重逢，情難抑
The Unbearable Happiness of Reuniting

但是，“咝”這個(gè)音有個(gè)很大的缺陷：傳得還是不夠遠(yuǎn)。But ‘s’ had a major drawback: It wouldn't travel very far. 假設(shè)隔著一里地，我要召喚他過來，怎么辦？So, if we were hundreds of yards apart and I wanted to beckon him over, what would I do? 答：我就得吹口哨！The answer: I would whistle!

那時(shí)候我家住在水產(chǎn)養(yǎng)殖場（我父親是水產(chǎn)工程師），我在興化紅衛(wèi)中學(xué)（后恢復(fù)其原名“昭陽中學(xué)”）上初中，每天放學(xué)回家要走四十五分鐘，途經(jīng)一條寬寬的公路。At that time, our home was on a fish farm（my father being an aquaculture specialist and fish breeder）and I was attending the county's Hongwei School at the junior secondary level.（Hongwei means Red Guard. Years later, it reverted to its former name Zhaoyang, ‘Bright Sun’, after Xinghua's ancient name.）My 45-minute walk home every day included a long trek on an open highway. 夏天，無風(fēng)、無云、烈日炎炎，那條公路空曠極了，兩邊沒有樹，所以沒有樹蔭，陽光把空氣炙烤到三十八、三十九度，我的視線開始模糊：一匹白馬從天而降，在被烤軟的柏油路面上，馬蹄得得，馬鬃飄飄，像一道閃電，把我從苦難中救出，送到目的地。By ‘open’, I mean the highway had no shade whatsoever, either from trees or manmade structures. On cloudless, windless summer days, when the searing sun toasted air temperatures to high 30s, that highway provided the setting for one of my enduring fantasies: that a white steed would turn up from nowhere and carry me home or to school with lightning speed and great panache, its luxuriant mane streaming in the wind, its hooves clattering on the blistering tarmac…到家前的最后一段，是連片魚塘的堤壩構(gòu)成的一條泥路，只要不下雨，還是挺好走的。路也不算窄，一頭水牛和一個(gè)行人可以并排走過；也不短，有一里多。我家屋子跟這條路隔著一個(gè)魚塘，大約30米。Lying between the highway and our house was the ‘last mile’- a dirt road, a stretch of berm bordering several fish ponds bookended by more fish ponds. Our house was set back from this road by about 30 yards. It wasn't a bad road when it was not raining. Hundreds of yards long, it was broad enough to accommodate a pedestrian and a buffalo passing each other. 路的一側(cè)是河岸，河水流向哪里，是個(gè)未解之謎；另一側(cè)就是一溜方形的魚塘，這些魚塘我倒是頗知一二，黑獅和小黃的很多故事，都是在這一帶演繹的。On one side of the road was a river. I did not, and do not, know where the river led to. On the other side were the fish ponds, lined up like an ice cube tray. I was very familiar with those ponds. It was there that most of my reminiscences featuring Leonoir and Gingerlet played out. 至于那條河，我曾在小伙伴的教唆下，在河里學(xué)游泳，但我終究也沒學(xué)會(huì)，至今依然是一只“旱鴨子”。The river was where I took a shot at learning to swim, egged on by my buddies, human buddies. But I didn't become a swimmer in that river after all. I'm like that famous navy cadet who, upon graduation, was advised by his dejected swimming instructor: ‘In the event of a shipwreck, Tom, just sink to the bottom and walk to the shore!’

興化，六十年代。有故事的魚塘。（攝影：單家容）Xinghua, 1960s. Fish ponds, with many a tale to tell.（Photo by Jiarong Shan）

