第124期：那些父与子的时光

介绍: 想成为我们的主播，欢迎加微信 xdfbook 投稿。 一段美文，一首英文歌，或是一点生活感想，全由你做主。 《那些父与子的时光 》 My Awesome Friend 为了在我们必须上床睡觉之前赶到爷爷奶奶家，一个周五的晚上，大约4:30左右，我们急匆匆地上了车，因为车程还需要两个半小时。 “布伦丹，快点，咱们要迟到了！”不耐烦地等着我上车的爸爸说。“我尽快就来。”我一边收拾着自己的大包小包，一边回答道。“还不够快。”爸爸吼了一声冲着我把门关上了，把我一个人扔在了那里。 我当时本来可以回敬爸爸几句的，但我觉得这样做不是我能做出的最明智的决定，因为我可能会惹上麻烦。 我朝车子走了过去，毫不费力就听到了披头士的音乐嗡嗡震天响着，震得整个车身都在动，就如同在万籁俱寂的夜晚听见蟋蟀叫那样毫不费力。当我坐上车时，爸爸正在唱《买不来爱情》(他唱得很难听，但从未有人对此发表过任何看法)，那是他最喜欢也是我最不喜欢的歌曲之一。每当我听到这首歌，我都想朝收音机砸一个棒球过去。 “爸爸，你能不能把音乐关小一点？”我问他，希望他能干脆把它关掉。可他仍继续唱着。买不来爱情，爱情，是啊是啊是啊，是啊！“爸爸！” 他一直唱个不停。他唱是因为知道我已经感到非常愤怒了，也知道我讨厌披头士，所以想逗我玩一下，而我显然不喜欢这样。接下来的一路上都充满了愤怒，大多都是我的愤怒。我对爸爸在车里唱歌感到十分恼火。虽然是为了这么一桩无聊的事情，可我们的争吵令我对他极为恼火，那程度让人难以置信——我希望这辈子再也不要见到他。 有时，爸爸要求我用耙子把落叶拢在一起，而不许我去朋友家玩。有时，他会带我和弟弟去看场足球赛什么的，来度过一段欢乐的时光。我们的关系要么就升至山峰，要么就跌至地心。导致我们的关系不断“掘穿地心”的一个原因就是披头士。爸爸总是在听披头士——开车时听，我们聚会时听，就连在某个普通的夏日坐在我们家泳池边上的时候也在听。无论我走到哪儿，我都能听到披头士在用他们的音乐折磨我。披头士本来就不是我最喜欢的乐队，爸爸这样一来就让我更不喜欢披头士了。 继车上的那次争吵之后，每当我听到披头士的歌，我都会想起我们发生争吵的那恐怖的一天。于是，我开始真的讨厌起披头士来了。 可是，年复一年，随着我继续听披头士的歌，而且还越来越多(因为它们无时无刻不包围着我)，它们变得不再是我无法忍受的那种歌曲了。我意识到它们并不像我过去所认为得那样糟。情况由我一听到披头士的歌就离开房间转变为我就那么听着他们的歌待在房间里。 又是一个周五的晚上，爸爸妈妈要出去吃饭，而爸爸那时才告诉我当晚照看孩子的人是谁。 “爸爸，为什么非得由我来照看妹妹们？”我生气地问道。我知道他不太可能再去找另一个人来看孩子，可我就是觉得太生气了。“布伦丹，就让你来照看她们对我们来说会方便得多。”爸爸回答说，一副真心不打算引发一场争吵的样子。“她们太吵了，我根本没法学习！”如果我努力要学习的话，除了学到我需要学习的内容，我还会听到妹妹们在说什么。“那就让她们安静！”爸爸低沉有力地说，声音在整座房子里回荡着。“她们不听我的！”我冲他嚷道。“那就让她们听，由你来照看她们，就这么定了！”他不再说话。他的脸涨得通红，我觉得都快要爆炸了。 他没有再说一个字就离开了家，我感觉自己对他气得不行。他不听我说，也完全不帮我应对我当时所处的情况。如今，我知道我们本可以更好地处理当时的状况，我也很高兴我们现在能够避免像以前吵得那么凶了。 第二天早上，我在从地下室传来的嘈杂音乐声醒来。我知道是爸爸在听披头士的歌(还有谁会在早上8点钟听披头士呢？)，便起床向地下室走去。一看到爸爸在楼梯机上听《救命》，我就开始唱起这首歌来。他大吃一惊，因为他立刻回过头来，看是谁进来了。可当他看到我，看到是我在唱歌时，他跟着我也唱了起来。我们唱着，虽然很难听，可却依然一起唱着。我们不在乎我们是否会把其他人都吵醒，我们在乎的只有这个事实——我们都明白自己对对方感到抱歉，而我们也都原谅了对方。我们还是好朋友，这是我体验过的最美妙的感觉之一。当你意识到你们在大吵一架之后仍然可以维持一段友谊时，那绝对是一件特别棒的事情。 回首那一天，我意识到在一段关系中，一些很小的事情竟能巩固彼此之间的感情，并能在发生了特别不愉快的事情之后帮助彼此维持这段关系。我和爸爸有过吵得很凶、闹得很不愉快的时候，但是因为有披头士，我们往往能继续我们的友谊。他们的音乐让我们想起我们一起做过的所有愉快的事，以及我们的关系是多么的好。 直到今天，我们都知道我们可能会有争吵，但我们同样知道，我们仍然会是好朋友。就像林戈•斯塔尔常说的那句话，“我依靠朋友们的点滴帮助支撑了下来！” On a Friday night, around 4:30, we rushed into the car to get to our grandparents house before we had to go to bed because the ride took two and a half hours. “Brendan, hurry up, we are going to be late!” My dad said, waiting impatiently for me to get into the car. “I’m going as fast as I can.” I replied getting my bags ready. “Well it isn’t fast enough.” Barked ) my dad as he closed the door on me and left me there. I could have said a couple of things to my dad right there, but I felt it wouldn’t be my smartest decision because of the trouble I could get in. Walking to the car, I could easily hear the Beatles music buzzing and making the whole car shake. It was as easy as listening to crickets ) at night when nothing else makes a sound. When I got into the car, my dad was singing (terribly, but nobody ever said anything) the song Can’t Buy Me Love ), one of his favorites and one of my least favorites. Every time I heard the song I wanted to chuck ) a baseball at the radio. “Dad, do you think you could lower the music down?” I asked, hoping he could just turn it off. But, he continued to sing. Can’t buy me love, love, no no no, no! “Dad!” He never stopped singing. He sang because he knew I felt mad already, and he knew I hated the Beatles, so he wanted to have some fun with me, which I obviously didn’t like. The rest of that car ride had a lot of anger, mostly from me. I was furious at my dad with his singing in the car. Although it was about a stupid thing, our argument made me unbelievably angry with him. I never wanted to see him again for the rest of my life. On some days, my dad made me rake ) leaves instead of going to a friend’s house. On