《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 102 (245):35歲生日
The end of July came, and my thirty-fifth birthday with it. Wayan threw a birthday party for me in her shop, quite unlike any I have ever experienced before. Wayan had dressed me in a traditional Balinese birthday suit—a bright purple sarong, a strapless bustier and a long length of golden fabric that she wrapped tightly around my torso, forming a sheath so snug I could barely take a breath or eat my own birthday cake. As she was mummifying me into this ex-quisite costume in her tiny, dark bedroom (crowded with the belongings of the three other little human beings who live there with her), she asked, not quite looking at me, but doing some fancy tucking and pinning of material around my ribs, "You have prospect to marrying Felipe?"
"No," I said. "We have no prospects for marrying. I don't want any more husbands, Wayan. And I don't think Felipe wants any more wives. But I like being with him."
"Handsome on the outside is easy to find, but handsome on the outside and handsome on the inside—this not easy. Felipe has this."
I agreed.
She smiled. "And who bring this good man to you, Liz? Who prayed every day for this man?"
I kissed her. "Thank you, Wayan. You did a good job."
We commenced to the birthday party. Wayan and the kids had decorated the whole place with balloons and palm fronds and handwritten signs with complex, run-on messages like, "Happy birthday to a nice and sweet heart, to you, our dearest sister, to our beloved Lady Elizabeth, Happy Birthday to you, always peace to you and Happy Birthday." Wayan has a brother whose young children are gifted dancers in temple ceremonies, and so the nieces and nephews came and danced for me right there in the restaurant, staging a haunting, gorgeous performance usually offered only to priests. All the children were decked out in gold and massive headdresses, decorated in fierce drag queen makeup, with powerful stamping feet and graceful, feminine fingers.
Balinese parties as a whole are generally organized around the principle of people getting dressed up in their finest clothes, then sitting around and staring at each other. It's a lot like magazine parties in New York, actually.("My God, darling," moaned Felipe, when I told him that Wayan was throwing me a Balinese birthday party, "it's going to be so boring . . .") It wasn't boring, though—just quiet. And different. There was the whole dressing-up part, and then there was the whole dance performance part, and then there was the whole sitting around and staring at each other part, which wasn't so bad. Everyone did look lovely. Wayan's whole family had come, and they kept smiling and waving at me from four feet away, and I kept smiling at them and waving back at them.
七月底來臨，我的三十五歲生日也到來。大姐在她店裏爲我舉辦生日派對，和我以往的過生日經驗完全不同。大姐讓我穿上巴厘島傳統的生日禮服——鮮紫色紗龍裙、無肩帶緊身上衣和一條緊緊裹着我的金色長布，形成一道緊身保護膜，幾乎使我喘不過氣來，甚至吃不下自己的生日蛋糕。她在又小又暗的臥室（裏頭塞滿與她同住的三個孩子所有的東西）中，把我塞入這套精美服飾，一邊在我胸前別住這些打了折的華麗布料，不經意地問我："你想過嫁給斐利貝嗎？"
"沒想過，"我說，"我們沒打算結婚。我不想再嫁人，大姐。我認爲斐利貝也不想再娶妻。但我喜歡和他在一起。"
"外在體面好找，但外在體面而且內在也體面，這可不容易。斐利貝就是一例。"
我同意。
她微笑說："小莉，這好男人是誰帶給你的？是誰天天祈禱讓你找到他？"
我親吻她："謝謝你，大姐。你做得超完美。"
我們起身參加生日派對。大姐和孩子們用汽球和棕櫚葉裝飾整個地方，還有手寫標語，上面寫着複雜的連寫句，比方："祝你，親愛的好姐姐，我們心愛的伊莉莎白女士生日快樂，祝你生日快樂，永遠平安，生日快樂。"大姐的幾位侄兒、侄女是天生的舞者，在廟會跳舞，於是他們都來餐廳爲我跳舞；令人難以忘懷的華麗演出，通常只用來獻給祭司。每個孩子都佩戴大型金色頭飾，臉上化着妖豔的濃妝，頓足有力，手勢纖柔。
巴厘島的派對，整體而言環繞着一個原則組織而成：大家盛裝出席，坐在附近，面面相覷。事實上很像紐約的時尚派對。（"天啊，甜心，"當我說起大姐要爲我舉辦巴釐式生日派對時，斐利貝呻吟道："那會是一場乏味的派對……"）然而並不至乏味——只是安靜，只是不同罷了。先是整個盛裝打扮的部分，而後是整個跳舞表演的部分，接着是整個坐在附近、面面相覷的部分，其實並不太壞。大家看起來都很美。大姐全家人都來了，他們從一米之外不斷朝我微笑招手，我也不斷朝他們微笑招手。
