悟空
歡迎大家來坐坐，聊聊
店鋪開張的季節到了——罌粟花可以收獲了。春麗懶洋洋地爬起床來，穿上衣服就來到自家經營的洗衣店的後院。
天上下著大雨，比起中國來，溫哥華經常下雨，但這卻給種植罌粟帶來了方便。
春麗查看著一株株罌粟，看它們是否成熟了。果然，大多數的花瓣都脫落了，罌粟果明顯地鼓起來。春麗熟練地把罌粟果割下來放進一個桶裏並拎回屋內做下一道工序——用一把帶有四隻刀片的小刀在果實上劃幾下，然後把它們掛在一個采汁桶的上方。
接著，春麗把所有從罌粟果裏采集的漿汁收集起來放在一邊晾幹。現在，她要為明天開張做一些準備。
春麗拿出一個裝有40枚大煙泡的盒子，這是去年的存貨。她重重地歎了一口氣。
春麗的父親特別在意他們出售的鴉片質量，所以他堅持自己種植並提煉鴉片而不是去買現成的。
可是，她父親最近病了。聽母親說，父親自從來加拿大淘金之後，健康狀況每況愈下，當然那時春麗還沒有出生。春麗的母親整日忙於照顧丈夫，所以家裏的生意就全靠春麗和哥哥飛龍打理了。
春麗拿起一個罌粟果並把它撬開，開始了漫長的製作鴉片的工序。
她把所有果實裏粘糊糊的東西刮出來放在一邊，然後把這樣處理過的果殼放在一個大鍋裏煮，直到果殼都溶解於水中。接著，春麗又把這一鍋東西倒入另一個容器中，之間用一種質地堅硬的紙過濾，這樣鴉片就分離出來了。她再把鴉片和之前從果殼中刮出來的粘糊糊的東西混在一起。
春麗和哥哥一整天都在這樣燒煮提純鴉片，重複著一道道工序直到鴉片的質量符合父親嚴格的標準。
經過一天的勞作，春麗的麵前出現了幾塊幹了的可供吸食的鴉片——明天可以賣錢了。春麗這時已經精疲力盡了，她上床倒頭便睡，對於第二天開門營業沒有半點期待。
第二天，春麗還是不由自主地去整理那間供客人吸食鴉片的寬敞舒適的屋子。她一走進屋裏，不禁皺了皺鼻子，去年留下來的煙味兒還沒有完全跑掉。她把一個個枕頭放直，安放好躺椅和靠背，同時擺出各種吸食鴉片所需的工具：煙燈——點燃鴉片的油燈；水泡——一塊海綿；煙鬥——煙槍上的小碗；煙刮——碗刮子；最後是好幾杆煙槍。一聲歎息之後，春麗打開了店門。
第一個進來的是常客秦先生。比起上一次春麗看到他，秦先生顯得更加憔悴：越發的瘦弱，眼中一片空茫。他跌跌撞撞地走向春麗，雙腿打著哆嗦，但是對自己即將會感受的經曆充滿了快樂的期待。
“老樣子，來一份。”他用微弱的聲音粗聲粗氣地說，一邊把幾枚硬幣放在櫃台上。春麗打開一個盒子，抓了一把鴉片 稱了一盎司。
“秦先生，給你”，春麗說著一邊把鴉片遞給了他。她收起那些硬幣，傷感地看著秦先生走進裏屋。自從去年他老婆死後，抽大煙就成了秦先生的生活，隻要有可能，每一分鍾他都在煙霧中度過，借以擺脫煩惱。
這時，飛龍走了進來，他來接替春麗，使春麗騰出身來去洗衣服。
幾個小時過去了， 春麗又回來接替哥哥。她走進裏屋去招呼那些客人。她環顧四周，那些曾經是鮮活的生命此時已如同鬼魅一般，不省人事了。她厭惡地搖了搖頭，覺得這些人根本不應該來這裏把命抽掉。她自己絕不會和這些人一樣的。
忽然她發現屋裏有些異樣，今天的客人比往常多了許多，好多人都不是中國人。這些陌生人占據了屋子的大半空間，有的嘟嘟囔囔地說著奇怪的語言，有的和其他人一樣昏睡著。
春麗從屋裏退出來，看著哥哥問道：
“這些外國人是從哪裏來的？他們為什麽來這兒？”
“我聽說他們在修一條鐵路，”飛龍回答。“他們招了不少工人，也有中國人。”
春麗感到很驚奇，平時並沒有多少外國人來他們這裏。不過她也沒辦法，隻能回到屋裏去照顧那些煙客。
她清理了煙灰缸，重新點燃熄滅了的煙燈。就在她來回走動的時候，不知從哪兒伸出一隻手拽住了她的胳膊。驚慌中，春麗手中的煙灰缸掉在了地上，怦然一聲摔成了碎片。這突如其來的響聲並沒有驚動屋裏其它的任何人。春麗看了一眼那個碰她的人，這是一個年輕的中國人，普普通通沒有什麽特別之處。可是，當春麗朝他的腿部看去時，才驚恐地發現他的一條腿因骨折而完全扭曲了。
“看見了嗎？”那人輕聲地說。
春麗點了點頭，兩眼睜得大大的。
“都是修那鐵路造的孽。那可不是一個好兆頭，我是說那條鐵路。 剛才我看見你哥哥了，那些外國人想讓他也去修鐵路，讓他別去，否則他也會像我一樣。”
春麗感到一陣的恐慌，她立刻轉身跑出屋子去找她哥哥。
“快去！去啊。”那人輕輕地說了一句又昏睡過去了。
春麗飛快地跑上自家起居的二樓，衝進她和哥哥合用的臥室，沒錯，哥哥正在收拾著行李。
“哥，你在幹什麽？”她大聲叫道。“你真的要走？”
“我覺得這個主意不好，”春麗生氣地說道。“你叫我一個人來應付家裏所有的活兒？”
“我掙完錢回來，我們就不必做這個了，我們還可能有足夠的錢回中國去呢！我會給你寫信的。”飛龍答道。“況且，這是我自己的決定，不用你管！”他說著就衝出房門朝樓下走去。
春麗坐在床上想象著將會發生的一切。哥哥很可能會受傷，那樣的話爸爸媽媽要擔心死的！她聽見哥哥在樓下和那些外國人說著話，她著急得直想哭。
幾個月過去了，春麗一直沒有哥哥的音訊。一天，她正在打掃煙館為第二天開門做準備時， 一個外表疲憊不堪的人走了進來。
對不起先生，我們關門了。春麗說道。
“我不是來抽鴉片的，”那人回答。“我來把這個給你。”他把一個布包遞了過來。
“這是什麽？”春麗問道。
“骨頭，”那人回答。“你哥哥的骨頭。幾個月前工地塌方，他死了。我們都不準離開工地，所以沒能通知你。我自己也在另一次塌方中受了傷，被開除了，所以我決定把你哥哥的骨頭帶回來。”
春麗渾身麻木了，她曾預感到什麽事會發生！哥哥怎麽完全不顧自己對他的警告！自己怎樣對爸爸媽媽說呀？
那個中國人離開之後，春麗絕望了，她什麽都不在乎了。
