大学英语精读-1 Unit Ten ：Going Home -1

I first heard this story a few years ago from a girl I had met in New York's Greenwich Village.

Probably the story is one of those mysterious bits of folklore that reappear every few year, to be told anew in one form or another.

However, I still like to think that it really did happen, somewhere, sometime.

Going Home

They were going to Fort Lauderdale -- three boys and three girls -- and when they boarded the bus, they were carrying sandwiches and wine in paper bags, dreaming of golden beaches and sea tides as the gray, cold spring of Now York vanished behind them.

As the bus passed through New Jersey, they began to notice Vingo.

He sat in front of them, dressed in a plain, ill-fitting suit, never moving, his dusty face masking his age.

He kept chewing the inside of his lip a lot, frozen into complete silence.

Deep into the night, outside Washington, the bus pulled into Howard Johnson's, and everybody got off except Vingo.

He sat rooted in his seat, and the young people began to wonder about him, trying to imagine his life: perhaps he was a sea captain, a runaway from his wife, an old soldier going home.

When they went back to the bus, one of the girls sat beside him and introduced herself.

"We're going to Florida," she said brightly. "I hear it's really beautiful."

"It is," he said quietly, as if remembering something he had tried to forget.

"Want some wine?" she said. He smiled and took a swig from the bottle.

He thanked her and retreated again into his silence.

After a while, she went back to the others, and Vingo nodded in sleep.

In the morning, they awoke outside another Howard Johnson's, and this time Vingo went in.

The girl insisted that he join them. He seemed very shy, and ordered black coffee and smoked nervously as the young people chattered about sleeping on beaches.