Stop to Buy Drugs And a Side of Fries
此處賣薯條 也有人販毒
By Kim Barker

Some customers pour beer into clear McCafé plastic cups and drink it right in the open. A man called Shamrock swills straight vodka from a Dasani water bottle at a table near the entrance.
有些顧客將啤酒倒進麥克咖啡的透明塑膠杯裡，當眾喝將起來。在靠近門口的一張桌子旁，有個名叫「酢漿草」的男人，猛喝裝在達薩尼瓶裝水瓶子裡的純伏特加。

Recently, a man headed straight for the bathroom, pausing only to open his backpack and grab a bag of heroin, known as “dog food.” Another day, a couple shared a McDonald’s vanilla shake at a side table and swallowed “sticks,” the anti-anxiety prescription drug Xanax, and “pins,” the anti-anxiety pill Klonopin. And another day, an ambulance showed up to carry away a regular who had been stabbed in an adjacent doorway, leaving blood all over the sidewalk.
幾天前，一名男子直奔洗手間，只是為了打開背包拿包俗稱「狗食」的海洛因。另一天，在靠牆的一張桌子，一對男女分享著一杯香草奶昔，還吞了「棍子」（抗焦慮處方藥贊安諾） 和 「大頭釘」（另一種抗焦慮藥克諾平）。又有一天，救護車出現載走一名常客，他在隔壁門口被人拿刀捅了，人行道上滿是鮮血。

The Times Square of today often seems like a theme park, a blend of wax museums, flashy billboards and slow-walking, street-clogging tourists. But this nearby McDonald’s, on Eighth Avenue between 34th and 35th Streets, is a throwback to a seedier era in New York, a place where tourists sit amid drug addicts looking for a fix or dozing at tables after taking methadone, or maybe something else.
現下的時報廣場經常看來像座主題公園，混合了蠟像館、招搖的廣告看板和信步其間、堵塞街道的觀光客。但附近的這家麥當勞，位於第34街、第35街之間的第八大道上，在紐約是一個倒回到較破落年代的地方，吸毒者尋找毒品注射或服用美沙酮等物後在桌上打盹，而觀光客也落坐其中。

“The tourists don’t know anything,” said Nichole, 29, a former heroin user who goes to the McDonald’s regularly. “I love when they walk in here and look around and everybody is nodding out on a table. Because they have no idea what’s going on.
29歲的妮可是麥當勞的常客，曾有海洛因癮，她說：「觀光客毫不知情。我喜歡他們走進來，打量四周，看到每個人在桌前昏昏欲睡的景象。因為他們搞不清楚怎麼回事。」

Why there? Because within a three-minute walk are a clinic that dispenses methadone, used to treat heroin addiction; two outpatient substance-abuse programs; and a needle exchange. The neighborhood has few cheap options for hanging out. Some nearby fast-food restaurants are out of order, or allow only paying customers to use them.
為什麼是那裡？因為徒步不到三分鐘，就有一家提供美沙酮治療海洛因毒癮的診所；兩家藥物濫用門診中心和一個針頭交換站。那一區沒什麼可供閒晃的廉價選項。附近的速食店不是說洗手間壞了，就是只讓消費顧客用洗手間。

What is left is pretty much McDonald’s – the restaurant of the masses, the great democratizer, the substitute for the community square, where it is possible to read or sip a cheap cup of coffee for hours. In New York City, every McDonald’s has its own flavor. At one in Brooklyn, the same group of older Latina women meet every afternoon, while at another in Queens, older Koreans gather.
剩下的大概只有麥當勞這家大眾餐廳，也是偉大的民主意識餐廳，社區廣場的替代場所，人們可在那裡閱讀或喝杯廉價咖啡坐上數小時。在紐約，每家麥當勞各有風味 。布魯克林有一家，每天下午會有同一群拉美裔老太太聚會，皇后區的另一家是韓裔老人的聚點。

Some regulars joke that the Eighth Avenue one is “zombie McDonald’s”; others call it “junkie McDonald’s.”
一些常客戲稱第八大道的麥當勞是「殭屍麥當勞」；還有人稱它「毒蟲麥當勞」。

