36. Waiting 等待 1979

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Mostly Barbara came to Norwich on Friday. If she came early in the afternoon she had to wait for me for I hadn't finished my lessons by then yet. The department of Biological Sciences had its own tea-room. Barbara would sit there to wait. One of my fellow students really liked Barbara and he always tried to get in contact with her while she was waiting. The guy was Indian, really sweet and polite. He wasn't trying to chat her up, it was more like adoring her. Often he told me how beautiful Barbara was and how lucky I was with such a girlfriend. The problem for him was that he was small, not much taller than Barbara. There were a few things Barbara didn't find attractive about men, one is being small. Therefore the poor guy got never got the attention from Barbara he hoped for. I wonder if Barbara ever realized she had such a dedicated admirer.

A lot of our time was spend on waiting for each other. This was just a part of our relation. We arranged to meet each other at some place and time and then we just had to wait for the other to turn up. Other things beyond our control determined whether we could get there on time. This could be a delayed train or Barbara having arguments with her mother or just a misunderstanding. But we both knew that eventually the other would turn up, no matter how long we had to wait. Two incidents I still remember clearly.

One time on a Friday evening it had been snowing a lot. Barbara was coming with the train to Norwich. I was to collect her around 8 o clock in the evening from the train station. But the train was delayed. I was waiting for hours in an empty railway station. I spended my time by helping passengers from other trains in carrying their suitcases. They were very surprised but grateful for this gentleman like behavior, especially when I refused to accept any money for it. Time went on and still Barbara's train had not arrived. The railway station was abandoned, they locked the waiting rooms. There was nowhere to sit except on a bench at the very cold and windy platform. I just sat there on my own, wondering how much longer this was going to take. I had no other choice; I had to wait for Barbara to come. Finally her train arrived it was 3 o clock in the morning. You should have seen Barbara's face when she saw me; very pleased and relieved that I had been waiting for her that whole night.

Different was the time that we agreed to meet at the London underground station Tottenham Court Road on a Saturday. We both had to do some shopping and we decided to meet at the entrance of this underground station. When I got there, there was no Barbara. I waited for hours. Being fed up waiting I walked in the station to buy a newspaper. And there I saw her, waiting by the other entrance. (I noticed that she bought the same newspaper as I did, strange that I remember that kind of detail after so many years). She also had been waiting there for hours. This time she was not pleased to see me. Barbara could be very fierce when she was angry, as I experienced then. But that didn't last long especially as I took the blame (seemed the most tactical thing to do). Also I used my special escalator tactic to calm her down.

This escalator tactic is gently holding Barbara against me when she stands in front of me on the escalator of a underground station. Then I put my arms around her and pull her towards me, so that my face ends up in her hair. When I did this, Barbara would kind of melt in my arms. She never stayed angry then. The very long escalators at the station Leicester square was my favorite spot to do this.

等待

周五Barbara多数会来诺维克（Norwich），她会在下午早些到，我还没下课，她就等我。生物科学部有自己的休息室。 Barbara坐在那里等我。我有一个同学非常喜欢Barbara,她在那里时，他就总是找她搭话。这个同学是个印度人，非常可爱又彬彬有礼。 他倒是没有追她，更像是默默倾慕着她。他总告诉我Barbara是多么美丽，而我是多么幸运有她做女朋友。他很矮小，不比Barbara高多少。某些特征Barbara觉得会令男生缺乏吸引力，其中之一就是身材矮小。所以这个可怜的男孩子，没有如愿地引起Barbara多少关注。我不清楚Barbara是否知道他曾是一个含蓄的仰慕者。

我们用很多时间来相互等待。等待是我们关系的一部分。约定在某时某地碰头，然后等待对方的出现。至于能不能准时到达，其他的因素就不是我们能够控制的了。火车会晚点，Barbara和他妈妈可能发生争执，或者就是信息理解不一致。但是我们都知道最终另一个一定会出现，无论要等待多长时间。我还记得两件事：

一个周五晚上，下着大雪，Barbara坐火车到Norwich。 我约好8点左右到车站接她。然而火车晚点了。我在空荡荡的车站里等了几个小时。我帮着乘客拿行李打发时间。大家都觉得奇怪但也很感激我这种绅士行动，尤其是我拒绝收费。时间慢慢过去，Barbara的火车还是没来。火车站关门了，候车室也锁门了。我只能坐在又冷风又大的站台上等。我独自坐着，想着到底还得等多久。我没有其他选择，必须等到她。最终火车凌晨3点钟到的。Barbara看到我高兴极了，也大松了一口气。

还有一次情况有所不同，我们约好在Tottenhan Court Road地铁站见面。我们两个都需要买点东西，就说好在地铁入口等。我到了那里，找不到Barbara。我等了几个钟头。等得不耐烦了就进站买张报纸，结果看到她在另一个入口等着我。（我记得她也买了一张同样的报纸，很奇怪这么多年过去了，我还能记得这些细节。）她也等了几个钟头。这一次她看见我可一点也不高兴。她生气起来有时可以暴怒的，那次就是这样。她没有气太久，因为我承认是我的错（当时看来是最好的战术了）。另外我还用了我的电梯战术帮她平静下来。

所谓电梯战术，就是当她站在我前面一格自动扶梯上时，轻轻地把她拥近。用双臂环抱她把她拉近我，我的脸贴着她的头发。这时候她就会融化在我怀抱里了，也不再生气了。Leicester广场站的超长自动扶梯是我们最爱的战术运用地了。

(Thanks to Natalie for the translation)