經典科幻文學:《 再見 多謝你們的魚》第5章10

That was the moment she cracked up. She was in a cafe somewhere. Rickmansworth. Don’t know what she was doing there, but that was where she cracked up. Apparently she stood up, calmly announced that she had undergone some extraordinary revelation or something, wobbled a bit, looked confused, and finally collapsed screaming into an egg sandwich.
Arthur winced.
I’m very sorry to hear that, he said a little stiffly.
Russell made a sort of grumping noise.
So what, said Arthur in an attempt to piece things together, was the CIA agent doing in the reservoir?
Bobbing up and down of course. He was dead.
But what…
Come on, you remember all that stuff. The hallucinations. Everyone said it was a cock up, the CIA trying experiments into drug warfare or something. Some crackpot theory that instead of invading a country it would be much cheaper and more effective to make everyone think they’d been invaded.
What hallucinations were those exactly?… said Arthur in a rather quiet voice.
What do you mean, what hallucinations? I’m talking about all that stuff with the big yellow ships, everyone going crazy and saying we’re going to die, and then pop, they vanished as the effect wore off. The CIA denied it which meant it must be true.
Arthur’s head went a little swimmy. His hand grabbed at something to steady himself, and gripped it tightly. His mouth made little opening and closing movements as if it was on his mind to say something, but nothing emerged.
Anyway, continued Russell, whatever drug it was it didn’t seem to wear off so fast with Fenny. I was all for suing the CIA, but a lawyer friend of mine said it would be like trying to attack a lunatic asylum with a banana, so… He shrugged.
The Vogon… squeaked Arthur. The yellow ships… vanished?
Well, of course they did, they were hallucinations, said Russell, and looked at Arthur oddly. You trying to say you don’t remember any of this? Where have you been for heaven’s sake?
This was, to Arthur, such an astonishingly good question that he half-leapt out of his seat with shock.
Christ!!! yelled Russell, fighting to control the car which was suddenly trying to skid. He pulled it out of the path of an oncoming lorry and swerved up on to a grass bank. As the car lurched to a halt, the girl in the back was thrown against Russell’s seat and collapsed awkwardly.
Arthur twisted round in horror.
Is she all right? he blurted out.
Russell swept his hands angrily back through his blow-dried hair. He tugged at his blond moustache. He turned to Arthur.
Would you please, he said, let go of the handbrake?

“從那時起她就瘋了。她在某個地兒的咖啡館。瑞克曼斯沃斯。不知道她在那兒幹什麼，反正她在那兒瘋了。她站了起來，平靜地宣稱她收到了一些超凡的啓示或什麼玩意兒，接着晃了半天，看起來很迷惑，最後狂叫着自己是雞蛋三明治。”
阿瑟縮了一下。“我非常抱歉，”他有些生硬地說。
拉塞爾慍怒地哼了一下。
“那個什麼，”阿瑟試圖把事情理順。
“那個中情局探員在水庫做什麼？”
“當然是上下浮動。他早就掛了。”
“但是那個......”
“拜託，你知道這些的。那個幻覺。“大家都說那是出了個亂子，中情局在試驗藥物戰爭或什麼東西。入侵國家的想法被一些瘋狂的理論所取代，那個理論認爲更有效更廉價的方法就是讓每個人都認爲自己被入侵了。”
“具體那個幻覺到底是什麼......？”阿瑟用更輕的聲音問。
“你指什麼，什麼幻覺？我說的是那些巨大的黃色飛船，每個人都瘋了，說我們就要完了，接着piu的一下，那些飛船消失了，藥物也就失效了。中情局否認此事，意味着此事一定是真的。”
阿瑟的腦袋開始有些暈了。他的手緊緊地抓住什麼東西來穩住自己。他的嘴一張一合好像他想說什麼卻沒說出口。
“總之，”拉塞爾繼續說，“無論那是什麼藥物，好像並沒有在芬妮身上那麼快失效。我打算控告中情局，但我的一個律師朋友說這無異於拿香蕉攻擊瘋人院，所以......”他聳聳肩。
“沃貢人......”阿瑟尖叫着。“那些黃色飛船......消失了？”
“是啊，當然了，它們是幻覺嘛，”拉塞爾說着，奇怪地看着阿瑟。“你想說你根本就不記得了？蒼天啊，你當時在哪兒啊？”
這個，對阿瑟而言，是個如此驚人的好問題，以至於他由於震撼而差點從座位上跳起來。
“上帝啊！！！”拉塞爾大喊，努力地控制住突然要打滑的車。他把車從一輛迎面而來的大卡車前救開，急轉到了一片草地上。就在車子歪斜着停下來時，後座的女孩撞上了拉塞爾的座位，頹然倒下了。
阿瑟驚恐地轉過身。
“她沒事兒吧？”他脫口而出。
拉塞爾用手惱怒地捋了捋他光亮的頭髮。他拽了拽他金色的小鬍子。他轉向阿瑟。
“能不能請你，”他說，“把手剎放開？”