盛夏的记忆

来美二十多年了，南加冬暖夏凉，干燥怡人的气候让我几乎忘记了夏日炎炎是什么感觉，直到女儿最近提及。

六月底，北太平洋西岸女儿居住的城市迎来创记录的高温。据新闻报道，热浪高达一百多度，热得地面都裂开来好几块。我以为女儿搬的新公寓有空调，开始也没怎么在意。周二在公司上班，想起来给她发了个微信问候天气，才知道她住的地方没有空调。为了躲避炎热，她白天去公司上班，晚上靠着电风扇过夜。她说，很多同事去了酒店避暑。还说，西雅图的夏夜不像加州晚上会凉下来。最后还来一句，"(It) reminds me of Beijing".

在她所有去过的中国城市里，她独独记得北京的夏天:)

那是2010的夏天，我一个人带她回国，从上海到浙江老家再到北京，走过的这三座城市里，北京的夏天最恐怖。也有可能是因为在北京，我们一直在外面走的原因，抑或是碰巧那几天北京很热。不过留在我们记忆里的北京夏天，天永远是灰蒙蒙的，太阳终日被厚厚的云层遮挡，桑拿般的闷热让人无处可逃。那日去长城，被像浓雾一样的雾霾锁住的长城没有了我们想象中的雄伟和逶迤。又一日去颐和园，我们一路不停买着水买着冰棍，常常是一手拎着刚刚买的冰冻的水，一手拿着老冰棍，靠着冰棍和冰水走过夏日炎炎的北京城和景点。。。

那一年女儿十五岁，相信北京之旅的一切都在她记忆里。但她一定不记得广州的夏天。而我却依稀记得那个因着潮湿，夏日一天要"冲凉"三次的地方。那一年女儿七个月大，我带她从父母家回广州上班。刚到没几天，女儿浑身上下便冒出一块块红红的湿疹。那时住在教工宿舍二楼的一间单间，房间里虽然装了窗式空调，但是这种只有晚上睡觉才开空调的房间里是有蚊子的，它们常常喜欢在夜间活动，比如半夜在我给女儿把尿(国内那时的孩子早早就potty trained了)的那一瞬间，伺机而入，钻进蚊帐与我们共寝。而我实在是太困了，明知道嗡嗡叫有蚊子，也不愿意开灯起来打，倒头接着睡，任凭它们在蚊帐里叫着叮着。等着第二天天大亮，发现吃饱喝足的蚊子趴在蚊帐上一动不动，这才恨恨地死命拍打着，直到打到两只手的手心、墙壁的蚊帐上血迹斑斑。。。

女儿也一定不记得一岁半带她回老家的那个夏天。而我怎能忘记，那个我生活了二十多年的故乡。那里的夏天一样闷热无比。记得那时父母家住顶楼，经过一天太阳的暴晒，顶楼的热气到晚上还迟迟不散。入夜，我不敢拿电风扇对着她吹，生怕她感冒扁桃体发炎，只好拿一把蒲扇不停地给她扇着。后半夜自己实在太困太累了，拿着扇子的手扇不动了，可我一停下来，一旁的她就开始哼哼唧唧。不得已我又拿起扇子，扇扇停停到天明。。。

想起小时候家中没有空调，没有电扇，没有冰箱，那时的夏天是怎么过来的? 被这里的天气宠坏了的我是回不到从前了，不想女儿今夏却在北岸遭遇了百年不遇的高温。我之前说过好几次让她回家工作一段时间的，可她又说工作忙得要死，有时候老板要求来公司开会，走不开。。。不过，要感谢十年前的北京之旅，让她在见证北京繁荣的同时，还让她记住了难耐的盛夏滋味，以至于今日在太平洋西岸再次相遇也能淡然处之，见怪不怪了。

Memories of Summers

Having lived for more than two decades in southern CA, a place renowned for its best weather, I almost forget how summers in China felt like, until my daughter mentioned it today.   The city she lives in was lately rattled by unprecedented heat wave with the temperature rising into 90s and 100s. As I texted her asking if her new apartment has air-conditioning, she said that like more than half local residents whose homes are not installed with air-conditioners, hers is no exception, as historically Seattle’s summer does not need it.  “I went to office at the day time to escape the heat, and when I got off work, it was 92F at home last night (Monday night, 6/28/2021).  You know, mom, unlike in CA where the temperature plummets at night, here it hovers around long into the night.”  

“(It) reminds me of Beijing.” She added.

For all the places she’s been to in China, she picked Beijing’s summer as an allusion. 

That was the summer of 2010, when I took her to Shanghai for the World Expo, and then to Beijing for sightseeing.  We never expected Beijing to be so badly polluted and its summer so blisteringly hot. The Great Wall was shrouded in thick foggy polluted air, losing all its grandeur the undulating walls would have otherwise given us.  Throughout our stay there, we rarely saw blue sky or a bright sun. We felt like living in a suffocating heat dome. After joining a local tour for the Great Wall and Emperor’s tombs, we guided ourselves to the Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Yuanmingyuan and such. As we trudged in the wilting city, we incessantly resorted to the Popsicle and iced water sold by the street hawkers.  But the relief was temporary, and our thirst or body heat was never really quenched or cooled down. While our eyes might linger over the relics of the old city, our bodies couldn’t wait to get away.

Shanghai was not a lot better than Beijing though. It was a morning when we were leaving Shanghai to the states. But the temperature was already 38C, the sun, the humidity only adding to the intolerable heat.  When we reached the airport, we were told that the flight was overbooked, and $250 (or $300, I could not remember now) was offered as a trade- off if we were willing to switch to the next day’s flight. I told my daughter that with this $500 or $600, I would buy her an IPad (that was year 2010J). She refuted resoundingly that she wouldn’t wait another minute to go back.

I should have told her the summers of my childhood, when we did not even have an electric fan or a refrigerator. The only luxury I had then was a radio, which accompanied me over many boring summer days and nights. To beat the heat, we took to water and bamboo lounge chair in the open air for the night, with a handmade palm-leaf fan in one hand for cooling and to expel mosquitos. 

She probably won’t remember anything of her first three years in China, not to say the summers there.   But I won’t forget the summers in Canton, bathing a couple of times daily and sleeping inside a net.  Being potty trained early at the time, as most babies were traditionally, my daughter had to be woken up in the midnight for a pee. The minute I raised the net, mosquitos sneaked in. Most of the time, too tired as I was, I had to let them hum inside and sting us.  When mornings came, it’s time for my revenge, slapping them one by one. The bloody stains in my palms and on the net only reminded me that they were actually my blood and the baby’s…

Gone are those sweltering summers in China, except that the memories tucked deep are now stirred and surfacing to the ground. ..

6/14晚: 第一次知道靠近根部也能结火龙果。

6/29晚开花了，里面的花蕊花粉特别多。因为低，我拿着刷子一遍遍授粉，希望它因为靠近根部，近水楼台，果子能长得大一些。

第二天花谢的样子：

6/27/2021 这支火龙果因为去年摘果子时搞得伤痕累累的，结果还把它给剪了，不料抽出两朵花咕噜：