Had he told her the nice things I’d been saying about her? She seemed upset. Did she mind my sudden intrusion into their little world? I remembered her tone of voice on the morning when she’d lost it with Mafalda. A smirk hovered on her face; she was about to say something cruel.
奧利弗是否已經(jīng)告訴她我說過她的好話?她似乎很心煩。她是不是介意我突然闖進(jìn)他們的小世界?我記得那天早上她對瑪法爾達(dá)發(fā)脾氣時的聲調(diào)。一抹冷笑掛在她臉上;貌似她原本正打算講幾句傷人的話。
“Never a bedtime in their house, no rules, no supervision, nothing. That’s why he’s such a well-behaved boy. Don’t you see? Nothing to rebel against.”
“Is that true?”
“I suppose,” I answered, trying to make light of it before they went any further. “We all have our ways of rebelling.”
“We do?” he asked.
“Name one,” chimed in Chiara.
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“He reads Paul Celan,” Oliver broke in, trying to change the subject but also perhaps to come to my rescue and show, without quite seeming to, that he had not forgotten our previous conversation. Was he trying to rehabilitate me after that little jab about my late hours, or was this the beginnings of yet another joke at my expense? A steely, neutral glance sat on his face.
“E chi è?” She’d never heard of Paul Celan.
I shot him a complicit glance. He intercepted it, but there was no hint of mischief in his eyes when he finally returned my glance. Whose side was he on?
“A poet,” he whispered as they started ambling out into the heart of the piazzetta, and he threw me a casual Later!
“他們家從不規(guī)定就寢時間,沒有規(guī)矩,沒有監(jiān)督,什么都沒有。所以他才變成這樣的好孩子。你還不懂嗎?因為沒什么好叛逆的啊。”
“真的嗎?”
“大概是吧。”我回答,盡量輕描淡寫,免得他們繼續(xù)深究。“每個人都有自己的叛逆方式。”
“是嗎?”
“舉個例子來聽聽。”奇亞拉蹦出一句。
“你不會懂的。”
“他讀保羅·策蘭呢。”奧利弗插嘴說,想改變話題,或許也想救我,同時不著痕跡地表明他并未忘記我們先前的對話。他是拿我深夜在外逗留的事輕輕戳我一下之后又設(shè)法為我平反,或者這只是另一個拿我開涮的起點?我在他臉上掃過冷硬而含義不明的中性的一瞥。
“那是誰?”奇亞拉根本沒聽說過策蘭。
我對他投以“我們是一伙兒”的目光。他接收到了,但他終于回看我時,眼里卻沒有一絲玩笑的意味。他站在哪一邊?
“一位詩人。”他們朝小廣場中心漫步過去時,他低聲說道,然后丟給我一個漫不經(jīng)心的回頭再說!