忽然想起了Sylvain。 他是否正手牵新娘，漫步在东京的街头？
Sylvain是我在旅游时结识的加拿大男孩,他在东京工作两年了,一个人跑回来度假。因为大家都生活在他乡,一个是在东方工作的西方人,一个是在西方生活的东方人,同样感受着强烈的东西方文化差异,自然聊起天来话题特别多。
最有同感的是价值观念的差异。Sylvain告诉我他和日本女友上街, 一切都是他出钱,尽管他的女朋友比他还富有。这在东方人看来很正常的事,我深知对于一个西方人来说实在不易,正如我自己在西方生活了多年,好不容易才适应和男孩上餐馆各自分帐一样。中国人追女孩常会请她们看电影,吃饭,而法国人追女孩最常说的话是:"请你喝咖啡"。更有甚者,有人竟然会说:"一起去喝咖啡吧。"言下之意,大家各自掏钱。就是同居很久的couple, 在餐馆也是轮流付帐。我曾非常困惑地和西方女孩探讨这个问题,她们常常理直气壮地说:"这就是独立,平等。"虽然觉得很"掉价", 我也只能入乡随俗了。
在旅馆,我和Sylvain 常在吃晚饭前打乒乓球和桌球。有次他和一帮人打得带劲,我先去吃饭了。过了一会,他急匆匆地赶过来,一边对我察言观色,一边反复问我,是不是因为他只顾和别人玩,我不高兴了。 "没有啊,要是不高兴,早就把你拉出来了。" 他却认定我不开心,,反复解释.我暗自好笑,他为什么这么"小心",仔细想一想,终于得出结论: 一定是他熟悉了东方女孩常常不愿"言传",而喜欢让男孩去"意会"的表达方式。而我可能是在西方待久了,习惯了比较坦率直接的人际交往。说起西方女孩的率直,有时不得不让人张目结舌。我认识的几个法国女孩很喜欢追男孩,她们看上一个目标以后就开始围追堵截,大胆进攻。从暗送秋波,到直言不讳,衣着性感,每天一换,弄得男孩眼花缭乱,不知所措。然后趁其不意,攻其不备。当然,法国女孩的"热烈"并不意味着"永远",很快她们又瞄准了下一个目标。
在大海边,密布的星空下,我和Sylvain常常一侃就是大半夜。他告诉我他的女朋友是他公司总裁的女儿,是一个很柔顺的女孩。相处几个月来,家里所有杂事都是她一手操办,什么都不用他操心,可谓饭来张口,衣来伸手,就连这次度假的行李都是她收拾的。女孩的父亲希望他们尽快成婚,但至今令他犹豫的是他总觉得缺乏一点激情,"其时我并不愿意她把我侍侯得象个小孩,我也很愿意和她分担家务。" 不知道这是西方人"平等"的概念,还是如张爱玲在"红玫瑰,百玫瑰"中所描述的男人,永远没有满足的时候。我也只能纸上谈兵的开道他:" 有时越强烈的东西反而更脆弱。婚姻的感情是细水长流,是在无数个日日夜夜的共同生活中建立起来的,是在一起经历了艰难和挫折后建立起来的,是这些独特的拥有帮助你抵抗外界的诱惑。"
Sylvain感叹道:"我已经好长时间没跟人这么聊天了,我们才认识没几天,我什么都跟你说了。"
我笑着说:"我是选错了专业,其实我做心理医生很有天分。"
一周的时间很快就过了, 我们以东方人含蓄的方式话别。 人生是孤旅,所有的相逢都是瞬间。然而正是这无数的瞬间,令我们的生活丰富多彩, 使生命的跋涉不再寂寞。
"Sylvain, 对她说'yes' 。" 阳光下,他露出迷人的微笑。
查到一篇似乎是被缩写了的“原文”，因为我没看到里边有这段对话：“你知道吗？除了你和两个女儿，其实也没什么好留恋的．我从来不曾真正喜欢这座城市，也不喜欢我的工作，或者任何你们三个以外的事特．如果真要说舍不得，恐怕只有四季的转换，热天里一杯冰得透透凉凉的水．还有，我喜欢熟熟睡著的时候”。也看不出应该插于何处。另一方面，作为小说，既然写了女儿在背景上玩，后边就该照应地写送她们上床睡觉才完整。
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.
生活在他乡不易，和他乡的人生活在他乡有更方便之处也有更不易之处。文化背景的影响总是潜移默化地支配着人们的行动，嘿嘿，比那个叫什么阶级烙印的还深。
