芒果街上的小屋髖骨

髖骨

　　我喜歡咖啡，我喜歡茶。

　　我喜歡男孩呀男孩也喜歡我。

　　是也不是也許是。是也不是也許是……

　　某一天，你醒過來，它們就在那裡了。一切就緒，等在那裡，像一輛嶄新的別克，鑰匙插在點火器上。一切就緒帶你去哪裡呢？

　　拉切爾說，你做飯的時候，它們可以幫你托住孩子，說著便把跳繩晃得更快了。她一點想像力都沒有。

　　你需要用它們來跳舞。露西說。

　　如果你沒有它們，就會變成男人。蕾妮這麼說，她也是這麼以為的。她這樣是因為她的年齡。

　　是的。沒等拉切爾和露西笑話她，我就接著說。她是很笨，可她是我妹妹。

　　最重要的是，髖骨是很科學的。我重複著阿莉西婭告訴過我的話。憑著這兩塊骨頭你可以知道一架骷髏是女人的還是男人的。

　　它們像玫瑰一樣綻放，我接著說。顯然，我是這裡惟一講話有說服力的人。我有科學的支撐。有一天那兩塊骨頭會張開。像這樣張開。有一天你也許會決定要孩子，可是把它們放哪裡呢？得有空位置。骨頭會給出空位置。

　　不過別要太多的孩子，否則你的後背會張得很寬的。後背就是那麼變寬的。拉切爾說。她媽媽寬得像條船。我們都笑起來。

　　我想要說的是，這裡誰準備好了呢？你們得知道，長了髖骨之後該怎麼對它，照我的樣子來做吧，你們得知道怎麼用髖骨走路，你們知道的，這樣練習——好像你身體的一半想往這邊走，另一半卻想往那邊走。

　　這是在給它唱搖籃曲呢，蕾妮說，是在搖你身體裡面的寶寶入睡。接著她就唱開了：海螺房呀銅鈴鐺，伊薇在那常青藤上晃呀。

　　我想告訴她這是我聽到過的最傻的歌，可是我越琢磨它越……

　　你得押韻。露西開始跳起舞來。她有想法，雖然她不知道怎麼把她那端的荷蘭繩晃得均勻。

　　要正正好才行。我說。不要太快也不要太慢。別太快也別太慢。

　　我們把雙圈降到一定的速度，好讓剛跳進去的拉切爾先練習幾下搖晃的動作。

　　我想像呼哧庫哧那樣搖。露西說。她真是來勁。

　　我想像希比吉比一樣晃，我學她的樣兒說。

　　我想做塔希提人。還有默朗格人。還有電。

　　或者震簪！

　　對，震簪。這個好。

　　然後拉切爾先唱了起來：

　　蹦一蹦，跳一跳，

　　屁股搖一搖。

　　水蛇兒扭上來，

　　嘴唇呀被鑽開。

　　輪到露西的時候，她等了一分鐘，想了想，然後唱道：

　　女招待呀長著肥肥屁股，

　　她用那的士小費付她的房租……

　　她說這城裡沒人吻她的唇部

　　因為……

　　因為她長得像克裡斯托弗·哥倫布！

　　是也不是也許是，是也不是也許是。

　　她唱到「也許是」時跳空了。輪到我之前，我想了一會，然後吸了口氣，跳了進去：

　　有的像小雞嘴兒乾癟癟，
　　有的像邦迪貼兒濕鼓鼓，
　　只要你一把澡盆兒出，
　　只要我長呀長出屁股來
　　不管不管它是癟還是鼓。

　　每個人都參加進來了，除了蕾妮，她還在哼著不是女孩，不是男孩，只是一個小寶寶。她就像個小寶寶。當兩條繩子的弧度像上下頜一樣分得很開時，蕾妮從我眼前跳了進去。繩子啪嗒啪嗒地晃動，媽媽在她第一次聖餐會的時候給她的金耳墜也在晃動。她的顏色就像一塊輕油洗衣皂，她就像洗到最後剩下那棕色的一小塊，堅硬的小皂骨，我的妹妹。她張開嘴，開始唱道：

　　我媽媽呀你媽媽都在洗衣裳，
　　我媽媽拳頭捶在你媽媽鼻子上，
　　流出來的血是呀是什麼顏色？

　　不是那首老歌。我說。你得唱你自己的歌。自己編，知道嗎？可她沒弄明白，或者不想弄明白。很難說到底是哪種原因。繩子搖呀搖呀搖。

　　機車機車第九號，
　　芝城鐵路線上跑。
　　如果火車把軌拋，
　　你可會想退了票
　　你可會想把錢要。
　　是也不是也許是，
　　是也不是也許是……

　　我可以看出來露西和拉切爾有點氣憤。可她們沒說什麼，因為她是我妹妹。

　　是也不是也許是。是也不是也許是……

　　蕾妮。我喊她。可她沒聽到我。她遠在好多光年外。她在一個我們再也不屬的世界裡。蕾妮。走呀，走呀。

　　Y—E—S，拼好Y—E—S你就走！

　　I like coffee, I like tea.

