經典科幻文學:《基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第16章1

16

第十六章

Arthur wasn’t quite certain which he noticed as being missing first. When he noticed that the one wasn’t there his mind instantly leapt to the other and he knew immediately that they were both gone and that something insanely bad and difficult to deal with would happen as a result.

阿瑟不大確定首先引起自己注意的是哪一個。當他發現其中一個失蹤，腦子立刻就跳到了另一個上，然後他立刻就知道兩樣都沒了，還有就是最後一定會發生些壞得發瘋，沒法應付的事情。

Random was not there. And neither was the parcel.

蘭登不在茅屋裏，包裹也不在。

He had left it up on a shelf all day, in plain view. It was an exercise in trust.

這一整天他都把它留在架子上，半點沒有掩飾。這是一種信任練習。

He knew that one of the things he was supposed to do as a parent was to show trust in his child, to build a sense of trust and confidence into the bedrock of relationship between them. He had had a nasty feeling that that might be an idiotic thing to do, but he did it anyway, and sure enough it had turned out to be an idiotic thing to do. You live and learn. At any rate, you live.

他知道，作爲家長，他的職責之一就是信任他的孩子，爲他倆的關係打下一種相互信賴的根基。他在這麼幹之前就有種兇險的預感，怕自己要乾的是件大蠢事，但他還是這麼幹了。結果自不必說，他發現這果真是件大傻事。你總是一邊生活一邊學習，反正你至少在生活。

You also panic.

而且你還要驚慌失措。

Arthur ran out of the hut. It was the middle of the evening. The light was getting dim and a storm was brewing. He could not see her anywhere, nor any sign of her. He asked. No one had seen her. He asked again. No one else had seen her. They were going home for the night. A little wind was whipping round the edge of the village, picking things up and tossing them around in a dangerously casual manner.

阿瑟跑出茅屋，現在正是半夜，光線越來越暗淡，一場暴風雨正在醞釀。他哪兒都找不到她，連個影子也沒有。他到處打聽。沒人見過她。他再打聽。別的人也沒見過她。大家都準備回家睡覺。村邊颳着一點微風，把東西吹上天拋來拋去，態度隨便得可怕。

He found Old Thrashbarg and asked him. Thrashbarg looked at him stonily, and then pointed in the one direction that Arthur had dreaded, and had therefore instinctively known was the way she would have gone.

他找到老刷希巴跟他打聽。刷希巴面無表情地看着他，然後指了一個方向。那正是阿瑟所害怕的地方，其實他早就憑直覺猜到她是去了那邊。

So now he knew the worst.

所以現在他知道了最壞的情況。

She had gone where she thought he would not follow her.

她去了那兒，因爲她以爲阿瑟不會上那兒去找她。

He looked up at the sky, which was sullen, streaked and livid, and reflected that it was the sort of sky that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse wouldn’t feel like a bunch of complete idiots riding out of.

他看看天，青黑色的天空顯得陰沉而暴躁，如果《啓示錄》裏那四個騎士要選個時機從天上騎馬跑出來，大概只有這類天氣纔不會讓他們覺得自己好像一夥徹頭徹尾的大白癡。

With a heavy sense of the utmost foreboding he set off on the track that led to the forest in the next valley. The first heavy blobs of rain began to hit the ground as Arthur tried to drag himself to some sort of run.

阿瑟帶着最最沉重和不詳的預感踏上了通往下一個山谷的小路。他努力想拖着自己的身體跑起來，沉甸甸的大雨點開始砸到地面上。