Chapter 4 Chapter Four

The boy was lying on the bed with all his clothes on, staring at the ceiling. There are no street lamps outside to illuminate this dark small room, but various lights belonging to London, after layers of refraction, there is still a glimmer of light, shining in this room because of cracks and water damage, it looks a bit like the world map on the ceiling. The boy was indeed staring at a map of the world, only not the one on the ceiling.His mind was retracing the journey of his life, stop by stop.The encounter with that stranger today was a big shock to him.It seems that in a certain corner of the world, there is really a person who looks so much like me that I can't even tell each other apart.For him who has been alone all his life, it can be said to be a comforting and exciting thing for him.

In fact, it may be the most unusual thing that happened to him in his twenty-one years since he landed.It seems that all these years of rolling in vicissitudes are waiting for the actor to say when he catches a glimpse of him: "Hello, Simon." "Oh, I'm sorry," said the actor right after, "I thought you were a friend of mine—" In the middle of the sentence he stopped abruptly and stared at him. "Can I help you with anything?" Seeing that the man had no intention of walking away, the boy could only ask. "Okay. Come have lunch with me."

"why? " "It's lunch time, and there's one of my favorite restaurants right behind you." "But why did you invite me?" "Because I'm interested in you. You look like a friend of mine. Introduce me, I'm Lodin, Allie Lodin. I was just a kid in a bad play that was put on in the worst theater." Role." His chin lifts across the street. "However, God knows, they paid me a decent salary, better than the part I played. Tell me your name?" "Fala." "Farrah?" "No. It's Farah." "Oh." The man kept having an amused and thoughtful look: "Have you been back in London for a long time?"

"How do you know I ever left here?" "Brother, you can tell by what you're wearing. I'm good at clothes. Having acted in so many roles and worn so many costumes, looking at your outfit, the cut, needless to say, must have come from the United States. " "Then why don't you think I'm an American?" Hearing this, the man grinned: "Speaking of which, it is the secret recipe handed down from our ancestors in England. You can point out a group of monks walking slowly in Italy, without any difficulty:' This one's British.' You can point to one of the beggars on the streets of America and say, 'Oh my God, this guy's British.' You can even pick one out of a bunch of naked patients waiting to be examined by a doctor. ——Oh, let’s not talk about it, how about having a meal with me?! We can talk slowly. "

In this way, they went to eat together, and this man kept talking, but he was not annoying.But in his slightly swollen eyes, which were still alive, there were inquiries, interest, and even disbelief from time to time.His eyes were more compelling than his eloquent words.The boy thought, I Bolai'Fala must look very much like the boy in his mouth to make him have such an incredible expression. Lying on the bed, he thought about this unusual encounter over and over again. He really wanted to take a look at the man who looked almost exactly like him, his name was Asybe.Not a bad name: Asybe, a decent British surname.

He wanted to see that place, too: Recht, the place where his "twin brother" had grown up when he left the orphanage to wander and have nowhere to go. orphanage.He couldn't stay there, and it wasn't the orphanage's fault.To be honest, it was a very good orphanage, better than many families he had seen since.The children there love the orphanage very much.When it was time to leave, every child would cry with sadness, and would come back often in the future, and some would send money back. When they got married, they would invite staff to attend the wedding. When the child was born, they would bring it back to let the principal know.No boy or girl ever slipped out of that orphanage, but why couldn't he? Because of his natural nomadic nature? , or any card or invitation letter for him? But the orphanage is already very considerate, and the staff still protect his self-esteem very well.

