《渺小一生》:但他和三個好友都沒有子女

　 Alex is seated to his left, and he talks to her about her job as the public relations director of a fashion label called Rothko, which she has just quit, to Rhodes’s consternation. “Do you miss it yet?” he asks.

今天亞歷克絲坐在他左邊，兩人聊起她的工作。她原來在一家時裝公司羅思科當公關主任，剛剛辭職，讓羅茲非常驚恐?！伴_始想念上班的日子了嗎？”他問。

　 “Not yet,” she says. “I know Rhodes isn’t happy about it”—she smiles—“but he’ll get over it. I just felt I should stay home while the kids are young.”

“還沒。”她說，“我知道羅茲很不高興，”她微笑，“但是他會想開的。我只是覺得應該趁孩子還小，待在家里多陪陪他們。”

　 He asks about the country house the two of them have bought in Connecticut (another source of Rhodes’s nightmares), and she tells him about the renovation, which is grinding into its third summer, and he groans in sympathy. “Rhodes said you were looking somewhere in Columbia County,” she says. “Did you end up buying?”

他問起了他們夫婦在康涅狄格州買的鄉(xiāng)村住宅（羅茲夢魘的另一個來源），她把狀況告訴他，緩慢的整修過程現在已經進入了第三個夏天。他發(fā)出同情的嘆息?！傲_茲說過你去哥倫比亞郡看房子?！彼f，“你后來買了嗎？”

　 “Not yet,” he says. It had been a choice: either the house, or he and Richard were going to renovate the ground floor, make the garage usable and add a gym and a small pool—one with a constant current, so you could swim in place in it—and in the end, he chose the renovation. Now he swims every morning in complete privacy; not even Richard enters the gym area when he’s in it.

“還沒?！彼f。那棟房子只是個選項：看要買下那里，還是跟理查德一起出錢整修一樓，把車庫修得能用，再加個健身房和一個小游泳池——會制造恒定水流的那種，這樣你就可以在原地逆水游泳——結果他們選擇整修一樓?，F在他每天早上都在完全私人的狀態(tài)下游泳：他在健身房的時候，連理查德都不會進去。

　 “We wanted to wait on the house, actually,” Alex admits. “But really, we didn’t have a choice—we wanted the kids to have a yard while they were little.”

“我們其實在等那棟房子整修好。”亞歷克絲承認，“可是也沒有辦法——小孩還小，我們希望他們有個院子?！?

　 He nods; he has heard this story before, from Rhodes. Often, it feels as if he and Rhodes (and he and almost every one of his contemporaries at the firm) are living parallel versions of adulthood. Their world is governed by children, little despots whose needs—school and camp and activities and tutors—dictate every decision, and will for the next ten, fifteen, eighteen years. Having children has provided their adulthood with an instant and nonnegotiable sense of purpose and direction: they decide the length and location of that year’s vacation; they determine if there will be any leftover money, and if so, how it might be spent; they give shape to a day, a week, a year, a life. Children are a kind of cartography, and all one has to do is obey the map they present to you on the day they are born.

他點點頭，之前他聽羅茲說過了。他常常覺得，他和羅茲（還有幾乎律師事務所每個同齡的人）似乎過著兩種并行但截然不同的成人生活。他們的世界由子女統治，那些小暴君的需求（學校、度假營、活動、家教）支配了每個決定，而且接下來十年、十五年、十八年都會如此。子女為成人生活提供了一種迫切而無法改變的目的感和方向感：他們決定了每年度假要去哪里、去多久；他們決定了家里會不會有多余的錢，如果有，該怎么花；他們讓每一天、每一星期、每一年、每一生成形。擁有子女就像是在繪制某種地圖，你唯一要做的，就是遵循他們出生那天給你的路線，乖乖地照著畫。

　 But he and his friends have no children, and in their absence, the world sprawls before them, almost stifling in its possibilities. Without them, one’s status as an adult is never secure; a childless adult creates adulthood for himself, and as exhilarating as it often is, it is also a state of perpetual insecurity, of perpetual doubt. Or it is to some people—certainly it is to Malcolm, who recently reviewed with him a list he’d made in favor of and against having children with Sophie, much as he had when he was deciding whether to marry Sophie in the first place, four years ago.

