Chapter 28 Q of clubs...before he leaves he should at least sign his name on his masterpiece...

When we pulled the car ashore and drove through the Peloponnese in southern Greece, one of the first things Dad did was buy a women's magazine that his aunt had bought in Crete. At an outdoor restaurant near the busy port, we parked our car and went in for breakfast.Before the waiter brought coffee, juice, and dry bread with a thin layer of jam, Dad began to leaf through the magazine. "Wow, that's outrageous!" He suddenly exclaimed. Dad held the magazine up in front of me and showed me the large photo that spanned two pages.The mother in the photo, while not completely naked—like the nude girl in the deck of cards that Dad bought in Verona—was also dressed coolly.Her thin clothes were not intended to show off her figure, but to promote products for a swimwear manufacturer.

"We might find her in Athens," Pa said. "But it's not easy to take her home." The words printed under the photograph were in Greek, which puzzled even Papa, an old polyglot sailor.Faced with the peculiar alphabet of the Greek language—the Greeks disdained the use of the European Roman alphabet—Papa could only stare. Breakfast arrived, but Dad wasn't even in the mood for a sip of coffee.He is holding the magazine.Walk around the restaurant and ask the Greek customers table by table if anyone understands English or German.He ended up with a group of teenagers.Dad spread out the magazine, showed them a spread of photos of my mother, and asked them to translate the fine print below.Those boys turned their heads and looked at me, which made me feel so ashamed that I wanted to find a hole in the ground and crawl into it.I just wish Papa would refrain from arguing with them about the immorality of Norwegian women.

Pa wrote down the name and address of the Athens advertising agency and came back to our table. "It's getting hotter and hotter," Dad said. There were pictures of other women in the magazine, but Dad was only interested in Mom's one.Carefully he tore it off and threw the whole magazine in the trash—like pulling out a buffoon and throwing away a brand-new deck of cards. The fastest way to go to Athens is along the south bank of Corinth Bay (Bay. fCorinth), through the famous Corinth Canal (CointhCanal) that route.However, whenever there is an opportunity to detour to see the scenery, Dad does not take the quickest route.

In fact, he wanted to visit the temple of the sun god Apollo and ask the oracle.From here, we have to take a ferry across the Gulf of Corinth, and then drive along the northern shore of the Gulf of Corinth to the ancient city of Delphi, where the temple is located. It takes only half an hour to cross the Gulf of Corinth by ferry.We drove ashore and drove about twenty miles to a small town called Naupaktos.In the square in the city, we stopped to rest, drank coffee and soda, and watched the Venetian fortress at the foot of the mountain. I can't help but wonder what it's going to be like when we father and son find our mother in Athens, but at the moment I'm more concerned with what happened in Bun's book.I thought hard, trying to find a way to have the best of both worlds, to talk to my father about some doubts in my heart, but not to let him know the secret of the bun book.

Dad waved to the waiter, ready to pay the bill.I quickly took advantage of this gap and asked, "Dad, do you believe in God?" When Dad heard this, he was stunned: "Don't you think it's inappropriate to bring up this matter early in the morning?" I agree with that, but Dad has no idea where my mind wandered to when he was far away in his sleep this morning.He knows it.He'd just sit there, try his best to crack some one-liners, and occasionally pull out a deck of cards and do some juggling tricks, and I've seen the whole deck go around in broad daylight like flesh-and-blood human beings.

"If God exists," I said, "he must be playing hide-and-seek with his creatures right now." Dad laughed, but knew he totally agreed with me. "Maybe, when he saw the human beings he created, he freaked out," Dad said. "So he slipped away and left this world. It's hard to tell who was most frightened—Adam? Or God? I think a creation like that frightened both. But , God should at least sign his name on his masterpiece before he goes away." "How to sign?" I asked. "Easy! All he has to do is carve his name on a canyon or a mountain or something."

"So you believe in God?" "I didn't say that. I did say that God sits in heaven and laughs at us because we don't believe in him." I thought to myself: Yes, that's what my dad used to say when he was in Hamburg. "He didn't leave a business card, but he left the whole world," Dad said. "That's fair enough." Dad thought for a while, then said, "Once, a Russian astronaut and a brain surgeon got together to discuss Christianity. The surgeon was a Christian, and the astronaut didn't believe in God. The astronaut said arrogantly: "I have been to outer space several times, but I have never seen an angel." The surgeon immediately retorted: "I have cut open the minds of many people who pretend to be smart, and found that the inside is empty." Is it a story you made up on the spur of the moment?"

