經典科幻文學:《 基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第2章16

‘You got everything?’ said the chauffeur. ‘You don’t want to pick up your bag or anything?’

“東西都拿好了？”司機問，“你不想回去拿上包什麼的嗎？”

‘If there’s one thing that life’s taught me,’ said Tricia, ‘it’s never go back for your bag.’

“如果生活真教會了我什麼，”崔茜卡說，“那就是永遠不要回去拿你的包。”

Just a little over an hour later, Tricia sat on one of the pair of beds in her hotel room. For a few minutes she didn’t move. She just stared at her bag, which was sitting innocently on top of the other bed.

剛過了一個鐘頭多一點，崔茜卡已經回到了酒店的房間，坐在牀上。有幾分鐘她完全沒動彈，只是盯着自己的包。她的包挺無辜地坐在另一張牀上。

In her hand was a note from Gail Andrews, saying, ‘Don’t be too disappointed. Do ring if you want to talk about it. If I were you I’d stay in at home tomorrow night. Get some rest. But don’t mind me, and don’t worry. It’s only astrology. It’s not the end of the world. Gail.’

她手裏捏着張蓋爾?安德魯斯留的便條，上頭寫着：“別太失望。如果你想談談儘管打電話。如果我是你，明晚我會留在家裏。好好休息。別在意我，也別擔心。只不過是占星術，又不是世界末日。蓋爾。”

The chauffeur had been dead right. In fact the chauffeur seemed to know more about what was going on inside NBS than any other single person she had encountered in the organisation. Martin had been keen, Zwingler had not. She had had her one shot at proving Martin right and she had blown it.

全讓那司機說準了。事實上，那個司機似乎比她在NBS遇上的任何一個人都更瞭解各種內幕。馬丁很熱心，茨威格勒正相反。她只有一次機會去證明馬丁是對的，結果她搞砸了。

Oh well. Oh well, oh well, oh well.

哦好吧。哦好吧。哦好吧。哦好吧。

Time to go home. Time to phone the airline and see if she could still get the red-eye back to Heathrow tonight. She reached for the big phone directory.

該回家了。該打電話去航空公司，看現在還能不能搭上今晚到希思羅的紅眼航班。她伸手去拿厚厚的電話簿。

Oh. First things first.

哦，還有一件事得先解決。

She put down the directory again, picked up her handbag, and took it through to the bathroom. She put it down and took out the small plastic case which held her contact lenses, without which she had been unable properly to read either the script or the autocue.

她把電話簿放下，拿起自己的手提包，把它一路帶到了浴室。她把包放下，拿出裝隱形眼鏡的塑料匣子，沒有隱形眼鏡，無論是劇本還是自動提詞機她都別想看清楚。

As she dabbed each tiny plastic cup into her eyes she reflected that if there was one thing life had taught her it was that there are times when you do not go back for your bag and other times when you do. It had yet to teach her to distinguish between the two types of occasion.

她把兩個小塑料片貼進眼裏，心裏暗想，如果生活真教會了自己什麼，那就是有時候你不應該回去拿包，有時候你應該回去。只不過，它還沒教會她應該怎麼分辨這兩種情況。