殘忍而美麗的情誼:The Kite Runner 追風箏的人(207)

“Yes.”
“I meant to tell you in there, about what you’re trying to do? I think it’s pretty great.”He waved as he pulled away. Standing outside the hotel room and waving back, I wished Soraya could be there with AB HAD TURNED OFF THE TV when l went back into the room. I sat on the edge of my bed, asked him to sit next to me. “Mr. Faisal thinks there is a way I can take you to America with me,” I said.
“He does?” Sohrab said, smiling faintly for the first time in days. “When can we go?”
“Well, that’s the thing. It might take a little while. But he said it can be done and he’s going to help us.” I put my hand on the back of his neck. From outside, the call to prayer blared through the streets.
“How long?” Sohrab asked.
“I don’t know. A while.”
Sohrab shrugged and smiled, wider this time. “I don’t mind. I can wait. It’s like the sour apples.”
“Sour apples?”
“One time, when I was really little, I climbed a tree and ate these green, sour apples. My stomach swelled and became hard like a drum, it hurt a lot. Mother said that if I’d just waited for the apples to ripen, I wouldn’t have become sick. So now, whenever I really want something, I try to remember what she said about the apples.”
“Sour apples,” I said. “_Mashallah_, you’re just about the smartest little guy I’ve ever met, Sohrab jan.” His ears reddened with a blush.
“Absolutely,” I said. “Absolutely.”
“And we’ll drive up those streets, the ones where all you see is the hood of the car and the sky?”
“Every single one of them,” I said. My eyes stung with tears and I blinked them away.
“Is English hard to learn?”
“I say, within a year, you’ll speak it as well as Farsi.”
“Really?”

“嗯？”
“我剛纔跟你說過嗎？你正在努力爭取的事情很了不起。”他招招手，把車駛離。我站在賓館房間門外，也朝他揮手。我希望索拉雅在身邊陪着我。我回到房間的時候，索拉博已經關掉電視了。我坐在自己的牀沿，讓他挨着我坐下。“費薩爾先生說有個辦法可以讓我把你帶去美國。”我說。
“真的嗎？”他好幾天來第一次露出微弱的笑容，“我們什麼時候能走？”
“嗯，事情是這樣的。可能需要一段時間，但他說可以做到，而且他會幫助我們。”我把手放在他脖子後面。外面，召喚人們禱告的鐘聲。響徹大街小巷。
“多久？”索拉博問。
“我不知道，一陣吧。”
索拉博聳聳肩，微笑着，這次笑得更燦爛了：“我不在乎，我能等。那就像酸蘋果。”
“酸蘋果？”
“有一次，我很小的時候，我爬上一棵樹，吃那些青青的酸蘋果。我的小腹變得又腫又硬，像鼓那樣，痛得厲害。媽媽說只要我等到蘋果熟透，就不會生病了。所以現在，無論我真正想要什麼，我都會想起她說過的關於蘋果的話。”
“酸蘋果，”我說，“安拉保佑，你是我見過最聰明的孩子，親愛的索拉博。”他的耳朵紅了起來。
“絕對是。”我說， “絕對是。”
“我們會開車到那些街上去嗎？那些你只能看見車頂和天空的街道？”
“我們每一條都去。”我說，眼淚涌上來，我眨眼強行忍住。
“英語難學嗎？”
“我敢說，不用一年，你就可以說得跟法爾西語一樣流利。”
“真的嗎？”