《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 106 (255):離開
The deal fell through with Wayan. That property Felipe had found for her somehow didn't happen. When I ask Wayan what went wrong, I get some fuzzy reply about a lost deed; I don't think I was ever told the real story. What matters is only that it's a dead deal. I'm starting to get kind of panicked about this whole Wayan house situation. I try to explain my urgency to her, saying, "Wayan—I have to leave Bali in less than two weeks and go back to America. I can't face my friends who gave me all this money and tell them that you still don't have a home."
"But Liz, if a place has no good taksu . . ."
Everybody has a different sense of urgency in this life.
But a few days later Wayan calls over at Felipe's house, giddy. She's found a different piece of land, and this one she really loves. An emerald expanse of rice field on a quiet road, close to town. It has good taksu written all over it. Wayan tells us that the land belongs to a farmer, a friend of her father's, who is desperate for cash. He has seven aro total to sell, but (needing fast money) would be willing to give her only the two aro she can afford. She loves this land. I love this land. Felipe loves this land. Tutti—spinning across the grass in circles, arms extended, a little Balinese Julie Andrews—loves it, too.
"Buy it," I tell Wayan.
But a few days pass, and she keeps stalling. "Do you want to live there or not?" I keep asking.
She stalls some more, then changes her story again. This morning, she says, the farmer called to tell her he isn't certain anymore whether he can sell only the two-aro parcel to her; instead, he might want to sell the whole seven-aro lot intact . . . it's his wife that's the problem . . . The farmer needs to talk to his wife, see if it's OK with her to break up the land . . .
Wayan says, "Maybe if I had more money . . ."
Dear God, she wants me to come up with the cash to buy the whole chunk of land. Even as I'm trying to figure out how to raise a staggering 22,000 extra American dollars, I'm telling her, "Wayan, I can't do it, I don't have the money. Can't you make a deal with the farmer?"
Then Wayan, whose eyes are not exactly meeting mine anymore, crochets a complicated story. She tells me that she visited a mystic the other day and the mystic went into a trance and said that Wayan absolutely needs to buy this entire seven-aro package in order to make a good healing center . . . that this is destiny . . . and, anyway, the mystic also said that if Wayan could have the entire package of land, then maybe she could someday build a nice fancy hotel there . . .
與大姐的交易失敗。斐利貝爲她找到的地產不知爲什麼並未交易成功。我問大姐怎麼回事，卻得到關於契約未談成的瑣碎回答；我想我從未被告知真相。不過真正的重點就只是交易無效。我對大姐買屋的整個情況，開始感到恐慌。我想對她說明我的急迫："大姐——只剩下不到兩個星期，我就必須離開巴厘島返回美國。我無法面對所有給我錢的朋友，告訴他們說你的家仍無着落。"
"可是小莉，一個地方如果沒有好的神靈……"
每個人對人生的急迫性都有不同看法。
然而幾天過後，大姐急急忙忙打電話到斐利貝家。她已經找到另一塊地，這塊地很讓她喜歡。一片翡翠綠的稻田，在安靜的路上，離鎮上不遠，而且整個顯露出好神靈的氣息。大姐告訴我們土地歸某個農人所有，是她父親的友人，亟需現金。他共有七阿羅待售，可是他因爲需要很快拿到錢他願意只賣她買得起的兩阿羅地。她喜歡這塊地。我喜歡這塊地。斐利貝喜歡這塊地。圖蒂——繞着圈子橫越草地，展開雙臂——也愛這塊地。
"買了吧。"我告訴大姐。
可是過了幾天，她依然舉棋不定。"你究竟想不想住在那裏？"我不斷詢問。
她再次拖延時間，隨後又改變說法。今早她說，農人打電話告訴她，他不肯定還能不能只賣她兩阿羅地；他想出售完整的七阿羅地……問題在於他老婆……農人得和他老婆談談，看她願不願意把地分開出售……
大姐說："要是我有更多錢就好了……"
老天，她要我籌出現金購買整塊地。儘管我在想辦法如何去籌到另一大筆令人驚愕的兩萬兩千美金，我還是說："我辦不到，我沒有錢。你能不能和農人商量商量？"
然後，眼神不再看我的大姐編了個複雜的故事。她告訴我說，前幾天她去找一位神祕人士，此人進入恍惚狀態，告訴大姐絕對必須買這整塊七阿羅土地，才能蓋一所好的醫療中心……這是天命……神祕人士還說，倘若大姐能買下整塊土地，或許哪天能蓋上一間不錯的豪華飯店……