others, he took my brother and me to something like a football game to have a fun time. Our relationship has either been as high as the top of a mountain or as low as the center of the earth. One thing that kept our relationship digging through the ground of the earth: The Beatles. My dad listened to the Beatles all the time, including car rides, when we had parties and just on a normal summer day by our pool. Wherever I went I could hear the Beatles torturing me with their music. As this happened, it made me not like the Beatles even more after ) they weren’t my favorite band. After the incident in the car, whenever I heard the Beatles, it reminded me of that horrific day when we had our argument. So, I truly started to hate the Beatles. Although, over the years as I continued to listen to the Beatles more and more (since they were around me all the time) their music changed from the music I couldn’t stand. I realized how they weren’t as terrible as I thought they were. It changed from walking out of the room when they were on, to staying in the room just listening to them. Another Friday night, my dad and mom went out to dinner and my dad had just informed me of who the baby-sitter was that night. “Dad, why do I have to baby-sit the girls?” I asked with anger. I knew there wasn’t a big chance of him getting another baby-sitter, but I felt too angry. “Brendan, it is much easier for us to have you just watch them,” my dad replied. He looked like he really didn’t want to start an argument. “They are so loud and I will never be able to study!” If I tried to study, I would learn about what I needed to learn and what the girls were talking about. “Then tell them to be quiet!” My dad boomed ), his voice echoed through the entire house. “They don’t listen to me!” I yelled back. “Then make them listen, you are baby-sitting and that is FINAL!” He finished. I thought his face was going to explode, it was so red. He left the house without saying another word. I felt so irritated with him. He didn’t listen to me or help me with my situation at all. Today, I know we could have handled the situation better, and I am happy to know that we can avoid arguing that much now. The next morning I awoke to loud music coming from the basement. Knowing it was dad listening to the Beatles—who else would be listening to the Beatles at eight in the morning? —I got up and headed towards the basement. Once I saw Dad on the Stairmaster ) listening to Help ), I began singing the song. It startled ) him as he quickly turned his head to see who had joined him in the basement, but once he saw me and saw me singing, he joined in. We sang, badly, but still we sang together. We didn’t care if we woke everyone else up, all we cared about was the fact that we knew we both felt sorry and we both forgave each other. The feeling of us staying great friends is one of the best feelings ever. When you know that after a big argument, you can still maintain a friendship, it is definitely an amazing thing. Looking back on that day, I realized how some little things in a relationship can keep them strong and help them continue after a terrible event. My dad and I have had some nasty arguments and situations, but we always tend to keep our friendship because of the Beatles. Their music reminds us of all of the good things we have done together and how unbelievable our relationship is. To this day, we know we can have disagreements, but we also know that we can still be awesome friends. And, as Ringo Starr ) has said many times, “I get by with a little help from my friends )!” 文章摘自：《新东方英语·中学生》杂志2016年6月号