孤獨之旅 （三） 3

(三)　３

晚上吃過飯，融晴開始想念父母親，想聽聽他們的聲音。和他們講講在外鄉的經曆。於是，她批上羽絨服到學校一個電話亭給父母打電話。校園裏的寧靜給了她很多安慰，無論白天發生了什麽，晚上的家總是溫暖的。星星在頭頂上忽明忽暗地看著她，像知道她的心事似的。深吸一口氣，融晴開始撥電話，電話響了若幹聲，可是沒有人接。她掛了電話，等了一會兒，又撥了一次，還是沒人接。嗨，算了，她想著，他們也許出去串門了。告訴那個守電話的大媽說是電話沒通，融晴沒精打彩地正準備離開。突然那個坐那兒毫無表情的大媽眉毛一揚說：“付了錢再走！”
她非常吃驚，反問：“電話並沒有通啊？” 大媽把嘴裏的瓜子殼往地上一扔，從凳子上站起來說：“響六聲以上就算通了，要收費。” 融晴不敢相信自己的耳朵，辯駁說：“我連句話都未講，怎叫通？”大媽於是開始唾沫滿天飛。融晴突然覺得鼻子一酸，白天受的委屈一股腦兒湧了上來。又見那張上下煽動的嘴角上方很刺目的盯了一顆綠豆大的青痣。她想起了白毛女裏那個寺強淩弱的黃世仁。她突然心生厭惡，冷不丁從嘴裏甩出來兩句狠話，把那個大媽驚得往後仰了仰肥胖的身體，眼睛瞪得更大了。融晴想著和這種無賴理論是掉自己架子，於是閉了嘴，兩手抓住羽絨服帽子的兩個角用勁兒把帽子往頭上一蓋，拿起錢包，頭也不回地走出電話亭。那個黃世仁居然罵罵咧咧一直跟到亭子外麵，卻最終也沒能派了狗腿子來救急。

TＨＲＥＥ　ＰａｒｔＩＩＩ

Translated by:　北美大牛

After diner, Qing found herself longing for her parents, she wanted to hear
their voices, she wanted to tell her experiences living away from home. So she
put on her down coat and went to a phone booth on campus to telephone her
parents. The silence of the campus soothed her, regardless what happened during
the day, in the evening, there is always warmth at home. The stars blinked to
her from the sky and seemed to understand her thoughts. Qing took a deep breath
and started dialing. There were dial tones and rang for a few times but no one
picked it up. She hung up, waited for a moment, and dialed again, and there was
still no one picking it up. “Let it be so”, she thought, “maybe they went to
visit their neighbors”. Qing told the woman who tended the phone booth that she
wasn’t able to connect. She was lackadaisical. Just as she was about to leave,
the woman who had been sitting there quietly all of a sudden raised her eye
brows and cried: “you have to pay!” Qing was surprised and retorted: “there
wasn’t a connection?” The woman spitted out the shells of the sunflower seeds
to the floor and stood up: “if it rings for more than six times, it counts as a
connection and must be paid.” Qing couldn’t believe her ears. She rebuffed: “I
didn’t even utter a word, how can that be a connection?” The woman babbled with
the saliva spewing. Qing felt about to cry, all the humiliations she suffered
during the day came to her mind. She saw the big mouth with the flapping lips
featured a pea sized black mole, which reminded her the bully Huang Shi-Ren in
the play . A genuine disgust arose from her heart
and suddenly she cursed with the utmost vehemence. The old woman was stunned
and her fat body fell backward and her eyes bulged even bigger. Qing thought
it’s not decent to argue with such a brute, so she stopped, grabbed the strings
of the hat attached to the coat, covered her head, grabbed her purse and walked
out of the phone both without looking back. That Huang Shi-Ren scolded and
cursed with all sorts of foul languages, but she didn’t dare to ask a lackey to
help her.