“Jesus, Calvin, there you are,” Deb says. She always uses my full name. She full-names everyone but herself, really—but that’s because she says Deborah is a grandma name. “I’ve been in this store since you signed off, and the owners of this cassette shop really like to talk about cassettes, and I didn’t have the heart to tell them I was only here to be your cassette wingwoman. I think they know I’m a fraud.”
“天哪，卡尔文，你终于来了，”黛博说。她总是叫我的全名。她给每个人都叫全名，除了她自己，因为她说黛博拉像个上了年纪的名字。“自从你下播后，我就在这家店了，这家盒式磁带店的老板真的很喜欢谈论这些磁带，我都不忍心告诉他们我只是来给你作陪的。我想他们也知道我是在唬人。”
“I would pay to see you pretending to be a cassette fangirl.” The thought makes me laugh.
“我都愿意花钱看你装成一个盒式磁带爱好者。”这念头使我发笑。
“It’s not hard. I just repeated the bullshit you say—‘the sound is much smoother’ or whatever. It was going fine until he asked me the model and year of my boom box.”
“也不难。我就重复你说的那些话——‘这个声音听起来更顺滑’这之类的。本来还挺好的，直到他问起我的录音机的型号和年份。”
I browse the collection while Deb impatiently waits behind me. I promised her a vegan doughnut—or twelve—from the bakery across the street in exchange for making the trip to browse cassettes with me. Unfortunately, nothing here catches my eye.
我浏览着这里的摆品，黛博则不耐烦地跟在我身后。她这次陪我出行来看磁带是以我答应给她去对面街上的面包店买素食面包圈——十二个——为交换得来的。
I raid a few tapes from the dollar bin based on their covers alone—guys with beautiful, flowing eighties hair, movie soundtracks with old VHS-style covers—and unironically pay for my retro tapes using my iPhone.
我仅凭着封面在一元区搜罗了一些磁带——封面上的人们都有着漂亮飘逸的八十年代发型，显示电影配乐都是老式VHS风格——无意冒犯，我用了先进的苹果手机为这些复古的磁带付了款。
“Finally,” Deb says as she busts out of the record store. “That place was weird. You’re weird.”
“I’m well aware of both, thanks.”
“总算出来了，”黛博一边冲出唱片店一边说着。“这地方奇怪，你也奇怪。”
“我很清楚这两点，谢谢提醒。”
We meander through the Lower East Side, which isn’t all that different from our neighborhood in Brooklyn. Okay, it’s a little bit dirtier, and there are fewer toddlers getting in my way, but otherwise, I see the similarities.
我们曲折着漫步穿过下东区，途经之处和布鲁克林的街区没什么大不同。嗯，它是脏了点儿，而且少有蹒跚学步的孩子挡路，但在其他方面，我觉得挺相似的。
“I love this area,” Deb says.
“Yeah, it’s okay for things like that random pop-up cassette shop,” I say with a shrug. “I hear they’re putting in a Trader Joe’s here.”
“Jesus,” she swears. “Of course they are.”
“我挺喜欢这附近的，”黛博说。
“嗯，那个快闪磁带小店就和这地方融合得挺不错的，”我耸耸肩继续说道，“我听说这里要建一个Trader Joe's超市。”
“天呢，”她不满道。“他们可真行。”
We duck into a tiny bakery with no more than five stools of seating. The two bakers are cramped behind the counter, and I start to get claustrophobic on their behalf. But as I look around, I see glimpses of the neighborhood in notices plastered on the walls. Yoga classes, babysitting offers, piano lessons, writers’ groups. Panning out, I see protest signs, queer pride flags of all varieties, old campaign stickers from the past couple of elections.
我们进了一家只有五排座位的小面包店。两个面包师挤在柜台后面，我都替他们患上幽闭恐惧症了。但当我环顾四周，墙上贴着的告示使我瞥见了些这里的社区生活气息。瑜伽课程，保姆服务，钢琴课程，写作小组。更突出的，我看到了抗议标志、各式各样的同性恋骄傲旗、过去几次选举中的旧竞选贴纸。
New York has a way of making you feel at home, no matter where you’re at. You just have to step off the street, and some neighborhood will claim you as one of their own.
不管你在纽约的哪个地方，它总能使你感觉宾至如归。你只要退离大街进到社区里，就会有附近的人们把你当做是本地人。
“Exactly how do you make a vegan lemon curd?” Deb asks, fascinated, and I realize I’m missing her in her element. Before the baker can even answer, she rambles on. “This place is amazing. I’m going to get a dozen, but I think I want literally one of each flavor. Is that too much?” she asks no one in particular.
“你们究竟是怎么做出素食柠檬酱面包的？”黛博着了迷地问道，这时我才意识到我真想念那个在擅长领域里的她。面包师还没来得及回答她，她又继续漫谈了起来。“这地方真是棒极了。我要买它个一打，但我想要每种口味来一个。这会不会太过分了？”她也没有特别问谁。
I’m a vegetarian, but she’s a full-on vegan, and she’s in heaven. Vegans get a bad rap, but Deb’s always been down-to-earth about it. She embraces it, but not to the extent where she’s treating it like a cult.
我是个素食主义者，而黛博则是个严格的素食者，在这里她就感觉像在天堂了。素食者有些坏名声，但黛博对于素食是很现实的，她信奉素食主义，但也不会到当宗教去对待的地步。
This also means we have to go to every new vegan restaurant, bakery, pop-up, and festival the moment it opens, and I am not complaining about that.
不过，这也意味着我们需要在每个新的素食饭店、素食面包店、素食快闪店、素食节日开张时都到场，但我对此也并无意见。
“You’re sharing these with me, right?” I ask.
“Oh dear sweet Jesus in heaven,” she says after biting into a doughnut. “Not if they’re all as good as this lemon curd.”
“你会分给我吃的，是吧？”我打趣问道。
“哦，亲爱的天国之上帝，”她咬了一口面包圈后说，“若都如这柠檬酱口味的如此美味的话，我可不给了。”
We take our time walking toward Brooklyn, with no real destination in mind. It’s too far to walk all the way, but it’s a surprisingly nice day, and I’m not in a rush. I know Deb’s not.
我们慢悠悠地朝着布鲁克林走着，心里也没个明确的目的地。一直走过去的话太远了，但这天气太好了，我也不着急。黛博也不着急。
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