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司氏姐妹第15章：有其母就有其女

作者：Wuwuyu 於 2012-9-29 22:59 發表於最熱鬧的華人社交網路--貝殼村

作者分類:翻譯小說|通用分類:原創文學

關鍵詞：童話小說, 學英語, 中國女孩, 移民生活, 哈利波特

第15章：有其母就有其女

法媽躲到花園的一個角落裡，慢慢地喝著一杯開水。在排隊慰問時亨特太太表現出如此友善的姿態后，法媽認為應該讓姑娘們在這兒多呆一會兒才對，儘管其他鎮民們刺人的眼光有多麼不舒服。她沉浸在自己的角落裡，她的眼睛顯得模糊，仿佛在看著遠方。

在來到美國后，多年來她已經完善了如何讓自己在人群中感到舒服的策略。她讓自己眼睛的聚焦稍微偏離一些，使得周圍人的面孔顯的模糊和相互交錯，使得她無法看到他們的眼球盯著的焦點，或者他們嘴角的跳動以及所指的方向。在她從上海來到加利福尼亞海岸的最初幾年，這些策略是必須的。她記得她想過母親說錯了，美國並不是象她的名字一樣是一個美麗的國家，她並不能更加容忍或接受人們之間的差異。雖然美國人的眼睛可能沒有中國人那樣犀利，但他們也能足夠清晰的看到，她的皮膚是黃色的，她的頭髮是黑色的－－這些天生的東西本身是一個詛咒——比她是女巫的狀況更糟糕。在中國，即使舌頭被割斷，眼睛被燒瞎（對巫婆的懲罰），她至少還能走回去，融入人群而不被認出。

法媽在舊金山市的街頭徘徊了一個星期，無意中逛進了一條讓她想起中國老家的小巷。她說服了一家小餐館，讓她做一名女侍者，後來她成為了一名廚師。她很快學到想要打破與白人之間的那堵牆，最可靠的方法是通過他們的胃。她開始安居下來並學會從中找到快樂——雖然象是兜了一大圈子－－在這陌生的土地上。

然後，一些變故迫使她來到安玫瑰鎮。有那么一刻，法媽把目光聚焦在格雷厄姆的肖像上，她的視覺隨之變得清晰。她突然倒吸了一口冷氣，她的眼睛又蒙上一層陰影，這一次是因為淚水。她的記憶漂浮回溯到她早年的歲月－－在姑娘們還沒出生，她自己還是個姑娘的歲月－－她突然意識到瑪拉的境況與她自己是多么的相似。但是，這些年來她不是一直在努力保護她們不要遭受象自己一樣的遭遇嗎？她咽了一下口水，搖了搖頭。有其母，必有其女。她應該知道她是不可能阻止她的女兒犯自己同樣的錯誤的。

她花了一個月的時間橫渡太平洋，來到舊金山，因為她的母親在去世之前講的故事。這些故事說，在大洋彼岸美麗的土地上，有很多城市。那裡生活著形形色色，三教九流的人們，充滿了各種各樣具有魔法的人群。在那里，陌生人受到擁抱和歡迎，個人的隱私得到尊重，人們不用生活在那種時刻被人發現秘密的恐懼中。雖然法媽發現這些故事並不完全真實——這里是有更多看著不同的人，但他們被划分在城市不同的區域，所有的中國人住在某一地方，所有的黑人又在另一方——但有一點是真的，舊金山的確秘密的生活著一大批女巫。有一天，法媽在餐館里服務了一名叫克拉拉的女顧客。克拉拉開始與她談話，這在一般白人顧客中是很少見的，她們很快成了朋友。

克拉拉看上去很年輕，但法媽很快發現，她已是人到中年，她甚至有一個兒子與法媽年齡相仿。有一天，克拉拉問法媽是否女巫。令人驚訝的是，法媽並不感到奇怪。「是的，」她說，「我是的。」

從那天起，克拉拉對待法媽象自己的孩子。克拉拉也是個女巫，她一直保守著秘密，甚至連她的家人也不知。她感到很孤獨，因為不能與她的丈夫和兒子分享。她一直盼望有一個女兒，因為魔法只能傳給女性。如此孤獨的生活很是艱難，她告訴法媽。她能理解。

