經典科幻文學:《基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第21章8

‘American Express,’ he said with a nonchalant shrug.

“萬國寶通銀行。”他若無其事的聳聳肩。

Tricia nodded slowly again. She knew that they gave cards exclusively to just about anybody.

崔茜卡再次緩緩點頭，他知道寶通的顧客精英政策，信用卡基本上是見人就發。

‘And these?’ she said, holding up the hamburger he had presented her with.

“那這些呢？”她舉起他給自己的漢堡包。

‘It is very easy,’ said the Leader. ‘We stand in line.’

“這容易。”首領說，“我們排隊。”

Again, Tricia realised with a cold, trickling feeling going down her spine, that explained an awful lot.

有一次，崔茜卡感到一股涼意順着脊柱往下流動……她意識到首領的答案實在很能說明問題。

She hit the fast forward button again. There was nothing of any use here at all. It was all nightmarish madness. She could have faked something that would have looked more convincing.

崔茜卡再次按下快進。這裏頭半點有用的東西也沒有。全是噩夢般的空洞無物。她自己造假都比這更有說服力。

Another sick feeling began to creep over her as she watched this hopeless awful tape, and she began, with slow horror, to realise that it must be the answer.

她看着這糟糕到無望的帶子，又一陣噁心的感激爬滿了全身；慢慢地她越來越驚恐，她開始意識到這肯定就是答案。

She must be…

她肯定是……

She shook her head and tried to get a grip.

她晃晃腦袋試着振作起來。

An overnight flight going east… The sleeping pills she had taken to get her through it. The vodka she’d had to set the sleeping pills going.

往東飛了一整晚……爲了熬過去而吃的安眠藥。爲了讓安眠藥動起來而喝的伏特加。

What else? Well. There was seventeen years of obsession that a glamorous man with two heads, one of which was disguised as a parrot in a cage, had tried to pick her up at a party but had then impatiently flown off to another planet in a flying saucer. There suddenly seemed to be all sorts of bothersome aspects to that idea that had never really occurred to her. Never occurred to her. In seventeen years.

還有什麼？好吧。還有十七年的執念。那個長了兩個腦袋的迷人男子，其中一個頭僞裝成籠子裏的鸚鵡，在派對上本來想釣她，可後來等得不耐煩於是坐着飛船飛到另一個星球去了。這年頭從沒真正跑來煩過她，但現在似乎突然顯示出好多好多讓人困擾的特徵。從沒想到過，整整十七年。

She stuffed her fist into her mouth.

她把拳頭塞進自己嘴裏。

She must get help.

她需要看醫生。

Then there had been Eric Bartlett banging on about alien spacecraft landing on her lawn. And before that… New York had been, well, very hot and stressful. The high hopes and the bitter disappointment. The astrology stuff.

再加上埃裏克喋喋不休地說什麼外星人的飛船降落到了她的草坪上。在那之前……紐約實在是，唔，非常的熱，充滿壓力。高漲的希望和苦澀的失望。還有那占星術什麼的。

She must have had a nervous breakdown.

她肯定是精神崩潰了。