忽然想起了Sylvain。 他是否正手牽新娘，漫步在東京的街頭？
Sylvain是我在旅遊時結識的加拿大男孩,他在東京工作兩年了,一個人跑回來度假。因為大家都生活在他鄉,一個是在東方工作的西方人,一個是在西方生活的東方人,同樣感受著強烈的東西方文化差異,自然聊起天來話題特別多。
最有同感的是價值觀念的差異。Sylvain告訴我他和日本女友上街, 一切都是他出錢,盡管他的女朋友比他還富有。這在東方人看來很正常的事,我深知對於一個西方人來說實在不易,正如我自己在西方生活了多年,好不容易才適應和男孩上餐館各自分帳一樣。中國人追女孩常會請她們看電影,吃飯,而法國人追女孩最常說的話是:"請你喝咖啡"。更有甚者,有人竟然會說:"一起去喝咖啡吧。"言下之意,大家各自掏錢。就是同居很久的couple, 在餐館也是輪流付帳。我曾非常困惑地和西方女孩探討這個問題,她們常常理直氣壯地說:"這就是獨立,平等。"雖然覺得很"掉價", 我也隻能入鄉隨俗了。
在旅館,我和Sylvain 常在吃晚飯前打乒乓球和桌球。有次他和一幫人打得帶勁,我先去吃飯了。過了一會,他急匆匆地趕過來,一邊對我察言觀色,一邊反複問我,是不是因為他隻顧和別人玩,我不高興了。 "沒有啊,要是不高興,早就把你拉出來了。" 他卻認定我不開心,,反複解釋.我暗自好笑,他為什麽這麽"小心",仔細想一想,終於得出結論: 一定是他熟悉了東方女孩常常不願"言傳",而喜歡讓男孩去"意會"的表達方式。而我可能是在西方待久了,習慣了比較坦率直接的人際交往。說起西方女孩的率直,有時不得不讓人張目結舌。我認識的幾個法國女孩很喜歡追男孩,她們看上一個目標以後就開始圍追堵截,大膽進攻。從暗送秋波,到直言不諱,衣著性感,每天一換,弄得男孩眼花繚亂,不知所措。然後趁其不意,攻其不備。當然,法國女孩的"熱烈"並不意味著"永遠",很快她們又瞄準了下一個目標。
在大海邊,密布的星空下,我和Sylvain常常一侃就是大半夜。他告訴我他的女朋友是他公司總裁的女兒,是一個很柔順的女孩。相處幾個月來,家裏所有雜事都是她一手操辦,什麽都不用他操心,可謂飯來張口,衣來伸手,就連這次度假的行李都是她收拾的。女孩的父親希望他們盡快成婚,但至今令他猶豫的是他總覺得缺乏一點激情,"其時我並不願意她把我侍侯得象個小孩,我也很願意和她分擔家務。" 不知道這是西方人"平等"的概念,還是如張愛玲在"紅玫瑰,百玫瑰"中所描述的男人,永遠沒有滿足的時候。我也隻能紙上談兵的開道他:" 有時越強烈的東西反而更脆弱。婚姻的感情是細水長流,是在無數個日日夜夜的共同生活中建立起來的,是在一起經曆了艱難和挫折後建立起來的,是這些獨特的擁有幫助你抵抗外界的誘惑。"
Sylvain感歎道:"我已經好長時間沒跟人這麽聊天了,我們才認識沒幾天,我什麽都跟你說了。"
我笑著說:"我是選錯了專業,其實我做心理醫生很有天分。"
一周的時間很快就過了, 我們以東方人含蓄的方式話別。 人生是孤旅,所有的相逢都是瞬間。然而正是這無數的瞬間,令我們的生活豐富多彩, 使生命的跋涉不再寂寞。
"Sylvain, 對她說'yes' 。" 陽光下,他露出迷人的微笑。
查到一篇似乎是被縮寫了的“原文”，因為我沒看到裏邊有這段對話：“你知道嗎？除了你和兩個女兒，其實也沒什麽好留戀的．我從來不曾真正喜歡這座城市，也不喜歡我的工作，或者任何你們三個以外的事特．如果真要說舍不得，恐怕隻有四季的轉換，熱天裏一杯冰得透透涼涼的水．還有，我喜歡熟熟睡著的時候”。也看不出應該插於何處。另一方麵，作為小說，既然寫了女兒在背景上玩，後邊就該照應地寫送她們上床睡覺才完整。
The Last Night Of The World
-- Ray Bradbury, The Stories 0f Ray Bradbury (1980)
"What would you do if you knew that this was the last night of the world?"
