A man named Eric is on a walk with his dog, Nova. While on the walk, Eric loses Nova after she pulls the leash from his hand in pursuit of a rabbit that happens to jump out of a bush as they pass by it. Eric chases after Nova, but this only inspires her to run faster until she completely eludes Eric's vision, continuing on her pursuit of the rabbit that has, by now, hidden somewhere in the other direction. After a great deal of time passes, it becomes clear that Nova has outrun her sense of orientation and is now lost.
一個名叫 Eric 的男子正在溜他的狗狗 Nova。行經路邊的樹叢時，Nova 從 Eric 手中的牽繩掙脫，原來是一隻兔子突然跳出，Nova 追了出去。Eric 追著 Nova，但反而讓她越跑越快，最後完全消失在 Eric 的視線範圍內，繼續追著此時此刻正躲在某處的兔子。一段時間過去，很顯然 Nova 已經跑得不知去向，找不到回來的路。
Eric spends the rest of the day and the days following searching for Nova. He notifies neighbors, enlists friends and family to help, puts up signs, and so on. A week goes by. Nova is still missing. Eric is devastated beyond comprehension. He thinks about how horribly unlucky it was that the rabbit jumped out at just the wrong time and that his hand position was just in the wrong place to allow Nova to pull the leash from it.
當天和接下來的幾天，Eric 持續尋找著 Nova。他通知鄰居，尋求親朋好友的協助，在各處貼告示等等。一週過去了。Nova 仍然沒有回來。Eric 心力交瘁。他覺得自己真的倒楣透頂，兔子在那錯誤的時間跳出來，而他的手也正巧擺在錯誤的位置，才會讓 Nova 有機會掙脫牽繩。
About another week later, a woman shows up at Eric's front door. She has Nova. After Nova and Eric reconnect in a chaotic, heart-warming display of affection, Eric thanks the woman. She introduces herself and tells Eric her name is Vanessa. She's beautiful and about Eric's same age. Eric and Vanessa talk for a little while and seem to hit it off. In the following weeks, they hang out several times, and things go so well, they soon begin dating. Eric finds her to be absolutely gorgeous, kind, funny, smart, spontaneous—all the right buzzwords for a perfect romantic partner in a story. Soon, Eric and Vanessa fall in love. The relationship is everything one could reasonably hope a relationship to be. Eric thinks about how lucky it was that Vanessa was the person who happened to be in right place at the right time to find and return Nova.
大約一週後，一名女子找上了 Eric。她撿到了 Nova。Nova 和 Eric 團圓了，在一陣混亂、暖心的相擁過後，Eric 向女子道謝。她自我介紹，告訴 Eric 她叫 Vanessa。Vanessa 很漂亮，而且和 Eric 差不多歲數。他們小聊了一下，似乎相談甚歡。接下來的幾週，他們一起出門了幾次，一切進展得很順利，他們開始約會。Eric 覺得 Vanessa 既美麗知性，又幽默率真－－一切的特質都符合故事中完美伴侶的敘述。不久後，Eric 和 Vanessa 陷入熱戀。他們的感情就像是每個人心中想像的那般美好。Eric 覺得他何其有幸，Vanessa 才會恰好在對的地方，在對的時間點，找到並歸還 Nova。
A couple months go by. Eric is driving on his way to pick up Vanessa. While driving through an intersection, Eric is T-boned at full speed by a driver who distractedly runs a red light coming from the perpendicular side street. Eric is knocked unconscious, as he and his car are sent in a thrashing 1,080-degree spin. An hour or so later, Eric finds himself in a hospital. A doctor informs Eric of what has happened and explains that he has suffered a severe head injury and that they will need to run some immediate tests as well as a brain scan to determine the severity and if there's any chance of permanent brain damage or internal bleeding. As his consciousness begins to more clearly return to him, Eric thinks about how unlucky he was to have been going to get Vanessa in the exact direction at that exact time. He's furious at the possibility that his life could be ruined by this one, random happenstance.
幾個月過去了。Eric 正開著車要去載 Vanessa。在路過一個十字路口時，他被一輛高速行駛的車子攔腰撞上，那名司機心不在焉，在縱向的小路上闖了紅燈。Eric 被撞後失去意識，人和車子飛了出去，足足轉了三圈。約莫一小時後，Eric 發現自己人在醫院。醫生告訴他事發經過，解釋他頭部遭受嚴重創傷，需要立刻接受檢查和腦部斷層以判斷嚴重程度，以及有沒有永久性的腦部損傷或內出血的可能。Eric 在逐漸恢復意識時，心想自己是多麼不幸，才會在那個地方，那個時間點，去接 Vanessa。他很憤怒，因為他的生命有可能被這麼一個偶然的意外毀掉。
Eric is held overnight at the hospital. The next day, the doctor comes into Eric's room.
Eric 在醫院度過了一晚。隔天，醫生走進了 Eric 的病房。
"Eric, how we doing?" the doctor asks.
「Eric，狀況怎麼樣？」醫生問。
"Fine. A little fuzzy, I guess," Eric replies.
「還行。我覺得還有點暈。」Eric 回答。
"Yeah, I would certainly imagine. You took quite the smack," the doctor says.
「嗯，我想也是。撞擊的力道蠻大的。」醫生說。
"Yeah," Eric responds.
