袋鼠通訊的部落格

A：是啊，我就這樣跟我家那口子說的啊，可是她喔…算了，我回家再好好跟她說。下次我們全家一起來看你吧。

 

場景：沒什麼家具的空房間內，屋內是一片昏暗，只有一道從窗外射進的微弱陽光，照在房間中間的桌子上，將桌子一分為二。一個男人（A）坐在桌子光亮的那一邊，似乎有點不耐煩的在等著什麼。

 

妳就住在我心裡 說：

 

父親和兒子傳接球。
母親和女兒在廚房一起準備晚餐。

半夜突然醒來之後，她仔細端詳著好久沒細看的丈夫的臉。年輕時她最愛他的雙眼，既大又有神。但到底是什麼時候開始，他的眼角竟然也出現那麼多的皺紋？仔細看來，好像連眼皮都鬆垮了起來。她用手輕輕撫過他的臉。平日工作時總是板著一張臉的他，好像只有睡覺時會放鬆一些，可是眉頭卻依舊留下些許平日嚴肅的痕跡。說起來，大概只有他的嘴巴還跟以前沒什麼兩樣。略為單薄的兩片唇，嘴角略微上揚的弧度常常讓人以為他在輕蔑地笑著，但只有她知道，那雙唇可以吐出多麼令人心動的話語。這樣看著看著，她嘆了口氣。眼前有些地方熟悉、有些地方陌生的這張臉，不知道為什麼，居然好像離自己好遠好遠了…

乘客們的尖叫聲以及即將墜落的失速感似乎完全沒有影響到他；因為他現在眼中只看得見那必須摧毀的邪惡目標，腦中充滿著即將因行祂的正義而得以進入天國的狂喜。啊，不義之徒們，用鮮血來滌淨你們的罪吧，他口中不自禁的念起了禱詞。忘記在哪裡看過一句話，寫說藉由禱告，他將得以體會之前所有也唸過這篇禱詞的人的心情；而他現在完全能體會到這句話的意思了。他一邊念著禱詞，一邊覺得所有先人的靈魂以及他們的熱情都投注在他身上，隨著一字一句在他心頭鼓動著。於是，伴隨著激昂的禱告聲、乘客的哀號以及引擎的悲鳴，飛機炸開。那一瞬間噴出的灼熱火焰，在他眼中看到的，是神的微笑。

男人坐在餐廳裡，他無意識地用手指敲著桌子的小動作，洩漏了他心中的焦慮。已經十年了，他想。年少時因為一場無意義的爭吵而分開後，和她已經十年沒見了。在這之間，只偶爾從共通的朋友間，會聽到一點她的消息。「她喔，好像變得有點多喔。」這是朋友們共同的看法，但他也無法從這一點消息中得知，她到底變得怎樣。而昨天，她突然的打過來，約他見面。「請什麼都不要問，出來和我見一面好嗎？」她這樣說，於是男人和她約在這餐廳裡吃晚餐。因為這場約會，男人特地在好幾天前就精心搭配好衣服，今晚還特別早溜班，就是為了避免遲到。但隨著時間的逼近，男人突然害怕起來。真的要見她嗎？她到底變得怎樣？我會不會認不出她來？她又會不會覺得我變得太多？最重要的是，她現在為什麼想見我呢？男人心中充滿了無數的疑問。手錶上的秒針好像發出必要以上的巨大聲響，提醒著男人時間就要到了。盯著錶面，在見與不見之間，男人陷入茫然。

這是和朋友討論的時候，突然跑出來的點子。有些東西看似極端，卻常會同時間出現，有時候甚至在同一人身上。說起來很矛盾，但實際上卻又很自然。對這個現象很好奇，加上想試驗新的寫作風格，於是產生了以下這些極短篇。大家可以猜猜各篇所代表兩個極端是什麼。以後可能也會陸續不定期放上一些。

劇本部份是劇本寫作課的作業（有點廢話）。之所以會寫這篇是因為老師想在班上同學之間作個嘗試：也就是每個人寫一個角色，然後把自己的角色傳給座位左手邊的人，讓對方用自己的角色和他個人的角色去寫一篇劇本，於是大家的角色一個接一個，串成一個圓，最後又回到了弟一個人那裡去。很好玩的構想，不過由於我前面那個人沒有把她的角色細節給我，所以我只能自己掰。本來想寫得有趣一點，不過發現英文中的幽默對白很難發揮，所以意外變得嚴肅了起來。
The Breaking up day則是開始於一個男人在分手後，努力試著回想自己週年紀念日當天在做些什麼的故事。他打電話去問了很多人，卻一直得不到答案。最後只有自己訂出一個分手紀念日，給明年的自己過。有點悲哀的小故事，不過為了要和short story課程唸過的其他故事配合起來，所以就變成這樣的情節了。

Mike
Oh please, don’t give me that shit again. I’ve had enough of that.

Sarah
Ok, Mike, let me tell you something. I may look like an ass right now and I may be a drunker but I still know something. That is, life is meaningless indeed, but you don’t have to live it meaninglessly. You can have you own goal and definition of life. Take that kid you speak of, how do you know he hasn’t live his life to the fullest? Maybe speed and fun is all he wants, and he does gets what he wants. So who are you to judge his life?

Mike
What’s wrong with it?

Mike stands inside the dim lit building, waiting for the lift to come. As he waits, he looked around the building: it’s a rather old one, and everything seems to be cover in thin dust. The lift also made a huge noise when it makes it way down the building, but he couldn’t tell which floor it is on now, since the indicating light had gone off. After a while, the door of the lift opens, and Mike walks in without thinking. But he soon finds out he almost steps on something so he quickly back off.

