《美食祈禱和戀愛》Chapter 95 (226):神的幫助

So we went together to visit a nice French expatriate financial adviser and real estate guy, who was kind enough to suggest the best way to transfer the money. His suggestion was that I keep it easy and just wire the money directly from my bank account into Wayan's bank account and let her buy whatever land or home she wants, so I don't have to mess around with owning property in Indonesia. As long as I didn't wire over amounts bigger than $10,000 at a time, the IRS and CIA wouldn't suspect me of laundering drug money. Then we went to Wayan's little bank, and talked to the manager about how to set up a wire transfer. In neat conclusion, the bank manager said, "So, Wayan. When this wire transfer goes through, in just a few days, you should have about 180 million rupiah in your bank account."

於是我們一塊兒去找一位專司財務顧問兼房地產專業的法國人，他頗爲好意地建議匯錢的最佳方式。他的建議是採取簡單方式，直接從我的銀行賬戶把錢匯入大姐的銀行賬戶，讓她買自己想買的土地或房子，那我就無須爲在印尼擁有資產傷腦筋。只要每次匯款不超過一萬塊錢，國稅局和調查局就不會懷疑我爲毒品洗錢。而後我們去大姐所屬的小銀行，和經理討論如何設定電匯。銀行經理最後利落地說："大姐，電匯完成後，再經過幾天，你的銀行賬戶就會有一億八千萬盧比亞。"

Wayan and I looked at each other and sparked off into a ridiculous riot of laughter. Such an enormous sum! We kept trying to pull ourselves together, since we were in some fancy banker's office, but we couldn't stop laughing. We stumbled out of there like drunks, holding on to each other to not fall over.

大姐和我面面相覷，突然放聲大笑起來。好一筆鉅款！我們嘗試鎮定下來，畢竟是在銀行家的豪華辦公室裏，卻忍不住笑個不停。我們像醉鬼似的跌跌撞撞地走出銀行，攙扶彼此以免跌倒。

She said, "Never have I seen a miracle happen so fast! All this time, I was begging God to please help Wayan. And God was begging Liz to please help Wayan, too."

她說："我還沒見過發生得如此之快的奇蹟！這些日子，我求神幫助大姐。而神也求小莉來一起幫助大姐。"

I added, "And Liz was begging her friends to please help Wayan, too!"

我接口說："而小莉也求她的朋友幫助大姐！"

We returned to the shop, found Tutti just home from school. Wayan dropped to her knees, grabbed her girl, and said, "A house! A house! We have a house!" Tutti executed a fabulous fake faint, swooning cartoonishly right to the floor.

我們返回店裏，見圖蒂已放學回家。大姐跪下來抓住她的女兒，說："房子！房子！我們有房子了！"圖蒂假裝暈倒，像卡通人物似的昏倒在地。

While we were all laughing, I noticed the two orphans watching this scene from the back-ground of the kitchen, and I could see them looking at me with something in their faces that resembled . . . fear. As Wayan and Tutti galloped around in joy, I wondered what the orphans were thinking. What were they so afraid of? Being left behind, maybe? Or was I now a scary person to them because I'd produced so much money out of nowhere? (Such an unthinkable amount of money that maybe it's like black magic?) Or maybe when you've had such a fragile life as these kids, any change is a terror.

大夥笑在一起時，我留意到兩名孤兒從後頭的廚房注視着這一幕。我瞥見她們看着我的表情類似……恐懼。大姐和圖蒂雀躍萬分之時，我在想兩名孤兒做何感想。她們恐懼什麼？被冷落？或者現在我在她們眼裏很恐怖，因爲我無端變出一大筆錢？（這種難以想象的錢數或許是某種魔咒？）或者當你像這些孩子曾過着沒有保障的生活時，任何改變都叫人恐懼吧。

When there was a lull in the celebration I asked Wayan, just to be sure: "What about Big Ketut and Little Ketut? Is this good news for them, too?"

當慶祝的心情稍微平靜下來時，爲了確定起見，於是我問大姐："大老四和小老四怎麼辦？這對她們是不是也是好消息？"

Wayan looked over at the girls in the kitchen and must have seen the same uneasiness I had seen, because she floated over to them and herded them into her arms and whispered some reassuring words into the crowns of their heads. They seemed to relax into her. Then the phone rang, and Wayan tried to pull away from the orphans to answer it, but the skinny arms of the two Ketuts clung on to their unofficial mother relentlessly, and they buried their heads in her belly and armpits, and even after the longest time they refused—with a fierceness I'd never seen in them before—to let her go.

大姐看着廚房裏的女孩們，肯定也看到相同的不安，因此她走過去，把她們摟入懷中，在她們頭頂輕聲說話鼓舞她們。她們似乎在她懷中安心起來。而後電話響起，大姐想放開孤兒去接電話，但大小老四的瘦弱手臂抓住她們的非正式母親不放，把頭埋在她的腹部和腋窩中，即使很久之後也不放她走，其猛烈是我前所未見的。

So I answered the phone, instead.

於是我替她接了電話。

"Balinese Traditional Healing," I said. "Stop by today for our giant close-out moving sale!" Eat, Pray, Love

"巴釐傳統醫療，你好，"我說，"今天過來逛一逛我們的搬家清倉大拍賣吧！