經典科幻文學:《 基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第2章14

‘No,’ said Tricia. ‘No I don’t. And I couldn’t carry on doing what I was doing either. I was an astrophysicist, you see. You can’t be an astrophysicist properly if you’ve actually met someone from another planet who’s got a second head that pretends to be a parrot. You just can’t do it. I couldn’t at least.’

“不，”崔茜卡說，“我不覺得。而且我也沒法再幹我過去的活計。你知道，我本來是個天體物理學家。可如果你當真遇上這麼個傢伙，從外星來、長了兩個腦袋還把其中一個裝成鸚鵡，你是當不好天體物理學家的。你絕對不行，至少我不行。”

‘I can see it would be hard. And that’s probably why you tend to be a little hard on other people who talk what sounds like complete nonsense.’

“看得出來肯定不容易。大概就爲這個，你一聽有人說話好像全不着調，反應就會稍微有些激烈。”

‘Yes,’ said Tricia. ‘I expect you’re right. I’m sorry.’

“是的。”崔茜卡道，“我猜你說得沒錯。對不起。”

‘That’s OK.’

“沒什麼。”

‘You’re the first person I’ve ever told this, by the way.’

“對了，這事兒我過去從沒告訴過任何人。”

‘I wondered. You married?’

“這我也想到過。你結婚了嗎？”

‘Er, no. So hard to tell these days isn’t it? But you’re right to ask because that was probably the reason. I came very close a few times, mostly because I wanted to have a kid. But every guy ended up asking why I was constantly looking over his shoulder. What do you tell someone? At one point I even thought I might just go to a sperm bank and take pot luck. Have somebody’s child at random.’

“呃，沒有。如今這還真不容易看出來，不是嗎？不過你問得對，因爲原因多半就在那上頭。有幾次只差一點就結了，主要是想要個孩子。可最後他們都問我幹嗎老是看他們的肩膀。這你該怎麼說？後來我甚至想，乾脆去精子庫碰碰運氣。隨便生個誰的孩子。”

‘You can’t seriously do that, can you?’

“你不會真那麼幹吧，嗯？”

Tricia laughed. ‘Probably not. I never quite went and found out for real. Never quite did it. Story of my life. Never quite did the real thing. That’s why I’m in television I guess. Nothing is real.’

崔茜卡笑起來，“多半不會。我都沒當真去問過，從沒真去過。我一生的主題故事：從沒怎麼幹過什麼真事兒。所以我才搞電視這行，我猜。全都不是真的。”

‘Excuse me lady, is your name Tricia McMillan!’

“打擾一下，女士，你是叫崔茜卡?麥克米倫嗎？”

Tricia looked round in surprise. There was a man standing there in a chauffeur’s hat.

崔茜卡驚訝地轉過身去，說話的是個戴着司機帽的人。

‘Yes,’ she said, instantly pulling herself back together again.

“是的。”她立刻振作起來。

‘Lady, I been looking for you for about an hour. Hotel said they didn’t have anybody of that name, but I checked back with Mr. Martin’s office and they said that this was definitely where you staying. So I ask again, they still say they never heard of you, so I get them to page you anyway and they can’t find you. In the end I get the office to FAX a picture of you through to the car and have a look myself.’

“女士，我已經找了你一個鐘頭了。酒店說他們這兒沒叫這名字的，可我重新跟馬丁先生的辦公室確認過，他們說你絕對是住這兒沒錯。所以我又問酒店的人，他們還是說從沒聽說過你，我還是堅持讓他們給你房間打電話，可他們就是找不到。最後我讓辦公室傳真了張你的照片到車上，自己看了看。”

He looked at his watch.

他瞅眼手錶。