"Hi! How are you?" The woman smiled as she took the seat beside me. She had to lower herself slowly, squeezing①squeezing n. 壓榨；推擠v. 擠壓；硬塞進（squeeze的ing形式）her ample bottom into the seat,filling all available space. Her immensity saturated the space around us, shrinking②shrink 英 [?r??k] 美 [?r??k]n. 收縮；畏縮vt. 使縮小，使收縮me and my seat into insignificance.

I cringed③cringe 英 [kr?n(d)?] 美 [kr?nd?]vi. 畏縮；奉承；阿諛n. 畏縮；奉承and reclined towards the window.She repeated her greeting in an upbeat, friendly voice. "Hi," I replied with obvious loathing④loathing 英 ['l??e??] 美 ['loe??]n. 嫌惡 adj. 厭惡的. I turned away to stare out the window, sulking silently about the long hours of discomfort I was going to experience with this monster beside me.

She nudged me with her meaty arm. "My name is Laura. I’m from Britain. "Come on, if we're going to spend six hours side-by-side on this flight, we'd better be friends, don't you think?"

I only gave one-word answers to her questions about me. Unperturbed⑤unperturbed 英 [?np?'t??bd] 美 [,?np?'t?bd]adj. 鎮(zhèn)定的；平靜的；未受到擾亂的by my coldness, she nodded as she made appreciative comments to them. She was particularly considerate and obliging⑥obliging 英 [?'bla?d???] 美 [?'bla?d???]adj. 樂于助人的；有禮貌的；體貼的when we were served drinks and meals, making sure that I had room to manoeuvre in my seat. "I don't want to clobber you with my elephant size!" she said with utmost sincerity.

After an hour or so, I couldn't help but let down my guard slowly. As much as she had repulsed me in the beginning, she was an interesting conversationalist⑦conversationalist英 [,k?nv?'se???n?l?st] n. 健談的人. She was well-read in many subjects, from philosophy to science. Her comments were humorous and inspirational.

"Have you ever thought about losing some weight?" I finally dared to ask after a while. "No. I've worked hard to get this way.Why would I want to give it up?" "You aren't worried about cardiovascular diseases that come with being overweight?"

"Not at all. You only get the diseases if you're worried about your weight all the time, but there is more in life than worrying about your weight. You always see advertisements from slimming centres that say: 'Liberate yourself from your extra baggage so that you are free to be yourself.' It's rubbish! You're liberated only if you're comfortable with who you are as a person and what you do.

"Folks often see me as a fat lady with big bosoms, big thighs and a big bottom. They see me as a slob. They think I'm lazy and have no willpower. They're wrong. I eat healthily and walk regularly⑧reɡularly['r?ɡj?l?li] adv. 定期地；有規(guī)律地, and I'm actually a slim person on the inside. I'm just so full of energy that people won't be able to keep up with me if I wasn't this size."

Our enthralling conversations had turned my flight into something thoroughly enjoyable. At the arrival lounge of Indonesia Capital Airport, we said goodbye. I watched her walking towards a big group of adoring adults and kids. Cheers sounded. Then, she turned around and winked at me. I was stunned, as the realisation set in: Laura was the most beautiful woman I had ever met in my life.

“嗨，你好！”這個女士一邊坐在我旁邊一邊微笑著說。她必須慢慢地沉下身去，將她寬大的臀部擠入座位中，填滿可用的空間。她的寬大體形滲透到我們周圍的空間，也使我和我的座位縮小到可以無視的狀態(tài)。

我畏縮地靠向窗子。她用愉快的聲音又問候了一遍?！班??！蔽乙悦黠@的厭惡的口氣回答道。然后我轉(zhuǎn)過頭凝望著窗外，為將要和我旁邊的這個怪獸度過一段漫長時間的折磨而生著悶氣。

她用她肉肉的胳膊肘推了推我?！拔颐辛_拉。我來自英國?！薄皝砺?，如果我們將在這個航班上一起度過六個小時的話，我們最好能成為朋友，你覺得呢？”

我對她的關(guān)于我的問題只用一個單詞回答。她對我的冷漠泰然自若，一邊對我的回答做出贊賞的表態(tài)一邊點頭。當被送上餐飲服務時她表現(xiàn)得尤其體貼和有禮貌，確保我在座位上有活動的空間。“我不想用我大象般的體形使你為難！”她說的時候帶著極大的真誠。

大約過了一小時，我忍不住慢慢放松了我的戒備之心。就像她一開始用體形擊潰了我一樣，她也是一個很有趣的聊天伙伴。她在很多科目上都有所涉獵，如從哲學到科學。她的觀點也幽默且鼓舞人心。

“你有想過減減體重嗎？”過了一會兒我終于斗膽問了她?！安?。我費很大勁兒才到這種程度。我為什么要放棄呢？”“你就不擔心伴隨肥胖而來的心血管疾病嗎？”

“完全不用。如果你總是擔心你的體重你才會得這種病， 但是生活中有比擔心自己的體重更多的東西。你們總是從瘦身中心看到這樣的廣告：把你自己從額外的包袱中解放出來，你才能自由地做自己。這簡直胡說！只有當你為自己的生活方式和所作所為感到舒服的時候自己才會真正地被解放?！?/p>

“人們常將我看作一個有大胸脯，大粗腿和大屁股的胖女人。他們把我看作懶人。 他們認為我懶惰且沒有意志力。但他們錯了。我飲食健康且經(jīng)常散步， 其實我內(nèi)心里是一個很苗條的人。 我就是渾身充滿能量，如果我不是這種體形的話一般人不能追得上我?！?/p>

我們這段愉快的聊天使我的飛行變得十分令人開心。 在印度尼西亞首都機場的抵達大廳，我們相互道別。 我看著她走向一群敬慕的大人和孩子們。歡呼雀躍。然后，她轉(zhuǎn)過身并向我眨了眨眼睛。 我被震驚了， 這才意識到：羅拉是我生命中見過的最美麗的女士。