「是啊。」Eric 說。
"So, I've reviewed the CT scan, and I have some bad news, and I also have some good news."
「那個，我看過你的斷層掃描了，我有一個壞消息和一個好消息。」
Confused, Eric says, "Okay. I guess I'll take the bad news first."
Eric 困惑地說：「好吧。我想先聽壞消息。」
"Well, technically, they're sort of the same piece of news," says the doctor.
「嚴格來說，好壞消息是同一個。」醫生這麼說。
"What do you mean?" Eric asks with an escalating level of concern and confusion.
「什麼意思？」Eric 語調上揚，既擔心又困惑。
"The bad news is we found what appears to be a glioma in your brain." The doctor pauses for a moment, and Eric looks at him unaware of what this means. "It's a tumor," the doctor goes on to say, "The good news, though, is we found what appears to be a glioma in your brain."
「壞消息是我們在你的大腦裡發現了像是細胞瘤的東西。」醫生頓了一下，Eric 不解地望著他。「也就是腫瘤。」醫生繼續說道，「但好消息是，我們在你的大腦裡發現了像是細胞瘤的東西。」
"What do you mean? How is that good news?" Eric asks.
「什麼意思？這怎麼會是好消息？」Eric 問。
"This tumor has nothing to do with your accident; you actually got out of the accident relatively unharmed. But because of your accident, we ran the brain scan. Because of the brain scan, we found the tumor. Normally, we only catch a tumor like this after someone realizes something's wrong when they start to feel the symptoms, which is almost always too late. Because we found the tumor right now, though, we caught it while it's still benign before it became malignant and grew into any other areas of your brain, which in almost all cases becomes fatal. Since it's still in the stage, though, we should be able to remove it almost entirely without any issue. Eric, in a weird way, this car accident basically saved your life. So, I guess, you know, sort of good news disguised as bad news," the doctor concludes.
「這個腫瘤跟你的車禍無關；你其實相對來說沒受什麼傷。但因為這場意外，我們做了腦部斷層。就是因為做了斷層，我們才會發現腫瘤。一般來說，這種腫瘤只有在你覺得不對勁、開始出現症狀時才會被發現，而且通常都太遲了。但因為我們現在就發現了，就可以趁著它還是良性，沒有惡化或擴散到腦部其他區域時，就予以切除，因為等到擴散時就足以致命了。但因為還在現在這個階段，我們有辦法完整地切除它，不會有任何危險。Eric，這樣說很怪，但其實這場車禍救了你。所以我覺得啊，這表面像是壞消息，但其實是好消息。」醫生這麼總結。
Eric starts to feel a weird, visceral tangling sensation and becomes slightly disoriented. Maybe it's the head injury. Maybe it's the emotion of the situation. Maybe it's the fact that the doctor just essentially said the same thing twice, but Eric experienced two totally different mental responses. Maybe it's everything. Regardless, Eric looks around at the room. He thinks about how lucky he was to having going to get Vanessa in the exact direction at that exact time. He thinks about how lucky he was to have gotten in the car accident. He thinks about how weird it is to think this—for something so bad to be so good and for something so good to be so bad. In this moment, Eric realizes how little he knows about what anything actually is, that he has never and can never know what exists on the other side of anything that happens to him or because of him, no matter how good or bad, lucky or unlucky any of it might seem. Eric feels a strange, paradoxical sense of helplessness and liberation.
Eric 覺得一股奇怪、混沌不明的感覺湧上心頭，霎時有點迷失。或許是因為頭上的傷。或許是因為當下的情緒。或許是因為醫生剛剛把同樣的話說了兩次，但他卻有全然不同的兩種感受。或許是因為這一切的一切。無論如何，Eric 環顧四周。他心想自己是多麼幸運，才會去接 Vanessa，恰巧在那個方向、那個時間點。他覺得自己是多麼幸運，才會遭遇那場車禍。他覺得自己這麼想是多麼地奇怪－－因為有些壞事可能是好事，而有些好事其實是壞事。一瞬間，Eric 發覺自己有多麼不了解事情的真實面貌，而他從不也無法得知這些發生在他身上或者因他而生的事件，另一個面向是如何，無論表面上是好是壞、是幸或者不幸。Eric 有一種怪異、矛盾的無助感和解放。
About a week later, Eric undergoes brain surgery to remove the tumor. The surgery is successful. Eric is mostly as good as new, with exception to a scar running down the side of his scalp. Several days later, after being released from the hospital, Eric is at home with Vanessa recovering. To get some fresh air, he takes Nova out for a walk.
一週後，Eric 接受了腦部手術，移除了腫瘤。手術很成功。Eric 完全恢復健康，除了在頭上遺留了一道傷疤。幾天後，Eric 出院了，和 Vanessa 待在家中，慢慢恢復。為了呼吸新鮮空氣，他帶著 Nova 出門散步。
- 「很投緣、合得來、相談甚歡」- hit it off
Eric and Vanessa talk for a little while and seem to hit it off.
Eric 和 Vanessa 小聊了一下，似乎相談甚歡。 - 「完全恢復健康、完好如初、跟新的一樣」- as good as new
Eric is mostly as good as new, with exception to a scar running down the side of his scalp.
Eric 完全恢復健康，除了在頭上遺留了一道傷疤。