我上學(xué)時(shí)，走完魚塘路，經(jīng)過公路旁的一家早點(diǎn)鋪?zhàn)樱颐刻斓脑顼埦驮谀莾嘿I。When I went to school in the morning, I would buy my breakfast from a takeaway at the junction between the embankment road and the highway. 我的早飯是兩根“麻團(tuán)”，每根8分錢，2兩糧票，所以我每天早上要吞食4兩碳水化合物，而且滴水不進(jìn)。My breakfast consisted of just two pieces of matuan - sesame seed-coated deep-fried glutinous rice balls with a sweet filling（quite a mouthful, compared to the bisyllabic Chinese name - matuan）. For each, I would pay eight cents, plus 3.5 ounces' worth of ration stamps（food being rationed in China in those days）. That means I would devour seven ounces of pure carbs every morning, and no fluid whatsoever.“麻團(tuán)”，顧名思義是球狀的，但我卻用“根”作量詞，奇怪吧？原因是，那家店不知為何，喜歡把麻團(tuán)做成搟面杖形狀，所以我們家把它稱作“麻棍”。The reason I've interrupted the contextual flow and brought up the topic of matuan is because they were quite unusual. They were not spherical as the word tuan suggests. For some reason, they were shaped more like a rolling pin, an idiosyncrasy of that particular bakery. We jokingly called them magun（pronounced maa gooen, meaning ‘sesame rods’）. 有一天，我照例一手一根麻棍，邊走邊嚼，兩個(gè)路過的外地人看到了，覺得非?；?，其中一人說：“快看那個(gè)小鬼，那么瘦，吃那么多！”O(jiān)ne day I was going about my breakfast routine, that is, holding one magun in each hand, walking and noshing at the same time, when two passers-by noticed me. One of them marvelled at my feat and remarked in a dialect I could not identify, ‘Look at that little fella, he certainly eats a lot for his skinny body!’有一年，芝麻歉收，這爿店斷了貨源，該有芝麻的，芝麻都不見了，麻棍也不“麻”了，只剩下“光棍”！One year, after a bad harvest of sesame, the bakery ran out of this essential ingredient. It disappeared from products like magun. What do you call a sesame rod minus the sesame? That would be a guanggun. Yes, you guessed it: a naked rod!

學(xué)校下午四點(diǎn)一刻放學(xué)，我到家大約五點(diǎn)。School finished at a quarter past four and I would get home around five. 據(jù)母親說，每天快到五點(diǎn)時(shí)，黑獅總會(huì)在屋前出現(xiàn)，而之前他或許在屋子里打盹，或許在池塘邊跟哥們兒玩耍，但一旦到了我快到家的點(diǎn)兒，他就立馬現(xiàn)身，比瑞士手表還準(zhǔn)。According to my mother, shortly before five o'clock each day, Leonoir would appear in front of the house. He might have been sleeping at home or playing with his chums round the fish ponds prior to that, but when I was about to get home, he would suddenly turn up, with uncanny punctuality. 他兩眼緊盯著遠(yuǎn)方的河堤小道，原本就直溜溜的耳朵豎得更直。他還不忘瞟母親一兩眼，嗓子眼里發(fā)出“咝咝”的聲音，大概是說：“嗯，嗯，少爺快回家了！我要淡定，要淡定！”He would fix his gaze on the path leading up to the berm and cock his already upstanding ears. He would cast a side-glance or two at my mother while throating a hissing sound, meaning, ‘Yes, I know, young master is on his way home! I mustn't get too excited, no, I mustn't.’

那時(shí)，依然在一里多開外的我，已經(jīng)踏上那條泥路。我輕輕吹一聲口哨，就一聲，輕輕的。By then, I had set foot on that dirt road, hundreds of yards away. I would whistle. Softly. Just once.

我母親聽力超常，估計(jì)特異功能也不過如此。但即便耳朵這么尖，也只能勉強(qiáng)聽到從遠(yuǎn)處飄來的若有若無的那聲口哨，有時(shí)甚至懷疑是自己的幻覺。黑獅卻肯定聽見了。母親說，每當(dāng)此時(shí)，黑獅就突然開始“發(fā)神經(jīng)”，先是在原地團(tuán)團(tuán)轉(zhuǎn)，像陀螺，又像憋足了勁的發(fā)條玩具。幾秒鐘后，箭在弦上，不得不發(fā)，這陀螺就會(huì)沿著圓弧的切線，朝著魚塘路的方向飆射出去。My mother has extraordinary hearing, bordering on the supernatural, but even sharp ears like hers had to strain and struggle to pick up the hushed decibels of my whistle at that distance. She wasn't even sure that she had actually heard it. But Leonoir was. She would see him suddenly turning into, in her words, an ‘unhinged lunatic’ or a ‘spinning top’, like a wind-up toy releasing momentum or a discus thrower building momentum. Seconds later, this top would go off at a tangent（literally）and hurl itself（not the discus）in the direction of the road.

