【时间旅行者的妻子】37

“Did not.”
　“Did too. We just met for the very first time, and as soon as you laid eyes on me you said, ‘That’s the man I’m going to marry,’ and you pasted me one. I always said you were an excellent judge of character.”
　
　Thursday, September 29, 1977 (Clare is 6, Henry is 35)
　
    CLARE: The calendar on Daddy’s desk this morning said the same as the paper the man wrote. Nell was making a soft egg for Alicia and Etta was yelling 1 at Mark cause he didn’t do his homework and played Frisbee 2 with Steve. I said Etta can I have some clothes from the trunks? meaning the trunks in the attic 3 where we play dress up, and Etta said What for? and I said I want to play dress up with Megan and Etta got mad and said It was time to go to school and I could worry about playing when I got home. 
 
     So I went to school and we did adding and mealworms and language arts and after lunch French and music and religion. I worried all day about pants for the man cause he seemed like he really wanted pants. So when I got home I went to ask Etta again but she was in town but Nell let me lick 4 both the beaters of cake batter 5 which Etta won’t let us because you get salmon 6. And Mama was writing and I was gonna go away without asking but she said What is it, Baby? so I asked and she said I could go look in the Goodwill 7 bags and have anything I wanted. 
 
     So I went to the laundry room and looked in the Goodwill bags and found three pairs of Daddy’s pants but one had a big cigarette hole. So I took two and I found a white shirt like Daddy wears to work and a tie with fishes on it and a red sweater. And the yellow bathrobe that Daddy had when I was little and it smelled like Daddy.
 
     I put the clothes in a bag and put the bag in the mud-room closet. When I was coming out of the mud room Mark saw me and he said What are you doing, asshole? And I said Nothing, asshole and he pulled my hair and I stepped on his foot really hard and then he started to cry and went to tell. So I went up to my room and played Television with Mr. Bear and Jane where Jane is the movie star and Mr. Bear asks her about how it is being a movie star and she says she really wants to be a veterinarian but she is so incredibly pretty she has to be a movie star and Mr. Bear says maybe she could be a veterinarian when she’s old. And Etta knocked and said Why are you stepping on Mark? and I said Because Mark pulled my hair for no reason and Etta said You two are getting on my nerves and went away so that was okay.
 
     We ate dinner with just Etta because Daddy and Mama went to a party. It was fried chicken with little peas and chocolate cake and Mark got the biggest piece but I didn’t say anything because I licked 8 the beaters. 
 

"真是个好主意，不过我现在最需要的不是钱，而是衣服。"   
      　　克莱尔怀疑地打量我。   
      　　"你爸爸有没有不要的旧衣服？就算一条裤子也好。我是说，我喜欢这条浴巾，别误会，只不过在我来的那个时空里，我通常更喜欢穿裤子。" 菲力浦·阿布希尔稍矮些，大约比我重三十斤，我穿上他的裤子会显得有点滑稽，但很舒服。 
        
      　　"我不知道……"   
      　　"没关系，你不需要现在去找。不过下次我来这儿时，如果你能为我准备好，我会非常感激的。"   
      　　"下一次？"   
      　　我找到一张没有用过的纸和铅笔，用大写字母写下：一九七七年九月二十九日，星期四，晚饭后。我把纸交给克莱尔，她很谨慎地收下了。眼前一阵模糊，但我能听见埃塔在喊克莱尔。我说："克莱尔，记得保密，好吗？" 
        
      　　"为什么？"   
      　　"不能说。我要走了，现在。非常高兴见到你，记得别去收集那些零食袋里的小玩具了啊。"我向克莱尔伸出手，她非常勇敢地握住，我们的手彼此摇晃着，我消失了。 
        
      　　二年二月九日，星期三（克莱尔二十八岁，亨利三十六岁）   
      　　克莱尔：很早的时候，大概是清晨六点，我还流连在浅浅的睡梦中，突然，亨利把我撞醒，他准是刚去了另一个时空。事实上他就是压着我的身体现身的，我惊叫起来，彼此都被对方吓得半死。他突然笑了，从我身上翻下来，我也转过身看着他，他的嘴唇流了很多血。我一跃而起，拿来一块小毛巾，仔细地擦拭他的嘴唇，他居然还在笑。 
        
      　　"究竟都发生了些什么？"   
      　　"你用鞋砸伤我了。"我根本记不得曾用什么砸过亨利。   
      　　"没那回事。"   
      　　"有的。还有，我们那时第一次见面，你一看到我就说，"这就是我未来的老公，"然后就把鞋子朝我狠狠扔来。所以我说，你是很有知人之明的。"   
 
      　　一九七七年九月二十九日，星期四（克莱尔六岁，亨利三十五岁）
   
      　　克莱尔：这个男人写在纸上的日期，和今天早上爸爸书桌上翻开的日历吻合了。尼尔在给爱丽希尔做炖蛋，埃塔在骂马克，他居然不做功课，和史迪夫玩飞盘去了。我说，埃塔我能从箱子里拿些衣服吗？我指的是玩"化妆舞会"时阁楼上的那几个箱子。埃塔反问，你要干吗？我回答说，我想和梅根一起玩"化妆舞会"。埃塔气急败坏地说，你该上学去了，等你回家后再玩吧。于是我就去上学，我们那天学了加法、米虫和语法，午饭后，继续学法语、音乐和宗教。我一整天都在为那个男人的裤子发愁，他看上去真的很想要一条裤子。
 
              我回到家打算找埃塔再问问，谁知她却进城去了。不过，尼尔让我舔了蛋糕面糊的搅拌器，埃塔就不会这样，因为我们马上就要吃三文鱼了。妈妈在写东西，所以我不打算和她提这个要求。我静静地走开，可她先问了，宝贝，什么事？于是我开口了，她同意我去找"捐助袋"，我可以拿走里面任何我想要的东西。我去了洗衣房，把几个"捐助袋"都翻了一遍，先后找到爸爸的三条旧裤子，其中一条还被香烟烫了个大洞。所以我拿了两条，我还找出爸爸上班穿过的白衬衫、一条小鱼图案的领带、一件红色的毛衣，还有我小时候看到爸爸穿过的一件黄色的浴衣，现在上面还留着他的味道。我把这些东西装进一个袋子，然后把袋子放进旧衣服储藏室的柜子里，我从旧衣服储藏室里出来时，正好被马克撞见了，你在搞什么，蠢货！我回敬他一句：没什么，蠢货！他过来扯我的头发，我狠狠踩了他的脚，他哭了，跑回去告状。
 
               我回到自己的房间，把狗熊先生和简小姐拿出来，放在电视机上玩。简小姐是个大影星，可她说她最想当一名兽医，但是她实在太漂亮了，所以不得不去做影星，狗熊先生建议，等她年纪大了以后，还是可以做兽医的。这时，埃塔敲门进来质问我，为什么要踩马克的脚？我告诉她，因为马克无缘无故地扯我的头发。埃塔说，你们俩让我受够了。她走后一切才都好了起来。爸爸妈妈去参加晚会，晚上我们只能和埃塔一起吃饭：小豌豆、炸鸡和巧克力蛋糕，马克抢到最大的一块蛋糕，我没做声，因为我早就舔过了。