經典科幻文學:《 再見 多謝你們的魚》第5章9

This, said Fenny.
Arthur whirled round in his seat and stared into her suddenly open but utterly vacant eyes. Whatever she was looking at wasn’t in the car. Her eyes fluttered, her head jerked once, and then she was sleeping peacefully.
What did she say? he asked anxiously.
She said “this”.
This what?
This what? How the heck should I know? This hedgehog, that chimney pot, the other pair of Don Alfonso’s tweezers. She’s barking mad, I thought I’d mentioned that.
You don’t seem to care very much. Arthur tried to say it as matter-of-factly as possible but it didn’t seem to work.
Look, buster…
OK, I’m sorry. It’s none of my business. I didn’t mean it to sound like that, said Arthur. I know you care a lot, obviously, he added, lying. I know that you have to deal with it somehow. You’ll have to excuse me. I just hitched from the other side of the Horsehead Nebula.
He stared furiously out of the window.
He was astonished that of all the sensations fighting for room in his head on this night as he returned to the home that he had thought had vanished into oblivion for ever, the one that was compelling him was an obsession with this bizarre girl of whom he knew nothing other than that she had said “this” to him, and that he wouldn’t wish her brother on a Vogon.
So, er, what were the jumps, these jumps you mentioned? he went on to say as quickly as he could.
Look, this is my sister, I don’t even know why I’m talking to you about…
OK, I’m sorry. Perhaps you’d better let me out. This is…
At the moment he said it, it became impossible, because the storm which had passed them by suddenly erupted again. Lightning belted through the sky, and someone seemed to be pouring something which closely resembled the Atlantic Ocean over them through a sieve. Russell swore and steered intently for a few seconds as the sky blattered at them. He worked out his anger by rashly accelerating to pass a lorry marked “McKeena’s All-Weather Haulage”. The tension eased as the rain subsided.
It started with all that business of the CIA agent they found in the reservoir, when everybody had all the hallucinations and everything, you remember?
Arthur wondered for a moment whether to mention again that he had just hitch-hiked back from the other side of the Horsehead Nebula and was for this and various other related and astounding reasons a little out of touch with recent events, but he decided it would only confuse matters further.
No, he said.

“這個，”芬妮說。
阿瑟把身子擰過去盯着她突然睜開但完全茫然的雙眼。無論她正在看什麼，那都不會是車裏的東西。她的眼睛眨了幾下，腦袋抽搐了一下，接着沉沉睡去了。
“她說什麼？”他緊張地問。
“她說‘這個’。”
“這個什麼？”
“這個什麼？他媽的我哪兒知道？這隻刺蝟，那隻煙囪，另外那隻唐.阿方索牌的鑷子。她就是瘋了，我想我已經說過了。”
“你看起來不是很關心她。”阿瑟嘗試着儘量就事論事，但似乎沒用。
“你小子聽着......”
“好，我錯了，對不起。這不關我的事兒。我並不是那個意思，”阿瑟說。“我知道你很關心她，這是很明顯的。”他補充着，不過是謊話。“我知道你總是要應付這些。請你原諒我。我是剛從馬頭星雲那兒搭便車來的。”
他煩躁地盯着窗外。
他對自己今夜心中涌出的那些情感而震驚，他回到了他認爲早已永遠湮滅在虛空中的故鄉，他被一個除了會對他說“這個”之外一無所知的奇妙女孩所迷住，而他覺得她的兄弟連沃貢人都不如。
“所以，呃，那些波動是什麼？那些你提到過的波動？”他儘可能快地說着。
“瞧，這是我妹妹，我甚至不知道我爲什麼要跟你說這些......”
“好，我錯了。也許你該讓我下車。這是......”
此時他想說，但已經不能說出來了，因爲剛纔平息掉的暴風雨突然捲土重來了。閃電劃破天際，好像有天上人把大西洋一類的東西透過濾網倒在他們頭上。拉塞爾詛咒着，專心地向前開了幾秒，雨包圍着他們。他爲了發泄自己的憤怒，就猛地加速，超過了那輛標有“麥克基納風雨無阻貨運”的大卡車。雨減弱了，情緒也放鬆下來了。
“這全都是從水庫裏那個中情局探員開始的，所有人都有幻覺，你記得麼？”
阿瑟想了一會，琢磨自己到底要不要再提一次：他從馬頭星雲的另一邊搭便車而來，由於這個，以及其他有關的驚人原因，他與時事有些脫節。但他認爲這隻會把問題弄複雜。
“不記得。”他說。