克拉拉的兒子特納成為了法媽－－他母親的徒弟－－的好朋友，雖然他不知道她們之間的關系實質。克拉拉鼓勵他們之間的友情。最終，他們相愛，並結了婚。

有很多年，法媽和特納婚姻美滿。他們有了一個漂亮的女兒，取名為瑪拉，然後又有了一對雙胞胎。特納自己有綠色的眼睛（象瑪拉一樣），他很奇怪他每個女兒的眼睛顏色是不同的。除了明亮的眼睛，女孩們淡淡的白色皮膚似乎是唯一一樣從她們父親那兒繼承下來的東西。否則，她們看起來完全是中國人。法媽猜測，是神奇的魔法在眼睛的顏色上起了某種作用，雖然她不知道是如何起作用的——即使特納沒有魔法，因為他是一個男人，他的母親有魔法的血液仍然流動在他的血管里。法媽和克拉拉都知道，他們的孩子的魔法會特彆強大，因為魔法來自父母雙方的家庭。法媽和克拉拉也都猜測，眼睛的顏色最有可能是雙重魔力組合的結果。

在以後的歲月里，當法媽自己單獨撫養孩子們時，她才逐漸認識到每個女兒眼睛的顏色象徵著她們控制某種特定元素的魔力。瑪拉的綠色，表明她對土和長在土地上的草木的強大的控制魔力，瑪麗的藍色是水，摩根的褐色是火，而米娜，她猜測，其灰色眼睛會讓她有一天拿捏住風和空氣。

但克拉拉只能看到瑪拉開始展現她的魔力——當瑪麗和摩根長大時，法媽已經逃得遠遠的了。

事情在瑪拉五歲時就開始了。每當她發脾氣時，腳下的地面就開始顫抖。在舊金山，偶爾感覺到一次地面震動並不奇怪，但特納是一個有心人，他開始慢慢注意到，每次的震中似乎總是在他們家。有一天，他把這件事隨便地向法媽提起，帶著點逗樂，帶著點擔心。

法媽信任他。她與他有了三個孩子，還有另一個正在肚子里。她先去問克拉拉，她鼓勵她透露真相。有了三個女兒，也是不可能永遠瞞著他的。她便告訴了他。當然，他開始不相信。為了證明自己，她沒用火柴就點燃了火，然後又熄滅了它。

第二天早上，特納不見了，衣櫃里他的衣服清掃一空。法媽等著他回來－－她沒有告訴他有關他母親克拉拉的事，而她也告訴她要耐心等待。畢竟，這樣令人吃驚的消息就是像特納這樣的人也需要一段時間去調整和適應。最後，兩天後，有人來敲門。法媽鬆了口氣，跑下樓。

站在門外的人不是特納。他是警察。他們抓住了她，沒作任何解釋就拷住了她。「對孩子有危險，」她只聽到有人在說，「誘拐，欺詐，」沒有人給她解釋，她只能猜測。或許特納出賣了她，把她看成一個瘋子和怪胎。

法媽別無選擇。只見煙霧升起，聽到劈劈啪啪幾聲響指，便有人倒在地上不省人事。法媽逃跑了，無聲的消失了，跑得遠遠的，帶著女兒們，有抱在懷里的，有背在背上的，有懷在肚裡的。她最後終於在安玫瑰鎮，在這個幅員遼闊的國家的另一端安頓下來。她學會了用她那與眾不同的臉龐作為面具，來掩飾她與眾不同的能力，她覺得，由於對外族的仇視而讓她隔離於主流社會比由於對魔法的恐懼更易讓她接受。她對自己發誓她要保護她的女兒們不要陷入自己同樣的命運。

法媽眼前的迷霧突然散去。她的注意力回到了花園，那裡格雷厄姆的追悼會正在結束散場。亨特一家人已離開，人群變得很稀疏。法媽環顧四周，要聚集她的女兒們回家。就在這時她突然發現，她驚恐萬分：司氏姐妹們不見了！

Chapter 15: Like Mother, Like Daughter

Fa retreated to a corner of the garden, sipping on a cup of hot water. After Ms. Hunter』s gesture of kindness in the condolences line, Fa thought it only right that the girls stay around for a bit, no matter how uncomfortably the looks from the other townsfolk stung. She sunk into her corner, and her eyes appeared glazed, as if she were looking far away.

She had perfected this strategy for feeling comfortable in crowds from many years ago, when she first came to America. She unfocused her eyes slightly, so that the faces of people around her blurred and faded into each other, so that she couldn』t see the points of their pupils staring, or the direction and twitch of their mouths. It had been necessary during those first years, when she had first arrived on the coast of California from Shanghai. She had remembered thinking that her mother had been wrong, that America was not the beautiful country of its name, that it was not more tolerant or acceptant of differences. Perhaps the eyes of the American people were not as sharp as those of the Chinese, but they were sharp enough to see that her skin was yellow, her hair black, and that had been a curse in itself–worse than being a witch. In China, even if tongues cut and eyes burned, she could at least step back and blend in.

In San Francisco, Fa had wandered the streets for a week before she stumbled onto an alleyway that reminded her of home. She convinced a small restaurant to hire her as a waitress and then a cook, learning quickly that the surest way to break down the white man』s wall was through his stomach. She settled in and learned to find happiness–however roundabout it was–in the strange land.

