諾貝爾文學經典:《寵兒》第14章Part3

The sheriff wanted to back out too. To stand in the sunlight outside of that place meant for housingwood, coal, kerosene — fuel for cold Ohio winters, which he thought of now, while resisting theurge to run into the August sunlight. Not because he was afraid. Not at all. He was just cold. Andhe didn't want to touch anything. The baby in the old man's arms was crying, and the woman's eyeswith no whites were gazing straight ahead. They all might have remained that way, frozen tillThursday, except one of the boys on the floor sighed. As if he were sunk in the pleasure of a deepsweet sleep, he sighed the sigh that flung the sheriff into action.
"I'll have to take you.in. No trouble now. You've done enough to last you. Come on now."She did not move.
"You come quiet, hear, and I won't have to tie you up." She stayed still and he had made up hismind to go near her and some kind of way bind her wet red hands when a shadow behind him inthe doorway made him turn. The nigger with the flower in her hat entered.
Baby Suggs noticed who breathed and who did not and went straight to the boys lying in the dirt.
The old man moved to the woman gazing and said, "Sethe. You take my armload and gimme yours."She turned to him, and glancing at the baby he was holding, made a low sound in her throat asthough she'd made a mistake, left the salt out of the bread or something.
"I'm going out here and send for a wagon," the sheriff said and got into the sunlight at last.
But neither Stamp Paid nor Baby Suggs could make her put her crawling-already? girl down. Outof the shed, back in the house, she held on. Baby Suggs had got the boys inside and was bathingtheir heads, rubbing their hands, lifting their lids, whispering, "Beg your pardon, I beg yourpardon," the whole time. She bound their wounds and made them breathe camphor before turningher attention to Sethe. She took the crying baby from Stamp Paid and carried it on her shoulder fora full two minutes, then stood in front of its mother. "It's time to nurse your youngest," she said.
Sethe reached up for the baby without letting the dead one go.

警官也想退出來。走出這間本該貯藏木料、煤炭、石油——寒冷的俄亥俄冬天的燃料——的棚屋，站到屋外的陽光裏。他一邊這樣想，一邊抗拒着跑進八月陽光裏的衝動。不是因爲害怕。根本不是。他只是覺得冷。他也不想碰任何東西。老人懷裏的嬰兒在哭，那女人沒有眼白的一雙眼睛直勾勾地瞪着前方。他們都可以就那樣一直待下去，凍結到星期四，可是地上一個男孩嘆了口氣。彷彿沉溺在甜美酣睡的樂趣中，他這一聲輕嘆嘆得警官猛一激靈，立即開始行動。
"我必須把你抓進去。別再找麻煩了。你已經幹得不少了。現在跟我走吧。"她沒有動。
"你乖乖地走，聽見沒有，我就不用把你捆起來了。"她還是不動，於是他決定走近她，想個辦法捆上她那雙血淋淋的手，這時他身後門口的一個人影讓他轉過頭來。帽子上戴花的黑鬼走了進來。
貝比·薩格斯注意到誰還有氣、誰沒氣了，便徑直走向躺在塵土裏的男孩們。
老頭走向那個女人，盯着她，說道："塞絲，抱着我懷裏這個，把你的那個給我。"她轉過頭，瞟了一眼他懷裏的嬰兒，喉嚨裏低叫了一聲，就像她出了個錯，麪包裏忘了放鹽什麼的。
"我出去叫輛大車。"警官說着，終於走進了陽光。
可是無論斯坦普·沛德，還是貝比·薩格斯，都不能讓塞絲把她那"都會爬了？"的女孩放下。走出棚屋，走進房子，一直抱着她不放。貝比·薩格斯已經把男孩們帶了進來，正在給他們洗頭、搓手、扒開眼皮，自始至終嘀咕着："請原諒，請你們原諒。"她包紮好他們的傷口，讓他們吸過樟腦，然後纔開始對付塞絲。她從斯坦普·沛德手裏接過哭鬧的嬰兒，在肩膀上扛了足足兩分鐘，然後站到孩子的母親面前。"該餵你的小寶貝了。"她說。
塞絲接過嬰兒，還是沒撒開那個死的。