Many of the patrons run a circuit, from the methadone clinic to the front of the needle exchange and then down to the restaurant for a few hours to come down after the methadone, hang out with friends and maybe hustle some business. Those who still get high run a different circuit: Sometimes they will buy drugs in the bathroom and use them right away in a stall. Sometimes they will buy in the McDonald’s but then walk around the corner to shoot up.
許多客人的路線是這樣的，從美沙酮診所走到針頭交換站正門，再走到這家餐廳待上數小時，讓美沙酮發揮作用，和朋友閒聊，也可能趕緊做點生意。那些毒癮仍大的人有不同的路線：有時他們在洗手間購買毒品，馬上到隔間內吸食。有時他們到麥當勞買毒，但會走到街角去注射。

But then they come back.
然後他們會返回店內。

The well-lit restaurant was redone about three years ago. The prime tables are up front, large and round with cushioned swan chairs. The regulars hang out there, or sprawl on tables in the back.
這家明亮的餐廳約三年前重新裝潢。幾張主桌置於前方，是圓形大桌，搭配軟墊天鵝椅。常客在那裡打發時間，或癱在後方的桌上。

“These guys, they have their thing here,” said Ray Flonard, 53. “They take over the sidewalk. You can’t move down the sidewalk with all of them. But it doesn’t hurt anyone, I guess.
53歲的雷．佛洛納德說：「這些傢伙，他們無所不在。他們占據前方。占據人行道，有了他們，人行道走不通 。不過，我想，這不傷害任何人。」

They have won this McDonald’s. They have won with sheer numbers, and because they always return. They have won despite the police, who went there 200 times last year. They have won despite the security guard, one man who has been on the job more than 20 years and sometimes shoos away the customers who pass out on the tables. He was stabbed in the leg by a regular about four years ago.
他們已戰勝這家麥當勞。光靠人數就贏了，更何況他們總是去而復返。儘管有警察，他們還是贏了，警察去年來過200次。儘管有保全，他們還是贏了，這位保全已經幹了20年，有時會把昏倒桌上的顧客趕走。約四年前，他的大腿被一名常客刺了一刀。

“Every day, I go through hell,” he recently said. He did not want to give his name.
他最近說：「我每天走一趟地獄。」他不願透露姓名。

Everyone knows he leaves at 2 p.m. That is when it is much easier to do business. Almost anything is for sale. Loose cigarettes are 50 cents each. An iPod is $40. One regular said a bag of heroin runs $10.
人人都知道他每天下午兩點離開。這一刻起做生意容易多了。幾乎無所不賣。零菸每支50美分。iPod一個40美元。一名常客說，一包海洛因10美元。

It is hard to know what the tourists make of the mix. They come from Pennsylvania Station; from Times Square; and from the Big Bus New York double-deckers that stop outside for passengers to use the bathroom.
很難知道觀光客如何看待這樣的組合。他們可能來自賓夕法尼亞車站；來自時報廣場；來自紐約觀光大巴士的雙層巴士，車停店外，讓乘客使用洗手間。

Other regulars, the so-called normals, frequent this McDonald’s, like the nun of 70 years who sometimes sits in the back, where she likes to watch the scene unfold like a Broadway show.
其他常客，所謂的正常人，也常光顧這家麥當勞，像這位做了70年修女的女士，有時會坐在後方，她喜歡從那兒欣賞店內景像如百老匯表演般在她眼前展開。

“I get an ice cream cone for a dollar,” said the nun, Elaine Goodell, 89, who lives in a nearby convent and works as a hospital chaplain. “Then I will usually buy a medium French fries. I love the salt and the sweet. And that’s what you get here too – the salt and sweet of humanity.”
89歲的伊蓮．古德爾修女住在附近修道院、在醫院做神職工作，她說：「我花一美元買蛋捲冰淇淋，通常我還會買份中份薯條。我喜歡鹽和甜點。這也是你在這裡看到的，人類的鹹和甜。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/20/nyregion/regulars-at-a-manhattan-mcdonalds-arent-there-for-the-fries.html

2015-08-04聯合報/G5版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 王麗娟譯 原文參見紐時週報十一版上