與此同時(shí)，我繼續(xù)前行，眼睛卻盯著路的盡頭。I would continue walking, all the while keeping my eyes on the far end of the road. 幾秒鐘后，地平線上騰起一團(tuán)灰塵，一個(gè)“黑絨線球”，由小漸大，沖著我飛速滾來。Seconds later, a cloud of dust would appear on the horizon. A black furry blob would come into view and start growing in size while careering towards me. 倘若是在電影里，大概會(huì)呈現(xiàn)如下聲光色交融的一幕：鏡頭緩緩拉近，給奔跑的黑獅一個(gè)大特寫，他的舌頭耷拉著、他的肚皮貼著地面，四條短腿飛速蹬地，四下塵土飛揚(yáng)，激昂的音樂聲（類似二胡曲《賽馬》）漸起，一節(jié)節(jié)推向高潮。If we transposed this scene onto the silver screen, this would be what we see and hear: Leonoir gallops forward in slow motion, his tongue lolled out, his tummy skimming the ground, his image obscured by the dust he is kicking up with his short, fast-moving legs. Some rousing music（like the theme of Chariots of Fire）fades in and builds up to a crescendo. 這就是我當(dāng)時(shí)的感覺，只是沒有音樂，而我的口哨聲早已消逝在空氣中。That's exactly what it was like on that road in that moment, minus the music or any other sound, as my whistle had travelled far out of earshot by then. 隨即，黑獅沖到我面前，在三米開外就急不可耐地縱身一躍，在空中劃出一條漂亮的弧線，撲進(jìn)我的懷中。Before long, Leonoir would reach the finishing line, i.e. about three yards in front of me. Sprinting any further would have taken too much of his time, in his estimation. So, with a mighty push of his hind legs, Leonoir would be airborne... and lunge into my arms.

猜猜我當(dāng)時(shí)的反應(yīng)？像廣告或者電影里那樣，抱住熱情洋溢的黑獅，讓他用淌著“哈喇子”的舌頭劈頭蓋臉猛舔一氣？沒門兒！在黑獅縱身躍起尚未與我親密接觸的瞬間，說時(shí)遲那時(shí)快，我先接住他的前腿，再像魔術(shù)師兩手交叉抖摟手帕反面那樣，干凈利落地給他來個(gè)向后轉(zhuǎn)，讓他面朝前方。這個(gè)動(dòng)作的關(guān)鍵是時(shí)機(jī)的把握，不容閃失！Guess what I would do now? Would I reciprocate Leonoir's exuberant ‘outpourings’ with a bear hug or even by accepting a slobbering smooch from him, like what you see in films and TV commercials? No way! As he pounced on me, I would catch his front legs while he was still in the air and flip him round in one clean move（in the fashion of a magician crossing his hands to show the reverse side of his handkerchief）, so he would face the other way. I would accomplish that in a fraction of a second. Timing was the name of the game and I couldn't afford to miss. 我之所以如此煞風(fēng)景，是因?yàn)榕d奮過度的黑獅已經(jīng)小便失禁了，在期盼已久的重逢即將兌現(xiàn)的瞬間，情不自禁地突然“一瀉如注”，而我那個(gè)動(dòng)作，就是為了讓他把尿飆向空中，而不是把我淋成一只“落湯雞”！Why was I being such a party pooper? Because Leonoir would be so excited by now that bladder control had given way to incontinence. Involuntarily, he would relax a certain part of his body all of a sudden upon the reunion that he had so looked forward to. Turning him away would spare myself a shower of liquid ‘outpouring’!

總而言之，每天放學(xué)后我和黑獅的重聚，就是一束閃電、兩條弧線：始于一束黑色閃電掠過塵土飛揚(yáng)的道路，黑獅縱身一躍劃出的是第一條弧線，他小便失禁射向空中的是第二條弧線。To recap, my daily homecoming encounter with Leonoir boils down to a flash of black lightning tearing along a dusty road, ending in two arcs: the arc drawn by his body as he catapulted himself into the air towards my arms and the other arc a wee-wee-leak from this sprinter in hyper mode, shot into the air.