經典科幻文學:《宇宙盡頭的餐館》第34章2(END)
“Listen, forget it,” said Ford, “forget all of it. Nothing matters. Look, it’s a beautiful day, enjoy it. The sun, the green of the hills, the river down in the valley, the burning trees.”
“Even if it’s only a dream, it’s a pretty horrible idea,” said Mella, “destroying a world just to make a bypass.”
“Oh, I’ve heard of worse,” said Ford, “I read of one planet off in the seventh dimension that got used as a ball in a game of intergalactic bar billiards. Got potted straight into a black hole. Killed ten billion people.”
“That’s mad,” said Mella.
“Yes, only scored thirty points too.”
Agda and Mella exchanged glances.
“Look,” said Agda, “there’s a party after the committee meeting tonight. You can come along if you like.”
“Yeah, OK,” said Ford.
“I’d like to,” said Arthur.
Many hours later Arthur and Mella sat and watched the moon rise over the dull red glow of the trees.
“That story about the world being destroyed…” began Mella.
“In two million years, yes.”
“You say it as if you really think it’s true.”
“Yes, I think it is. I think I was there.”
She shook her head in puzzlement.
“You’re very strange,” she said.
“No, I’m very ordinary,” said Arthur, “but some very strange things have happened to me. You could say I’m more differed from than differing.”
“And that other world your friend talked about, the one that got pushed into a black hole.”
“Ah, that I don’t know about. It sounds like something from the book.”
“What book?”
Arthur paused.
“The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” he said at last.
“What’s that?”
“Oh, just something I threw into the river this evening. I don’t think I’ll be wanting it any more,” said Arthur Dent.
“聽着，忘掉這些吧”福特說，“忘掉所有這些廢話。沒什麼要緊的。瞧，多麼美妙的一天，享受它吧。這太陽，這羣山的綠色，這山谷中自々河流，還有正在燃燒的樹木；”
“就算做夢夢見這種事，都太可怕了：”梅託說，“毀掉一個世界，只爲了修建一條通道，”
“噢，我還聽說過更糟的呢：”福特說，“我讀到過，第十七維度的一顥行星被人當成一盤星系際酒吧檯球賽的球，打到一個黑洞裏去了，死了一百億人。”
“簡直是瘋了。”梅拉說。
“足啊，而且只值30分，”
阿姬達和梅拉交換了一下目光。
“瞧，”阿姬達說，“委員會會議結束之後，今晚有一場派對。如果你們願意的話，可以和我們一塊兒去。”
“太好了。”福特說。
“我願意。”阿瑟說。
許多個小時以後，阿瑟和梅拉坐在一起，看着月亮從樹木燃燒所形成的暗紅色光芒之上升起。
“那個關於世界被毀滅的故事”梅拉開始道。
“二百萬年以後，是的。”
“聽你說起來，簡直跟直事一樣，”
”是的。我想是的，我想我當時在那兒。”
她迷惑不解地播了搖頭。
“你這人真怪。”她說。
“不，我非常普通，”阿瑟說，“只不過，有一些非常奇怪的事發生在了我身上：這麼說更恰當，我被選中了，經受這些奇奇怪怪的經所。這些並不是我主動選擇的。”
“你的朋友講的另一個世界呢？被當成檯球打進黑洞的那個。”
“噢，我不知道，聽起來像那本書裏的內容。”
“什麼書？”
阿瑟頓了頓
“《銀河系漫遊指南》”他最後說。
“那是什麼書？”
“噢，只不過是今天傍晚我扔進河裏的那個東西。我想我不會再需要它了。”阿瑟·鄧特說。
