《魔法師的外甥》第12期:各個世界之間的樹林(3)
"Can you swim?"
"A bit. Can you?"
"Well - not much."
"I don't think we shall need to swim," said Digory "We want to go down, don't we?"
Neither of them much liked the idea of jumping into that pool, but neither said so to the other. They took hands and said "One - Two - Three - Go" and jumped. There was a great splash and of course they closed their eyes. But when they opened them again they found they were still standing, hand in hand, in the green wood, and hardly up to their ankles in water. The pool was apparently only a couple of inches deep. They splashed back on to the dry ground.
"What on earth's gone wrong?" said Polly in a frightened voice; but not quite so frightened as you might expect, because it is hard to feel really frightened in that wood. The place is too peaceful.
"Oh! I know," said Digory, "Of course it won't work. We're still wearing our yellow rings. They're for the outward journey, you know. The green ones take you home. We must change rings. Have you got pockets? Good. Put your yellow ring in your left. I've got two greens. Here's one for you."
They put on their green rings and came back to the pool. But before they tried another jump Digory gave a long "O-ooh!"
"What's the matter?" said Polly.
"I've just had a really wonderful idea," said Digory. "What are all the other pools?"
"How do you mean?"
"Why, if awe can get back to our own world by jumping into this pool, mightn't we get somewhere else by jumping into one of the others? Supposing there was a world at the bottom of every pool."
"But I thought we were already in your Uncle Andrew's Other World or Other Place or whatever he called it. Didn't you say -"
"Oh bother Uncle Andrew," interrupted Digory. "I don't believe he knows anything about it. He never had the pluck to come here himself. He only talked of one Other World. But suppose there were dozens?"
"You mean, this wood might be only one of them?"
"No, I don't believe this wood is a world at all. I think it's just a sort of in-between place."
Polly looked puzzled. "Don't you see?" said Digory. "No, do listen. Think of our tunnel under the slates at home. It isn't a room in any of the houses. In a way, it isn't really part of any of the houses. But once you're in the tunnel you can go along it and come into any of the houses in the row. Mightn't this wood be the same? - a place that isn't in any of the worlds, but once you've found that place you can get into them all."
"Well, even if you can -" began Polly, but Digory went on as if he hadn't heard her.
“會一點兒，你呢?”
“遊得不太好。”
“我認爲我們不需要游泳，”迪格雷說，“我們需要往下沉，不是嗎?”
他們誰也不太想跳進水潭，但誰都沒有說出口。他們手拉手，喊道“一、二、三，跳”便跳了進去。水花飛濺，他們自然閉上了雙眼，但當他們睜開眼時，他們仍然手拉手地站在那片綠樹林裏，水只淹沒到他們的踝部。顯然，水潭只有幾寸深。他們又蹚着水回到陸地上。
“到底出什麼錯了?”波莉害怕地說，但也沒有你想像的那麼害怕，因爲，在那片林子裏，誰也不可能真正感到害怕，那兒太安詳、太寧靜了。
“哦，我懂了!”迪格雷說，“當然不會成功了。我們還戴着黃戒指呢。它們是隻管往外走的，你知道，綠色的才管回去。我們必須換戒指。你有口袋嗎?好，把黃戒指放在左邊口袋裏。我有兩枚綠戒指，給你一個。”
他們戴上了綠戒指，又回到潭邊。還沒有再跳，迪格雷就“噢——噢——啊!”地喊了起來。
“怎麼了?”波莉說。
“我有一個絕妙的主意，”迪格雷說，“其他那些水潭是怎麼回事?”
“什麼意思?”
“如果我們跳進這個水潭就可以回去，那麼，跳進別的水潭不就可以到另外的地方去了嗎?想想，每個水潭底下都可能有一個世界!”
“但我認爲我們已經到了你的安德魯舅舅所說的‘另外的世界’或者‘另外的地方’，或其他什麼名稱。你是說……”
“唉，討厭的安德魯舅舅，”迪格雷打斷她，“我不相信他什麼都知道。他絕對不敢到這兒來。他只說了一個‘另外的世界’，也許還有好多呢！”
“你是說，這片樹林可能只是其中之一?”
“不，我認爲這片樹林並不是一個世界。我想，它只是一個過渡的中間地帶。”
波莉迷惑不解。“你難道不明白?”迪格雷說，“那麼聽我講。想想家裏那些石板下的隧道吧。它不是任何房子的一個房間，也就是說，它不是真正屬於哪幢房子的某個部分。但只要你進去了，就可以沿着隧道，走進那一排房子中的任何一幢。這片林子不也一樣嗎?——一個不屬於任何世界的地方，但只要找對了，你就可以到達所有的世界。”
“那，即使你能……”波莉剛開了頭，迪格雷就像沒聽見似的繼續往下說。
