She stood up now. “Pakistan?”

她当即站起来：“巴基斯坦？”

“Rahim Khan is very sick.” A fist clenched¹ inside me with those words.

“拉辛汗病得很厉害。”我说着这话的时候内心绞痛。

“Kaka’s old business partner?” She’d never met Rahim Khan, but I had told her about him. I nodded.

“叔叔以前的合伙人吗？”她从未见过拉辛汗，但我提及过他。我点点头。

“Oh,” she said. “I’m so sorry, Amir.”

“哦，”她说，“我很难过，阿米尔。”

“We used to be close,” I said. “When I was a kid, he was the first grown-up I ever thought of as a friend.” I pictured him and Baba drinking tea in Baba’s study, then smoking near the window, a sweetbrier-scented breeze blowing from the garden and bending the twin columns of smoke.

“过去我们很要好。”我说，“当我还是孩子的时候，他是第一个被我当成朋友的成年人。”我描述起来，说到他和爸爸在书房里面喝茶，然后靠近窗户吸烟，和风从花园带来阵阵蔷薇的香味，吹得两根烟柱袅袅飘散。

“I remember you telling me that,” Soraya said. She paused. “How long will you be gone?”

“我记得你提到过。”索拉雅说。她沉默了一会，“你会去多久？”

“I don’t know. He wants to see me.”

“我不知道，他想看到我。”

“Is it...”

“那儿……”

“Yes, it’s safe. I’ll be all right, Soraya.” It was the question she’d wanted to ask all along--fifteen years of marriage had turned us into mind readers.

“是的，那儿很安全。我会没事的，索拉雅。”她想问的是这个问题——十五年的琴瑟和鸣让我们变得心有灵犀。

“I’m going to go for a walk.”

“要我陪着你吗？”

“Nay², I’d rather be alone.”

“不用，我想一个人。

I DROVE TO GOLDEN GATE PARK and walked along Spreckels Lake on the northern edge of the park. It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon; the sun sparkled on the water where dozens of miniature boats sailed, propelled by a crisp San Francisco breeze. I sat on a park bench, watched a man toss a football to his son, telling him to not sidearm the ball, to throw over the shoulder. I glanced up and saw a pair of kites, red with long blue tails. They floated high above the trees on the west end of the park, over the windmills.

”我驱车前往金门公园，独自沿着公园北边的斯普瑞柯湖边散步。那是个美丽的星期天下午，太阳照在波光粼粼的水面上，数十艘轻舟在旧金山清新的和风吹拂中漂行。我坐在公园的长椅上，看着一个男人将橄榄球扔给他的儿子，告诉他不可横臂投球，要举过肩膀。我抬起头，望见两只红色的风筝，拖着蓝色的长尾巴。它们越过公园西端的树林，越过风车。

I thought about a comment Rahim Khan had made just before we hung up. Made it in passing, almost as an afterthought. I closed my eyes and saw him at the other end of the scratchy longdistance line, saw him with his lips slightly parted, head tilted³ to one side. And again, something in his bottomless black eyes hinted at an unspoken secret between us. Except now I knew he knew. My suspicions had been right all those years. He knew about Assef, the kite, the money, the watch with the lightning bolt hands. He had always known.

我想起挂电话之前拉辛汗所说的一句话。他不经意间提起，却宛如经过深思熟虑。我闭上眼，看见他在嘈杂的长途电话线那端，看见他歪着头，嘴唇微微分合。再一次，他深邃莫测的黑色眼珠中，有些东西暗示着我们之间未经说出的秘密。但是此刻我知道他知道。我这些年来的怀疑是对的。他知道阿塞夫、风筝、钱，还有那个指针闪光的手表的事情。他一直都知道。

Come. There is a way to be good again, Rahim Khan had said on the phone just before hanging up. Said it in passing, almost as an afterthought.

“来吧。这儿有再次成为好人的路。”拉辛汗在挂电话之前说了这句话。不经意间提起，却宛如经过深思熟虑。

A way to be good again. 再次成为好人的路。