The Old Man at the Crossing ｜过路口的老人
English
Yesterday I went to Central to pick Vera up from work. I found her wearing a look of pure confusion.
Minutes earlier, an old man had shuffled up and asked her for money — "twenty dollars," she guessed. His Cantonese was thick and slurred, the syllables half-swallowed, and she could not work out what he actually wanted. And just then the pedestrian crossing began to buzz: the light was about to change.
He was on the far side of the road. I said, "Well — if you're confused, let's just go and ask him." So we ran across in that narrow window before the red turned green, caught up with him, and asked whether he needed help.
He said he had no money for food.
"Then how will you get home?" I asked. "Is anyone waiting for you? Do you want us to call someone — the police, even?"
He said there was no one left at home. He lived in the Eastern District, out on the east side of Hong Kong Island. I said that was quite far. He said, well, he's old — so the taxi is only two dollars. "But you can still take the taxi if you've no money to eat?" He said his card had only a little over ten dollars left. Enough to get home — just not enough to eat.
"How much do you need for a meal?" I asked.
He paused, then said, "Are you... going to buy it for me?"
"I can buy it for you."
And so he led us to the nearby Café de Coral. It was barely a couple of steps away — up two shallow stairs — yet he climbed them very, very slowly. He was dressed spotlessly, in a shirt and dress trousers. As he took each painfully slow step, he told us he had already fallen twice.
Inside, he asked whether we could order for him. Over the meal we kept talking, drawing his story out. Both his parents had passed away; he had never married. We asked where he was from. I asked whether he received the government's CSSA — the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance. He said it needed another year before he would qualify; I'm not sure I heard that right. Then he said he didn't really know. He mentioned he was an Indonesian Chinese, back in Hong Kong only a few months.
"And if you eat today," I asked, "what about tomorrow?"
Tomorrow, he said, he would ask a friend. Then, at Café de Coral, we bought him a Hainanese chicken rice. He asked for it packed to take away — and asked for the drink to be packed too. I couldn't help guessing that he meant to stretch that one meal across two.
And then we waved him goodbye.
中文
昨天我去中环接老婆 Vera 下班，见到她时，她一脸困惑。
就在刚才，一个老人过来找她要钱，说要二十块。他的广东话说得含混不清，她实在不知道他到底要什么。偏偏这时候，斑马线的红绿灯响了——灯快要变了。
那老人还在马路对面。我说：「既然你有困惑，我们就去问一下。」于是趁着红灯将转绿的当口，我们跑过马路，找到那老人，问他到底要不要帮忙。
他说没钱吃饭。
我问：「没钱吃饭，那你待会怎么回家？家里还有其他人吗？要不要帮你打电话？要不要帮你报警？」
他说家里已经没人了，他住港岛东。我说港岛东也挺远的。他说老人嘛，打车就两块钱。我说：「那你没饭吃，还能打车？」他说卡里只剩十几块——够打车回去，吃饭就不够了。
我问：「你吃饭要多少钱？」
他顿了顿，说：「你是不是买给我？」
我说：「我可以买给你。」
于是他把我们领到旁边的大家乐。其实只是两步台阶的距离，可他走得非常非常慢。他穿得干干净净，衬衣配西裤。每上一级台阶都慢得出奇，一边走一边说，他已经摔过两次了。
到了大家乐，他问能不能点餐。我们就一边陪他，一边聊他的情况。他说父母双亡，也没结过婚。我们问他从哪儿来。我问他有没有拿香港政府的综援，他说综援还要一年才有资格；这句我其实没听得太清。接着他又说「我不太知道」。还说他是印尼华侨，回香港才几个月。
我问他：「那你今天吃了，明天呢？」
他说，明天找朋友看看。后来在大家乐，我们给他买了海南鸡饭。他要打包，还要求把饮料也打包好。我心里猜，他大概是想把这顿饭分两次吃。
然后我们和他挥手道别。