《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 100 (240):感染髮炎
"Sex is funny," Wayan mused as she watched me grimacing in pain, drinking more of her homemade medicine.
"Yeah, Wayan, thanks. It's hilarious."
"No, sex is funny," she went on. "Make people do funny things. Everyone gets like this, at the beginning of love. Wanting too much happiness, too much pleasure, until you make yourself sick. Even to Wayan this happens at beginning of love story. Lose balance."
"I'm embarrassed," I say.
"Don't," she said. Then she added in perfect English (and perfect Balinese logic), "To lose balance sometimes for love is part of living a balanced life."
I decided to call Felipe. I had some antibiotics at the house, an emergency stash I always travel with, just in case. Having had these infections before, I know how bad they can get, even traveling up into your kidneys. I didn't want to go through that, not in Indonesia. So I called him and told him what had happened (he was mortified) and asked him to bring me over the pills. It wasn't that I didn't trust Wayan's healing prowess, it's just that this was really serious pain . . .
She said, "You don't need Western pills."
"But maybe it's better, just to be safe . . ."
"Give two hours," she said. "If I don't make you better, you can take your pills."
Reluctantly, I agreed. My experience with these infections is that they can take days to clear, even with strong antibiotics. But I didn't want to make her feel bad.
Tutti was playing in the shop and she kept bringing little drawings of houses over to cheer me up, patting my hand with an eight-year-old's compassion. "Mama Elizabeth sick?" At least she didn't know what I'd been doing to get sick.
"Did you buy your house yet, Wayan?" I asked. "Not yet, honey. No hurry."
"What about that place you liked? I thought you were going to buy that?"
"Found out not for sale. Too expensive."
"Do you have any other places in mind?"
"Not worry about it now, Liz. For now, let me make you quickly feel better."
Felipe arrived with my medicine and a face full of remorse, apologizing to both me and Wayan for having inflicted me with this pain, or at least that's how he was seeing it.
"Not serious," said Wayan. "Not worry. I fix her soon. Quickly better."
"性很有趣。"大姐若有所思地說，一邊看我痛得呲牙咧嘴，不斷喝她的自制煎藥。
"是的，大姐，謝啦，是很愉快。"
"不，性真的很有趣，"她繼續說，"使大家做有趣的事。每個人一開始愛上的時候都像這樣。想要更多快樂，太多歡樂，直到讓自己生了病。甚至大姐，在愛的故事剛開始時也發生過，失去平衡。"
"我真丟臉。"我說。
"不，"她說，隨後她以完美的英語（以及完美的巴釐邏輯）又說，"有時爲愛失去平衡才能過平衡的生活。"
我決定打電話給斐利貝。我家有些抗生素，以備旅行期間的不時之需。從前我有過這種感染，清楚其嚴重性，甚至可能通往腎臟。我不想在印尼經歷這些。於是我打電話給他，告知他發生的事情（他深感罪惡），請他把藥帶來給我。並非我不信任大姐的醫療本事，只不過這痛不是鬧着玩的……
她說："你不需要西藥。"
"但也許比較好，以防萬一……"
"再等兩個小時，"她說，"要是沒好轉，你就服自己的藥。"
我勉強同意。我對這種感染的經驗是可能得花幾天時間才能消失，即使服用強效抗生素。但我不想讓她不舒服。
圖蒂在店裏玩，她不停地拿自己畫的房屋小圖過來逗我開心，以八歲孩子的同情心輕拍我的手。"伊莉莎白媽媽生了病？"至少她不清楚我做了什麼才得病。
"大姐，你房子買了嗎？"我問。"還沒呢，親愛的。不急。"
"你喜歡的那個地方呢？我以爲你想買？"
"那裏沒在賣。太貴了。"
"你心目中有其他地方？"
"現在別擔心這個，小莉。目前，讓我使你快快好起來。"
斐利貝帶來我的藥，一臉自責，對於讓我遭此痛苦（至少這是他的看法）向我和大姐道歉。
"不嚴重，"大姐說，"用不着擔心。我不久就能治好她，很快就能好起來。"
