經典科幻文學:《宇宙盡頭的餐館》第33章2
Arthur looked up with a start. He suddenly had a feeling that All this might look slightly foolish. All he knew was that it had worked like a dream on him when he was a child. But things were different then, or rather would be.
“I’m trying to teach the cavemen to play Scrabble,” he said.
“They’re not cavemen,” said Ford.
“They look like cavemen.”
Ford let it pass.
“I see,” he said.
“It’s uphill work,” said Arthur wearily, “the only word they know is grunt and they can’t spell it.”
He sighed and sat back.
“What’s that supposed to achieve?” asked Ford.
“We’ve got to encourage them to evolve! To develop!” Arthur burst out angrily. He hoped that the weary sigh and then the anger might do something to counteract the overriding feeling of foolishness from which he was currently suffering. It didn’t. He jumped to his feet.
“Can you imagine what a world would be like descended from those… cretins we arrived with?” he said.
“Imagine?” said Ford, rising his eyebrows. “We don’t have to imagine. We’ve seen it.”
“But…” Arthur waved his arms about hopelessly.
“We’ve seen it,” said Ford, “there’s no escape.”
Arthur kicked at a stone.
“Did you tell them what we’ve discovered?” he asked.
“Hmmmm?” said Ford, not really concentrating.
“Norway,” said Arthur, “Slartibartfast’s signature in the glacier. Did you tell them?”
“What’s the point?” said Ford, “What would it mean to them?”
“Mean?” said Arthur, “Mean? You know perfectly well what it means. It means that this planet is the Earth! It’s my home! It’s where I was born!”
“Was?” said Ford.
“Alright, will be.”
阿瑟吃驚地擡起頭。他突然產生了一種感覺，覺得自己所做的這一切也許有點兒蠢，他只知道，當他還是個孩子的時候，這個遊戲對開發他的智力產生過極大影響，教用如神。但那時的情況和現在不一樣，更準確地說，未來那時的情況將和現在不一樣。
“我正在試着救這些穴居人玩拼字遊戲，”他說。
“他們不是穴居人！”
“可他們看上去像穴居人。”
福特沒有再糾纏下去，
“我明白了。”他說。
“真是件費力的括兒。”阿瑟疲倦地說，“他們惟一知道的單詞就是‘嗚哇’，而且還不會拼寫。”
他嘆了口氣，坐回去。
“你想達到什麼目的呢？”福特問。
“我們必須鼓勵他們進化！發展！”阿瑟憤怒地大喊，他希望剛纔那聲疲綣的嘆息加上現在的憤怒，能夠有助於抵消掉他心裏那種自己在幹蠢事的感覺，可惜做不到。他跳了起來。
“和我們一起抵達這裏的那些白癡，一個由他們傳承下去的世界，你能想像到嗎，”他說。
“想像，”福特說，眉毛一揚，“我們不需要想像。我們已經看見了，”
“可是…”阿瑟絕望地來回揮舞着手臂。
“我們已經看見了，”福特說，“無可逃避。”
阿瑟朝一塊石頭踢去。
“你把我們的發現告訴他們了嗎？”他問。
“嗯、嗯、嗯、嗯、嗯。”福特說，注意力顯然不是很集中。
“挪威，”阿瑟說，“司拉提巴特法斯特留在冰川中的簽名。你告訴他們了嗎？”
“休想說什麼？”福特說，“這對他們有什麼意義呢？”
“意義，”阿瑟說，“意義？你很清楚這意味着什麼，這意味着這顆行星就是地球！這裏是我的家鄉！這裏曾經是我出生的地方！”
“曾經。”福特說。
“好吧，將是。”
