《大西洋之歌》文木宁

8、名字

　　蔡煦口里的“Medase”还没说出口，惊讶地问：“What？What do you mean ‘pay you money’?”
　　“I helped you, and you should pay, sir.”
　　“No, man.” 他平时在办公室和本地员工说顺口了，冒出了这么一句，当意识到说错了后，立马改口，“No, madam. I don’t have money. You helped me, and I think ‘help’ is free. ”
　　“Not free for me.” Serwaa笑道。
　　Sarah似乎看不下去了，两人用本地语互相交流了两句。
　　“Forget it. She is kidding.” Sarah说道。
　　“No, I am not kidding. I am serious.” Serwaa脸上的笑容不像是认真的，“Xu, it’s okay you don’t pay me money. But you can use another way to pay. Teach her more Chinese words, okay?”
　　“Ok-ay. And you just remind me of this. Maybe I need school fee from Sarah.” 他也一本正经地开起玩笑来。
　　“No, Xu. I don’t have money.”
　　“You are a business man, Xu.” Serwaa被反将一军后笑着说，“Sarah doesn’t have money, but you can have her.”
　　“Shut up. Serwaa. Please go to your bedroom.” Sarah轻声地说道。
　　“Yes, yes, yes. Because my lady is learning Chinese from a handsome Chinese boy. I can’t be here.”
　　“Then just go to your bed, now.”
　　Serwaa对着蔡煦做了个无奈的表情，然后扭着她那二百多斤的肥胖身躯左一晃右一晃地走进了她的卧室，轻轻关上了门。Sarah没在说什么，只是认真地在本子上写汉字，同时口里还在轻声读。
　　七八分钟后，冰块基本上都化成了水，他活动了一下手腕，感觉没刚开始那么疼了。
　　“Are you still feeling pain?”
　　“Yeah, a little. Thank you so much, Sarah.”
　　“It’s okay.” 她咬住笔头开心地笑着像个孩子，“Oh, yes. You can say ‘medase paa’. ”她边说边在本子上写了出来。
　　“Medase paa？”
　　“Yeah, it means ‘thanks a lot’. It’s easy, right?”
　　“Yeah. Medase paa.”他在口里反复念了几次后问道，“How should I say ‘you are welcome’?”
　　“Y3ndase.”
　　“Y3ndase…”他跟着读了几遍，接着他突然想起了一件事。“Sarah, could you help me get a local name?”对于不会讲汉语拼音的人来说，要正确且清晰地发出他的名字是一件很困难的事情，如果能有个本地名字，能让客户更容易更快地记住自己，方便维护客户关系开展工作。
　　“You can have an English name by yourself. It’s okay you use an English name.”
　　“I had an English name once.”
　　“What is it?”
　　“Nicolas. Actually it’s a French name and I got it when I was studying French. I chose this name because of an American actor called Nicolas Cage.”.他小时候看了很多Nicolas Cage主演的电影，以前特别喜欢他，但是后来他过气了，演的电影也平平无奇。
　　“I watched his movies as well.” Sarah饶有兴致地盯着他看，“So you can speak French.”
　　“Yeah. Oui. A little. I just studied one year, so I am not so good at French. And I almost forgot it.”
　　“D\'accord, chéri. So why you don’t keep using Nicolas?”
　　“Because one of my colleagues is using it.”
　　“I see. And you wanna another one.”
　　“I wanna a local one.”蔡煦想起自己认识的几个本地同事来，”By the way, Wilson is an English name? All of your names are English name?”
　　“Not exactly. Some of us have English names, but some of us have tribe names.”
　　“Tribe name?”蔡煦一时没反应过来。
　　“Yeah, you know, there are some tribes…”
　　“Okay, I see.”他突然想起以前看的电影里面的非洲原始部落土著猎杀动物的画面来。tribe是当地的部落，不同的部落之间说的语言有差别，就像是中国有很多的方言，粤语、上海话、重庆话等。“So how about Wilson？It’s an English name?”他的一个本地同事就叫这个名字。
　　“Yes, it’s an English name.”
　　“And Ebo?”
　　“Ebo is a local name. It means Tuesday Born.”
　　“Okayy…”他想问她的名字，犹豫之下没有问出口，没想到她却主动提了起来。
　　“Have a guess about my name ‘Sarah’, English name or local name?”
　　“It’s like an English name.”
　　“Bingo, you are right. It comes from The Bible. ”接着她在本子上写出了自己的全名，“And this is my full name：Sarah Afiyoo Appiah.”
　　“Appiah is your family name, and Afiyoo is your middle name.”
　　“Yes. How about yours? Can you write it?”
　　“My name is 蔡煦, and the Pinyin is Cai Xu.”
　　Sarah跟着念了两遍，却发现汉字很复杂。“Wow, these 2 Chinese characters are so complicated.”然后她尝试在本子上照着写出来，“Oh, Jesus! It’s so hard for me to write your full name.”
　　Sarah难以置信的语气中带着点沮丧，这把他逗笑了。“Yeah, I guess so.”蔡煦就这么看着Sarah在她的本子上努力地一笔一画地照着写着他的名字，突然心里的某个地方轻轻地触动了一下。他说不出当看着别人认真写出自己名字时具体是一种什么样的感受，因为这是他第一次看到别人把自己的名字写得那么的丑——偏旁部首全都分了家，像是被拆散开的乐高玩具零件，摆放得很凌乱——却又写得那么认真。依稀记得上幼儿园时的自己就是这样一笔一画写自己名字的。
　　“I am done. But it’s not same with yours.”她花了四五分钟才写完他的名字，然而却相差甚大，沮丧之情溢于言表。
　　“It’s okay. You did well.” 蔡煦安慰她，“You know what, when I was a child in kindergarten, it was so difficult for me to write my name as well. You can’t believe that I cried a few times because of it.”
　　“Oh, really?”
　　“Yes, I am not telling a lie. My mom scolded me because I couldn\'t write my own name. She is strict mother.”
　　“But she loves you.”
　　“Yeah, she loves me. I understood s□□ wanted me to study hard. And the first step is to write my own name.”
　　“I believe she is a good mother and she has such a good boy.”
　　“I love my mom.”和绝大多数中国孩子一样，虽然蔡煦能对外人说出他爱他的母亲，但却从未亲自当面对他的妈妈说过“我爱你，妈妈”。“Hey, I want to have a local name. Please don’t forget.” 聊着聊着就聊偏了，幸好自己想起来了。
　　“Oh, yes, let me see.”