我的父亲

Sunday, February 22, 2009

不知道是哪一个星期六的午后了, 只记得是个很炎热又没有风的下午。

妈说她的膝盖又开始痛起来了,走路时都很辛苦。于是父亲就答应载她到大年去看一看中医,好让晚上妈可以睡得好。我这个吃饱了无所事事,有驾驶执照又不载人的家伙,也好像搭顺风车一样,跟着父母一块儿去凑热闹。

把母亲安顿在中医诊所后,因为需要等很久,父亲便说咱们先到处逛逛再倒回来。于是我们来到了大人超级市场。记得以前小时候,我和弟弟总是在前面跑,爸妈总是在后面追;而今天,我很想放慢脚步,走在父亲后面。也就是这时候,我发现父亲那已衰老的背影,让我想起那篇朱自清“月台上的背影”,中学时最爱的文章。父亲和朱自清的爸一样,都是个身材矮小的人,而且年过六十了,步伐比以前当一校之长时慢了许多。我再看看他那一头白发,好像经历了好多年来不曾歇息的劳作。走着走着,我们来到了入口处售卖一块钱雪糕的地方。我问父亲说,要不要吃雪糕,天气很热。于是便买了两支,在入口处乘凉的檐下享受着冰凉的待遇。这,不知道是多少年后再一起吃雪糕了,小时候,父亲和我们两姐弟总是在一起做我们喜欢做的事,去喜欢去的地方。记忆里的有瀑布嬉水,公园野餐,还有屋前那片草地上的小型羽毛球赛。长大后,鲜少有机会和父亲,弟弟在一起了,除了每个周末坐下来看英超。人总是说,长大后的我们很难可以和父母在一起做小时候一起做的事了。我拿着那快要融化的雪糕,不太愿意相信。我想父亲也一样感到唏嘘,这么多年了,我们两人也不曾促膝长谈。

载了看完医生的母亲,于是便启程去吃晚餐再回家。我建议到那我们小时候常去的小贩中心,那是小学时候很喜欢去的地方,每次到大年,一定到那里吃朋友舅父卖的果条汤。我和父亲都叫了同样的饮料,一转眼父亲就忘记了,竟然喝错了妈的热饮。差不多到家门口,父亲竟然问道,我们是不是已经错过了自己的家门口。这是自己的家门口,我对他说。他说今天好累,精神无法集中。坐在客厅的藤椅上不到半小时,父亲便说他很累了,于是就关上房门就寝了,那是晚上八点三十分。就这样,我一整夜都坐立不安,担心父亲真的有事。第二天一早,醒来后的第一件事就是查看父亲的房间,父亲不在房里,再望出窗外,父亲的车已不在了,不禁送了一口气。

或许你会觉得我杞人忧天,
或许我真的是因为朋友的父亲出事了才如梦初醒,
或许我真的是个一无是处的孩子,
或许父母突然间是我呼吸的空气,
或许我真的害怕遗憾的感觉,
或许这一切只是压力下的我对家的眷恋,
或许这只是我想要以或许来修饰我文字的不起眼。

这可能是一篇极其普通、没有深度的日记。日记里头记载的,却是抚养我长大,看着我小时了了,再叹息我工作得像耕十亩田一样,永远都会等我回家的父亲。
还记得去年7月,我从美国打回家的一通电话。电话铃声响起不久,是父亲,我哭着说:爸爸,我想回家。

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very touching, my friend. I think as we grow older n go home less as we'd like to, we value our parents n family more n more each day. I share the same feelings as u do... It's never being really treasured till we leave home n realise their significance in our lives...

Shane said...

thanks for reading:) sometimes it's hard to be really be there for them, especially after we started working. What we can do now is cherish every moment we spend with parents, don't let yourself regret of what you've missed:)

Anonymous said...

True indeed. Cherish every moment we have and show them our love. Life is simply too short and we can't afford to waste the opportunities to show them love. Even if we can't be there with them always, it's important to hv them in our minds. Even a simple call back home will surely make their day~

Anthony S. said...

hi, i juz had brunch with my dad. we have not much to talk about but, juz the pleasure of eating together. this article of yours made me realize how significant that could be.

sometime ago, i thought this weekend brunch with him is a nuisance because I could have spent that particular time with a chic doing lovvy-dovy stuff. fuck me. parents are the reason we existed, not a strange lover.

this article meant a lot. thanks for sharing.

Shane said...

Hey Anthony, thanks for reading, I know this written in Chinese might not be your cup of tea, but you still went through it :)

Glad that this actually made a lot of ppl think, very happy it finally achieved what Shu Khan and myself wanna do when we set up this blog.

thank you :)