羊毛战记 Part 3 Casting Off 20

　　20,　　It was well after ten by the time Juliette pushed herself away from her desk. Her eyes had become toosore to stare at her monitor any longer, too tired to read one more case note. She powered down hercomputer, filed the folders ¹ away, killed the overhead lights, and locked the office door from theoutside.,　　As she pocketed her keys, her stomach grumbled ², and the fading odor of a rabbit stew ³ remindedher that she’d missed yet another dinner. That made it three nights in a row. Three nights of focusingso hard on a job she barely knew how to perform, a job she had no one to guide her through, thatshe’d neglected to eat. If her office hadn’t abutted ⁴ a noisy, aroma-filled cafeteria, she might have beenable to forgive herself.,　　She pulled her keys back out and crossed the dimly lit room, weaving around nearly invisiblechairs left scattered ⁵ between the tables. A teenage couple was just leaving, having stolen a few darkmoments in the wallscreen’s twilight ⁶ before curfew. Juliette called out for them to descend ⁷ safely,mostly because it felt like the sheriff thing to do, and they giggled ⁸ at her as they disappeared into thestairwell. She imagined they were already holding hands and would steal a few kisses before they gotto their apartments. Adults knew of these illicit ⁹ things but let them slide, a gift each generationbestowed on the next. For Juliette, however, it was different. She had made the same choices as anadult, to love without sanction, and so her hypocrisy ¹⁰ was more keenly felt.,　　As she approached the kitchen, she noticed the cafeteria wasn’t quite empty. A lone ¹¹ figure sat inthe deep shadows by the wallscreen, staring at the inky blackness of nighttime clouds hanging overdarkened hills.,　　It appeared to be the same figure as the night before, the one who had watched the sunlightgradually fade while Juliette worked alone in her office. She adjusted her route to the kitchen in orderto pass behind the man. Staring all day at folders full of bad intentions had made her a buddingparanoid. She used to admire people who stood out, but now she found herself wary ¹² of them.,　　Juliette walked right behind him, stepping between the table and his chair, which had been movedstrangely close to the wallscreen. She fought the urge to clear her throat or ask him a question.,　　Instead, she passed on by, jangling her master key from the crowded ring that had come with her newjob.,　　Twice, she glanced back over her shoulder before she reached the kitchen door. The man did notmove.,　　She let herself inside the kitchen and hit one of the light switches. After a genial ¹³ flicker ¹⁴, theoverhead bulbs popped on and shattered her night vision. She pulled a gallon of juice from one of thewalk-in refrigerators and grabbed a clean glass from the drying rack. Back in the walk-in, she foundthe stew—covered and already cold—and brought it out as well. She ladled two scoops ¹⁵ into a bowland rattled ¹⁶ around in a drawer for a spoon. She only briefly ¹⁷ considered heating up the stew as shereturned the large pot to its frosted shelf.,　　With her juice and bowl in hand, she returned to the cafeteria, knocking the lights off with herelbow and pushing the door shut with her foot. She sat down in the shadows at the end of one of thelong tables and slurped ¹⁸ on her meal, keeping an eye on this strange man who seemed to peer into thedarkness as if something could be seen out there.,By insertion of photocopies,all folders can be maintained complete with little extra effort. 插入它的复制本，不费多大力量就能使所有文件夹保持完整。 来自辞典例句,He grumbled at the low pay offered to him. 他抱怨给他的工资低 。