“Your petition to adopt this young fellow. Give it up. That’s my advice to you.” “Duly noted,” I said. “Now, perhaps you’ll tell me why.” “That means you want the long answer,” he said, his voice impassive, not reacting at all to my curt tone. He pressed his hands palm to palm, as if he were kneeling before the Virgin Mary. “Let’s assume the story you gave me is true, though I’d bet my pension a good deal of it is either fabricated or omitted. Not that I care, mind you. You’re here, he’s here, that’s all that matters. Even so, your petition faces significant obstacles, not the least of which is that this child is not an orphan.” “Of course he is.” “Not legally he isn’t.” “His parents were executed in the street. The neighbors saw it,” I said, glad we were speaking in English. “You have death certificates?” “Death certificates? This is Afghanistan we’re talking about. Most people there don’t have birth certificates.”His glassy eyes didn’t so much as blink. “I don’t make the laws, sir. Your outrage notwithstanding, you still need to prove the parents are deceased. The boy has to be declared a legal orphan.” “But--” “You wanted the long answer and I’m giving it to you. Your next problem is that you need the cooperation of the child’s country of origin. Now, that’s difficult under the best of circumstances, and, to quote you, this is Afghanistan we’re talking about. We don’t have an American embassy in Kabul. That makes things extremely complicated. Just about impossible.” “What are you saying, that I should throw him back on the streets?” I said. “I didn’t say that.” “你提出的收養這個孩子的請求。放棄吧。那是我給你的建議。” “知道了。”我說，“現在，也許你可以告訴我原因了。” “那就是說你想聽長的答案了？”他語氣冷淡地說，對我不快的語氣無動於衷。他合起手掌，似乎他正跪在聖母面前。“讓我們假設你告訴我的故事是真的，不過我非常懷疑它是假的，或者省略掉一大部分。告訴你一聲，我不關心。你在這裏，他在這裏，這纔是要緊的事情。即使這樣，你的請求面臨着明顯的障礙，更何況這個孩子並非孤兒。” “他當然是。” “從法律上來講他不是。” “他的父母在街上被處決了，鄰居都看到。”我說，爲我們用英語交談而高興。 “你有死亡證明嗎？” “死亡證明？我們在說的是阿富汗，很多人甚至連出生證明都沒有。”他明亮的眼睛一眨不眨，“先生，法律不是我制定的。你生氣也沒用，你還是得證明他的父母確實去世了。這個男孩必須讓法律承認他是孤兒。” “可是……” “你想要長的答案，我現在正給你呢。你的下一個問題是，你需要這個孩子出生國的合作。現在，就算在最好的情況下，這也很難，還有，引用你說過的，我們在談論的是阿富汗。我們在喀布爾沒有大使館。這使事情極端複雜，幾乎是不可能的。” “你在說什麼？我應該將他扔到街頭上嗎？”我說。 “我可沒那麼說。”
