Tomas finds the bottle wedged between two rocks at low tide. It is sealed with wax and a tight cork. Inside, rolled small, is not a letter but a drawing: a white lighthouse, a red boat, and a girl waving. There is no address, only a date and the words 'from the other side.'
退潮时，托马斯发现一个玻璃瓶卡在礁石之间。瓶口用蜡和一只塞得紧紧的软木塞封着。里面卷得小小的，不是信，而是一张画：一座白色灯塔、一条红船，还有一个挥手的女孩。上面没有地址，只有一个日期和“来自另一边”几个字。
He takes it home and sets it on the windowsill. All evening the girl in the drawing seems to be waiting for an answer. Tomas has never met anyone across the bay. He has only seen the far shore as a gray line on rainy days, and once, at sunset, as a thin band of gold.
他把瓶子带回家，放在窗台上。整个晚上，画里的女孩似乎都在等一个回答。托马斯从没认识过海湾对岸的人。他只在雨天见过对岸像一条灰线，还有一次在日落时，看见它像一条细细的金边。
His grandfather studies the lighthouse. 'That is the old one across the bay,' he says. 'No one lives there now.' But Tomas remembers a summer ferry that crosses on Fridays. He draws his own picture: his harbor, his dog, the same red boat. He writes his name and 'the other side,' seals it in a bottle, and asks the ferryman to release it near the far shore.
爷爷端详着那座灯塔。“那是海湾对岸的旧灯塔，”他说，“现在没人住在那里了。”可托马斯记得有一班夏天星期五开航的渡船。他画了自己的画：他的小港、他的狗，还有同一条红船。他写下自己的名字和“另一边”，封进瓶子里，请船夫在靠近对岸的地方放下去。
Two weeks pass. Tomas checks the rocks every afternoon. Then, on a windy Friday, a bottle arrives, scratched by sand. The drawing inside shows the girl's name, Lena, and her window facing the sea. At the bottom she has written: 'I did not think anyone would answer.'
两个星期过去了。托马斯每天下午都去礁石边看。后来，在一个刮风的星期五，一个被沙子磨花的瓶子来了。里面的画上写着女孩的名字莉娜，还有她那扇朝向大海的窗。最下面她写道：“我以为不会有人回信。”
They begin to send pictures every month: storms, gulls, a cat asleep on a net. Tomas's mother hangs them along the boathouse wall. Fishermen add their own sketches and argue about which side has the better clouds. By autumn, the boathouse has become a small gallery of things seen from both sides of the water.
他们开始每个月互寄画：风暴、海鸥、睡在渔网上的猫。托马斯的妈妈把这些画挂在船屋的墙上。渔民们也添上自己的速写，还争论哪一边的云更好看。到了秋天，船屋已经成了一间小小的画廊，挂满从水两边看见的东西。
Tomas still has not met Lena. They plan to wave from the ferry in spring, when the crossing begins again. For now, he likes the waiting. Every bottle that arrives proves the bay is not a wall. It is a slow, salty mail route, and he is learning its address.
托马斯还没有见过莉娜。他们约好春天渡船复航时在船上挥手。现在，他喜欢这种等待。每一个漂来的瓶子都证明，海湾不是一堵墙。它是一条缓慢的、带咸味的邮路，而他正在学会它的地址。