芒果街上的小屋小腳之家

小腳之家

　　有一家人。都是小個。他們的胳膊很小，他們的手也小，他們的個頭也不高，他們的腳非常非常小。

　　爺爺睡在客廳的沙發上，牙縫裡漏出鼾聲。他的腳又白又胖，像厚厚的玉米肉粽，他把它們撲上粉，套上白襪子，塞進棕色皮靴裡。

　　奶奶的腳像粉紅珍珠一樣好看，穿著天鵝絨的高跟鞋，走起路來一歪一扭。可她還是穿著它們，因為鞋子漂亮。

　　寶寶的腳有十個細細的腳趾米，蒼白又透明，像蠑螈的腳趾。他只要一餓就會把它們塞進嘴裡。

　　媽媽的腳，豐盈文雅，像白色鴿子從雲天，那枕頭的海洋飛落，走過油麻毯上的玫瑰，走下木樓梯，走在粉筆畫的跳房的格子上，5、6、7，藍色天空。

　　你們想要這個嗎？給你們個紙袋，裡面有一雙檸檬黃的鞋子、一雙紅色的鞋子和一雙舞鞋，原先是白色的，現在是淡藍色的。拿去吧。我們說謝謝你，等到她上樓去。

　　好哇！今天我們是辛德萊拉，因為我們的腳正合適。我們對著拉切爾一隻套著學生灰短襪又穿著女士高跟鞋的腳大笑。你喜歡這些鞋子嗎？可說實話，低頭看看你的腳，卻覺得有點嚇人，它好像不再是你的腳了，上面的腿好長好長。

　　每個人都想換著穿。檸檬黃的換紅的，紅的換那雙曾是白的現在是淡藍色的。脫下又穿上，穿上又脫下，忙乎了好一陣，直到我們都累了。

　　然後露西尖聲叫起來，我們把襪子脫掉吧。對呀。是真的。我們有腿呀。細瘦的腿，上面點綴著脫痂後形成的緞面疤。可這是我們自己的腿，好看，又長。

　　拉切爾學會了穿著這些奇妙的高跟鞋，架勢十足地走來走去。她教我們把腿交叉又分開，像跳花式繩一樣地走；她教我們怎麼一步一響地走到街角，好像鞋子在和你對答。露西、拉切爾和我就這樣踮著腳走著。走到街角，男人的眼睛沒法從我們身上移開。我們像是帶來了聖誕節。

　　街角雜貨店的賓尼先生放下他的大雪茄，問，你們的媽媽知道你們這鞋子哪來的嗎？誰給你們的？

　　沒人。

　　這鞋不安全。他說。你們這些小女孩還太小，不適合穿這樣的鞋子。趁我還沒叫警察趕快脫掉吧。可我們只是跑開。

　　大道上一個騎著拼裝自行車的男孩喊道，女士們，帶我上天堂啊。

　　那裡除了我們沒別人。

　　你喜歡這些鞋子嗎？拉切爾說是的，露西說是的，是的，我說，這些是最好的鞋子。我們再也不要穿別的鞋子了。你喜歡這樣的鞋子嗎？

　　在自助洗衣店的前面，有六個長著一樣的胖臉的女孩，她們裝做看不到我們。拉切爾說，他們是表姐妹，喜歡妒忌。我們有模有樣地走著。

　　街對過的一家小酒館的門前，一個流浪漢坐在長凳上。

　　你喜歡這鞋子嗎？

　　流浪漢說，喜歡，小姑娘。你的小黃鞋好漂亮。走近點，我看不太清。再近點。來。

　　你是漂亮的小姑娘，那個人接著說，你叫什麼名字，美女？

　　拉切爾說叫拉切爾。就那麼答了一句。

　　現在你知道和醉鬼說話有多不好了吧，告訴他你的名字就更糟糕，可誰能怪她呢。她那麼小，一天裡聽到那麼多好聽的話讓她有點暈頭了，即便那是一個流浪漢的醉話。

　　拉切爾，你比一輛黃色出租車還漂亮。你知道嗎？

　　可我們不喜歡。我們得走了。露西說。

　　如果我給你一元錢你會吻我嗎？一元錢怎麼樣？我給你一元錢，他低頭在口袋裡找起皺巴巴的票子來。

　　我們得馬上走，露西說著拉過拉切爾的手，因為她好像在考慮那一元錢呢。

　　流浪漢沖著空氣在叫喊著什麼，可我們已經很快地跑遠了，我們的高跟鞋帶著我們一路跑過大街，轉過街區，經過那一群難看的表姐妹，經過賓尼先生的店，跑到了芒果街上，回來了，以防萬一。

　　我們厭倦了扮靚。露西把檸檬黃的、紅色的和先是白色後來是淡藍色的鞋子藏在後廊上一個很大的籃子裡，直到星期二，她媽媽，非常愛乾淨的她，把它們扔了。沒有人抗議。

　　There was a family. All were little. Their arms were little, and their hands were little, and their height was not tall, and their feet very small.

