THE SKY WAS A DEEP BLACK when the phone jolted¹ me from sleep. I rubbed my eyes and turned on the bedside lamp. It was a little past 10:30 P.M.; I’d been sleeping for almost three hours. I picked up the phone. “Hello?” 电话将我惊醒的时候，天已经全黑了。我揉揉眼睛，旋开床头灯。刚过晚上10点半，我睡了将近三个小时。我拿起话筒。“喂？”

“Call from America.” Mr. Fayyaz’s bored voice. “美国打来的电话。”费亚兹先生的声音。

“Thank you,” I said. The bathroom light was on; Sohrab was taking his nightly bath. A couple of clicks and then Soraya:

“谢谢。”我说。浴室的灯光亮着，索拉博又在洗澡了。电话传来两声按键声，然后是索拉雅的声音。

“Salaam²!” She sounded excited.

“你好！”她声音振奋。

“How did the meeting go with the lawyer?”

“你跟那个律师谈得怎样？”

I told her what Omar Faisal had suggested. “Well, you can forget about it,” she said. “We won’t have to do that.”

我把费萨尔的建议告诉她。“好了，你可以忘了它，”她说，“我们不用那么做。”

I sat up. “Rawsti? Why, what’s up?”

我坐起来。“什么？为什么？怎么回事？”

“I heard back from Kaka Sharif. He said the key was getting Sohrab into the country. Once he’s in, there are ways of keeping him here. So he made a few calls to his INS friends. He called me back tonight and said he was almost certain he could get Sohrab a humanitarian³ visa.”

“我接到沙利夫舅舅的回电了。他说关键是把索拉博送进这个国家。只要他进来，就有很多把他留下的办法。所以他给几个在移民局的朋友打了电话。他今晚给我回电，说他很有把握能替索拉博争取到人道主义签证。”

“No kidding?” I said. “Oh thank God! Good ol’ Sharifjan!”

“不是开玩笑吧？”我说，“啊，谢谢真主！亲爱的沙利夫太好了！”

“I know. Anyway, we’ll serve as the sponsors. It should all happen pretty quickly. He said the visa would be good for a year, plenty of time to apply for an adoption⁴ petition.”

“我知道。不管怎样，我们可以当保证人。一切会很快的。他说那种签证有效期一年，足够我们申请收养请求了。”

“It’s really going to happen, Soraya, huh?”

“这样最好了，索拉雅。对吧？”

“It looks like it,” she said. She sounded happy. I told her I loved her and she said she loved me back. I hung up.

“看起来是的。”她说。她的声音很快乐。我说我爱她，她说她也爱我。我们挂上电话。

“Sohrab!” I called, rising from my bed. “I have great news.” I knocked on the bathroom door. “Sohrab! Soraya jan just called from California. We won’t have to put you in the orphanage⁵, Sohrab. We’re going to America, you and I. Did you hear me? We’re going to America!” “索拉博！”我喊道，从床上起来，“我有个好消息。”我敲着浴室的门，“索拉博！亲爱的索拉雅刚才从加利福尼亚打电话来。我们不用把你放到恤孤院了，索拉博。我们就要去美国了，你和我。你听到吗？我们就要去美国了！”

I pushed the door open. Stepped into the bathroom.Suddenly I was on my knees, screaming. Screaming through my clenched⁶ teeth. Screaming until I thought my throat would rip and my chest explode.Later, they said I was still screaming when the ambulance arrived.

我推开门，走进浴室。刹那间我跪倒在地，放声大叫。我牙齿打颤，不断大叫。叫得我的喉咙快要裂开，叫得我的胸膛快要炸开。后来，他们说救护车来了之后我还不停叫着。