He shook his head: "This is an old joke that my philosophy teacher in Ellendale used to tell." Dad went to the Open University to get a certificate proving he was a philosopher (OpenUniVersity) take the course "Introduction to Philosophy".He had read all the relevant books, but he couldn't get enough of them. Last fall, he went to the Allendale School of Nursing to sit in on their history of philosophy course. Dad felt that he couldn't learn much just sitting in the classroom and listening to the "professor" lecture, so he invited the teacher to our home on Hisoi Island.Dad said: "I can't leave the teacher in the hotel." So I got to know the professor.Once the gentleman's chatterbox is opened, there is no end to it.Like my dad, he spends his days pondering endless philosophical questions.The only difference: the "Professor" is a swashbuckling intellectual, and my dad is a swashbuckling brut.

Now, Baba sat in the square, staring down at the Venetian fortress at the foot of the hill. "Hans Thomas, God is dead, and we murdered him." Hearing these words was like a shock to my ears.My heart was so shaken that I couldn't answer for a moment.We drove away from the Gulf of Corinth and up the hill to the ancient city of Delphi, passing olive grove after clump.We could have arrived in Athens that day, but my father insisted that when passing Delphi, we must stop the car and pay respect to this ancient temple. We arrived at Delphi around midday, and checked into a hotel overlooking the beautiful Gulf of Corinth.There are many inns in the city, but Dad deliberately chose one with a magnificent view overlooking the sea.

After settling down at the hotel, we wandered through the ancient city to the famous shrine two or three miles away on the eastern outskirts.When the ruins were in sight, my father began to talk endlessly: "In ancient times, whenever people had any doubts, they would come here to consult the oracle of Apollo. You can ask about everything—the object of marriage, the destination of travel. , it's time for the army to set out, and the calendar adjustment..." "What the hell is an oracle?" I couldn't help asking. My father told me that once Zeus, the god of heaven, sent two eagles to start from the two ends of the earth and fly to the midpoint of the earth.It turns out they met at Delphi.So the Greeks declared this place to be the center of the world.Apollo came to Delphi.Before settling here, he had to slay the dragon Python—so the priestess of Apollo was called Pythia.After the dragon's death, it turned into a giant python, which accompanied Apollo day and night.

Frankly, I didn't quite understand the story my dad told, and he never told me what the oracle was.But by this time we had come to the entrance of the temple.The temple is located in a valley at the foot of Mount Parnassus.It is said that the Nine Muse goddesses (the Muses), who empower mankind to create, live on this mountain. Before entering the temple, my father insisted that I accompany him to the mountain gate and take a sip of the holy spring water there.He claimed that everyone had to wash before stepping foot in the holy place.He also said that after drinking the water from the holy spring, you will have the power of wisdom, and you will be inspired to write poems. After entering the temple, Dad bought a map showing what the temple looked like two thousand years ago.We really need this map, because today the temple is just a mess of ruins. Let's go to the ruins of the ancient city's treasury first.In the past, people who came here to consult the oracle of Apollo had to bring a precious gift.In order to collect these treasures, the governments of successive dynasties built treasuries one after another. After entering the temple of Apollo, my father answered me directly, what is the oracle. "What you're looking at now are the ruins of the temple of Apollo," he began to explain. "There is a stone with inscriptions in the temple, which is called 'navel' (navel), because in the eyes of the Greeks, this temple is the 'navel' (navel) of the world. They also believe that Apollo lived in the temple—— At least a few days a year - and the Greeks can come to consult him at any time if they have any doubts. Apollo issued an oracle through the priestess Pythia. Pythia sat on a three-legged stool in the temple, and there was a Through the gap, a hypnotic gas was emitted, which made Pythia fall into a trance and became the spokesperson of Apollo. People who came to Delphi to ask the oracle asked questions to the male priests, and they conveyed them to Pythia. Her answers were often so cryptic that they had to be interpreted by the priest. In this way, the Greeks used the wisdom of Apollo to solve personal problems and deal with national affairs, because Apollo knew everything and saw the future." "What shall we ask Apollo?" "Ask him if we can find Anida in Athens," Pa said. "You act as the priestess who asks questions, and I act as Priestess Pythia who conveys Apollo's decree." Papa sat down in front of the ruins of the Temple of Apollo and started shaking his head and waving his arms like a sudden madman, startling a group of French and German tourists and taking several steps back. I respectfully asked: "Can we find Miss Aini in Athens?" Apparently, Dad was waiting for Apollo's god to possess him.Aluobo finally taught: "A young man from afar...meet a beautiful girl...meet an ancient temple..." After conveying the oracle, Dad woke up and nodded in satisfaction. "All right," he said. "Pisia's answers have always been so ambiguous." I am not satisfied, who is the young man? Who is the beautiful girl? Where is the ancient temple? "Let's toss! See if we can find her in Athens." I offered. "Since Apollo can control your tongue, he must be able to control a coin." Dad accepted my suggestion.He took out an ancient Greek coin.We agreed that tails would mean we would find Mom in Athens.I tossed the copper plate into the sky and looked nervously at the ground. Tails! Yes, it really is tails.That ancient Greek coin lay on the ground like it had been for thousands of years, waiting for us father and son to come and find it.