玫瑰人生

閔 弓/選注

La Vie en Rose，the Takeout Version

一位陌生人，一個奇怪的請求給作者的生活平添了一抹玫瑰色的浪漫。只是，以浪漫開始的故事卻不見得都有一個浪漫的結尾。那么，什么樣的浪漫才能持久，不會在生活中漸漸褪去它的玫瑰色呢?

On a frigid Sunday night this February，just after I had put the baby to bed．the intercom buzzed．

\"Did you order food?\" I asked my husband， Paul， who.was hunched over his computer in our dining room.

\"Nope.\"

I looked to our older kids， Jacob， 11， and Sasha， 9; neither was expecting anybody.

\"Probably just the wrong apartment，\" I said. It buzzed again， longer this time. I went to the kitchen and pressed the button. \"Hello?\"

A voice scratchy， male－asked， \"Are you on the 15th floor?\"

\"Yes.\"

\"Do some of your windows face east?\"

\"Why do you want to know?\"

\"This is going to sound strange， but... \" His name was Andrew， he said;he was studying design. He had a girlfriend in the building facing ours，also on a high floor. She was Japanese， but her name was formed using the Chinese character for \"love，\" which was the same sound in Japanese. Or so he said. \"And I made this neon sign of the Chinese character for love that I want to put in your window late Tuesday night，\" he explained， \"so when she wakes up on Valentine's Day， she'll see it.\"