她的家就這樣毀了，自己一個人怎麽能照顧得了爸爸媽媽？她像孩子般的絕望了。她走進鴉片館並把門關上，隨後在一個椅子上躺下。屋裏鴉片的煙霧似乎讓他放鬆了一些，安撫著她緊繃的神經。她眼睛盯著桌上的一支煙槍，旁邊有一些自己親手製作的鴉片，還有一盞燈。不，她馬上想起自己發誓不會像那些鴉片鬼一樣。
“我發過誓！爸爸媽媽會怎麽想？哥哥會怎麽想？”
一想到哥哥飛龍，春麗就止不住淚流滿麵。她痛楚而傷感地看著這些煙具，此刻，她突然什麽都不顧了。她迅速點燃那盞燈，把煙杆湊過去深深地吸了一口。春麗好奇地睜大雙眼，感覺真好！她不停地吸吮著，直到什麽都無法感覺。所有的麻煩都沒有了，擔憂也消失了。
她閉上眼睛，一年來第一次真正的放鬆了。
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以上是我上10年級的兒子寫的一篇英文作文，我之所以把它翻譯過來，不是因為這篇文章本身寫的有多麽好。 其實，這不是一篇英文課上的作文，而是一份社會研究課（Social Studies）上的作業。老師要求學生們在學完加拿大移民史之後根據學到的知識而編寫一個小故事，兒子就發揮他的特長用兩天時間完成了一個小小說。
偶然看到兒子的“大作”，我很高興。喜歡他對人物的刻畫和細節的描寫，雖然整體上的敘述還很粗糙。我雖然不指望他成為作家，但誰知道他會不會“一不小心”寫出《喜福會》這樣的作品呢？或許會弄出個電影劇本什麽的？
學曆史的課上寫小說似乎是“不務正業”，傳統的教學也許是讓學生死記硬背一些“時間、地點、人物”之類的“知識”，可如果知識不能理解運用，除了能“升學”還有什麽用？
國內現在也提倡“素質教育”，似乎也隻是局限於讓學生學一些才藝類的額外課業，如何讓學生充分發揮自身潛在能力，自由想象，發明創造，從這篇“作文”裏，我們是否可以看出一點端倪？
The Dull Poppy
Chun-Li woke up to the rays of the rising sun. Business season had begun; it was time to harvest the poppies. She groggily got out of bed, dressed, and headed towards the backyard of her home turned laundromat. It was raining heavily; it rained a lot more in Vancouver than back in China, which was good for the poppies. She checked the maturity of the poppies; sure enough, most of the petals had dropped off, and the poppy capsules were swelling noticeably. She quickly cut off the heads of all the poppies in the garden into a pail, and brought them inside for the next step of the process. Once inside, she slit each poppy head multiple times with her nushtur, a special tool with 4 blades. She hung each poppy head up above a collecting bucket before leaving the room.
Afterwards, Chun-Li collected all the sap from the poppy heads, and set it aside to dry. Now, she had to prepare the goods for the customers of her family's business, as they opened for business tomorrow. She took out a chest filled with 40 balls of raw opium sap that was prepared last year. She sighed heavily. Her father was obsessed with the quality of the opium they sold; he insisted on growing and refining the opium themselves, instead of simply purchasing opium. However, her father had recently fallen ill; his health had been declining ever since he came to Canada for the gold rush, according to her mother, as Chun-Li hadn't been born at that time. Chun-Li's mother spent all her time caring for him, so the family business was left to Chun-Li and her brother, Fei Long. Chun-Li took an opium