經典科幻文學:《 再見 多謝你們的魚》第18章3

They looked at each other for a moment.
The moment became a longer moment, and suddenly it was a very long moment, so long one could hardly tell where all the time was coming from.
For Arthur, who could usually contrive to feel self-conscious if left alone for long enough with a Swiss Cheese plant, the moment was one of sustained revelation. He felt on the sudden like a cramped and zoo-born animal who awakes one morning to find the door to his cage hanging quietly open and the savannah stretching grey and pink to the distant rising sun, while all around new sounds are waking.
He wondered what the new sounds were as he gazed at her openly wondering face and her eyes that smiled with a shared surprise.
He hadn’t realized that life speaks with a voice to you, a voice that brings you answers to the questions you continually ask of it, had never consciously detected it or recognized its tones till it now said something it had never said to him before, which was “Yes”.
Fenchurch dropped her eyes away at last, with a tiny shake of her head.
I know, she said. I shall have to remember, she added, that you are the sort of person who cannot hold on to a simple piece of paper for two minutes without winning a raffle with it.
She turned away.
Let’s go for a walk, she said quickly. Hyde Park. I’ll change into something less suitable.
She was dressed in a rather severe dark dress, not a particularly shapely one, and it didn’t really suit her.
I wear it specially for my ‘cello teacher, she said. He’s a nice boy, but I sometimes think all that bowing gets him a bit excited. I’ll be down in a moment.
She ran lightly up the steps to the gallery above, and called down: Put the bottle in the fridge for later.
He noticed as he slipped the champagne bottle into the door that it had an identical twin to sit next to.
He walked over to the window and looked out. He turned and started to look at her records. From above he heard the rustle of her dress fall to the ground. He talked to himself about the sort of person he was. He told himself very firmly that for this moment at least he would keep his eyes very firmly and steadfastly locked on to the spines of her records, read the titles, nod appreciatively, count the blasted things if he had to. He would keep his head down.
This he completely, utterly and abjectly failed to do.
She was staring down at him with such intensity that she seemed hardly to notice that he was looking up at her. Then suddenly she shook her head, dropped the light sundress over herself and disappeared quickly into the bathroom.
She emerged a moment later, all smiles and with a sunhat and came tripping down the steps with extraordinary lightness. It was a strange kind of dancing motion she had. She saw that he noticed it and put her head slightly on one side.
Like it? she said.

他們對望了一會兒。
那個一會兒變成了好長一會兒，突然間變成了相當長的一會兒，長到一個人都難以明白那麼些個時間都是打哪兒跑出來的。
對阿瑟這樣通常可以在與瑞士乾酪藤的長時間獨處後最終感到自我意識的存在的人來說，那“一會兒”是一種啓示。在剎那間，他感到自己是個狹小的動物園中的動物，某天早上覺醒了，發現他的籠門靜靜地開着而薩瓦那大草原在初升的旭日下呈現着灰色和粉色，周遭彷彿有某種新的聲音被喚醒了。
他疑惑着那種新的聲音到底是什麼，與此同時他盯着她明顯疑惑的臉和她同樣驚訝的微笑的眼睛。
他並沒意識到生命會用聲音對你說話，那種聲音會告訴你那些你不停求索的問題的答案，他並沒有察覺和識別它的音調直到它現在說了一些以前從未對他說過的話：“是的。”
芬琪詩最後把目光移開了，頭微微地顫抖。
“我知道了，”她說，“我應當記起來的，”她補充說，“你是那種拿着一張簡單的紙片在兩分鐘之內不可能不贏一張彩票的人。”
她轉過身去。
“我們去散個步吧，”她很快地說。“海德公園。我去換身不太合適的衣服。”
她穿着一身相當暗色的衣服，並不特別合身，而且確實根本不適合她。
“我穿這身衣服是爲了我的大提琴老師，”她說，“他是個好人，但我有的時候覺得那些樂弓技法讓他有些太興奮了。我一會兒就下來。”
她輕輕地跑上屋頂的畫廊，往下喊道：“把那瓶子放進冰箱裏等會兒喝。”
當他把香檳滑進那扇門裏時他注意到那瓶香檳旁邊有個它的孿生兄弟。
他走到窗邊向外眺望。他又轉過身來開始觀察她的唱片。他聽到頭頂上傳來衣服落到地上的輕響。他對自己說自己應該是怎樣的人。他堅定地告訴自己在此刻的目光至少應當堅定地鎖定在她的唱片的封套上，閱讀標籤，作出欣賞的點頭姿勢，如果必須的話就去數一數這些該死的東西。總之，他要把頭低下來。
但這件事，他完完全全，徹徹底底，悽悽慘慘地失敗了。
她用如此熱烈的目光盯着她，好像她沒注意到他正在仰着頭注視她。接着她突然搖了搖頭，把淺色的太陽裙套在身上然後迅速消失在了浴室裏。
過了一會她又出現了，微笑着戴着一頂遮陽帽，用超級輕盈的腳步從臺階上翩然而至。她在跳着一種奇怪的舞步。她發現他注意到了這一點於是微微地把頭扭向了一邊。
“喜歡麼？”她說。