The council of Aldermoor had nine members, and the question before them was whether to sell the common field to a company that wanted to build a reservoir. The company had offered money, a new road, and a promise of twelve jobs. The meeting had begun at seven and it was now nearly ten, and the chairman, whose name was Berta, had asked three times whether everyone was ready to vote. Each time the room had murmured yes, and each time she had waited a little longer, as though hoping someone would say something else.
奥尔德穆尔村委会有九名成员，摆在面前的议题是要不要把公地卖给一家想修水库的公司。公司出了钱，许诺修一条新路，还答应提供十二个工作岗位。会议七点开始，现在已经快十点，主席贝尔塔第三次问大家是否准备表决。每一次，屋子里都低声说“是”，每一次，她都又多等了一会儿，仿佛希望有人说出点别的什么。
When the vote came, eight hands went up immediately, and one did not. Ruth, who kept the hardware shop and had said almost nothing all evening, folded her hands on the table and looked at them. The chairman asked whether she wished to abstain or to oppose. “I wish to ask a question,” Ruth said, and the room, which had been warm with agreement, went quiet in a way that made the clock audible. “What happens to the Mercer family's well?” Nobody answered, because nobody had thought about the Mercer family's well.
表决的时候，八只手立刻举了起来，只有一只没有。开五金店的露丝整晚几乎没说过话，她把手叠在桌上，看着自己的手。主席问她是要弃权还是反对。“我想问一个问题，”露丝说。原本因意见一致而暖融融的屋子安静下来，安静得能听见钟走。 “默瑟家的井怎么办？”没有人回答，因为没有人想过默瑟家的井。
In the days that followed, people were extremely kind to Ruth. That was the difficulty. A woman brought her a cake and explained, gently, that the reservoir would supply the whole village and that one well was a small price. The chairman dropped by to say that eight to one was not a criticism of her, merely a majority, and that she should not take it personally. Two customers mentioned, in the way that customers do, that they might start buying their screws in the next town, where the shopkeeper understood progress.
接下来的几天里，人们对露丝极其和气。难处正在这里。一个女人给她送来一个蛋糕，温和地解释说，水库会供应整个村子，一口井是很小的代价。主席顺路来了一趟，说八比一并不是对她的批评，只是一个多数，她不必往心里去。两位顾客用顾客特有的那种方式提到，他们也许要到邻镇去买螺丝了，那边的店主懂得什么叫进步。
Ruth did not argue with any of them. She wrote the question on the back of an order book and left it on the counter, and when people came in she asked them the same thing she had asked the council. Most had no idea. Some said the Mercers could be compensated. One old man said the family had used that well since before the enclosure, and then looked confused, as though he had said something in a language he no longer spoke. By Friday Ruth had sold very little and learned a great deal, and she began to suspect that the eight hands had gone up not because the answer was obvious but because the question had never been asked aloud.
露丝没有和任何人争。她把那个问题写在一本订货簿的背面，放在柜台上，有人进来，她就问他们同一个问题。多数人完全不知道。有人说可以赔钱给默瑟家。一位老人说，那口井在圈地之前就是他们家在用的，说完却露出困惑的神情，好像自己说出了一种早已不再说的语言。到星期五，露丝没卖出多少东西，却知道了许多事。她开始怀疑，那八只手之所以举起来，并不是因为答案显而易见，而是因为这个问题从来没有被大声问出来过。
The survey that supported the reservoir had been carried out in summer, when the water table was high. Ruth found this out not by expertise but by asking the man who had done the drilling, who mentioned it over a bag of nails. In February the Mercers' well had run dry for eleven days in 2019, a fact recorded in a parish log that nobody had consulted. When Ruth brought the log to the council, the chairman was less annoyed than relieved, which surprised her until Berta admitted that she had been awake for a week.
支持建水库的那份勘测是在夏天做的，那时地下水位很高。露丝知道这件事，不是靠专业知识，而是靠问那个打钻的人——他在买一袋钉子的时候顺口提了一句。2019年2月，默瑟家的井干过十一天，这件事记在一本没人查过的教区记录里。露丝把记录带到村委会时，主席与其说是恼火，不如说是松了一口气。露丝很意外，直到贝尔塔承认，她已经一个星期没睡好。
They voted again in March, and this time the result was five to four, with two abstentions, and the field was sold on condition that the company sink a second well for the Mercers and pay for an independent survey in winter. It was not a triumph for anybody. Ruth went back to the shop and found that the cake woman had come in and bought a hammer, which she did not need, and had left it on the counter with a note that said sorry. Ruth put the hammer in the window, where it stayed for years, priced slightly too high.
三月，他们重新表决，这一次的结果是五比四，两票弃权；公地卖出去了，条件是公司要为默瑟家再打一口井，并出资在冬天做一次独立勘测。这对谁都不是胜利。露丝回到店里，发现送蛋糕的那个女人来过，买了一把锤子——她并不需要锤子——并把它留在柜台上，附了一张写着“对不起”的纸条。露丝把锤子摆进橱窗，一摆就是好几年，标价略高了一点。