ball and broke it open, starting the long process to produce opium for smoking. She scooped out the gelatinous mass within the opium ball and set it aside. After repeating this process for the rest of the balls, she took all of the shells, and boiled them in a large pot of water until they had dissolved. She then took the mixture and poured it through pieces of stiff paper, separating the opium, which she then mixed with the gelatinous mass from the core of the shells. Chun-Li spent the rest of the day boiling and refining the opium with her brother, repeating processes over and over until they met her father's strict standards. At the end of the day, she was left with many blocks of dried, ready to smoke opium, to sell the next day. Exhausted, Chun-Li went to bed, not looking forward to when she would have to open the business' doors.
The next day, Chun-Li found herself cleaning and preparing the large, cozy room that served as the opium den used for the business. She wrinkled her nose as she went in. The fumes from last season still had not completely cleared out. She straightened all of the pillows, readied the recliners and headrests, and set out the various tools the smokers required: The Yen Dong, the lamp used to light to pipes, the Sui Pow, a sponge, the dow, the pipe bowl, the Yen Ngow, the bowl scraper, and finally, multiple Yen Tshungs, the opium pipes. Sighing again, she reluctantly opened the doors for business.
The first person in the doors was a regular, Mr. Ching. He looked worse than the last time Chun-Li saw him; skinnier, weaker, with a hollow look in his eyes. He stumbled over to Chun-Li, knees quivering with the anticipation of the ecstasy he was about to experience.
"Give me the regular", he wheezed in a raspy voice. He placed some coins on the counter. Chun-Li opened a chest of prepared opium and took out a handful. Using a small set of scales, she measured out an ounce of the drug.
"Here you go, Mr. Ching", she said as she handed him the opium. Collecting the coins, she watched sadly as Mr. Ching lumbered into the den. Ever since his wife had died last year, he had been smoking his life away, spending every possible moment smoking to get away from his troubles. At that time, Fei Long came in, ready to take the till duties away from Chun-Li; now, Chun-Li could go do the laundry.
