告诉蜜蜂

Tell it to the Bees by Fiona Shaw 原著结局是HE, 三人决定前往另一个国家，没有影片中车站告别的那一吻 41 The sky sat upon their shoulders, so low and so grey, and their movements in the cold day were thick and imprecise. The ground was soft with the rain, and earth soon clodded their boots. The hives were heavier than Jean remembered. Slowly they lifted, slowly they manoeuvred. Every so often she would stop and look around her, as if storing up her fill of it against the future. Charlie ran about, helping, and Lydia came out for a while, wrapped up in Jean’s old coat. There was everything left to do, and nothing at all. They had come to their decision in an instant three months ago but spoken of it to nobody, not even Charlie, till they knew they could go. Now they were leaving and, for the time being, they would take only what they needed. Jim drove the car slowly across the silent Sunday town. Behind, in the trailer, the four hives and Charlie. ‘You found someone quickly, for the hives,’ Jim said. ‘Yes.’ Jean looked out at the town. ‘You’ve gone already,’ Jim said. ‘Haven’t you?’ ‘I didn’t choose it.’ ‘You chose something. Are you taking the cat?’ ‘She’ll like it. The heat. The insects.’ ‘And us?’ ‘You’ll visit. For ages. We’ll visit.’ They sat in the kitchen and drank coffee. Lydia sat with them. She wrote on a list, and crossed things off. Sometimes she smiled at what they said, but she didn’t join the conversation. This was not her farewell. Charlie was in and out, buzzing, excited. Often, Jean saw, he would brush by Lydia, or pause, and she would put a brief hand on his hair or drop a kiss to his shoulder. Jean saw that till he left the room, Lydia’s eyes didn’t leave him. She wouldn’t let him go. ‘You have money enough,’ Jim said. ‘I’ll write before we’re on the street,’ Jean said. ‘Viale, not street. Or strada.’ ‘What will you do?’ ‘I will not worry,’ Jim said. ‘We’ll be careful. It’ll be easier in a foreign country.’ ‘You’re a doctor. Everybody sees you.’ Jean shook her head. ‘Only if they need to. We’ll be careful. We’ll be strange already, for being English.’ ‘And I will not miss you in the Red Horse on Thursdays. I will find another oldest friend to put in your place.’ The doorbell rang and Lydia went to see. ‘You know there was a whip-round at the factory,’ Jean said. ‘Like they do when a girl gets married.’ ‘That’s a nice gesture,’ Jim said. ‘Pam organized it. She left the money in the porch with a note. Lydia didn’t show it to me, but it made her cry a little.’ ‘Does she know what happened?’ ‘She knows that Annie lost her baby. Nothing else. She’s been round with Annie every day almost. Made her promise that she’ll visit us before the year is out.’ ‘Do you think she will?’ Jean shrugged. ‘I don’t know. But I don’t think Lydia could bear to go without the promise.’ She got up and fetched the jug of coffee. ‘Lydia’s learning the language so quickly. More quickly than me,’ she said. ‘We have a book. But I’ve done my other homework. I’ve written some letters and made some telephone calls. I can practise over there and I’ve established that there are plenty of sick people. English-speaking sick people. So I’ll get to work on them while I’m learning new words.’ ‘Then you are as set as you can be, though it might take some getting used to. A foreign country and foreign ways. What about here? Have you cured everybody here?’ ‘Everybody who will be cured.’ Sarah and the little girls came at lunchtime and Charlie showed the girls the four squares in the grass where the hives had been. ‘They’re like windows,’ he said. ‘What to?’ ‘It doesn’t matter, so long as you can look through them.’ He chased them to the bottom of the garden, roaring like a lion; and a while later they went home. They packed Charlie’s shelves that evening, each thing wrapped in old news till the holdall was full. Though it was late now, he swore he would not sleep. Lydia turned off his light and went downstairs. ‘Is he excited?’ Jean said. ‘He said it would be like a new world to look at. He said you had told him so.’ Jean kissed the woman she would leave her life for, run away for. ‘He’s right,’ she said.