Chapter 26 Arthur Dent allowed himself for an unworthy moment to think, as they drifted up, that he very much hoped that his friends who had always found him pleasant but dull, or more latterly, odd but dull, were having a good time in the pub, but that was the last time, for a while, that he thought of them. They drifted up, spiralling slowly around each other, like sycamore seeds falling from sycamore trees in the autumn, except going the other way. And as they drifted up their minds sang with the ecstatic knowledge that either what they were doing was completely and utterly and totally impossible or that physics had a lot of catching up to do. Physics shook its head and, looking the other way, concentrated on keeping the cars going along the Euston Road and out towards the Westway flyover, on keeping the streetlights lit and on making sure that when somebody on Baker Street dropped a cheeseburger it went splat upon the ground. Dwindling headily beneath them, the beaded strings of light of London London, Arthur had to keep reminding himself, not the strangely coloured fields of Krikkit on the remote fringes of the galaxy, lighted freckles of which faintly spanned the opening sky above them, but London swayed, swaying and turning, turned. Try a swoop, he called to Fenchurch. What? Her voice seemed strangely clear but distant in all the vast empty air. It was breathy and faint with disbelief all those things, clear, faint, distant, breathy, all at the same time. We’re flying… she said. A trifle, called Arthur, think nothing of it. Try a swoop. A sw… Her hand caught his, and in a second her weight caught it too, and stunningly, she was gone, tumbling beneath him, clawing wildly at nothing. Physics glanced at Arthur, and clotted with horror he was gone too, sick with giddy dropping, every part of him screaming but his voice. They plummeted because this was London and you really couldn’t do this sort of thing here. He couldn’t catch her because this was London, and not a million miles from here, seven hundred and fifty-six, to be exact, in Pisa, Galileo had clearly demonstrated that two falling bodies fell at exactly the same rate of acceleration irrespective of their relative weights. They fell. Arthur realized as he fell, giddily and sickeningly, that if he was going to hang around in the sky believing everything that the Italians had to say about physics when they couldn’t even keep a simple tower straight, that they were in dead trouble, and damn well did fall faster than Fenchurch. He grappled her from above, and fumbled for a tight grip on her shoulders. He got it. 第26章 當他們向上飄的時候，阿瑟騰出一點無關緊要的時間想起了他的朋友們，他們總認爲他快樂而乏味，或者不如說，古怪而乏味，他希望他們現在在酒館裏面玩得開心。不過這是很長一段時間中他最後一次想起他們了。 他們向上飄，互相繞着對方盤旋，就像是秋天裏懸鈴木的種子從樹上落下那樣，只不過方向是相反的。 他們向上飄的時候，狂喜地唱着歌，因爲他們知道他們現在正在做的事情是完全徹底根本不可能的，或者物理學還要花很多時間才能搞明白的。 物理學搖搖頭，轉向另外一個方向，專心地去維持汽車沿着尤斯頓路行進，向着維斯特威立交橋開過去，維持街燈亮着，維持貝克大街上如果有人弄掉了奶酪麪包，肯定是奶酪一面着地。 倫敦的燈火像是被串起的珍珠，在他們的下方飛快地縮小——是倫敦，阿瑟不停地提醒自己，不是銀河系遙遠邊緣的阪丘星上色彩怪誕的田野。淡淡的銀河系從他們上方的天空中橫跨而過。這裏是倫敦——被搖晃着也搖晃着，旋轉着也被旋轉着。 “試着俯衝一下。”他對着芬切琪喊。” “什麼？” 她的聲音聽起來清楚得不可思議但是在這麼空曠的地方感覺很遠。因爲心存懷疑，喘着氣的聲音軟弱無力——所有這一切，清楚、軟弱無力、遠、呼吸，同時發生着。 “我們在飛。”她說。 “沒什麼，”阿瑟喊，“別想這個了。試試俯衝。” “俯……“ 她的手抓住了他的手，突然間她的體重也抓住了他的手，然後令人震驚的是，她消失了，在他下方墜落下去，狂亂而徒勞地想抓住什麼東西。 物理學瞟了阿瑟一眼，阿瑟也驚恐地墜落了，那眼花繚亂的跌落讓他噁心，除了聲音以外他身體的每個部分都在尖叫。 他們垂直落下，因爲這裏是倫敦，你真的不能在這裏幹這樣的事情。 他沒法抓住她，因爲這裏是倫敦，距離這裏不到一百萬英里的地方，確切些說，是七百五十六英里遠，是比薩，伽利略在哪裏清楚地證明了兩個下落的物體以相同的加速度下落，無論它們的重量是多少。 他們落下去了。 在眼花繚亂而且噁心的下落的時候，阿瑟意識到，如果他要懸在天上相信連座塔都蓋不直的意大利人就物理學所說的話都是對的，那他們就要面對死亡的威脅，於是他就真的比芬切琪落得更快了。 他從上面抓住了她，摸索着去想把她的肩膀抓緊。成功了。
