The Gift of Forgiveness
The summer I turned 16, my father gave me his old 69 Chevy Malibu convertible. What did I know about classic cars? For me, the important thing was that Hannah and I could ____1____ around Tucson with the top down.
Hannah was my best friend, a year younger but much ____2____. That summer she ____3____ with a modeling agency, doing catalog and runway work.
69 Chevy Malibu convertible
A month after my birthday, Hannah and I went to the movies. On the way home, we ____4____ at the McDonald’s drive-through, putting the fries in the space between us to ____5____. “Let’s ride around awhile,” I said. It was a clear night, hot, full moon hanging low over the desert. Taking a curve (弯) too ____6____, I ran over some dirt and fishtailed. I then moved quickly through a neighbor’s landscape wall and drove into a full-grown palm tree. The front wheel came to rest halfway ____7____ the tree trunk.
There were French fries on the floor, the dash (仪表盘) and my lap. An impossible amount of ____8____ was on Hannah’s face, pieces of skin hanging around her eyes. We were taken in separate ambulances. In the emergency room, my parents spoke quietly: “Best plastic surgeon (整容医生) in the city…but it is more likely the ____9____ of her modeling career…”
We’d been wearing lap belts, ____10____ the car didn’t have shoulder belts. I’d broken my cheekbone on the steering wheel; Hannah’s ____11____ had split wide open on the dash. What would I say to her?
When her mother, Sharon, came into my hospital room, I started to cry, preparing myself for her ____12____. She sat beside me and took my hand. “I drove into the back of the car of my best friend when I was your age,” she said. “I completely ____13____ her car and mine.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said.
“You’re both ____14____,” she said. “Everything else doesn’t matter.” I started to explain, and Sharon stopped me. “I ____15____ you. Hannah will too.”
Sharon’s forgiveness allowed Hannah and me to get back in the car together that summer, to stay ____16____ throughout high school and college, to be in each other’s weddings. I think of her gift of forgiveness every time I tend to feel angry about someone for a perceived（可感知到的） ____17____, and whenever I see Hannah. The scars (伤疤) are now ____18____ and no one else would notice, but in the sunlight I can still ____19____ the faint, shiny skin just below her hairline-for ____20____, a sign of forgiveness.