"What would I do? You mean seriously?"
"Yes, seriously."
"I don't know. I hadn't thought."
He poured some coffee. In the background the two girls were playing blocks on the parlour rug in the light of the green hurricane lamps. There was an easy, clean aroma of the brewed coffee in the evening air.
"Well, better start thinking about it", he said.
"You don't mean it!"
He nodded.
"A war?"
He shook his head.
"Not the hydrogen or atom bomb?"
"No."
"Or germ warfare?"
"None of those at all", he said, stirring his coffee slowly. "But just, let's say, the closing of a book."
"I don't think I understand."
"No, nor do I, really; it's just a feeling. Sometimes it frightens me, sometimes I'm not frightened at all but at peace." He glanced in at the girls and their yellow hair shining in the lamplight. "I didn't say anything to you. It first happened about four nights ago."
"What?"
"A dream I had. I dreamed that it was all going to be over, and a voice said it was; not any kind of voice I can remember, but a voice anyway, and it said things would stop here on Earth. I didn't think too much about it the next day, but then I went to the office and caught Stan Willis looking out the window in the middle of the afternoon, and I said, A penny for your thoughts, Stan, and he said, I had a dream last night, and before he even told me the dream I knew what it was. I could have told him, but he told me and I listened to him."
"It was the same dream?"
"The same. I told Stan I had dreamed it too. He didn't seem surprised. He relaxed, in fact. Then we started walking through the office, for the hell of it. It wasn't planned. We didn't say, Let's walk around. We just walked on our own, and everywhere we saw people looking at their desks or their hands or out windows. I talked to a few. So did Stan."
"And they all had dreamed?"
"All of them. The same dream, with no difference."
"Do you believe in it?"
"Yes. I've never been more certain."
"And when will it stop? The world, I mean."
"Sometime during the night for us, and then as the night goes on around the world, that'll go too. It'll take twenty-four hours for it all to go."
They sat awhile not touching their coffee. Then they lifted it slowly and drank, looking at each other.
"Do we deserve this?" she said.
"It's not a matter of deserving; it's just that things didn't work out. I notice you didn't even argue about this. Why not?"
"I guess I've a reason", she said.
"The same one everyone at the office had?"
She nodded slowly. "I didn't want to say anything. It happened last night. And the women on the block talked about it, among themselves, today. They dreamed. I thought it was only a coincidence." She picked up the evening paper.
"There's nothing in the paper about it."
They moved through the house and turned out the lights and went into the bedroom and stood in the night cool darkness undressing and pushing back the covers. "The sheets are so clean and nice."
"I'm tired."
"We're all tired."
They got into bed and lay back.
"Just a moment", she said.
He heard her get out of bed and go into the kitchen. A moment later, she returned. "I left the water running in the kitchen sink", she said.
Something about this was so very funny that he had to laugh.
She laughed with him, knowing that it was what she had done that was funny. They stopped laughing at last and lay in their cool night bed, their hands clasped, their heads together.
"Good night", he said, after a moment.
"Good night", she said.
生活在他鄉不易，和他鄉的人生活在他鄉有更方便之處也有更不易之處。文化背景的影響總是潛移默化地支配著人們的行動，嘿嘿，比那個叫什麽階級烙印的還深。