　　The grandpa slept on the living room coud shrough his teeth. His feet were fat and doughy like thick tamales, and these he powdered and stuffed into white socks and browher shoes.

　　The grandma's feet were lovely as pink pearls and dressed iy high heels that made her walk with a wobble, but she wore them anyway because they were pretty.

　　The baby's feet had ten tiny toes, pale ahrough like a salamander's, and these he popped into his mouth whenever he was hungry.

　　The mother's feet, plump and polite, desded like white pigeons from the sea of pillow, across the linoleum roses, down down the wooden stairs, over the chalk hopscotch squares，5，6，7，blue sky.

　　Do you want this? And gave us a paper bag with one pair of lemon shoes and one red and one pair of dang shoes that used to be white but were now pale blue. Here, and we said thank you and waited until she went upstairs.

　　Hurray！Today we are derella because our feet fit exactly, and we laugh at Rachel's one foot with a girl's grey sod a lady's high heel. Do you like these shoes? But the truth is it is scary to look down at your foot that is no longer yours atached a long long leg.

　　Everybody wants to trade. The lemon shoes for the red shoes, the red for the pair that were once white but are now pale blue, the pale blue for the lemon, and take them off and put them ba and keep on like this a long time until we are tired.

　　Then Lucy screams to take our socks off and yes, it's true. We have legs. Skinny and spotted with satin scars where scabs were picked, but legs, all our own, good to look at, and long.

　　It's Rachel who learns to walk the best all strutted in those magic high heels. She teaches us to cross and uncross s, and to run like a double-dutch rope, and how to walk down to the er so that the shoes talk back to you with every step. Lucy, Rachel, me tee-t like so. Down to the er where the men 't take their eyes off us. We must be Christmas.

　　Mr. Benny at the er grocery puts down his important cigar：Your mother know you got shoes like that? Who give you those?

　　Nobody.

　　Them are dangerous, he says. You girls too young to be wearing shoes like that. Take them shoes off before I call the cops, but we just run.

　　On the avenue a boy on a homemade bicycle calls out：Ladies, lead me to heaven.

　　But there is nobody around but us.

　　Do you like these shoes? Rachel says yes, and Lucy says yes, and yes I say, these are the best shoes. We will never go back to wearing the other kind again. Do you like these shoes?

　　In front of the laundromat six girls with the same fat face pretend we are invisible. They are the cousins, Lucy says, and always jealous. We just keep strutting.

　　Across the street in front of the tavern a bum man ooop.

　　Do you like these shoes?

　　Bum man says, Yes, little girl. Your little lemon shoes are so beautiful. But e closer. I 't see very well. e closer. Please.

　　You are a pretty girl, bum man tinues. What's your name, pretty girl?

　　And Rachel says Rachel, just like that.

　　Now you know to talk to drunks is crazy and to tell them your name is worse, but who blame her. She is young and dizzy to hear so many sweet things in one day, even if it is a bum man's whiskey words saying them.

　　Rachel, you are prettier than a yellow taxicab. You know that?

　　But we don't like it. We got to go, Lucy says.

　　If I give you a dollar will you kiss me? How about a dollar. I give you a dollar, and he looks in his pocket for wrinkled money.

　　We have to ght now, Lucy says taking Rachel's hand because she looks like she's thinking about that dollar.

　　Bum man is yelling something to the air but by now we are running fast and far away, h heel shoes taking us all the way down the avenue and around the block, past the ugly cousins, past Mr. Benny's, up Mango Street, the back way, just in case.

　　We are tired of beiiful. Lucy hides the lemon shoes and the red shoes and the shoes that used to be white but are now pale blue under a powerful bushel basket on the back porh,until ouesday her mother,who is very ,throws them away. But no one plains.

學達書庫(xuoda.com)