And then circumstances had forced her to Ambrose. For a moment, Fa』s vision cleared and focused on the picture of Graham. A sharp intake of breath, and her eyes clouded over again, this time with tears. As she floated in the memory of her early years–the years before the girls, when she was a girl herself–she realized suddenly how similar Mara』s circumstance was to her own. But wasn』t that what she had been trying to protect them from, all these years? She swallowed and shook her head. Like mother, like daughter. She should have known it would be impossible to prevent her daughters from making the same mistakes.

She had gone to San Francisco–spent a month swimming across the ocean–because of the stories her mother had told her before she died. Stories that in the beautiful land across the ocean, there were cities full of magical people, people from all walks of life. In these cities, strangeness was embraced, and people didn』t live in fear of being discovered. Though Fa did not find that this was the case–there were more people who looked different, but they were partitioned into different parts of the city, with all the Chinese in one part, all the blacks in another, and so on–it was true that there was a large secret network of witches in San Francisco. One day, Fa served a woman named Clara at the restaurant. Clara started to talk to her–something that their white customers almost never did–and soon they developed a friendship.

Clara looked as young as Fa, but Fa soon discovered that she was in her middle years, and that she even had a son who was near Fa』s age. One day, Clara asked Fa if she was a witch. Amazingly, Fa was not surprised. 「Yes,」 she said, 「I am.」

From that day on, Clara adopted Fa like a second child. Clara was a witch too, living in secret from everyone, even her family. She felt isolated, since her husband and son did not know, and had always longed for a daughter. Magic was only passed on to women. It was hard to live alone, she told Fa. She knew.

Clara』s son Turner became good friends with his mother』s new mentee, though he had no idea about the nature of their relationship. Clara encouraged the friendship. Eventually, they fell in love, and married.

For many years Fa and Turner had a wonderful marriage. They had a beautiful daughter, who they named Mara, and then two twin babies. Turner had green eyes (like Mara), and marveled that all his daughters all had differently colored eyes. Other than the bright eyes, the girls』 light milky skin was the only thing they seemed to have inherited from their father. Otherwise, they looked very much Chinese. Fa guessed that magic was in play somehow in the eye colors, though she wasn』t sure how–even though Turner was not magical because he was a man, his mother』s magical blood still ran through his veins. Fa–and Clara–knew that their children would be especially powerful, with magic running in both sides of the family. Together, Fa and Clara guessed that the eye colors were most likely a result of the double magic combination.

In later years, when Fa raised the girls alone, she would come to realize that the eye colors signified each daughter』s propensity towards control of a certain element. Mara, green, held a strong power over the Earth; Marie, blue, over water; Morgan, brown, over fire; and Mina, she guessed, with gray eyes, would one day hold the wind and air in her hands.

But Clara would only see Mara start to develop her powers–by the time Marie and Morgan were old enough, Fa had run far away.

It started when Mara was just five. When she had tantrums, the ground would start to tremble beneath her feet. Being in San Francisco, it wasn』t so odd to feel tremors once in a while, but Turner, not a dull man, began to notice that the epicenter of the quake seemed always to be in their home. He brought it up to Fa, one day, casually, a little amused, a little worried.

Fa trusted him. She had had three children with him, and another was on its way. She talked with Clara, who encouraged her to disclose the truth. With three daughters, it would be impossible to hide it from him forever. She told him. Of course, he didn』t believe her at first. To prove herself, she lit her hand on fire, and then extinguished the flame, all without touching a match.

The next morning, Turner was gone, the drawers emptied of his clothes. Fa waited for him, called Clara–she hadn』t told him about his mother–who told her to be patient. It was surprising information, after all, and even a man like Turner would have to process and adjust. Finally, two days later, there was a knock on the door. Relieved, Fa ran down the stairs.

The man who stood outside was not Turner. It was the police. They grabbed her, cuffed her without explanation. 「A danger to your children,」 she heard, 「abduction, fraud.」 Nobody explained. She could only guess that Turner had gone to them, turned her in as a lunatic and a freak.

Fa had no choice. Smoke rose, fingers snapped, bodies dropped to the ground unconscious. Fa fled, disappeared without a word, ran far away, with her daughters in her arms and on her back and in her belly. She finally settled in Ambrose, on the other coast of the vast country. She learned to use her strange face as a mask for her strange abilities, deciding that xenophobia was a better form of ostracism than fear of magic. She promised herself she would protect her daughters from a similar fate.

The fog in front of Fa』s eyes lifted. Her mind drifted back to the garden, where Graham』s memorial service reception was dwindling to a close. The Grahams had gone inside, and the crowd was thinning. Fa looked around to gather her daughters to go home. That was when she realized, a furious panic rising in her chest: the Switch sisters were nowhere in sight.