《魔法師的外甥》第73期:這個故事的結束及其他故事的開始(2)

"Can you get the other rings, Poll?" said Digory. "I want to go to Mother."

"Right. See you later," said Polly and clattered up the attic stairs.

Then Digory took a minute to get his breath, and then went softly into his Mother's room. And there she lay, as he had seen her lie so many other times, propped up on the pillows, with a thin, pale face that would make you cry to look at. Digory took the Apple of Life out of his pocket.

And just as the Witch Jadis had looked different when you saw her in our world instead of in her own, so the fruit of that mountain garden looked different too. There were of course all sorts of coloured things in the bedroom; the coloured counterpane on the bed, the wallpaper, the sunlight from the window, and Mother's pretty, pale blue dressing jacket. But the moment Digory took the Apple out of his pocket, all those things seemed to have scarcely any colour at all. Every one of them, even the sunlight, looked faded and dingy. The brightness of the Apple threw strange lights on the ceiling. Nothing else was worth looking at: you couldn't look at anything else. And the smell of the Apple of Youth was as if there was a window in the room that opened on Heaven.

"Oh, darling, how lovely," said Digory's Mother.

"You will eat it, won't you? Please," said Digory.

"I don't know what the Doctor would say," she answered. "But really - I almost feel as if I could."

He peeled it and cut it up and gave it to her piece by piece. And no sooner had she finished it than she smiled and her head sank back on the pillow and she was asleep: a real, natural, gentle sleep, without any of those nasty drugs, which was, as Digory knew, the thing in the whole world that she wanted most. And he was sure now that her face looked a little different. He bent down and kissed her very softly and stole out of the room with a beating heart; taking the core of the apple with him. For the rest of that day, whenever he looked at the things about him, and saw how ordinary and unmagical they were, he hardly dared to hope; but when he remembered the face of Aslan he did hope.

That evening he buried the core of the Apple in the back garden.

Next morning when the Doctor made his usual visit, Digory leaned over the banisters to listen. He heard the Doctor come out with Aunt Letty and say:

"Miss Ketterley, this is the most extraordinary case I have known in my whole medical career. It is - it is like a miracle. I wouldn't tell the little boy anything at present; we don't want to raise any false hopes. But in my opinion -" then his voice became too low to hear.

That afternoon he went down the garden and whistled their agreed secret signal for Polly (she hadn't been able to get back the day before).

"What luck?" said Polly, looking over the wall. "I mean, about your Mother?"

"I think - I think it is going to be alright," said Digory. "But if you don't mind I'd really rather not talk about it yet. What about the rings?"

"I've got them all," said Polly. "Look, it's alright, I'm wearing gloves. Let's bury them."

"Yes, let's. I've marked the place where I buried the core of the Apple yesterday."

Then Polly came over the wall and they went together to the place. But, as it turned out, Digory need not have marked the place. Something was already coming up. It was not growing so that you could see it grow as the new trees had done in Narnia; but it was already well above ground. They got a trowel and buried all the magic rings, including their own ones, in a circle round it.

“你能去找其他的戒指嗎，波莉？”迪格雷說，“我想去看媽媽。”

“好的，再見。”波莉說着嗒嗒嗒地跑上了閣樓。

迪格雷喘了一會兒氣，然後輕輕地走進了媽媽的房間。他媽媽照舊靠着枕頭躺在那裏，沒有血色的蒼白的臉實在催人淚下。迪格雷從包裏拿出生命之果。

就像你在我們世界裏看見的簡蒂絲同在她的世界裏看見的不一樣，山上花園裏的果實看上去也有了變化。臥室裏自然有不少各種色彩的東西：牀罩、牆紙、從窗口射進的陽光，以及媽媽那件漂亮的淡藍色短上衣。但迪格雷從口袋裏一拿出蘋果，所有的東西甚至陽光都黯然失色。明亮的蘋果在天花板上投下奇異的光彩，別的東西都不值一看了——你實在也無法再看任何別的東西。那隻青春之果的香味使你覺得房間裏似乎有一扇朝着天堂開啓的窗戶。"

“哦，親愛的，多可愛啊。”迪格雷的媽媽說。

“你把它吃下去，好嗎？請吃下去，媽媽。”迪格雷說。

“我不知道醫生會怎麼說，”她回答，“但是真的——我覺得我好像可以吃。”

他削了皮，切開，一片一片地餵給媽媽吃。剛一吃完，媽媽就微笑了，頭向後一挨枕頭便酣然入睡：那是不需要藉助任何藥物的真正自然而溫柔的睡眠。迪格雷知道，世上所有的東西中，這是媽媽最需要的。而且，他能肯定，她的臉上起了一點兒變化。他俯下身，輕柔地吻了吻她，拿着蘋果核，帶着一顆激動的心，悄悄地出了房間。那一天中，不管他看見什麼，都覺得太普通，太不稀奇，他幾乎不敢有所希望了，但當他想起阿斯蘭的臉，心中就又充滿了希望。

那天晚上，他將蘋果核埋在了後花園裏。

次日清晨，醫生照例來訪的時候，迪格雷靠在樓梯的扶手上，聽見醫生和蕾蒂姨媽走出來時說：

“凱特利小姐，這是我行醫生涯中見過的最不尋常的病例。它——它像一樁奇蹟。我現在不想告訴那小孩任何情況；我們不願給人任何錯誤的希望。但是，依我看……”接下去，他的聲音便低得聽不見了。

那天下午，他到了花園，用口哨向波莉發出他們約定的暗語(前一天她沒能過來)。

“有好消息嗎？”波莉爬在牆頭上說，“我是問，你的媽媽？”

“我想——我想正在好轉，”迪格雷說，“但如果你不介意，我真的不願再提這件事了。戒指怎麼樣？”

“我全拿到了，”波莉說，“看，沒事兒，我戴着手套呢。我們去埋了它們吧。”

“好的，去吧。我已經在昨天埋蘋果核的地方做了記號。”

波莉翻過牆，兩人一起走過去。其實，迪格雷根本不需要做記號，那裏已經長出了一點東西。不是正在長，像在納尼亞看見的新樹生長一樣，而是已經長出了地面。他們拿了一把鏟子，繞着那東西，把所有的魔法戒指埋成一圈。