殘忍而美麗的情誼:The Kite Runner 追風箏的人(8)

12歲的阿富汗富家少爺阿米爾與僕人哈桑情同手足。然而，在一場風箏比賽後，發生了一件悲慘不堪的事，阿米爾爲自己的懦弱感到自責和痛苦，逼走了哈桑，不久，自己也跟隨父親逃往美國。

成年後的阿米爾始終無法原諒自己當年對哈桑的背叛。爲了贖罪，阿米爾再度踏上暌違二十多年的故鄉，希望能爲不幸的好友盡最後一點心力，卻發現一個驚天謊言，兒時的噩夢再度重演，阿米爾該如何抉擇？小說如此殘忍而又美麗，作者以溫暖細膩的筆法勾勒人性的本質與救贖，讀來令人蕩氣迴腸。

It took three years to build the orphanage. I was eight by then. I remember the day before the orphanage opened, Baba took me to Ghargha Lake, a few miles north of Kabul. He asked me to fetch Hassan too, but I lied and told him Hassan had the runs. I wanted Baba all to myself. And besides, one time at Ghargha Lake, Hassan and I were skimming stones and Hassan made his stone skip eight times. The most I managed was five. Baba was there, watching, and he patted Hassan on the back. Even put his arm around his shoulder.
We sat at a picnic table on the banks of the lake, just Baba and me, eating boiled eggs with "kofta" sandwiches--meatballs and pickles wrapped in "naan". The water was a deep blue and sunlight glittered on its looking glass-clear surface. On Fridays, the lake was bustling with families out for a day in the sun. But it was midweek and there was only Baba and me, us and a couple of longhaired, bearded tourists--"hippies," I'd heard them called. They were sitting on the dock, feet dangling in the water, Fishing poles in hand. I asked Baba why they grew their hair long, but Baba grunted, didn't answer. He was preparing his speech for the next day, flipping through a havoc of handwritten pages, making notes here and there with a pencil. I bit into my egg and asked Baba if it was true what a boy in school had told me, that if you ate a piece of eggshell, you'd have to pee it out. Baba grunted again.
I took a bite of my sandwich. One of the yellow-haired tourists laughed and slapped the other one on the back. In the distance, across the lake, a truck lumbered around a corner on the hill. Sunlight twinkled in its side-view mirror.
"I think I have 'saratan', " I said. Cancer. Baba lifted his head from the pages flapping in the breeze. Told me I could get the soda myself, all I had to do was look in the trunk of the car.

重點精講：

skim v. 掠過
A seagull skims the water.
海鷗掠過水麪。

pat v. 輕拍
He gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
他輕拍了一下她的肩膀讓她放心。
He gave me a light pat on the shoulder.
他在我肩上輕輕一拍。

wrap v. 包
You should wrap up the gift in a paper.
你應該把禮物用紙包好。
I wrapped the rug around the sick man's legs to keep him warm.
我用毯子把病人的腿包了起來，讓他暖和一點兒。
裹
Wrap the meat in foil before you cook it.
把肉用錫箔裹起來後再燒。

glitter v. 閃爍
In these cities what remains of the old China is hidden by the glitter.
在這些城市裏，舊中國所遺留下來的東西都被閃爍的燈光掩埋了。
He stared at me with a cruel glitter in his eyes.
他眼露兇光地瞪着我。

dangle v. 懸垂
The children sat on the high wall, with their legs dangling.
小孩子們坐在高牆上，腳懸垂着。

grunt v. 咕噥
The inspector gave a grunt of approval.
督學咕噥着表示贊同。

flip v. 翻轉
He flipped to a fresh page and began to write.
他翻到另外一頁,開始寫了起來。

slap v. 拍擊
He slapped me on the back on my way home.
在我回家的路上，他在我背上拍了一下。

lumber v. 緩慢地移動

flap v. 拍打
I flap the flies away but soon they fly back.
我把蒼蠅趕走，但一會兒又飛回來了。
The curtains were flapping at the open window.
窗簾在敞開的窗戶前擺動。

恤孤院工程耗時三年，蓋好的那年我八歲。我記得恤孤院落成前一天，爸爸帶我去喀布爾以北幾英里遠的喀爾卡湖。他讓我叫上哈桑，但我撒謊，說哈桑有事情要做。我要爸爸全屬我一人。再說，有一次哈桑和我在喀爾卡湖畔打水漂，他的石頭跳了八下，我用盡力氣，也只能跳五下。爸爸在旁邊看着我們，他伸手拍拍哈桑的後背，甚至還用手臂摟住他的肩膀。

我們在湖邊的野餐桌旁邊坐下來，只有爸爸跟我，吃着水煮蛋和肉丸夾餅--就是饢餅夾着肉丸和醃黃瓜。湖水澄藍，波平如鏡，陽光照在湖上熠熠生輝。每逢週五，總有很多家庭到湖邊，在陽光下度過假期。但那天不是週末，那兒只有我們--爸爸和我，還有幾個留着鬍子和長髮的遊客，我聽說他們叫"嬉皮士"。他們坐在碼頭上，手裏拿着釣魚竿，腳板在水裏晃盪。我問爸爸，爲什麼那些人留着長頭髮，但爸爸沒有回答，只哼了一聲。他正準備翌日的演講，翻閱着一疊手稿，不時用鉛筆做些記號。我吃一口雞蛋，告訴爸爸，學校裏面有個男孩說，要是吃下雞蛋殼，就得將它尿出來。我問爸爸這是不是真的，爸爸又哼了一聲。

我咬一口夾餅。有個黃頭髮的遊客放聲大笑，用手拍拍另外一人的後背。遠處，在湖那邊，一輛卡車蹣跚着轉過山路的拐角處，它的觀後鏡反射出閃閃的陽光。

“我想我得了癌症。”我說。和風吹拂着那些手稿，爸爸擡頭，告訴我可以自行去拿些蘇打水，我所能做的，便只有去搜尋那轎車的行李箱。