但他和三個好友都沒有子女，因此整個世界在眼前展開，種種可能性簡直多得令人透不過氣來。沒了子女，你的成人身份是永遠不確定的；沒有小孩的成人為自己創(chuàng)造出一種成年生活，這常常令人振奮，但也是一種長年不穩(wěn)定、令人陷入自我懷疑的狀態(tài)。或者對某些人來說是如此，馬爾科姆肯定就是這樣，他最近還擬了一張清單，列出生小孩的優(yōu)點和缺點，來找他商量，差不多就像四年前在決定要不要跟蘇菲結婚時那樣。

　 “I don’t know, Mal,” he said, after listening to Malcolm’s list. “It sounds like the reasons for having them are because you feel you should, not because you really want them.”

“不知道，小馬，”他聽完馬爾科姆的清單后說，“聽起來你生小孩的理由，好像是因為你覺得自己應該要，而不是你真的想要?！?

　 “Of course I feel I should,” said Malcolm. “Don’t you ever feel like we’re all basically still living like children, Jude?”

“我當然會覺得應該要?！瘪R爾科姆說，“裘德，難道你從來不覺得，我們基本上還活得像個小孩嗎？”

　 “No,” he said. And he never had: his life was as far from his childhood as he could imagine. “That’s your dad talking, Mal. Your life won’t be any less valid, or any less legitimate, if you don’t have kids.”

他不曾有這種感覺，他的人生離童年很遠，遠得不能再遠了。“不會。”他說，“小馬，那是你爸的想法。如果你沒有小孩，你的人生也不會更不完整，或更不理直氣壯?！?

　 Malcolm had sighed. “Maybe,” he said. “Maybe you’re right.” He’d smiled. “I mean, I don’t really want them.”

馬爾科姆嘆氣，“或許吧，”他說，“或許你說得沒錯?！彼冻鑫⑿?，“我的意思是，我不是真的很想要小孩?！?

　 He smiled back. “Well,” he said, “you can always wait. Maybe someday you can adopt a sad thirty-year-old.”

他也微笑，“唔，”他說，“反正你永遠可以改變心意?；蛟S有一天你可以收養(yǎng)一個悲慘的30歲孤兒。”

　 “Maybe,” Malcolm said again. “After all, I hear it is a trend in certain parts of the country.”

“或許吧。”馬爾科姆說，“畢竟，我聽說國內有些地方正流行這種事呢。”

　 Now Alex excuses herself to help Rhodes in the kitchen, who has been calling her name with mounting urgency—“Alex. Alex! Alex!”—and he turns to the person on his right, whom he doesn’t recognize from Rhodes’s other parties, a dark-haired man with a nose that looks like it’s been broken: it starts heading decisively in one direction before reversing directions, just as decisively, right below the bridge.

這會兒羅茲在廚房喊亞歷克絲，越喊越急——“亞歷克絲。亞歷克絲！亞歷克絲！”——她只好暫時告退去幫忙。他轉向坐在右邊的那個人，他在羅茲的其他晚宴中從沒見過他，是個深色頭發(fā)的男子，鼻子看起來像是被打斷的：一開始堅決地往一個方向延伸，過了鼻梁又忽然改變方向，而且同樣堅決。

　 “Caleb Porter.”

“凱萊布·波特?！?

　 “Jude St. Francis.”

“裘德·圣弗朗西斯?！?

　 “Let me guess: Catholic.”

“讓我猜猜看：天主教徒?！?

　 “Let me guess: not.”

“讓我猜猜看：不是?！?

　 Caleb laughs. “You’re right about that.”

凱萊布大笑：“你猜對了?！?

　 They talk, and Caleb tells him he’s just moved to the city from London, where he’s spent the past decade as the president of a fashion label, to take over as the new CEO at Rothko. “Alex very sweetly and spontaneously invited me yesterday, and I thought”—he shrugs—“why not? It’s this, a good meal with nice people, or sitting in a hotel room looking desultorily at real estate listings.” From the kitchen there is a timpani clatter of falling metal, and Rhodes swearing. Caleb looks at him, his eyebrows raised, and he smiles. “Don’t worry,” he reassures him. “This always happens.”

他們聊天，凱萊布說他之前十年都在倫敦擔任一家時裝公司的董事長，最近剛搬來紐約接任羅思科的執(zhí)行長?！皝啔v克絲很好心，昨天臨時起意邀請我來，我心想，”他聳聳肩，“有何不可呢？要不是來這里跟一群友善的好人吃一頓大餐，就是坐在旅館房間看著一堆房地產清單找房子?！睆N房里傳來金屬落地連串的叮咚響聲，還有羅茲的咒罵。凱萊布看著他，抬起雙眉。他笑出來，“別擔心，”他向他保證，“這種事很常見。”