Once she calmed down, she told Jobs that he had a full sister, Mona Simpson, who was then an aspiring novelist in Manhattan. She had never told Mona that she had a brother, and that day she broke the news, or at least part of it, by telephone. “You have a brother, and he’s wonderful, and he’s famous, and I’m going to bring him to New York so you can meet him,” she said. Mona was in the throes of finishing a novel about her mother and their peregrination from Wisconsin to Los Angeles, Anywhere but Here. Those who’ve read it will not be surprised that Joanne was somewhat quirky in the way she imparted to Mona the news about her brother. She refused to say who he was—only that he had been poor, had gotten rich, was good-looking and famous, had long dark hair, and lived in California. Mona then worked at the Paris Review, George Plimpton’s literary journal housed on the ground floor of his townhouse near Manhattan’s East River. She and her coworkers began a guessing game on who her brother might be. John Travolta? That was one of the favorite guesses. Other actors were also hot prospects. At one point someone did toss out a guess that “maybe it’s one of those guys who started Apple computer,” but no one could recall their names.

平静下来后，她告诉乔布斯他有个同父同母的亲妹妹，莫娜·辛普森，现在在曼哈顿，是个雄心勃勃的小说家。以前她从未告诉过莫娜她有个哥哥，就在那天她打电话公布了这个消息——或至少是一部分信息。“你有个哥哥，他很棒，很有名，我要带他来纽约见你。”她说。莫娜当时正在写一部小说的结尾，是关于她母亲以及她们如何从威斯康星州游历到洛杉矶的经历，书名叫《在别处》。读过这本书的人不会惊讶，乔安妮向莫娜说起自己长子的方式有点儿怪异。她不肯说他是谁，只是说他曾经很穷，现在有钱了，很好看也很有名，有长长的深色头发，住在加利福尼亚。莫娜当时在《巴黎评论》（TheParisReview）工作，那是乔治·普林顿（GeorgePlimpton）主办的文学期刊，办公室在他位于曼哈顿东河附近别墅的一层。莫娜和同事们开始猜她哥哥是谁。约翰·特拉沃尔塔（JohnTravolta）?那是大家认为最可能的一个键底。他们还猜到了其他演员。其间某个人说了句“也许是苹果公司那几个创始人之一呢”，但是没人想得起他们的名字。

The meeting occurred in the lobby of the St. Regis Hotel. “He was totally straightforward and lovely, just a normal and sweet guy,” Mona recalled. They all sat and talked for a few minutes, then he took his sister for a long walk, just the two of them. Jobs was thrilled to find that he had a sibling who was so similar to him. They were both intense in their artistry, observant of their surroundings, and sensitive yet strong-willed. When they went to dinner together, they noticed the same architectural details and talked about them excitedly afterward. “My sister’s a writer!” he exulted to colleagues at Apple when he found out.

他们的会面安排在瑞吉酒店（St.RegisHotel）的大堂。乔安妮·辛普森把莫娜介绍给乔布斯，结果居然真的是苹果的创始人。“他非常直率可爱，就是个普通的、和善的人。”莫娜回忆道。他们一起坐在大堂聊了一会儿，然后他带着妹妹一起出去散步，就他们两个人。乔布斯兴奋地发现有个跟自己这么像的亲妹妹。他们都对自己的艺术非常执著，对周围环境善于观察，敏感而又倔犟。当他们共进晚餐时，他们会注意到相同的建筑细节或有趣的事物，之后会兴奋地谈论。“我妹妹是个作家！”他喜形于色地告诉苹果的同事们。

When Plimpton threw a party for Anywhere but Here in late 1986, Jobs flew to New York to accompany Mona to it. They grew increasingly close, though their friendship had the complexities that might be expected, considering who they were and how they had come together. “Mona was not completely thrilled at first to have me in her life and have her mother so emotionally affectionate toward me,” he later said. “As we got to know each other, we became really good friends, and she is my family. I don’t know what I’d do without her. I can’t imagine a better sister. My adopted sister, Patty, and I were never close.” Mona likewise developed a deep affection for him, and at times could be very protective, although she would later write an edgy novel about him, A Regular Guy, that described his quirks with discomforting accuracy.

1986年底，普林顿为《在别处》举行庆祝会时，乔布斯专程飞到纽约陪同莫娜出席。他们的关系越来越亲密，尽管当中也有磕磕绊绊，这也在所难免——想想他们都那么有个性，又是在这样的情况下才得以团聚。“一开始莫娜对我的出现并不是很兴奋，尤其她妈妈在感情上又对我那么投入，”乔布斯后来说，“但随着我们渐渐相互了解，我们就成了很好的朋友，而且她是我的亲人。我不知道没有她我该怎么办。我难以想象会有比她更好的妹妹。我那个同样是领养的妹妹帕蒂跟我从不亲密。”莫娜同样对他的感情也越来越深，有时还会非常护着他，虽然她后来写了本关于他的小说《凡人》（ARegularGuy）其中描述了他的各种怪癖，让人看了很不舒服，但很准确。

One of the few things they would argue about was her clothes. She dressed like a struggling novelist, and he would berate her for not wearing clothes that were “fetching enough.” At one point his comments so annoyed her that she wrote him a letter: “I am a young writer, and this is my life, and I’m not trying to be a model anyway.” He didn’t answer. But shortly after, a box arrived from the store of Issey Miyake, the Japanese fashion designer whose stark and technology-influenced style made him one of Jobs’s favorites. “He’d gone shopping for me,” she later said, “and he’d picked out great things, exactly my size, in flattering colors.” There was one pantsuit that he had particularly liked, and the shipment included three of them, all identical. “I still remember those first suits I sent Mona,” he said. “They were linen pants and tops in a pale grayish green that looked beautiful with her reddish hair.”

会引起他们争论的事情之一，就是她的着装。莫娜穿得像一个生活困顿的小说家，而他会怪她衣着不够迷人。有一次他的评论实在惹恼了她，她给他写信说：“我是个年轻的作家，这是我的生活，我没想当模特。”他没有回信。但没过多久，从三宅一生的时装店寄来一箱衣服，这位设计师因其筒洁风格和科技元素而成为乔布斯的最爱之一。“他会去为我买衣服，”她后来说，“他能选出非常棒的，正好是我的尺码，颜色也很适合我。”有一套裤装他特别喜欢，包裹里居然有三套完全一样的。“我还记得我寄给莫娜的第一箱衣服，”乔布斯说，“是些淡灰绿色的亚麻裤子和上装，很衬她的红头发。”