Having narrowly avoided hitting her with the actual car, he hit her instead with the car door as he leant across and flung it open at her. It caught her hand and knocked away her umbrella, which then bowled wildly away across the road. Shit! yelled Arthur as helpfully as he cold, leapt out of his own door, narrowly avoided being run down by McKeena’s AllWeather Haulage, and watched in horror as it ran down Fenny’s umbrella instead. The lorry swept along the motorway and away. The umbrella lay like a recently swatted daddy-long-legs, expiring sadly on the ground. Tiny gusts of wind made it twitch a little. He picked it up. Er, he said. There didn’t seem to be a lot of point in offering the thing back to her. How did you know my name? she said. Er, well, he said. Look, I’ll get you another one… He looked at her and tailed off. She was tallish with dark hair which fell in waves around a pale and serious face. Standing still, alone, she seemed almost sombre, like a statue to some important but unpopular virtue in a formal garden. She seemed to be looking at something other than what she looked as if she was looking at. But when she smiled, as she did now, it was as if she suddenly arrived from somewhere. Warmth and life flooded into her face, and impossibly graceful movement into her body. The effect was very disconcerting, and it disconcerted Arthur like hell. She grinned, tossed her bag into the back and swivelled herself into the front seat. Don’t worry about the umbrella, she said to him as she climbed in. It was my brother’s and he can’t have liked it or he wouldn’t have given it to me. She laughed and pulled on her seatbelt. You’re not a friend of my brother’s are you? No. Her voice was the only part of her which didn’t say “Good”. Her physical presence there in the car, his car, was quite extraordinary to Arthur. He felt, as he let the car pull slowly away, that he could hardly think or breathe, and hoped that neither of these functions were vital to his driving or they were in trouble. So what he had experienced in the other car, her brother’s car, the night he had returned exhausted and bewildered from his nightmare years in the stars had not been the unbalance of the moment, or, if it had been, he was at least twice as unbalanced now, and quite liable to fall off whatever it is that wellbalanced people are supposed to be balancing on. So… he said, hoping to kick the conversation off to an exciting start. He was meant to pick me up my brother but phoned to say he couldn’t make it. I asked about buses but the man started to look at the calendar rather than a timetable, so I decided to hitch. So. So. 儘管他很驚險地沒有讓一輛真車撞上她，但在他湊過身去冒失地開門時卻讓她撞到了車門上。 車門打到了她的手並打飛了雨傘，雨傘隨後狂野地滾過了路面。 “可惡！”阿瑟一邊無益地喊着，一邊從他那側車門跳出來，差點被“麥克基納風雨無阻貨運”的卡車撞到，並且驚恐地看到卡車碾過芬妮的傘。大卡車在高速路上漸行漸遠。 而那把傘躺在地上就像一隻剛被拍扁了的長腳蜘蛛，正在悲慘地嚥下最後一口氣。一小股旋風讓它打了個轉兒。 他把傘撿了起來。 “呃，”他說。看起來把那玩意兒還給她沒什麼意義。 “你怎麼知道我的名字？”她說。 “呃，那個，”他說。“這樣，我會再賠你一把傘。” 他看着她，感覺自己在變小。 她的身材高挑，波浪似的深色頭髮披在蒼白而嚴肅的臉上，就好像是一個佈置得整整齊齊的花園中的雕像，而那個雕像是爲了表彰某種重要卻不流行的美德。她看上去正看着某樣除了她好像正在看的東西之外的某樣東西。 但是當她微笑的時候，就好像她現在這樣，就好像她突然重回了人間。溫暖和生氣涌上她的面頰，不可思議地優雅地傳遍全身。這造成的效果非常令人慌亂，令阿瑟慌亂到了極點。 她露齒一笑，把包甩到後座上然後飄進前座。 “別擔心那把雨傘，”她在他爬進車子裏的時候說。“那是我哥的傘，他根本不喜歡它，也不會把它送給我。”她一邊笑着一邊繫上安全帶。“你不是我哥的朋友吧？” “不是啊。” 除了嘴上沒說出來，她的全身上下都透着一個虛線的詞：“太棒了”。 她在車中的實體，在他的車中的實體，對阿瑟來說意義非凡。阿瑟讓車慢慢行駛，他感到，感到自己難以思考難以呼吸。他只希望思考和呼吸對駕車而言不是很重要，也不會有麻煩。 在噩夢般的星際旅行後終於筋疲力盡不知所措地回到地球的那個晚上，他在另一輛車裏，在她哥哥的車裏的體驗，看來並不是那麼神魂顛倒了，或者說，如果那一次就算神魂顛倒了，他現在就是雙倍的神魂顛倒，而且非常容易脫離一個神魂正常的人應該乾的事兒。 “這樣……”他說着，希望讓談話能有個精彩的開頭。 “他打算來接我——就是我哥——但他又打電話說他來不了。我去詢問公交車的時間，但那個人只顧着看日曆而不看時間表，所以我就決定搭便車。“就這樣。” “這樣啊。”