A few hours later, Chun-Li came back to switch duties with her brother. She went inside the den to attend to the needs of the smokers. She looked around the room, filled with ghosts of once-healthy human beings, many of them passed out. She shook her head in disgust; these people shouldn't be here, smoking their lives away. She for one definitely wouldn't end up like these people. However, on closer inspection, Chun-Li noticed something strange. There were a lot more people in the room than usual, and many of them were not of her race. These unfamiliar people were taking up most of the room, mumbling in their strange language or simply passed out like many others. Backing out of the door, she asked her brother:
"Where did all these foreigners come from? Why are they here?"
"I heard they are building a railway," Fei Long replied. "They've hired many workers to work on it, including Chinese."
Chun Li was quite surprised; not many foreigners came to their business. There wasn't much she could do except adjust, so she went back in to attend to the needs of the smokers. She emptied the ashtrays, and relit any lamps that had been snuffed out. As she moved around, a hand reached out and caught her arm. Surprised, she dropped the ashtray she had been holding, which shattered with a loud sound. No one in the room even stirred from their state of oblivion. She looked at the person who had touched her. He was a young Chinese man, with nothing exceptional about him; however, when Chun-Li looked at his legs, she saw in horror that one of them had been terribly mangled and broken.
"You see that?" the man whispered. Chun-Li nodded, eyes wide open. "That's what happened to me from working on that railroad. It's a bad omen, that railroad. I saw your brother come in earlier. The foreigners were trying to talk him into going with them earlier. Try to talk him out of it, or he may just end up like me."
Chun-Li felt fear rising up in her. She quickly turned to back out of the room to find her brother.
"Go girl, go", the man whispered before passing out.
Chun-Li raced out of the den, and upstairs to where she and her family lived. She burst into the room she shared with her brother. Sure enough, she found Fei Long packing his things.
"What are you doing, brother?!" she cried. "Are you seriously thinking of leaving?"
"Calm down, sister," he replied. "The foreigners say it's a great job! You get food, housing, and a dollar a day, working with other Chinese people! A dollar a day! That would be almost doubling our income! Besides, it's boring running this laundromat; it's no work for someone like me."
"I still don't think it's a good idea," Chun-Li retorted. "You're just leaving me to do all this work?"
"When I come back, we won't need to run this business! We would even have enough to go back to China if we wanted! I'll write to you if I can, to see how you're all doing." Fei Long replied. "Besides, it's my decision, and you can't stop me!" He ran out the door, heading downstairs.
Chun-Li sat on the bed, thinking of what might happen to him. He could very likely be hurt, and her parents would be worried sick! She could her him conversing with the foreigners downstairs. She felt almost ready to cry.
Months passed, and Chun-Li still had not heard from Fei Long. One day, as she was readying the den for business the next day, someone came in. It was a Chinese man, worn out and tired.
Sorry, sir, but were not open yet, Chun-Li said.
Im not here for your services, the man replied. Im here to give you this. He held out a wrapped cloth bundle.
Whats this? Chun-Li asked.
Theyre bones. the man replied. Your brothers bones. He was killed in a cave-in a few months ago. We arent allowed to leave the workplace, so no one could tell you about this. I was hurt in another cave-in recently, and I was discharged, so I decided to take your brothers bones back home.
Chun-Li was numb. She knew something would happen! How could he have completely disregarded all the warnings she gave him! How could she tell her parents? The Chinese man left. Chun-Li didnt care. She didnt care about anything anymore. Her family was in ruins; how could she support her parents all by herself? She felt completely hopeless, like a small child again. She went into the opium den and closed the door, lying on one of the recliners. The fumes in the room seemed to calm her a bit, soothing her frayed nerves. She looked at a pipe on the table next to her. There was some of her opium next to it, as well as a lamp. No, she thought, I promised myself I would never be like these people. I PROMISED! What would my parents think? And my brother?
Just thinking about Fei Long made her tear up. She looked at the items wistfully. At that moment, Chun-Li decided she simply did not care anymore. She quickly lit the lamp, as well as the pipe, and inhaled deeply. Chun-Lis eyes opened in wonder. How good this felt! She kept inhaling on the pipe until she could feel nothing. No troubles, no worries to bother her. She closed her eyes and relaxed for the first time in almost a year.
這個結尾的描寫，很棒。
至於思想和邏輯，那是歲月今後的事情。
這個小東西！