《浪漫之夜》

蓝

英文原创：蔡维忠英译汉：蓝 此文发表于美洲华人文艺《红杉林》2/2024 夏季号/第二期 引言 此文记录了16年前一个普普通通的夜晚。时过境迁，仍历历在目；虽平平淡淡，但回味无穷；无轰轰烈烈，却温馨无比。让我们珍惜每一个美好瞬间，认真过好每一天。 　兰的心情显然很不错。　她今天的工作量没有往常那么多；我这几天忙着，终于赶完了一个尽职调查，可以回家吃顿晚饭；黛安刚结束大学一年级学习，回到家里。很久以来，我们第一次可以和女儿黛安、儿子天觅一起吃饭。确实是该庆祝一下。兰打算从110路的东方餐馆买只北京烤鸭回来犒劳我们。 　　高峰时段110路堵得厉害，她两手空空地回家，有些失望。 “我们有北京烤鸭。”我告诉她。 前一天晚上，我为尽职调查做准备，工作到十一点。公司为此给我买了晚餐，北京烤鸭是那顿晚餐剩下的。她听了很高兴。她很喜欢鸭肉，份量虽小，但很好吃。我们吃了一顿简单的晚餐，有很多蔬菜，外加几块鸭肉。 快吃完时，她请我吃冰淇淋。　　“怎么不早说？我本来可以给胃留些空间。”我暗想，但没问。我即使已经很饱了，还是可以吃三分之一勺或半勺。如果孩子们能和我们一起去就好了，但青少年们更喜欢在晚饭后安排自己的活动。不管怎样，没有孩子跟着，这可能会是一个浪漫的夜晚。 　　“感觉好像什么都没吃，肚子好空啊！”她在去冰淇淋店的路上叫起来。　　“我们不是刚吃过饭吗？”我不明白了。　　“是的，但鸭肉太少了，只够吊胃口，不够填饱肚子。”　　我指着车里几块白天没吃完的贝果（面包圈），说：“吃一块吧。”　　“我不能吃那东西，我应该吃更好的！”她抗议道。　　“它有什么不好？我今天吃了好几块。”我反驳道。　　于是，她拿起一块，静静地嚼了起来。这显然有点安抚了她的胃，她不再抱怨了。然而，这只是有点安抚，因为她的目标依然不变，要吃一勺美味的冰淇淋。 　　我把车开近芭斯罗缤。该冰淇淋店与 110 路上的咖啡店唐恩都乐处在同一家店子里。这时，她宣称要吃比芭斯罗缤更好的冰淇淋。 　　“我们要哈根达斯。”她嚷着。（注：Haagan-Dazs 是源于美国，盛销世界的冰激凌品牌） 在兰的记忆中，110号公路往北的惠特曼购物中心有一家哈根达斯冰激凌店。我们去了购物中心，发现她记忆中的那个地方并没有哈根达斯。事后想起来，哈根达斯店可能在另一个购物中心，即罗斯福场地购物中心。 　　我们在商场里闲逛，查遍了每个角落，确实没有哈根达斯。时间没有浪费，因为我们享受了悠闲散步的时光，并观看了一些新款式的服装。　　往外走时，我提醒兰，可以去购物中心的麦当劳将就着吃个圣代冰淇淋。　　“为什么不，强过什么都没有！”她说，尽管圣代比不上芭斯罗缤，更不用说哈根达斯了。　　我其实不那么热爱圣代，但很想吃圣代上面的坚果。兰吃完她的圣代后，发现我只吃了我那份顶部的坚果，便拿过去狼吞虎咽地把它吃下去。 　　兰现在心满意足了，开始策划下一步行动。　　“我们去按摩吧。”她提议，并指着麦当劳对面新开张的菲奥娜日间水疗中心。当我们走到水疗中心门外时，有两个人出来迎接我们。他们声称精通穴位，服务不仅让人放松，还可治疗。这对兰来说真是太好了，因为她的臀部已经痛了好几天了。 　　一位按摩师过来把手放在我的脖子上，开始展示她的按摩功夫。　　“对我没什么效果，我本来就不觉得脖子酸痛。”我告诉她。事实上，她拧了我的皮，有点痛。 　　“你的肌肉太紧张了。”她不放弃，仍然试图说服我去做按摩。　　此时，兰已决定要尝试一下。按摩师抛开我，护送兰进入店内。我稍稍松了口气，因为我相信，如果她继续在我脖子上施治，我会更疼。 　　我坐在沙发上，一边用爱风音乐按摩耳朵，一边观看按摩师给兰按摩。她从臀部开始，在那儿按摩了会儿，然后转向背部、颈部、头颅。她的功夫显然不那么简单，不仅用手指和手掌，还用了一个胳膊肘。我开始为兰担心。按摩师的个头是兰的两倍。假设她把一半体重压在兰身上，那压力就相当可观了。另外，我还想知道她按摩的是什么穴位，竟然需要肘部，而不是手指或针。我以为穴位是针灸针或指尖大小的小点。使用肘超出了我的理解范围。 　　当我们走出商场时，兰还在享受按摩的体验。 　　“那个按摩师很乐意为我按摩。她说我身材很好，没有太多脂肪，给我按摩真是太容易了。” 兰显然把这当作是一种称赞。　　我知道她很瘦。尽管她个子比我小得多，但吃得比我多得多，还是很瘦。我想提醒她这一点，但我有一个更紧迫的问题：“按摩对你的臀部有好处吗？”我仍然担心那个胳膊肘对她瘦小身体的压力。　　“很难说。”她答道，暂时不太关心疗效。从她的语气中得知，肘的压力显然没有压垮她的身体，更不用说她的精神了。 　　第二天，兰小声对我说：“我现在感到一些疗效了，臀部不那么痛了。其他部位痛了，所以相对来说臀部就不那么痛了。” 　　要的就是这劲儿！ 原文（英）附下。 A Romantic Night Out by Weizhong Cai Lan was apparently in a good mood. She didn’t have as much work today as she usually does. I would be home for dinner after several days of organizing a due diligence. Diane just got back from college after the freshmen year. For the first time in quite a while, we would be sitting with our kids, Diane and Timmy, at the dining table in the kitchen. It was about time to celebrate. She wanted to treat us by bringing home a roasted Peking duck from East, the Chinese restaurant on Route 110. But Route 110 at rush hour was jam-packed. She returned home empty handed, a little disappointed. “We have Peking duck”, I told her. I worked until 11 the night before preparing for the due diligence, and my company had bought me the dinner. The Peking duck was left over from that dinner. She was quite delighted to hear that. And she enjoyed the duck a lot; it was still quite tasty although the quantity was small. We had a simple dinner, with a lot of cooked vegetable in addition to the few pieces of duck. Toward the end of the dinner, she offered to treat me to ice cream. “Why didn’t you say so earlier? I could’ve saved some room in my stomach,” I thought. But I refrained from asking the question. I figured I could eat a third or a half of a scoop even though I was quite full. It would be nice if the kids could come with us, but the teenagers preferred to arrange their own activities after dinner. Anyway, without the kids, it might be a romantic night out.　　 “I feel as if I ate nothing. My stomach is so empty!” she exclaimed on the way out to the ice cream shop. “Didn’t we just have a dinner?” I wondered.　　 “Yeah, the duck was enough to arouse my appetite, but too little to fill up my stomach.” I pointed at a couple of pieces of bagel in the car that I hadn’t finished during the day and told her, “Have a piece of that.” “I can’t eat that! I deserve something better! ” She protested. “What’s wrong with that? I ate several pieces today,” I countered. So she took a piece and chewed it up quietly. That apparently partially comforted her stomach, as she stopped complaining. It was a partial comfort, however, because her goal remained the same, i.e., to have a scoop of delicious ice cream. I drove near the Baskin Robins, which occupied the same store as the Dunkin’ Donuts on Route 110, when she proclaimed that we needed something better than Dunkin’ Donuts. “We’ll have Häagen-Dazs,” she declared. In her mind, there was a Häagen-Dazs in the Walt Whitman Mall further north on Route 110. We went to the mall and found there was no Häagen-Dazs in the expected location. At hindsight, now that I recall, the Häagen-Dazs store she had in mind was probably in a different mall, the Roosevelt Field Mall. We strolled around the mall, checking every corner to make sure there was indeed no Häagen-Dazs. It was not a waste of time as we enjoyed some leisure walking time and checked out some new fashions of dresses. On the way out, I reminded her that we could settle for a sundae at the McDonald’s in the mall. “Why not! It’s better than nothing,” she said, even though a sundae doesn’t compare with a scoop of ice cream from Baskin Robins, not to mention Häagen-Dazs. I was not so crazy about sundae, but I had a craving for the nuts on top of a sundae. After Lan finished her sundae, she found that I ate only the nuts with the top portion of my sundae. She gobbled up the rest. She was quite content now and started to plot our next move. “Let’s get a massage,” she suggested, pointing at the newly opened bodywork center, Fiona’s Day Spa, across from the McDonald’s. When we approached the bodywork center, a couple of people come out to welcome us. They knew how to work on xuewei, or acupuncture points, they explained. Therefore, they asserted, the bodywork they provided was not only relaxation, but also therapy. That would be great for Lan, as her butt had been in pain for quite a few days. One of the therapists started putting her hands around my neck and demonstrating her massage techniques. “It won’t help me. I don’t feel sore on my neck,” I told her. In fact, she was twisting my skin, and it hurt a little. “Your muscle is so tense,” she insisted, still trying to convince me to have a massage. But now, Lan had decided to give it a try. The therapist abandoned me and escorted Lan inside. I felt a little relieved because I believed if she had continued to practice on my neck, it would hurt more. I sat on the couch and massaged my ear with iPhone music and watched the therapist massage Lan. The therapist started rubbing her butt and worked on there for a while before moving on to her back, her neck, and her skull. Her skill set was apparently not so simple as she used not only her fingers and palms but also one of her elbows. I started to worry for Lan. The therapist was twice Lan’s size. Let’s assume she put half of her weight through the elbow on Lan, the pressure would then be quite enormous. Besides, I also wondered what kind of xuewei she was working on that required an elbow, not a finger, or a needle. I thought a xuewei was a delicate spot the size of an acupuncture needle, or a fingertip. The use of elbow was beyond my comprehension. When we walked out of the mall, Lan was still enjoying the experience of the massage. “She enjoyed working on me. She said I had a nice figure and didn’t have much fat. It was so easy to massage me.” She apparently took that as a compliment. I knew that. She is skinny. She eats much more than I do even though she is much smaller. Yet she is skinny. I wanted to remind her that, but I had a more urgent question to ask. “Was it helpful for your butt?” I asked instead, still worrying about that elbow’s weight on her skinny body.“Hard to tell,” she replied, not caring so much about the therapeutic effect for the time being. I could tell from her tone that the pressure from the elbow obviously didn’t crush her body, let alone her spirit. The next day, Lan whispered to me: “I am feeling some therapeutic effect now. My butt hurts less. Other parts of my body hurt. So my butt hurts relatively less.” That’s the spirit!