《尼姆島》：勇敢踏出第一步

CE: Teens曾在2008年4月號的“娛樂直播室”詳細介紹過這部電影。如果將那幾頁內容濃縮起來，這就是一個簡簡單單的勇者物語。

提到“勇者”，我們一下子就會想到像尼姆最崇拜的大冒險家亞歷克斯·羅弗那樣的人物——無論處境如何險惡，有亞歷克斯的地方就有出路。

但這樣的勇者大多只是某個作家內心的聲音或其筆下的虛構英雄。而在現實中，勇氣的體現可能不過是大人不在時看緊家門，生物解剖課上的第一刀，對喜歡的人表白心意，或者克服出門恐懼癥走向外面的世界。

電影結束之后，一直讓Wendy難以忘懷的，其實也不過是父女之間的一段對話——

“How did Alex Rover get to be Alex Rover? Was he born with all that courage?”

“The thing about courage is...it’s something that we have to learn and relearn our whole lives. It’s not just in you. It’s in every choice we make， each and every day.”

故事一開始……

Nim: My dad always told me stories about her – how she was this great oceanographer[海洋學家]. Stories about the baby they had， and how my mom just had to name her Nim. She invented that name. At least， that’s how my dad tells the story. That’s all my mother is to me now – just these stories. But they’re really some amazing stories. Like the one he calls The Oceanographer and the Great Blue Whale.

Once upon a time， the oceanographer went out on the wide-open sea to find out what was in the stomach of the great blue whale. As my mother was staring into the mouth of the whale， a mysterious[神秘的] ship came out of nowhere. It was called the Buccaneer[海盜] Ship. It got much too close， and it frightened the whale. And the oceanographer was swallowed[吞沒] and taken by the sea.

Dad felt that we should sail the ocean and look for that blue whale – that someday， that whale would bring her back to us. I think he just missed her. We both did. By my fourth birthday， we had sailed around the globe twice – from the Cape of Good Hope to the tip of Patagonia， from Singapore to the Cook Islands. Then one day， we found it – our home.

This is my island. Not a bad place to grow up， huh?

See， I don’t have to go to school. I’m home-schooled; or， technically， island-schooled. Everything I know about the world， I learned from my friends. Like， do you know that two objects， no matter how big they are， will fall at exactly the same speed? Galileo proved it. He’s my pelican[鵜鶘]. Selkie， my sea lion， taught me how to swim. So I returned the favor by teaching her soccer. She’s an excellent midfielder. Oh， and I’ll bet you didn’t know that sea turtles and certain species of lizards really get on each other’s nerves[惹怒某人].

Anything else I need to know about the world， I just open one of the books my dad brought for me. With a little imagination， I can go anywhere. All in all， not a bad life.

Every few months， the supply ship comes， bringing us things that we need. New books and paper， nails and cloth – all the things we can’t make for ourselves. We sail out into the open water to meet it. No one， not even the supply ship’s captain， has ever seen how amazing our little island really is.

Jack: We take care of our island， Nim; our island’s gonna take care of us.

Nim: And that’s the way we wanna keep it – our own perfect， secret world.

尼姆：爸爸常跟我講關于她的故事——她是位很了不起的海洋學家。關于他們的孩子的事情，媽媽還給她取名為“尼姆”。這個名字是她獨創的。至少，爸爸是這么說的。這就是我所知道的關于媽媽的一切——只有這些故事。不過，它們都很不可思議，比如其中一個叫做《海洋學家與藍鯨》的故事。

很久很久以前，海洋學家在浩瀚的大海上航行，探尋藍鯨肚子里的奧秘。正當媽媽朝鯨魚的大嘴里張望時，一艘神秘的大船突然出現。這是一條海盜船。它當時靠得太近，驚擾了藍鯨。結果海洋學家被藍鯨吞掉了，消失在大海之中。

爸爸認為我們應該出海尋找那條藍鯨——這樣，終有一天鯨魚會把她還給我們。我覺得爸爸這是在想她，我們都很想她。到我四歲生日時，我們已經環游了地球兩次——從好望角到巴塔哥尼亞高原之巔，從新加坡到庫克群島。