in amazement4 at all the towering skyscrapers5 and the buildings along the street.
"I remember when this town was nothing more than a little trading village!" He finally said to me.
"Yeah that's what I've heard that this city used be nothing more than a little pueblo6." He nodded his head up at me.
"It was." He said in return.
"So what's your name?" I asked him.
"Daniel Cloud, yours?"
"David Zime." I replied as I turned the corner of the street and laid eyes upon the Alamo.
I pulled up to the sidewalk and opened the door. Cloud got out of his seat and came up to me.
"Thanks for the ride." He said extending his hand. I took his palm and it was freezing cold like he just stepped out of the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory's freezer.
"Not a problem Mr. Cloud, and don't worry about the fee. it's on the house." He nodded his head in gratitude7 like all us Texans do and walked out the door.
It wasn't until then that I noticed that he was soaked to the bone in dripping water and we had not a single drop of rain in a month or more. I just shook my head and closed the door behind him. I looked ahead for a spilt second to see if any other tourists were waiting to be picked up on the corner. I turned back and I discovered that Cloud was gone!! I looked behind the bus and saw no one, I was amazed at how fast he had went away. I just shrugged8 my shoulders and took off done for the day.
A few days later I was reading a book about the Battle of the Alamo when I discovered the most shocking thing I had ever discovered in my life. One of the pages of the book had a list of the names of the 183 defenders9 of the Alamo, and in the "C" section was the name, Daniel Cloud! When I read this my eyes went wide and I looked across the page and saw that he was only 19 years old when he was killed in the Alamo. He was the one who spotted10 the Mexicans before they took over the streets of San Antonio in February of 1836, and his post on top of the San Frenando Church where I had picked him up!
From then on I still look for Cloud when I'm passing by the San Frenando Church on my way back to the Alamo, and hopefully I'll pick him up again someday and take him to the Alamo.....
不久前我搬家去了德克薩斯州的圣安東尼奧，我在那找了份觀光旅游車(chē)司機(jī)的工作，職責(zé)是開(kāi)車(chē)載著游客去城里的名勝古跡參觀，全程的終點(diǎn)在阿拉莫。
那天已經(jīng)是快下班的時(shí)間了，我正跑著最后一趟車(chē)，因?yàn)槟鞘窃诙碌囊惶?，很冷，所以?chē)上一個(gè)人都沒(méi)有，我們剛剛離開(kāi)了圣費(fèi)爾南多大教堂返回阿拉莫。我正打算一路開(kāi)下去，這時(shí)見(jiàn)到路邊有個(gè)人穿著件舊鹿皮夾克，頭上戴著頂破帽子。我心想，這肯定是個(gè)喜劇演員或者類(lèi)似的什么人。我停下車(chē)，開(kāi)了門(mén)問(wèn)他，“要搭車(chē)嗎？”他抬頭看看我，這時(shí)我才發(fā)現(xiàn)原來(lái)他是個(gè)年輕的小伙子，也就是十幾歲，或者頂多二十歲出頭。他沒(méi)說(shuō)話，上了車(chē)坐在我后面的一個(gè)座位上。我看不會(huì)再有別人要搭車(chē)了，就關(guān)門(mén)開(kāi)走了。
“你要去哪？”我問(wèn)他。
他抬起頭，從后視鏡里看著我，回答道，“我要去堡壘向特拉維斯上校報(bào)告，墨西哥人沖過(guò)來(lái)了。”#p#分頁(yè)標(biāo)題#e#
我暗暗發(fā)笑，這還真是個(gè)認(rèn)真的演員。“你是要去阿拉莫吧？”我一邊說(shuō)一邊也通過(guò)后視鏡看看他，不過(guò)他可沒(méi)笑，甚至是一臉的嚴(yán)肅。我把油門(mén)一踩到底，車(chē)子飛馳下去。
一路上我不斷地通過(guò)頭上的后視鏡看著他，就見(jiàn)他目不轉(zhuǎn)睛地看著路兩旁的高樓大廈，直看得目瞪口呆。
“我記得這里只不過(guò)是個(gè)有幾個(gè)人做生意的小村子。”過(guò)了很長(zhǎng)時(shí)間后他才對(duì)我說(shuō)。
“對(duì)我也聽(tīng)說(shuō)以前這就是一個(gè)很小的印第安人村子。”
他朝我點(diǎn)點(diǎn)頭，“確實(shí)是。”
“請(qǐng)問(wèn)您怎么稱(chēng)呼？”我問(wèn)他。
“丹尼爾·克勞德，你呢？”
“大衛(wèi)·吉梅。”車(chē)子轉(zhuǎn)了個(gè)彎，阿拉莫就在前面了。
我把車(chē)停在路邊，開(kāi)了門(mén)?？藙诘抡酒鹕沓易哌^(guò)來(lái)。
“謝謝你載我這一程。”說(shuō)著他向我伸過(guò)手來(lái)。我握著他的手，感到一陣冰涼，就仿佛他剛從蘭貝冰淇淋廠的冷凍機(jī)里出來(lái)一樣。
“小意思，克勞德先生。而且別擔(dān)心，我不收你車(chē)費(fèi)。”就像多數(shù)德克薩斯人的習(xí)慣一樣，他沖我點(diǎn)頭表示謝意，然后下車(chē)了。
這時(shí)我才發(fā)現(xiàn)他已經(jīng)是渾身濕透了，可是，我們可能有一個(gè)多月沒(méi)見(jiàn)過(guò)一滴雨了。我向他搖搖頭表示不用謝，然后關(guān)了車(chē)門(mén)朝前面望了一眼，看看是不是還有人在拐角那等車(chē)準(zhǔn)備回去。當(dāng)我再回過(guò)頭，卻發(fā)現(xiàn)克勞德已經(jīng)不見(jiàn)了。車(chē)上空無(wú)一人，我很納悶他怎么走得這么快。我也只是聳聳肩，把最后一班車(chē)開(kāi)回去了。
幾天以后我讀到本介紹阿拉莫戰(zhàn)役的書(shū)，發(fā)現(xiàn)一件有生以來(lái)最讓我震驚的事情。書(shū)里有一頁(yè)是守衛(wèi)阿拉莫的183名士兵的名單，“C”字頭的名錄下有一個(gè)名字居然是丹尼爾克·勞德！我簡(jiǎn)直不敢相信自己的眼睛，仔細(xì)地讀了那一段以后，我這才知道他那年?duì)奚诎⒗臅r(shí)候才19歲。他所在的部隊(duì)1836年2月阻擊了墨西哥人，那時(shí)墨西哥人還沒(méi)有攻陷圣安東尼奧。他們當(dāng)時(shí)的陣地是圣費(fèi)爾南多大教堂，我就是從那里接他上的車(chē)。
從那以后，每當(dāng)我回阿拉莫經(jīng)過(guò)圣費(fèi)爾南多大教堂的時(shí)候都要找找克勞德是不是在那，我想有一天能再接他上車(chē)，帶他去阿拉莫。
