殘忍而美麗的情誼:The Kite Runner 追風箏的人(204)
Faisal dabbed at the sweat beads above his lips. “I’m familiar with the version of the situation you gave Mr. Andrews,” he said. His cheeks dimpled with a coy smile. He turned to Sohrab. “This must be the young man who’s causing all the trouble,” he said in Farsi.
“This is Sohrab,” I said. “Sohrab, this is Mr. Faisal, the lawyer I told you about.”
Sohrab slid down the side of his bed and shook hands with Omar Faisal. “Salaam alaykum,” he said in a low voice.“Alaykum salaam, Sohrab,” Faisal said. “Did you know you are named after a great warrior?”
Sohrab nodded. Climbed back onto his bed and lay on his side to watch TV.
“I didn’t know you spoke Farsi so well,” I said in English. “Did you grow up in Kabul?”
“No, I was born in Karachi. But I did live in Kabul for a number of years. Shar-e-Nau, near the Haji Yaghoub Mosque,” Faisal said. “I grew up in Berkeley, actually. My father opened a music store there in the late sixties. Free love, headbands, tiedyed shirts, you name it.” He leaned forward. “I was at Woodstock.”“Groovy,” I said, and Faisal laughed so hard he started sweating all over again. “Anyway,” I continued, “what I told Mr. Andrews was pretty much it, save for a thing or two. Or maybe three. I’ll give you the uncensored version.”
He licked a finger and flipped to a blank page, uncapped his pen. “I’d appreciate that, Amir. And why don’t we just keep it in English from here on out?”
“Fine.”
費薩爾擦去脣邊的汗水。“我清楚你告訴安德魯先生的情況。”他說，臉上出現兩個酒窩，泛起狡狺的微笑。他轉向索拉博。“肯定就是這個少年惹起所有的麻煩吧？”他用法爾西語說。
“這是索拉博。”我說，“索拉博，他是費薩爾先生，我跟你說過的那個律師。”
索拉博從他的牀上滑下來，跟費薩爾握手。“你好。”他低聲說。“你好，索拉博。”費薩爾說，“你知道自己的名字來自一個了不起的戰士嗎？”
索拉博點點頭，爬回牀上，繼續側身躺着看電視。
“我不知道你的法爾西語說得這麼好，”我用英語說，“你在喀布爾長大嗎？”
“不是，我在卡拉奇[Karachi，巴基斯坦南部城市]出生，但在喀布爾生活了好幾年。沙裏諾區，靠近哈吉雅霍清真寺。”費薩爾說。“實際上，我在伯克利 [Berkeley，美國加州城市]長大。1960年代後期，我爸爸在那兒開了間唱片店。自由戀愛，染了領帶的襯衫，你叫得出來的全都有。”他身體前傾，“我去過伍德斯托克音樂節 [Woodstock，位於紐約州東南，每年8月舉辦民謠和搖滾音樂節].”“太帥了！”我說。費薩爾哈哈大笑，又開始冒汗珠了。 “反正，”我繼續說，“我跟安德魯先生說得差不多了，省略掉一兩件事，也許三件。我會完完整整告訴你。”
他舔了一根手指，翻到空白頁，把筆帽打開。“那最好了，阿米爾。我們何不用英語交談，免得外面的人聽到？”
“好的。”
