by Jimmy Simpson秋斯译

Lifestyles 人生百味

梦幻完美男友

by Jimmy Simpson秋斯译

Eight years ago, my mother received an unusual call from her mother.

“Have you got a minute?” my grandmother asked in her gentle1)drawl. She then claimed that my 60-year-old aunt, my mother’s sister, was seeing someone.

My mother was2)incredulous. “Unless she’s sneaking out of the window at night,” she said, “I’m not sure how she’s going on these dates. She’s living with me and Rickey.”

My aunt, having undergone double hip-replacement surgery, was3)recuperating under the care of my parents.

My grandmother continued: “Well, this new gentleman actually has been in love with your sister since kindergarten. He’s just been waiting for Ronnie to get out of the picture.”

Ronnie had been my aunt’s husband for 40 years. And he recently had left her, but not in the way anyone had expected.

Let me back up. The last few decades had not been kind to my aunt. She had4)wrestled with ending her long marriage to Ronnie, who was a troubled soul.

八年前，我母亲接到她母亲打来的一个不寻常的电话。

“有空和我说句话吗？”我外婆拖长腔调柔声问道。随后她声称我那位六十岁的姨母（我母亲的姐姐）在和某人约会。

我母亲不相信。“除非她晚上从窗户溜出去。”她说，“不然我不知道她是怎么出去约会的。她跟我和里奇住在一起。”

当时我姨母做了双髋关节置换手术，在我父母的照顾下休养康复。

外婆接着说：“嗯，这位新露脸的先生事实上自幼儿园时起就爱上你姐姐了。他只是在等着罗尼跟你姐姐分道扬镳。”

罗尼和我姨母维持了40年的婚姻。但最近他以出乎任何人意料的方式离开了她。

让我来解释一下来龙去脉。我姨母过去几十年可不好过。罗尼是个累赘的包袱，她费了很大劲才结束了他俩的漫长婚姻。

1) drawl [drɔːl] n. 拖腔，拉长声调说出的话

2) incredulous [ɪn'kredʒuːləs] adj. 不相信的，不肯轻信的

3) recuperate [rɪ'kuːpəreɪt] v. 恢复，复原

4) wrestle ['res(ə)l] v. 与…搏斗，全力对付

5) impending [ɪm'pendɪŋ] adj. 即将发生的

6) marinate ['mærɪneɪt] v. 浸泡，腌泡

7) Alzheimer’s ['æltshaɪmərz] 即Alzheimer’s disease，阿尔茨海默病，老年性痴呆

He wasn’t a bad person, but he struggled with addiction, a condition that can mold you, with sticky hands, into someone else.

With the news of her5)impending surgery, my aunt knew he would be unable to care for her, so after much consideration, she promised to fnd him a new home, gathered up her courage and left.

Not long after, on the day my uncle was scheduled to check himself into a retirement community, he put a gun into his mouth and killed himself.

Now, on the phone with my grandmother, my mother said:“I really think you’re imagining this. You’ve been watching too much television.”

But my grandmother, a woman of biblical patience, grew ornery at my mother’s refusal to believe that my aunt had a suitor.

While this may sound like a plot from daytime television, the story arc was not out of character for my grandmother. At this point in her life, she filled her days rereading books and watching television,6)marinating on these tales as if they were scandals plucked from her own life.

It was doubly diffcult to know when her stories were true because of her7)Alzheimer’s. The disease preserved many of her old memories while stealing much of her ability to sustain new ones.

罗尼人不坏，但是个瘾君子，这种状况就像一双黏糊糊纠缠不放的手，把人摧残得面目全非。

姨母得知马上要做手术，也知道丈夫没法照顾她，因而经过深思熟虑之后，她承诺给他找个新家，然后鼓起勇气离开了。

没过多久，在姨父本该要去登记入住养老院那天，他吞枪自杀了。

当时，母亲在电话里跟我外婆说：“我真的觉得这是你的幻想。你看电视看得太多了。”

外婆素来有着圣人般的耐心，这次却因我母亲拒绝相信有人在追求我姨母而变得暴躁起来。……