經典科幻文學:《 再見 多謝你們的魚》第7章2

Arthur pushed himself up on his elbows and peered at it.
It was a grey box, with a kind of dull lustre to it. It was a cubic grey box, just over a foot on a side. It was tied with a single grey ribbon, knotted into a neat bow on the top.
He got up, walked over and touched it in surprise. Whatever it was was clearly gift-wrapped, neatly and beautifully, and was waiting for him to open it.
Cautiously, he picked it up and carried it back to the bed. He brushed the dust off the top and loosened the ribbon. The top of the box was a lid, with a flap tucked into the body of the box.
He untucked it and looked into the box. In it was a glass globe, nestling in fine grey tissue paper. He drew it out, carefully. It wasn’t a proper globe because it was open at the bottom, or, as Arthur realized turning it over, at the top, with a thick rim. It was a bowl. A fish bowl.
It was made of the most wonderful glass perfectly transparent, yet with an extraordinary silver-grey quality as if crystal and slate had gone into its making.
Arthur slowly turned it over and over in his hands. It was one of the most beautiful objects he had ever seen, but he was entirely perplexed by it. He looked into the box, but other than the tissue paper there was nothing. On the outside of the box there was nothing.
He turned the bowl round again. It was wonderful. It was exquisite. But it was a fish bowl.
He tapped it with his thumbnail and it rang with a deep and glorious chime which was sustained for longer than seemed possible, and when at last it faded seemed not to die away but to drift off into other worlds, as into a deep sea dream.
Entranced, Arthur turned it round yet again, and this time the light from the dusty little bedside lamp caught it at a different angle and glittered on some fine abrasions on the fish bowl’s surface. He held it up, adjusting the angle to the light, and suddenly saw clearly the finely engraved shapes of words shadowed on the glass.
So Long, they said, and Thanks…
And that was all. He blinked, and understood nothing.
For fully five more minutes he turned the object round and around, held it to the light at different angles, tapped it for its mesmerizing chime and pondered on the meaning of the shadowy letters but could find none. Finally he stood up, filled the bowl with water from the tap and put it back on the table next to the television. He shook the little Babel fish from his ear and dropped it, wriggling, into the bowl. He wouldn’t be needing it any more, except for watching foreign movies.
He returned to lie on his bed, and turned out the light.
He lay still and quiet. He absorbed the enveloping darkness, slowly relaxed his limbs from end to end, eased and regulated his breathing, gradually cleared his mind of all thought, closed his eyes and was completely incapable of getting to sleep.
The night was uneasy with rain. The rain clouds themselves had now moved on and were currently concentrating their attention on a small transport cafe just outside Bournemouth, but the sky through which they had passed had been disturbed by them and now wore a damply ruffled air, as if it didn’t know what else it might not do it further provoked.
The moon was out in a watery way. It looked like a ball of paper from the back pocket of jeans that have just come out of the washing machine, and which only time and ironing would tell if it was an old shopping list or a five pound note.
The wind flicked about a little, like the tail of a horse that’s trying to decide what sort of mood it’s in tonight, and a bell somewhere chimed midnight.
A skylight creaked open.

阿瑟用胳膊撐起自己然後盯着它。
那是個灰盒子，有一種暗淡的光澤。那是一個正方形的灰盒子，每個邊也就一英尺多。它被一條灰色絲帶繫着，上面有個精巧的蝴蝶結。
他站起來，走過去驚訝地摸着它。無論那是什麼，它很明顯是個精巧美麗的禮品，正等着他去打開。
他謹慎地把它拿起來帶回到牀上，隨後拂掉上面的灰塵並解開帶子。盒子頂上有個蓋子，用一個薄片扣住盒子。
他把蓋子打開然後往盒子裏看。裏面有一個玻璃球，包在精緻的灰色棉紙中。他小心翼翼地把它抽了出來。那並不是一個完全的球體，因爲底部有個開口，或者說，當阿瑟把它倒過來的時候才意識到，那個開口是在頂部，而且有很粗的鑲邊。那是一個缸。一個魚缸。
它是用最精良的玻璃製成，擁有完美的透明度，而且有一種超凡的銀灰質感，就好像製作時加入了水晶和頁岩。
阿瑟把它放在手裏轉來轉去。這是他有生以來見過的最漂亮的東西之一，但對它完全不知所措。他看着盒子，但裏面除了灰色棉紙之外別無他物。外面也同樣什麼都沒有。
他再一次轉過那個缸。它很奇妙。它很精緻。但它是個魚缸。
他用指甲敲擊它，魚缸發出低沉而輝煌的響聲，比想象中縈繞了更久，當聲音最終黯淡下來時，似乎並沒有消失，而只是飄向了另外一個世界，好像進入了深海夢境。
恍惚中，阿瑟再一次轉動魚缸，此時從落滿灰的小牀頭燈上發出的光亮從另一個角度照射着它，魚缸表面一些細小的磨痕閃閃發光。他把它舉起來，調整着光照的角度，突然清楚地看見了細小的雕刻文字在玻璃上投下的陰影。
“再見，”上面寫着，“謝謝……”
就這些。他眨着眼，什麼都沒明白。
整整五分鐘裏，他把那個物什轉過來又轉過去，把它從不同角度對着光，聆聽着那讓人着迷的敲擊聲。他沉思着，想找出那些陰影文字的意義，但還是失敗了。最終他站了起來，用水龍頭把魚缸灌滿水，把它放到電視旁的桌上。他把巴別魚從耳朵裏倒出來，魚扭動着掉進缸裏。他再也不需要巴別魚了，除了看外國電影的時候。
他躺回牀上，關掉了燈。
他靜靜地躺着。他在黑暗的包裹之中慢慢地放鬆他的全部四肢，控制呼吸，逐漸清除腦中的雜念，闔上雙眼，完全不能入睡。
這個夜晚被雨弄得很不安寧。雨雲們繼續前進，正把注意力集中在伯恩茅斯外的一家小路邊餐館上，但是它們經過的天空依然被擾動了，空氣潮溼，雲層翻騰，就好像天空不知道還有什麼它不能被激怒的。
月亮溼漉漉的。它看起來就像剛從洗衣機裏出來的牛仔褲後袋中的紙球，只有時間和熨斗才知道它到底是一張舊的購物單還是一張五英鎊鈔票。
風在四周輕拂，就像一匹拿不定今晚心情的馬在搖尾巴，而某處的鈴聲在午夜響起。
一扇天窗吱吱嘎嘎地打開了。