　　I like the boys and the boys like me.

　　Yes, no, maybe so. Yes, no, maybe so……

　　One day you wake up and they are there. Ready and waiting like a new Buick with the keys in the ignition. Ready to take you where?

　　They're good for holding a baby when you're cooking, Rachel says, turning the jump rope a little quicker. She has no imagination.

　　You hem to dance, says Lucy.

　　If you don't get them you may turn into a man. Nenny says this and she believes it. She is this way because of her age.

　　That's right, I add before Lucy or Rachel make fun of her. She is stupid alright, but she is my sister.

　　But most important, hips are stific, I say repeating what Alicia already told me. It's the bohat let you know which skeleton was a man's when it was a man and which a woman's.

　　They bloom like roses, I tinue because it's obvious I'm the only one who speak with any authority；I have sy side. The bones just one day open. Just like that. One day you might decide to have kids, and then where are you going to put them? Got to have room. Bones got to give.

　　But don't have too many or your behind will spread. That's how it is, says Rachel whose mama is as wide as a boat. And we just laugh.

　　What I'm saying is who here is ready? You gotta be able to know what to do with hips when you get them, I say making it up as I go. You gotta know how to walk with hips, practice you know——like if half of you wao go one way and the other half the other.

　　That's to lullaby it, Nenny says, that's to rock the baby asleep inside you. And then she begins singing seashells, copper bells eevy, ivy, o-ver.

　　I'm about to tell her that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard, but the more I think about it……

　　You gotta get the rhythm, and Lucy begins to dance. She has the idea, though she's having trouble keeping her end of the double-dutch steady.

　　It's gotta be just so, I say. Not too fast and not too slow. Not too fast and not too slow.

　　We slow the double circles down to a certain speed so Rachel who has just jumped in practice shaking it.

　　I want to shake like hoochi-coochie, Lucy says. She is crazy.

　　I want to move like heebie-jeebie, I say pig up on the cue.

　　I want to be Tahiti. Or merengue. Or electricity. Or tembleque！

　　Yes, tembleque. That's a good one.

　　And then it's Rachel who starts it：

　　Skip, skip，

　　snake in your hips.

　　Wiggle around

　　and break your lip.

　　Lucy waits a minute before her turn. She is thinking. Then she begins：

　　The waitress with the big fat hips

　　who pays the rent with taxi tips……

　　says nobody in town will kiss her on the lips

　　because……

　　because she looks like Christopher bus！

　　Yes, no, maybe so. Yes, no, maybe so.

　　She misses on maybe so. I take a little while before my turn, take a breath, and dive in：

　　Some are skinny like chi lips.

　　Some are baggy like soggy Band-Aids

　　after you get out of the bathtub.

　　I don't care what kind I get.

　　Just as long as I get hips.

　　Everybody getting into it now except Nenny who is still humming not a girl, not a boy, just a little baby. She's like that.

　　Whewo arcs open wide like jaws Nenny jumps in across from me, the rope tick-tig, the little gold earrings our mama gave her for her First Holy union boung. She is the color of a bar of naphtha laundry soap, she is like the little brown piece left at the end of the wash, the hard little bone, my sister. Her mouth opens. She begins：

　　My mother and your mother were washing clothes.

　　My mother punched your mht in the nose.

　　What color blood came out?

　　Not that old song, I say. You gotta use your own song. Make it up, you know? But she doesn't get it or won't. It's hard to say which. The rope turning, turning, turning.

　　Engine, engine number nine，

　　running down Chicago line.

　　If the train runs off the track

　　do you want your money back?

　　Do you want your MONEY back?

　　Yes, no, maybe so. Yes, no, maybe so……

　　I tell Lud Rachel are disgusted, but they don't say anything because she's my sister.

　　Yes, no, maybe so. Yes no, maybe so...

　　Nenny, I say, but she doesn't hear me. She is too many light-years away. She is in a world we don't belong to any-more. Nenny. Going. Going.

　　Y-E-S spells yes and out you gou!

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