The Lost Father

失散的父親

In the meantime, Mona Simpson had been trying to track down their father, who had wandered off when she was five. Through Ken Auletta and Nick Pileggi, prominent Manhattan writers, she was introduced to a retired New York cop who had formed his own detective agency. “I paid him what little money I had,” Simpson recalled, but the search was unsuccessful. Then she met another private eye in California, who was able to find an address for Abdulfattah Jandali in Sacramento through a Department of Motor Vehicles search. Simpson told her brother and flew out from New York to see the man who was apparently their father.

當(dāng)時(shí)，莫娜·辛普森一直在努力尋找他們的父親，他在她五歲的時(shí)候就離開了。通過(guò)曼哈頓兩位知名作家肯·奧萊塔和尼克·派勒吉（NickPileggi），她結(jié)識(shí)了一位退休后開偵探所的前紐約警察。“我把當(dāng)時(shí)僅有的一點(diǎn)兒錢都給他了。”辛普森回憶說(shuō)，可是并沒(méi)有找到她父親。后來(lái)她在加利福尼亞遇到另一位私家偵探，通過(guò)機(jī)動(dòng)車管理局捜索到了阿卜杜勒法塔赫·錢德里在薩克拉門托的一個(gè)地址。辛普森通知了哥哥，然后從紐約飛過(guò)去找他，顯然，那是她的父親。

Jobs had no interest in meeting him. “He didn’t treat me well,” he later explained. “I don’t hold anything against him—I’m happy to be alive. But what bothers me most is that he didn’t treat Mona well. He abandoned her.” Jobs himself had abandoned his own illegitimate daughter, Lisa, and now was trying to restore their relationship, but that complexity did not soften his feelings toward Jandali. Simpson went to Sacramento alone.

喬布斯對(duì)見他絲毫不感興趣。“他沒(méi)有善待我，”他后來(lái)解釋，“我并不是對(duì)他有意見——我很高興我活下來(lái)了。最讓我不滿的是他對(duì)莫娜不好。他拋棄了她。”喬布斯自己也拋棄了私生女麗薩，當(dāng)時(shí)還正在試圖恢復(fù)父女之間的關(guān)系，但這并沒(méi)有減輕他對(duì)錢德里的反感。辛普森一個(gè)人去了薩克拉門托。

“It was very intense,” Simpson recalled. She found her father working in a small restaurant. He seemed happy to see her, yet oddly passive about the entire situation. They talked for a few hours, and he recounted that, after he left Wisconsin, he had drifted away from teaching and gotten into the restaurant business.

“當(dāng)時(shí)非常緊張。”辛普森回憶道。她發(fā)現(xiàn)父親在一家小餐館工作。他見到她似乎很高興，但是對(duì)整個(gè)局面都表現(xiàn)得很被動(dòng)。他們聊了幾個(gè)小時(shí)，他講述了離開威斯康星之后，他如何從教書轉(zhuǎn)到了餐飲生意。他的第二次婚姻很短暫，之后又跟一個(gè)有錢的年長(zhǎng)些的女人有過(guò)一段長(zhǎng)一些的婚姻，但再?zèng)]有過(guò)孩子。

Jobs had asked Simpson not to mention him, so she didn’t. But at one point her father casually remarked that he and her mother had had another baby, a boy, before she had been born. “What happened to him?” she asked. He replied, “We’ll never see that baby again. That baby’s gone.” Simpson recoiled but said nothing.

喬布斯之前告訴辛普森不要提起他，所以她只字未提。但是她父親不經(jīng)意地提到，在她之前，他和她母親還曾經(jīng)有過(guò)一個(gè)男孩。“他怎么樣了？”她問(wèn)。他答道：“我們?cè)僖矝](méi)見過(guò)那個(gè)孩子。他不在了。”辛普森猶豫了一下，沒(méi)說(shuō)什么。

An even more astonishing revelation occurred when Jandali was describing the previous restaurants that he had run. There had been some nice ones, he insisted, fancier than the Sacramento joint they were then sitting in. He told her, somewhat emotionally, that he wished she could have seen him when he was managing a Mediterranean restaurant north of San Jose. “That was a wonderful place,” he said. “All of the successful technology people used to come there. Even Steve Jobs.” Simpson was stunned. “Oh, yeah, he used to come in, and he was a sweet guy, and a big tipper,” her father added. Mona was able to refrain from blurting out, Steve Jobs is your son!

接下來(lái)還有更驚人的。錢德里描述他曾經(jīng)經(jīng)營(yíng)過(guò)的餐館，強(qiáng)調(diào)說(shuō)曾經(jīng)有些很不錯(cuò)，比現(xiàn)在薩克拉門托的這個(gè)要漂亮。他有點(diǎn)兒激動(dòng)地說(shuō)，真希望她能看到他在圣何塞北部經(jīng)營(yíng)的那個(gè)地中海餐廳。“那個(gè)地方真棒，”他說(shuō)，“所有科技界的成功人士都會(huì)去那兒，甚至包括史蒂夫·喬布斯。”辛普森驚呆了。“是真的，他來(lái)過(guò)，而且他很友善，小費(fèi)給得很多。”她爸爸接著說(shuō)。莫娜強(qiáng)忍著沒(méi)有脫口而出，史蒂夫·喬布斯是你兒子！

When the visit was over, she called Jobs surreptitiously from the pay phone at the restaurant and arranged to meet him at the Espresso Roma café in Berkeley. Adding to the personal and family drama, he brought along Lisa, now in grade school, who lived with her mother, Chrisann. When they all arrived at the café, it was close to 10 p.m., and Simpson poured forth the tale. Jobs was understandably astonished when she mentioned the restaurant near San Jose. He could recall being there and even meeting the man who was his biological father. “It was amazing,” he later said of the revelation. “I had been to that restaurant a few times, and I remember meeting the owner. He was Syrian. Balding. We shook hands.”

跟父親告別后，她偷偷用餐館的付費(fèi)電話打給她哥哥，安排在伯克利的羅馬咖啡廳（ExpressoRoma）見面。像是述嫌這個(gè)家庭的故事不夠豐富多彩，他屆然把麗薩也帶來(lái)了。麗薩已經(jīng)上小學(xué)了，跟她媽媽克里斯安生活在一起。他們到咖啡廳時(shí)，已經(jīng)快晚上10點(diǎn)了，辛普森把故事一股腦兒地講了出來(lái)。當(dāng)她提到圣何塞附近那家餐廳時(shí)，可想而知喬布斯大吃一驚。他還記得去過(guò)那兒甚至還見到了他的生父。“這真是神奇，”他后來(lái)談道，“我去過(guò)那家餐廳幾次，而且我記得見到了老板。他是敘利亞人。我們還握過(guò)手。”

Nevertheless Jobs still had no desire to see him. “I was a wealthy man by then, and I didn’t trust him not to try to blackmail me or go to the press about it,” he recalled. “I asked Mona not to tell him about me.”

盡管如此，喬布斯還是不想見他。“那時(shí)我已經(jīng)很富有了，我不敢肯定他會(huì)不會(huì)來(lái)敲詐我或是去跟媒體說(shuō)什么，”他回憶道，“我讓莫娜別跟他談起我。”