經典科幻文學:《 再見 多謝你們的魚》第7章1

His house was still there.
How or why, he had no idea. He had decided to go and have a look while he was waiting for the pub to empty, so that he could go and ask the landlord for a bed for the night when everyone else had gone. And there it was.
He hurriedly let himself in with the key he kept under a stone frog in the garden, because, astoundingly, the phone was ringing. He had heard it faintly all the way up the lane and had stArted to run as soon as he realized where the sound was coming from.
The door had to be forced open because of the astonishing accumulation of junk mail on the doormat. It jammed itself stuck on what he would later discover were fourteen identical, personally addressed invitations to apply for a credit card he already had, seventeen identical threatening letters for nonpayment of bills on a credit card he didn’t have, thirty-three identical letters saying that he personally had been specially selected as a man of taste and discrimination who knew what he wanted and where he was going in today’s sophisticated jetsetting world and would he therefore like to buy some grotty wallet, and also a dead tabby kitten.
He rammed himself through the relatively narrow opening afforded by all this, stumbled through a pile of wine offers that no discriminating connoisseur would want to miss, slithered over a heap of beach villa holidays, blundered up the dark stairs to his bedroom and got to the phone just as it stopped ringing.
He collapsed, panting, on to his cold, musty-smelling bed and for a few minutes stopped trying to prevent the world from spinning round his head in the way it obviously wanted to.
When it had enjoyed its little spin and had calmed down a bit, Arthur reached out for the bedside light, not expecting it to come on. To his surprise it did. This appealed to Arthur’s sense of logic. Since the Electricity Board cut him off without fail every time he paid his bill, it seemed only reasonable that they should leave him connected when he didn’t. Sending them money obviously only drew attention to yourself.
The room was much as he had left it, i.e. festeringly untidy, though the effect was muted a little by a thick layer of dust. Half-read books and magazines nestled amongst piles of half-used towels. Half pairs of socks reclined in half-drunk cups of coffee. What was once a half-eaten sandwich had now half-turned into something that Arthur entirely didn’t want to know about. Bung a fork of lightning through this lot, he thought to himself, and you’d start the evolution of life all over again.
There was only one thing in the room that was different.
For a moment or so he couldn’t see what the one thing that was different was, because it too was covered in a film of disgusting dust. Then his eyes caught it and stopped.
It was next to a battered old television on which it was only possible to watch Open University Study Courses, because if it tried to show anything more exciting it would break down.
It was a box.

他的房子仍然在那兒。
怎麼會呢？爲什麼呢？他還搞不明白。他本來在等着酒館打烊，這樣他就可以等其他人都走了的時候向老闆要張牀來睡。但在他等待的時候，他決定到他的房子那兒看看。就這樣吧。
他飛快地用放在花園石蛙底下的鑰匙開了門，衝進房子裏，因爲電話居然在響。他在路上一直迷惑地聽着那個電話鈴聲，突然意識到了那個聲音來自哪裏，於是開始飛奔。
由於擦鞋墊上堆了一大坨垃圾郵件，門必須用力才能打開。他隨後就會發現那些卡住門的東西包括：十四封一模一樣的他早就有的信用卡的申請邀請函；十七封一模一樣的他根本就沒有的信用卡的欠費恐嚇信；三十三封一模一樣的信，上面寫着他被特選爲一名深諳品味和鑑賞之道的人，這種人明白自己在如今複雜紛繁的世界中想要什麼，明白自己要走向何方，因此肯定會樂意購買一些難看的錢包和一隻死斑貓。
他擠過所有這些雜物中間的小縫，絆過一堆聲稱“行家絕不會錯過”的酒單，滑過一摞海灘別墅假日宣傳單，跌跌撞撞地爬上通向臥室的黑暗樓梯，就在抓住電話的那一剎那，鈴聲剛好停了。
他頹然倒下，在自己冰冷發黴的牀上喘着氣，試着阻止世界按照它顯然想要旋轉的方式在自己頭上旋轉，幾分鐘後，他停止了這一徒勞的嘗試。
當世界已經轉得過癮了並開始平靜時，阿瑟伸手去夠牀頭燈，但並不指望燈能亮。另他驚訝的是，燈亮了。這引起了阿瑟的邏輯感的好奇。因爲每次他付了帳的時候供電局都會準確無誤地把電斷掉，似乎唯一合理的解釋就是，他們應當跟他時刻保持聯絡。給他們錢顯然只能吸引他們對自己的注意力。
這個房間和他當初離開的時候幾乎一樣，話句話說，就是一樣的腐爛和髒亂，儘管厚厚的一層灰其實減輕了一點髒亂的感覺。半雙襪子放在了半空的咖啡杯上。吃剩一半的三明治一半地變成了一些阿瑟完全不想知道的東西。他琢磨着，如果在這堆東西上頭來道閃電，就可以重現一遍生命的進化過程了。
那裏只有一件東西不太一樣。
有一陣兒，他看不出來是那件東西不太一樣，因爲它也被一層噁心的灰塵覆蓋着。接着他瞅見了它，目光定住了。
它在一臺破舊的電視旁邊。那臺電視只能播放函授大學的課程，因爲任何更刺激的節目都會讓電視崩潰。
那是個盒子。