諾貝爾文學經典:《寵兒》第1章Part 33
Denver knew that her mother was through with it — for now anyway. The single slow blink of hereyes; the bottom lip sliding up slowly to cover the top; and then a nostril sigh, like the snuff of acandle flame — signs that Sethe had reached the point beyond which she would not go.
"Well, I think the baby got plans," said Denver. "What plans?""I don't know, but the dress holding on to you got to mean something.""Maybe," said Sethe. "Maybe it does have plans."Whatever they were or might have been, Paul D messed them up for good. With a table and a loudmale voice he had rid 124 of its claim to local fame. Denver had taught herself to take pride in thecondemnation Negroes heaped on them; the assumption that the haunting was done by an evilthing looking for more. None of them knew the downright pleasure of enchantment, of not suspecting but knowing the things behind things. Her brothers had known, but it scared them;Grandma Baby knew, but it saddened her. None could appreciate the safety of ghost company.
Even Sethe didn't love it.
She just took it for granted — like a sudden change in the weather.
But it was gone now. Whooshed away in the blast of a hazelnut man's shout, leaving Denver'sworld flat, mostly, with the exception of an emerald closet standing seven feet high in the woods.
Her mother had secrets — things she wouldn't tell; things she halfway told. Well, Denver had themtoo. And hers were sweet — sweet as lily-of-the-valley cologne.
丹芙知道媽媽講完了———至少目前如此。塞絲的眼睛緩緩地眨了一下，下嘴脣慢慢抿上來蓋住上嘴脣；然後是鼻孔裏的一聲嘆息，就像一點燭火的熄滅———標誌着她的講述到此爲止。
“嗯，我想那個娃娃有計劃。”丹芙說。“什麼計劃？”“我不知道，可是那件摟着你的裙子肯定有說道。”“也許吧，”塞絲道，“也許它真的有計劃。”無論她們曾經如何，或者本該如何，保羅·D都不可挽回地攪亂了她們的生活。他用一張桌子和雄性的怒吼，使124號失去了在當地享有惡名的資格。丹芙早已學會了將黑人們壓在她們身上的譴責引以爲榮；他們把鬧鬼者想當然地說成一個不知饜足的惡鬼，她也感到滿意。他們誰都不知道鬧鬼的真正樂趣，不是懷疑，而是洞悉事物背後有事物的樂趣。她的哥哥們知道，可他們給嚇着了；貝比奶奶知道，可她因此悲傷起來。誰都不會品味鬼魂相伴的安全感。
甚至塞絲也不喜歡。
她只不過是逆來順受———權當面對天氣的突然變化。
可是現在它走了。在榛色男人的那陣吼叫的狂風中飛走了。丹芙的世界驟然蕭索，只剩下林中一間七英尺高的祖母綠密室。
她的媽媽有祕密———她不願講的事情，講了一半的事情。瞧，丹芙也有。而且她的是香甜的———好像鈴蘭花香水一般香甜。
