家裡那個被遺忘的角落The Forgotten Corner at Home

每個人的家裡，都會有一些很少會去動到的角落，一年、甚至好幾年才會去清理一次。在我家，大概就是樓梯下被我們拿來堆放雜物的空間。
In every house, there’s always a rarely touched corner that one cleans once a year or even longer. In our place, it should be the space under the stairs where we use for storing miscellaneous articles.

「對灰塵過敏」是不打掃的好理由，家裡只要是會讓灰塵飛舞的工作，我能少做就少做，真的逼不得已輪到我動手，也只好戴起幾年前買的N95口罩…我只能在被悶死或被癢死之間選擇其一。
“Allergic to dust” is a good reason for not doing housekeeping and cleaning job. I always try to avoid anything that will raise the dust. When I’m really forced to do it, I could only take out my N95 mask… I can only choose to suffocate myself or itch to die.

上星期發現貓兒身上有跳蚤，本來以為投了藥就應該沒事了，沒想到在讀了用藥指示以後，才發現家裡只要是貓兒會去玩耍的地方，就得要清掃一番…義大利人一般是春季大掃除，沒想到我們這下子因為貓跳蚤的關係，還得來個秋掃，想著工作進度嚴重落後，又看著身上到處是被跳蚤咬了以後留下來癢得要死的小水泡，在怎麼樣也得硬著頭皮找時間打掃，趁著今天米奇剛好有空檔，也只得戴上N95上陣。
Last week, we discovered that there’re cat fleas at home! We thought that we only needed to get the medicine and apply the drops, but after reading the instructions we found a huge task in front of us. Every corner that the cat could arrive needs to be cleaned… Italians normally do yearly cleaning in spring. We’ve never imagined that we had to do a big cleaning in autumn because of cat fleas. I looked at my delayed work schedule, and then the tiny little red spots on my body left by these little bastards. No matter what we had to do it. So today we took the chance when Michele could take a break from work. My N95 was ready for work.

吃完中餐以後開始動手，整個下午四個小時，我也只是隨便把客廳那張桌子和幾個櫃子抹了幾下，並且拿著吸塵器，把粘附在椅子和沙發上的貓毛吸一吸，就已經陣亡了。米奇則負責車庫和樓梯間，貓便便和貓砂更是要整個換掉。
We started after lunch. I’ve only cleaned the desk in the living room and some shelves, plus cleaning all the cat hair on all the chairs and sofa with vacuum cleaner. It took me four hours to do it and I was exhausted after I finished. Michele was in charge of the garage and stairs. It’s also a must to clean the cat litter and change the cat sand.

家裡兩盆貓砂，一盆在車庫裡，一盆則在門口樓梯間。我一直都很想要把樓梯間的那盆換個位置，畢竟一進家裡就聞到貓便便，實在也不太舒服。趁著大掃除的機會，米奇終於決定要替那盆貓砂換位置了。也就是因為這樣，他竟然突發奇想，去動了家裡那個幾乎被遺忘的角落。
There’re two pots of cat sand at home, one in the garage and the other under the stairs. I’ve always wanted to find another place for the one under the stairs. After all, it’s not a nice feeling to smell the cat litter once you enter the house. Taking the chance, Michele decided to find another place for it. It’s also for this reason that he suddenly decided to mess around the forgotten corner.

搬到義大利五年多以來，我根本沒有去動過那個角落，所以自然也就不知道裡頭藏了那麼多好貨色，只是碰上選擇性‘健忘’又忙於工作的米奇，那種只有他能去碰的事情，向來都得要排好幾個月的隊才可能進行，交代給他的事情，如果沒有要他給個承諾，我向來也不敢冀望…清樓梯間，對我來說還真是天上掉下來的禮物…
I’ve moved here for five years and have never touched that corner. So it’s natural that I didn’t know what kind of “collections” lied inside. However, because of Michele’s “selectively forgetful character” and busy work, everything that only he can do has to queue for its chance for months. If he didn’t promise to do something, I can only hope that someday the mission would be completed… Cleaning that forgotten corner, it’s like a present fallen from heaven to me…

這可謂不鳴則已一鳴驚人，不清還好，一清把整個世界都給清出來了，三十多瓶紅酒白酒甜酒香檳（其中有好幾瓶二十多年的陳年好酒），一箱婆婆好幾年前做的番茄糊，兩大瓶從靴子跟運上來的特級橄欖油，兩箱自製果醬，加上好幾箱可以拿來裝番茄糊或自製果醬的空瓶子。
It seemed to discover a new world! More than thirty bottles of wine including some twenty-year-old red wine, a box of passata that my in-laws made few years ago, two big bottles of extra-virgin olive oil from Puglia, two boxes of home-made jam, and some boxes of empty bottles for passata and jam.

好不容易整理好了，憑空多出來五年份的番茄糊空瓶、三年份的果醬、夠整個冬天吃的番茄糊（如果還能吃的話）和一大堆好酒，我的心情好像挖到寶一樣，而且就在自己家裡…
It took a while to tidy things up. Coming out of the void is five-year quantity of passata bottles, three-year quantity of jam, and bottles of passata enough for the whole winter (if they’re still eatable) and a collection of good wine. It seemed to me that I’ve found a treasure box at home.

每天都能這樣過的話，該有多好…
I just wish that things like this could happen everyday…