殘忍而美麗的情誼:The Kite Runner 追風箏的人(196)
“It scares me.”
“I know it’s a little scary,” I said, grabbing onto that loose thread of hope. “But you’ll learn English so fast and you’ll get used to--”
“That’s not what I mean. That scares me too, but...
“But what?”
He rolled toward me again. Drew his knees up. “What if you get tired of me? What if your wife doesn’t like me?”
I struggled out of bed and crossed the space between us. I sat beside him. “I won’t ever get tired of you, Sohrab,” I said. “Not ever. That’s a promise. You’re my nephew, remember? And Soraya jan, she’s a very kind woman. Trust me, she’s going to love you. I promise that too.” I chanced something. Reached down and took his hand. He tightened up a little but let me hold it.
“I don’t want to go to another orphanage,” he said.
“I won’t ever let that happen. I promise you that.” I cupped his hand in both of mine. “Come home with me.”
His tears were soaking the pillow. He didn’t say anything for a long time. Then his hand squeezed mine back. And he nodded. He nodded. THE CONNECTION WENT THROUGH on the fourth try. The phone rang three times before she picked it up. “Hello?” It was 7:30 in the evening in Islamabad, roughly about the same time in the morning in California. That meant Soraya had been up for an hour, getting ready for school.
“It’s me,” I said. I was sitting on my bed, watching Sohrab sleep.
“Amir!” she almost screamed. “Are you okay? Where are you?”
“I’m in Pakistan.”
“我很怕。”
“我知道那有點可怕，”我說，抓住那一絲渺茫的希望，“但你很快就可以學會英語，等你習慣了……”
“我不是這個意思。那也讓我害怕。可是……”
“可是什麼？”他又翻身朝着我，屈起雙膝，“要是你厭倦我怎麼辦呢？要是你妻子不喜歡我怎麼辦？”
我從牀上掙扎起來，走過我們之間的距離，坐在他身邊。“我永遠不會厭倦你，索拉博。”
我說，“永遠不會。這是承諾。你是我的侄兒，記得嗎？而親愛的索拉雅，她是個很好的女人。相信我，她會愛上你的。這也是承諾。”我試探着伸手拉住他的手掌，他稍微有點緊張，但讓我拉着。
“我不想再到恤孤院去。”他說。
“我永遠不會讓那發生。我向你保證。”我雙手壓住他的手，“跟我一起回家。”
他淚水浸溼了枕頭，很長很久默不作聲。然後他把手抽回去，點點頭。他點頭了。撥到第四次，電話終於接通了。鈴聲響了三次，她接起電話。“喂？”當時在伊斯蘭堡是晚上 7點半，加利福尼亞那邊差不多是早晨這個時間。那意味着索拉雅已經起牀一個小時了，在爲去上課做準備。
“是我，”我說。我坐在自己的牀上，看着索拉博睡覺。
“阿米爾！”她幾乎是尖叫，“你還好嗎？你在哪兒？”
“我在巴基斯坦。”
