Later, after Aisha changed the IV tubing and raised the head of the bed like I’d asked, I thought about what had happened to me. Ruptured spleen. Broken teeth. Punctured lung. Busted eye socket. But as I watched a pigeon peck at a bread crumb on the windowsill, I kept thinking of something else Armand/Dr. Faruqi had said: The impact had cut your upper lip in two, he had said, Clean down the middle. Clean down the middle. Like a harelip.
FARID AND SOHRAB came to visit the next day. “Do you know who we are today? Do you remember?” Farid said, only half-jokingly. I nodded.
“Al hamdullellah!” he said, beaming. “No more talking non sense.”
“Thank you, Farid,” I said through jaws wired shut. Armand was right--I did sound like Al Pacino from The Godfather. And my tongue surprised me every time it poked in one of the empty spaces left by the teeth I had swallowed. “I mean, thank you. For everything.”
He waved a hand, blushed a little. “Bas, it’s not worthy of thanks,” he said. I turned to Sohrab. He was wearing a new outfit, light brown pirhan-tumban that looked a bit big for him, and a black skullcap. He was looking down at his feet, toying with the IV line coiled on the bed.
“We were never properly introduced,” I said. I offered him my hand. “I am Amir.”
He looked at my hand, then to me. “You are the Amir agha Father told me about?” he said.
“你今天的工作是排便。你完成之后我们才能开始喂你吃流食。不见粪便,不给食物。”他又哈哈大笑。
稍后,艾莎帮我换输液管,又善解人意地摇起床头。随后,我想起发生在自己身上的事情。脾脏破裂。牙齿脱落。肺被刺穿。眼眶裂开。当我看见窗台上有只鸽子啄食碎面包的时候,忍不住想起阿曼德或者法鲁奇大夫适才说过的话。冲击力让你的上唇裂成两半,他说,从人中裂开。从人中裂开,像兔唇那样。
隔日,法里德和索拉博前来探望。“你今天知道我们是谁吗?你记得吗?”法里德半开玩笑地说。我点头。
“赞美安拉!”他说,喜气洋洋,“不用再说废话了。”
“谢谢你,法里德。”我透过缝着线的下巴说。阿曼德说得对——我听起来确实像《教父》里面那个阿尔?帕西诺。而我的舌头让我大吃一惊:它伸过我赖以进食的牙齿原来所在的地方,却是空空荡荡。“说真的,谢谢你替我做的一切。”
他摇摇手,脸色有点尴尬:“别这么说,没什么好谢的。”我转向索拉博。他穿着新衣服,淡蓝色的棉布长袍,看上去尺寸大了一些,还戴着黑色的无边便帽。他低头看着脚,手里拨弄着床边弯曲的输液管。
“我们还没好好地相互介绍呢。”我说,朝他伸出手,“我是阿米尔。”
他看着我的手,然后看着我。“你是爸爸跟我说过的阿米尔老爷吗?”他说。