Just because he was truly alone, he had to be taken care of more than the other kids in the yard.He remembered getting a Christmas present from the dean every year.Those children who only received small gifts from their aunts or uncles were always jealous and envious of him.It was the dean who picked him up at the door back then, and from that day on, he ordered people to give him the most thoughtful care (for fifteen years, he often heard people mention this to him, but he never felt that it was because of it. satisfy) .With a needle and a telephone book, the dean decided on his surname "Farrah".The dean was pleased when he saw the needle fall on the name "Farrett."I heard the original needle was pointing at "Coffin"

(The English original meaning is "coffin". - Translator's Note) The dean had to pretend not to see this word and try again. The origin of his name is clear.Because he was put in front of the orphanage on St. Bartholomew's Day, he was called "Bardo" at first, but the older children in the yard always liked to call him "Bolai", and later even The staff in the courtyard also called it like this (this is another deliberate arrangement by the dean, so that he does not appear too "special"?).In this way, the name followed him to primary school.primary school.Why did he still feel out of place in elementary school? Because his clothes were a little bit different from others? Of course not.

Is it because he reads too well? Nope.Half of children like this are good readers.So why did he decide not to go to school anymore? His decision was really not commensurate with his young age, and even the dean couldn't argue with him, so he decided to let him go to work. He doesn't like his job.This is of course not surprising at all.The office job was fifty miles away, and since his salary couldn't afford to rent an ordinary house, he had to live in a so-called "boy's home". It was not until he lived in this youth home that he realized the benefits of the orphanage where he lived before.

He could get by if he just had to endure work or just living in a boys' home, but there was nothing he could do with the combination, and his job was more tolerable than living in a boys' home.In fact, this job is considered easy, and he can develop some things after staying for a long time, but for him, it is no different than a shackle, and he constantly feels that time is slipping past him like this, and it is just wasted like this .No, this is not the life he wanted. He said goodbye to his office life almost by surprise, but not without thought. "One Day Trip to Dippy"—it was this advertisement that changed his fate—the travel advertisement posted on the glass window of the newspaper office, with the price written in large bright red characters, was almost exactly the sum of all his savings— Two and a half shillings.That being said, nothing would have happened had it not happened to coincide with Mr. Handlun's funeral.Mr. Handlen is a "partner" retired from their office.On the day of his funeral, the office expressed its respect for his "

