《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 99 (237):你男友有錢嗎?

Felipe is also the endearment master. In bed he slips into adoring me in Portuguese, so I have graduated from being his "lovely little darling" to being his queridinha. (Literal translation: "lovely little darling.") I've been too lazy here in Bali to try to learn Indonesian or Balinese, but suddenly Portuguese is coming easily to me. Of course I'm only learning the pillow talk, but that's a fine use of Portuguese. He says, "Darling, you're going to get sick of it. You're going to get bored of how much I touch you, and how many times a day I tell you how beautiful you are."

Try me, mister.

I'm losing days here, disappearing under his sheets, under his hands. I like the feeling of not knowing what the date is. My nice organized schedule has been blown away by the breeze. I finally do stop by to see my medicine man one afternoon after a long hiatus of no visiting. Ketut sees the truth on my face before I say a word.

"You found boyfriend in Bali," he says.

"Yes, Ketut."

"Good. Be careful not get pregnant."

"I will."

"He good man?"

"You tell me, Ketut," I said. "You read his palm. You promised that he was a good man. You said it about seven times."

"I did? When?"

"Back in June. I brought him here. He was the Brazilian man, older than me. You told me you liked him."

"Never did," he insisted, and there was nothing I could do to convince him otherwise. Sometimes Ketut loses things from his recollection, as you would, too, if you were somewhere between sixty-five and a hundred and twelve years old. Most of the time he's keen and sharp, but other times I feel like I've disturbed him out of some other plane of consciousness, out of some other universe. (A few weeks ago he said to me, completely out of nowhere, "You good friend to me, Liss. Loyal friend. Loving friend." Then he sighed, stared off into space and ad-ded mournfully, "Not like Sharon." Who the hell is Sharon? What did she do to him? When I tried asking him about it, he would give me no answer. Acted suddenly like he didn't know who I was even referring to. As if I were the one who'd brought up that thieving hussy Sharon in the first place.)

斐利貝還是個寵愛大師。他在牀上不知不覺地以葡語愛慕我，因此我已從他的"可愛的小甜心"晉升爲"他的queridinha"（字面翻譯："可愛的小甜心"）。我來巴厘島後很懶惰，不想學印尼語或巴釐語，突然間卻輕而易舉地學會了葡萄牙語。當然我只學會枕邊細語，卻是好用的葡語。他說："親愛的，你會膩的。你會厭倦我的撫摸，厭倦我每天說好幾次你有多美。"

考驗我吧，先生。

我在這兒失去時間，我在他的被單下、他的手下消失。我喜歡不知年月的感覺。我一板一眼的時間表已隨風消散。最後，過了好長一段時間，我纔在某天下午去看訪我的藥師。賴爺在我開口說話前從我臉上看見真相。

"你在巴厘島找到男友了。"他說。

"是的，賴爺。"

"很好，小心別懷孕。"

"我會的。"

"他人很好？"

"你告訴我吧，賴爺，"我說，"你看過他的手相。你保證過他是好男人。大概說了七次。"

"真的？哪時候？"

"六月的時候。我帶他過來。他是巴西人，年紀比我大。你跟我說你喜歡他。"

"我從沒說過，"他堅稱，而我不管說什麼他都不相信。賴爺時而忘事，就像你若介於六十五至一百一十二歲之間的話也會忘事。大半時間，他是敏銳的人，但有些時候我覺得自己干擾到他，把他從另一層意識、另一個宇宙里拉出來（他在幾星期前，完全不明所以地對我說："小莉，你是我的好朋友，忠心的朋友，親愛的朋友。"接着嘆口氣，凝望空中，哀慼地加上一句："不像雪倫。"誰是這見鬼的雪倫？她對他做了什麼？我想問他，他卻未給我任何答案。甚至突然間像是不明白我提起的人是誰，彷彿一開始是我先提起這位賊頭賊腦、水性楊花的雪倫。）