The Five People You Meet in Heaven你在天堂遇见的五个人By Mitch Albom文字难度3赵晓春译The Third Lesson第三课（艾迪在天堂遇到的第三个人——鲁比，她以前是游乐场的老板娘，后来破产了。
她告诉了爱迪一些关于他父亲的事情。
这些事情爱迪并不知道，这让他对父亲的仇恨开始瓦解。
）R uby stood, and Eddie stood, too. He could not stop thinking about his father’s death.“I hated him,” he 1)mumbled.The old woman nodded.“He was hell on me as a kid. And he was worse when I got older.”Ruby stepped toward him. “Edward,” she said softly. It was the first time she had called him by his name. “Learn this from me. Holding anger is a 2)poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a 3)w eapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved 4)blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves.“5)Forgive, Edward. Forgive. Do you remember the 6)lightness you felt when you first arrived in heaven?”Eddie did. Where is my pain?“That’s because no one is born with anger. And when we die, the soul is freed of it. But now, here, in order to move on, you must understand why you felt what you did, and why you no longer need to feel it.”She touched his hand.“You need to forgive your father.”Eddie thought about the years that followed his father’s 7)funeral. How he never achieved anything, how he never went anywhere. For all that time, Eddie had imagined a certain life—a “could have been” life—that would have been his if not for his father’s death and his mother’s 8)subsequent9)collapse. Over the years, he 10)glorified that imaginary life and held his father 11)accountable for all of its losses: the loss of freedom, the loss of career, the loss of hope. He never rose above the dirty, tiresome work his father had left behind.“When he died,” Eddie said, “he took part of me with him. I was stuck after that.”Ruby shook her head, “Your father is not the reason you never left the pier.”Eddie looked up. “Then what is?”She patted her skirt. She adjusted her 12)spectacles. She began to walk away.“There are still two people for you to meet,” she said.Eddie tried to say “Wait,” but a cold wind nearly r ipped the voice from his throat. Then everything went black.Ruby was gone. He was back atop the mountain, outside the diner, standing in the snow.He stood there for a long time, alone in the silence, until he realized the old woman was not coming back. Then he turned to the door and slowly pulled it open. He heard 13)clanking silverware and dishes being 14)stacked. He smelled freshly cooked food—breads and meats and sauces. The spirits of those who had 15)perished at the pier were all around, engaged with one another, eating and drinking and talking.Eddie moved 16)haltingly, knowing what he was there to do. He turned to his right, to the corner booth, to the ghost of his father, smoking a cigar. He felt a shiver. He thought about the old man hanging out that hospital window, dying alone in the middle of the night.“Dad?” Eddie whispered.His father could not hear him. Eddie drew closer. “Dad. I know what happened now.”He felt a choke in his chest. He dropped to his knees 17)alongside the booth. His father was so close that Eddie could see the 18)whiskers on his face and the frayed end of his cigar. He saw the baggy lines beneath his tired eyes, the bent nose, the bony 19)knuckles and squared shoulders of a workingman. He looked at his own arms and realized, in his earthly body, he was now older than his father. He had 20)outlived him in every way.“I was angry with you, Dad. I hated you. ”Eddie felt tears welling. He felt a shaking in his chest. Something was flushing out of him.“You beat me. You shut me out. I didn’t understand. I still don’t understand. Why did you do it? Why?” He drew in long painful breaths. “I didn’t know, OK? I didn’t know your life, what happened. I didn’t know you. But you’re my father. I’ll let it go now, all right? All r ight? Can we let it go? ”His voice 21)wobbled until it was high and wailing, not his own anymore. “OK? You hear me?” he screamed. Then softer, “You hear me? Dad?”He leaned in close. He saw his father’s dirty hands. He spoke the last familiar words in a whisper.“It’s fixed.”Eddie 22)pounded the table, then 23)slumped to the floor. When he looked up, he saw Ruby standing across the way, young and beautiful. She dipped her head, opened the door, and lifted off into the jade sky.鲁比站起身来，爱迪也跟着站起来。
