正文
开始我跟Peter的故事之前，我就曾经提到过在我这里住了三个月的房客Lisa，Lisa 二月初回国不久，就被医生查出左下巴有一块肿瘤，原来她一直认为在加拿大除了上课也没啥其他事情做，所以人长胖了就出现了双下巴，为此她还整天去楼底下的gym运动，得此机会认识了老Peter，从而还引发了我跟Peter的故事，她二月中旬在广州一家有名的医院做了肿瘤切除手术，并告诉我和Peter她恢复的很好，肿瘤是良性。可前几天Lisa给我来了一封Email，说她做过手术的地方又鼓起来了，长得跟原来差不多大，医生从刀口处抽出很多液体，她很害怕，很难过，从医院回到家里后大哭了一场，我把这事情跟老Peter讲了，没曾想到的是老Peter竟然大发人生感慨，给我来了一封长长的信，让我看了以后哑口无言……
Dearest Sweet Sherry,
I phoned a friend of mine here in Mississauga who is a qualified doctor. She's from India and doesn't work as a doctor any more due to Canadian red tape.I talked to her about Lisa's tumor when I first heard about it, on her return to China. My friend assured me that a tumor in the neck which could be felt by the hand had a 90% chance of being okay. Of being benign. Of not being attached to any important organ. Of being easilly removed by surgery. And that's what we all thought had happened; it had been easilly removed by surgery! And now this. My doctor friend says this new development is very dangerous. Her tumor, if benign, should not have grown back to be bigger than it originally was in this amount of time. Only a malignant tumor does that and a malignant tumor in the neck is very, very bad.
Sherry, I told you on Sunday that I have no fear. I've forgotton what the exact context was but that's a pretty accurate statement, normally.Well......
I am frightened now. I'm terrified.
Lisa is a very special person.Part of me thinks of her as our daughter!!!! First of all, you told me she was 21 years old. I was not the only one to be "inaccurate" about age!!! And I believed you. She seemed to me much more like a 21-year-old than a 36-year-old, if that in fact is her correct age!! Of course her lack of English played a part in that. I developed a kind of "baby-talk" basic English by which we could communicate verbally. And I was her teacher and I felt, and I think she felt, that it was almost like a father/daughter thing.And I was aware of your relationship with Lisa. You were the experienced Canadian, another teacher. And you were a little older. I always figured you were about 39 so, if Lisa really was 36 that still would have given you seniority. And she worshipped you! You were sophisticated, western, chic and beautiful and you were her role model.
The first night I came to your home for dinner, Lisa sat quietly at her corner of the table and just watched us as we talked. And it was clear to me that she adored you. Despite the closeness of your ages, you were like a mother to her.And that night, as you pumped me for information on how to date western guys, it first hit me that Lisa was sitting there thinking of us as Mum and Dad. And that's why she tried so hard to bring us together.
The Irish are a very spiritual and mystical people. Our culture is one of the oldest in Europe, going back as long as China's.Our culture is ten times as old as the English culture, for example.A part of me thinks that Lisa was an angel, not a human being at all. And she had been given human form with the mission of bringing Peter and Sherry together. Because God had tried! He'd brought them to the same city! He'd even engineered things so that they ended up in the same building together. But they still didn't get it! And God thought they were both pretty special people who belonged together and so in frustration, he had to assign one of his favorite angels to go down to earth and make it happen. And that favorite angel was Lisa. And she did make it happen. And now that her work is done, God wants her back.That's a difficult thing for us to take. But angels live forever and in that context one short human life is like a snap of the fingers. And she has probably lived a hundred human lives already, making things happen for God! If she is our daughter, she will come back to us. All will be well.If she is an angel who God wants back, we will have to wait until we are both in heaven to see her again.
I want to hold you in my arms very tightly. I want to rest my head on your shoulders and feel your head resting on mine.I feel we should comfort each other right now.
P.