As a result, he has a whole week's salary in his pocket and a whole day off. When he saw this advertisement, he took all his savings to "go abroad" without hesitation. In He really had a great time in this place of Dippy. Although his terribly bad French, which he had only studied for a year, did not hinder his enjoyment at all, he never thought that he would be in this place. To stay--until the return journey. Just as he was in port, the idea of ​​"stay" flashed into his head and startled him. The boy looked at the ceiling of this small room in the Pink Square and thought to himself: the thought of "staying" followed by a large laundry bill arrears in England made him deeply disturbed, but this Is it out of the honesty of nature? Or is it well-trained in the orphanage? It stands to reason that a pauper with empty pockets and no bed should not have a bad conscience because of the little laundry. It was the tricycle that came from the harbor that saved him.He gave the tricycle a thumbs up, and the dark, sweaty driver understood the international signal, grinned at him as he passed, and slowed down down.He ran after the car for a while, took the opportunity to grab the body and climbed up, and was immediately dragged into the car.His past life, at this very moment, was thrown behind him. Originally he wanted to stay and work in France.On the drive to Port Harvard, he gesticulated with the driver because he couldn't understand the driver's thick dialect accent.At the same time, he was also thinking about how to make money to improve his life.But in a small bar in Harvard Harbor, a guest sitting next to him awakened his dream with a word. "Little brother," the man looked at him like a bereaved dog, "you can't work in France just because you are a man. You have to have a document." "Which country can provide work without a certificate?" He also asked stupidly: "I can go anywhere." He suddenly realized that the whole world was in front of his eyes, and he could go wherever he wanted. "God knows," said the man, "go to the harbor and find a boat." "Which ship?" "It doesn't matter. Don't you all say that in the UK?" As he spoke, the man nodded with his fingers and murmured something. "Oh, you mean the roll call game?" "That's right, go to the port and order a boat to climb on it." In this way, he ordered the Bafulo ship, which can work without a document.The ship's cook had been looking for an assistant for years, so as soon as he got on board, the cook hired him like a treasure. Hey, the Bafulo wheel.The old smell of oil in the cabin, the waves that roll up the mountains all the year round, and the dangers that have been miraculously dodged time and time again, and the precious cook who is always drunk and has to be called a free cook, and, Whistle learned on the ship... oh, the Bafulo wheel. When he left the ship, he brought home a lot, most importantly, he got a new name.When he wrote his name to show the captain, old Captain Bart misread the last two letters of his name, so he dropped "Farrah" and took "Farrah" instead. When I disembarked in Tambico, Mexico, someone immediately came to ask: "Little brother, are you British? Do you want to find a job?" He went, thinking the job was washing dishes or something. Unexpectedly, this is an errand to read an English newspaper for an old gentleman.The old man did not know which country he came from. He had a lot of money and lived in a beautiful big house with smooth tiles on the floor and first-class furniture, but he didn't understand English. "Since I don't understand English, what's the use of listening to me read English?" He asked the person who introduced him to work, and the other party's reply was: "You can't say that you don't understand. He looked through the dictionary by himself and understood a lot of English words." But he doesn’t know how to pronounce the words, all he wants is someone to read the words to him.” So he read the newspaper to the old man twice a day, and while the old man listened to it, he followed it with his withered fingers. With the words line by line.The old man liked him very much, and he also said that he wanted to adopt him, but this job was too distasteful to him, and he was not used to such a way of life, so he left the old man. Then I did several cooking jobs for others, all the way to the border of New Mexico, USA. It's easy to get to America from here, no risky swim across a big river.After changing jobs a few times, I finally found my true passion by accidentally helping out with horses in Santa Clara.No matter how unruly a horse is, it can become docile when he is harnessed. On Wilson's farm he worked for a while with the horseshoe blacksmith.There, he talked about his first love, but what made him even more excited was that he trained a group of "hopeless rotten horses" there. The owner was very happy, so he found one of the horses and gave it to him——his beloved "Yan'er". Later, he went to another horse farm to work as a horse teacher.Those two years were the happiest period of his life—it can be said that he was as happy as a fairy. Unexpectedly, that happened—it's just that he was half a beat behind.Maybe it was because the weather was too hot, or the sun was too big—in short, he just felt dizzy for a while, and he fell off the back of the running horse. Voice! That hospital in Mount Eggy is completely different from the American hospital seen in the movie.There are no pretty nurses, and there are no handsome interns.The walls of the ward were gray-green and had a musty smell.The nurses were either indifferent or overly indulgent. After resting for a few days, I started the terrible learning to walk.To make matters worse, the hospital failed to fix the bones, and now one foot is high and the other is low. He is destined to be a cripple for the rest of his life. The bad news is yet to come—the owner of the racecourse sent a letter, saying that he had found an oil mine at the racecourse and that he was going to switch to an oil field.The boss was quite conscientious, and sent him a check, asking him to take good care of his illness.However, all he cared about was: What about his cigarettes? What can a cripple and a horse do in an oil field?Of course he couldn't train the horses any more, but he couldn't do the job of tending those oil fields either.At least you can find some errands related to horses. This time he found a tourist ranch - but it still didn't look like the tourist ranch in the movie. The sightseers, who were neither riding nor well dressed, almost killed the poor horses. He also met a woman who owned a property near the tourist ranch. She said she wanted to marry him and promised to pay for his leg to be healed—it was an exchange. That woman is not the kind of person who "raises a man" in people's impression.She is not fat, nor is she stupid or coquettish.She was thin, often very tired, and treated him well. But he knew that this was not the life he wanted. The only advantage of working in a tourist ranch is that you can earn a lot of money.He'd never made that much money in his life, so he wanted to spend it in the Eastern United States.However, something unexpected happened again.In the east, which is more delicate and verdant than in the west, the fragrance of the garden in spring aroused his nostalgia for England.This was something he never thought of. For many years, he never thought of going back. Homesickness—a milkman's little emotion! He battled it for weeks and finally gave in. It’s okay, I haven’t seen London in my life, so when I go back to England, I think it’s a trip to London. That's how he settled into this little room in the Pink Row; that's how he met the actor in the street.