經典科幻文學:《 再見 多謝你們的魚》第10章3

April showers I hate especially.
However noncommittally Arthur grunted, the man seemed determined to talk to him. He wondered if he should get up and move to another table, but there didn’t seem to be one free in the whole cafeteria. He stirred his coffee fiercely.
Bloody April showers. Hate hate hate.
Arthur stared, frowning, out of the window. A light, sunny spray of rain hung over the motorway. Two months he’d been back now. Slipping back into his old life had in fact been laughably easy. People had such extraordinarily short memories, including him. Eight years of crazed wanderings round the Galaxy now seemed to him not so much like a bad dream as like a film he had videotaped from the TV and now kept in the back of a cupboard without bothering to watch.
One effect that still lingered though, was his joy at being back. Now that the Earth’s atmosphere had closed over his head for good, he thought, wrongly, everything within it gave him extraordinary pleasure. Looking at the silvery sparkle of the raindrops he felt he had to protest.
Well, I like them, he said suddenly, and for all the obvious reasons. They’re light and refreshing. They sparkle and make you feel good.
The man snorted derisively.
That’s what they all say, he said, and glowered darkly from his corner seat.
He was a lorry driver. Arthur knew this because his opening, unprovoked remark had been, I’m a lorry driver. I hate driving in the rain. Ironic isn’t it? Bloody ironic.
If there was a sequitur hidden in this remark, Arthur had not been able to divine it and had merely given a little grunt, affable but not encouraging.
But the man had not been deterred then, and was not deterred now.
They all say that about bloody April showers, he said. So bloody nice, so bloody refreshing, such charming bloody weather.
He leaned forward, screwing his face up as if he was going to say something about the government.
What I want to know is this, he said, if it’s going to be nice weather, why, he almost spat, can’t it be nice without bloody raining?
Arthur gave up. He decided to leave his coffee, which was too hot to drink quickly and too nasty to drink cold.
Well, there you go, he said and instead got up himself. Bye.
He stopped off at the service station shop, then walked back through the car park, making a point of enjoying the fine play of rain on his face. There was even, he noticed, a faint rainbow glistening over the Devon hills. He enjoyed that too.
He climbed into his battered but adored old black Golf GTi, squealed the tires, and headed out past the islands of petrol pumps and on to the slip road back towards the motorway.
He was wrong in thinking that the atmosphere of the Earth had closed finally and for ever above his head.
He was wrong to think that it would ever be possible to put behind him the tangled web of irresolutions into which his galactic travels had dragged him.
He was wrong to think he could now forget that the big, hard, oily, dirty, rainbow-hung Earth on which he lived was a microscopic dot on a microscopic dot lost in the unimaginable infinity of the Universe.
He drove on, humming, being wrong about all these things.
The reason he was wrong was standing by the slip road under a small umbrella.
His jaw sagged. He sprained his ankle against the brake pedal and skidded so hard he very nearly turned the car over.
Fenny! he shouted.

“四月的大雨是我特別討厭的。”
雖然阿瑟只會含糊地咕噥，但那個人看起來很堅定地要跟他聊聊。他考慮着自己是不是應該站起來換個桌子坐，但整個餐館裏似乎沒有別的空桌子了。他用力地攪着自己的咖啡。
“該死的四月大雨。討厭討厭討厭。”
阿瑟皺着眉頭望着窗外。輕柔和煦的雨灑在了高速路上。他已經回家兩個月了。事實上，突然地過回舊日子相當相當地容易。人類的記憶出奇地短，包括阿瑟的。八年來的銀河瘋狂之旅對他來說如今只是一場噩夢，就像他從電視上錄下來的現在正存在櫃子後面的某部百看不厭的電影一樣。
但是有一項副作用還遺留着，那就是對於回家的喜悅。現在地球的大氣將永久地罩着他了，他錯誤地想着，地球上的每樣東西都給他帶來了超凡的樂趣。看着那些閃爍着銀色光芒的雨滴，他覺得有必要爲這場雨辯護幾句。
“怎麼說呢，我喜歡這雨，”他突然開口，“理由非常明顯。它們又輕柔又清爽。它們閃爍的光芒讓你感覺很爽。”
那個人嘲笑地哧了一聲。
“他們就會說這個，”他說，從角落的黑暗中怒目而視。
他是一個卡車司機。阿瑟知道這個是因爲他無緣無故沒頭沒腦的談話。“我是個開卡車的。我痛恨在雨裏開車。是不是很諷刺？真他孃的諷刺。”
即便這段談話中早已隱含了這一結論，阿瑟也根本預言不到。現在他只能應和一兩聲，語氣和藹但並不鼓勵他說下去。
但是那個人原先就沒有停，現在更不會停下來。
“他們都這麼說該死的四月大雨，”他說，“真他媽好，真他媽清爽，多他媽迷人的天氣啊。”
他把身子探過去，把臉板起來就好像他打算評論政府一樣。
“我想知道的是這個，”他說，“如果這會是個好天氣，那麼爲什麼，”他幾乎唾沫橫飛了，“它就不能不下雨嗎？”
阿瑟放棄了。他決定拋下自己的咖啡，那杯咖啡太燙了所以不能快着喝，又太黏了所以不能冷着喝。
“好吧，就這樣，”他說着，隨後站起來。“再見。”
他在加油站的商店裏停留了一會，接着穿過停車場走回去，特別享受着雨打在臉上的感覺。那裏甚至——他注意到——有一道暗淡的彩虹閃耀在德文郡小山的那頭。
他爬進自己破舊但可愛的黑色Golf GTi ，輪胎尖嘯，車子經過油泵開上岔路口，隨後回到了高速路上。
他錯誤地認爲地球的大氣最終將永遠罩在他頭頂上。
他錯誤地認爲自己有可能擺脫星際旅行把他拖進的糾結的羅網。
他錯誤地認爲他現在可以忘掉這樣一個事實：他居住的這個龐大，堅硬，圓滑，骯髒，掛着彩虹的地球，只是失落在無邊無際的宇宙中的一粒塵埃中的塵埃。
他開着車，腦中嗡嗡作響，把所有這些事情都想錯了。
而他想錯的原因正打着傘，站在岔路口。
他的下巴快驚訝的脫臼了。他猛踩剎車踏板，把腳給扭傷了。而如此之猛的剎車使得車子幾乎翻了過去。
“芬妮！”他大喊着。