我说不清楚看了这个email后内心的感受，总之，觉得老Peter也太言过其词了，尤其不喜欢他把我跟他比喻成了Lisa的父母，扯不扯啊，依你老Peter的年龄可不是做Lisa的老爸够格了，干吗也把我扯进去？再说了，Lisa也不是一个小孩子，不就是英文说的不够溜吗，你老Peter还竟把人家当成小孩子了。那天晚上老Peter电话给我的时候，我毫不犹豫地说他的比喻极端得荒唐可笑，因为他无法跟Lisa用英文沟通，对Lisa也完全不了解，所以希望他不要乱发挥想象力，把我和他相提并论地提升做了一把Lisa的父母，尽管是比喻，让我感觉很不好，其实，我是在想你老Peter那么大年龄，怎么好意思把我也放在跟你一个年龄段里了呢？切，不要自我感觉太好了吧？
Dearest Sweet Sherry,
I phoned a friend of mine here in Mississauga who is a qualified doctor. She's from India and doesn't work as a doctor any more due to Canadian red tape.I talked to her about Lisa's tumor when I first heard about it, on her return to China. My friend assured me that a tumor in the neck which could be felt by the hand had a 90% chance of being okay. Of being benign. Of not being attached to any important organ. Of being easilly removed by surgery. And that's what we all thought had happened; it had been easilly removed by surgery! And now this. My doctor friend says this new development is very dangerous. Her tumor, if benign, should not have grown back to be bigger than it originally was in this amount of time. Only a malignant tumor does that and a malignant tumor in the neck is very, very bad.
Sherry, I told you on Sunday that I have no fear. I've forgotton what the exact context was but that's a pretty accurate statement, normally.Well......
I am frightened now. I'm terrified.
Lisa is a very special person.Part of me thinks of her as our daughter!!!! First of all, you told me she was 21 years old. I was not the only one to be "inaccurate" about age!!! And I believed you. She seemed to me much more like a 21-year-old than a 36-year-old, if that in fact is her correct age!! Of course her lack of English played a part in that. I developed a kind of "baby-talk" basic English by which we could communicate verbally. And I was her teacher and I felt, and I think she felt, that it was almost like a father/daughter thing.And I was aware of your relationship with Lisa. You were the experienced Canadian, another teacher. And you were a little older. I always figured you were about 39 so, if Lisa really was 36 that still would have given you seniority. And she worshipped you! You were sophisticated, western, chic and beautiful and you were her role model.
The first night I came to your home for dinner, Lisa sat quietly at her corner of the table and just watched us as we talked. And it was clear to me that she adored you. Despite the closeness of your ages, you were like a mother to her.And that night, as you pumped me for information on how to date western guys, it first hit me that Lisa was sitting there thinking of us as Mum and Dad. And that's why she tried so hard to bring us together.
The Irish are a very spiritual and mystical people. Our culture is one of the oldest in Europe, going back as long as China's.Our culture is ten times as old as the English culture, for example.A part of me thinks that Lisa was an angel, not a human being at all. And she had been given human form with the mission of bringing Peter and Sherry together. Because God had tried! He'd brought them to the same city! He'd even engineered things so that they ended up in the same building together. But they still didn't get it! And God thought they were both pretty special people who belonged together and so in frustration, he had to assign one of his favorite angels to go down to earth and make it happen. And that favorite angel was Lisa. And she did make it happen. And now that her work is done, God wants her back.That's a difficult thing for us to take. But angels live forever and in that context one short human life is like a snap of the fingers. And she has probably lived a hundred human lives already, making things happen for God! If she is our daughter, she will come back to us. All will be well.If she is an angel who God wants back, we will have to wait until we are both in heaven to see her again.
I want to hold you in my arms very tightly. I want to rest my head on your shoulders and feel your head resting on mine.I feel we should comfort each other right now.
P.
我说不清楚看了这个email后内心的感受，总之，觉得老Peter也太言过其词了，尤其不喜欢他把我跟他比喻成了Lisa的父母，扯不扯啊，依你老Peter的年龄可不是做Lisa的老爸够格了，干吗也把我扯进去？再说了，Lisa也不是一个小孩子，不就是英文说的不够溜吗，你老Peter还竟把人家当成小孩子了。那天晚上老Peter电话给我的时候，我毫不犹豫地说他的比喻极端得荒唐可笑，因为他无法跟Lisa用英文沟通，对Lisa也完全不了解，所以希望他不要乱发挥想象力，把我和他相提并论地提升做了一把Lisa的父母，尽管是比喻，让我感觉很不好，其实，我是在想你老Peter那么大年龄，怎么好意思把我也放在跟你一个年龄段里了呢？切，不要自我感觉太好了吧？
希望看到你更多的作品。
祝愿你早日找到如意的爱情。