Act 3
Hank and Gina finally made enough money to pay the rent, as they went back to the flat, they found out that the landlord had already clean out all their belongings, and rent the flat to someone else. Gina wanted to buy the house back, but the flat was redecorated and Hank thought it wasn’t Bohemian style anymore so he refused to move back in. Just when they were arguing, their friends from the reading group came and give them a good suggestion.

Act 2
Hank and Gina went to the club of the boss’s wife, their plan was to let Hank seduce her, then they can killed her when she’s unprepared. But what they didn’t know is actually the boss’s wife prefer women than men, and she found Gina her taste. So she tried to take Gina as her playmate, and Hank couldn’t take it anymore so he told her the truth. As soon as she knew that the boss wanted to get rid of her, she decided to revenge and asked Hank to do so. She took Gina as hostage but promised she’ll release Gina and reward Hank handsomely once the boss was dead.

Act 1
Hank and Gina were staying in their room, preparing for the work for the reading coming next week. But then the landlord came and asked them to pay the rent or they’ll have to move out in a week. The couples begged him to let them stay, but the landlord said his wife wouldn’t let him, so although he wanted to help, but still he could do nothing. So Hank and Gina were left to collect the money. They thought of many ways but none of them seemed to be work, then Hank came up an idea to go cheated in a casino, so they can make money in a very short time. But unfortunately they got caught and were brought to the boss of the casino, who is also a boss of local mafia. The boss were about to killed them but then the second-in-charged guy suggested that the boss can force them to go murder the boss’s cheated wife. So Hank and Gina were then asked to do so in order to be set free.

Waltz, a slow smooth dance involving two people holding each other in close position for all time. Not as passionate as Chacha, not as mysterious as Tango, elegance is all it gets.

 

會寫這篇故事有兩個動機：第一，要交監禁文學的作業；第二，這篇故事原來的版本很不得我心。
怎麼說呢。其實這篇故事的主角是真有其人。他是個黑奴，在18世紀初和他的白人主人來到英國一個港口。這是傳說中唯一清楚的部份，接下來的版本就眾說紛紜。不過簡單說起來，就是這黑奴死了。有人說是因為他主人離開他，他自以為被拋棄了，於是就悲傷地絕食而死。還有別的版本是說他因思鄉病而死。總之對我來說都很蠢，也不知道為什麼英國有些人覺得這樣很浪漫，還替他寫詩。

Day after day he wandered alone in the wilderness, without ever stopping to sleep or eat. Because whenever he tried to do so, the image of the lonely tomb flashed back into his mind, and that always made him cry out in pain as if he had been beaten. Suffering from a lack of sleep and dehydration, he almost stumbled with each step, but yet he carried on his exile. He walked in his sleep, he walked when he was awake, but no matter what he did, he just couldn’t escape the curse, since he was the very cage that imprisoned him. Finally, he couldn’t go any further. Sambo collapsed in the middle of nowhere. Before darkness covered his eyes, Sambo pleaded for the gods to come and take him, to end his suffering.
Some one did come for him. But they were not who Sambo expected.

Knowing this, Sambo stormed out of the building in order to flee from the city. The landscape melted together in his tear covered eyes, but still he ran all the way down the street even though he didn’t know the way. He knew no directions, he cared nothing about how he was going to survive after leaving; he was so overwhelmed by his fear that he had to run, but still the vision was in his mind and it was clearer than ever. Finally, Sambo fell on his knees again. He found himself in a dark alley, just behind an alehouse. Sambo knew that he couldn’t go anywhere else in such a condition, so he sat there, tried to relax, and for the very first time since his own exile, looked into the vision to see if there was a way for him to escape his fatal destiny. But nothing was there other than the lonely grave. Sambo let out a sigh and stood up. He was going to steal something from the back door, so he could continue his journey out of the city. Then he suddenly saw some figures in the darkness. He half closed his eyes so he could get a better view of them, then he drew in a deep breath: there were some slaves chained together on a big pole outside, waiting to be sold at the auction. They were people of the same skin color as him. Sambo felt a rush of blood to his face, and he couldn’t help thinking of freeing the people. He walked up to them in order to have a better look at them. He saw that they were chained around the ankles. They all looked so weary and skinny that even though the chain wasn’t heavily fastened, none of them seemed to have enough strength to break free. At the end of the row was a little boy, no more than five years old. He looked up at Sambo, his once big and innocent eyes now clouded with fear and helplessness. Sambo looked back at him, and all of a sudden the boy was like a son that he could now lose. The boy was trapped, in an alien land that he was doomed to die in, and no future or hopes awaited him. Looking deep into the boy’s eyes, Sambo made up his mind. He picked up a piece of stone, went towards the slaves and started to hit the gyve with it. All the slaves watched him in surprise, but no one made a sound or moved, as if there were an enchantment cast upon them. None of them could do anything but look at Sambo. Sambo kept hitting the gyve until the iron was bent and their feet could break free of it; his hands cut, the stone shattered, he just went to pick another stone, then continued with his work again. His actions seemed crazy, but his face was calm and determined.
Sambo freed all of the slaves. One by one they gathered around Sambo, who could now hardly stand on his feet at all. His hand was badly wounded, blood splashed all over his face and clothes, but Sambo couldn’t care less. He had almost lost all his strength. He gathered the energy he had left, and told them to leave the city and never came back. Shivering from the cold and starvation, the slaves still managed to turn and leave. One of them asked Sambo worriedly:”How about you? Aren’t you coming with us? ” Sambo knew that he didn’t have enough strength to walk, so he lied to them: “You go first, I’ll catch up with you later.” So one after the other, they held each other’s arms and turned to leave. The young boy looked at Sambo as he left, smiling. Sambo waved goodbye to him, knowing that it would be the last time he saw him, but also that he would now have a better life awaiting him in the future.