《魔法師的外甥》第13期:各個世界之間的樹林(4)
"And of course that explains everything," he said. "That's why it is so quiet and sleepy here. Nothing ever happens here. Like at home. It's in the houses that people talk, and do things, and have meals. Nothing goes on in the inbetween places, behind the walls and above the ceilings and under the floor, or in our own tunnel. But when you come out of our tunnel you may find yourself in any house. I think we can get out of this place into jolly well Anywhere! We don't need to jump back into the same pool we came up by. Or not just yet."
"The Wood between the Worlds," said Polly dreamily. "It sounds rather nice."
"Come on," said Digory. "Which pool shall we try?"
"Look here," said Polly, "I'm not going to try any new pool till we've made sure that we can get back by the old one. We're not even sure if it'll work yet."
"Yes," said Digory. "And get caught by Uncle Andrew and have our rings taken away before we've had any fun. No thanks."
"Couldn't we just go part of the way down into our own pool," said Polly. "Just to see if it works. Then if it does, we'll change rings and come up again before we're really back in Mr Ketterley's study."
"Can we go part of the way down?"
"Well, it took time coming up. I suppose it'll take a little time going back."
Digory made rather a fuss about agreeing to this, but he had to in the end because Polly absolutely refused to do any exploring in new worlds until she had made sure about getting back to the old one. She was quite as brave as he about some dangers (wasps, for instance) but she was not so interested in finding out things nobody had ever heard of before; for Digory was the sort of person who wants to know everything, and when he grew up he became the famous Professor Kirke who comes into other books.
After a good deal of arguing they agreed to put on their green rings ("Green for safety," said Digory, "so you can't help remembering which is which") and hold hands and jump. But as soon as they seemed to be getting back to Uncle Andrew's study, or even to their own world, Polly was to shout "Change" and they would slip off their greens and put on their yellows. Digory wanted to be the one who shouted "Change" but Polly wouldn't agree.
They put on the green rings, took hands, and once more shouted "One -Two - Three - Go". This time it worked. It is very hard to tell you what it felt like, for everything happened so quickly. At first there were bright lights moving about in a black sky; Digory always thinks these were stars and even swears that he saw Jupiter quite close -close enough to see its moon. But almost at once there were rows and rows of roofs and chimney pots about them, and they could see St Paul's and knew they were looking at London. But you could see through the walls of all the houses. Then they could see Uncle Andrew, very vague and shadowy, but getting clearer and more solid-looking all the time, just as if he were coming into focus. But before he became quite real Polly shouted "Change", and they did change, and our world faded away like a dream, and the green light above grew stronger and stronger, till their heads came out of the pool and they scrambled ashore. And there was the wood all about them, as green and bright and still as ever. The whole thing had taken less than a minute.
"There!" said Digory. "That's alright. Now for the adventure. Any pool will do. Come on. Let's try that one."
"Stop!" said Polly- "Aren't we going to mark this pool?"
They stared at each other and turned quite white as they realized the dreadful thing that Digory had just been going to do. For there were any number of pools in the wood, and the pools were all alike and the trees were all alike, so that if they had once left behind the pool that led to our own world without making some sort of landmark, the chances would have been a hundred to one against their ever finding it again.
Digory's hand was shaking as he opened his penknife and cut out a long strip of turf on the bank of the pool. The soil (which smelled nice) was of a rich reddish brown and showed up well against the green. "It's a good thing one of us has some sense," said Polly.
"Well don't keep on gassing about it," said Digory. "Come along, I want to see what's in one of the other pools." And Polly gave him a pretty sharp answer and he said something even nastier in reply. The quarrel lasted for several minutes but it would be dull to write it all down. Let us skip on to the moment at which they stood with beating hearts and rather scared faces on the edge of the unknown pool with their yellow rings on and held hands and once more said "One - Two - Three - Go!"
Splash! Once again it hadn't worked. This pool, too, appeared to be only a puddle. Instead of reaching a new world they only got their feet wet and splashed their legs for the second time that morning (if it was a morning: it seems to be always the same time in the Wood between the Worlds).
"Blast and botheration!" exclaimed Digory. "What's gone wrong now? We've put our yellow rings on all right. He said yellow for the outward journey."
Now the truth was that Uncle Andrew, who knew nothing about the Wood between the Worlds, had quite a wrong idea about the rings. The yellow ones weren't "outward" rings and the green ones weren't "homeward" rings; at least, not in the way he thought. The stuff of which both were made had all come from the wood. The stuff in the yellow rings had the power of drawing you into the wood; it was stuff that wanted to get back to its own place, the in-between place. But the stuff in the green rings is stuff that is trying to get out of its own place: so that a green ring would take you out of the wood into a world. Uncle Andrew, you see, was working with things he did not really understand; most magicians are. Of course Digory did not realize the truth quite clearly either, or not till later. But when they had talked it over, they decided to try their green rings on the new pool, just to see what happened.
"I'm game if you are," said Polly. But she really said this because, in her heart of hearts, she now felt sure that neither kind of ring was going to work at all in the new pool, and so there was nothing worse to be afraid of than another splash. I am not quite sure that Digory had not the same feeling. At any rate, when they had both put on their greens and come back to the edge of the water, and taken hands again, they were certainly a good deal more cheerful and less solemn than they had been the first time.
"One - Two - Three - Go!" said Digory. And they jumped.
“各個世界之間的樹林，”波莉像說夢話似的喃喃自語，“太美妙了。”
“來，”迪格雷說，“我們該跳哪個水潭?”
“喂，”波莉說，“要搞清楚我們是不是可以從原來的水潭回去，否則我不會再去跳別的水潭。我們還不敢肯定是不是能夠回去呢。”
“好吧，”迪格雷說，“玩也沒玩就讓安德魯舅舅逮住，再把戒指拿走，多沒勁兒。”
“我們可不可以跳回原來的水潭，但只走一半，”波莉說，“看看綠戒指能否帶我們回去。如果可以，我們在到達凱特利先生的書房以前就換戒指，再回這裏。”
“這樣行嗎?”
“嗯，來時只花了一會兒時間，我想回去也是很快的。”迪格雷對此很有意見，但他只好同意了，因爲不弄清是否可以回去，波莉便拒絕到任何新世界裏去探險。在危險面前(比如，面對壞人)，波莉和他一樣勇敢，但她對探索聞所未聞的新事物並不很感興趣。由於迪格雷是那種想了解一切的人，長大以後，他成了這個系列故事另外幾本書裏有名的柯克教授。
經過一番爭執，他們都同意戴上綠戒指(“綠色是安全色，”迪格雷說，“這樣，你怎麼都能記住哪枚戒指派什麼用場。”)，手拉手地跳下去。但是，在快到安德魯舅舅的書房、即將回到自己的世界日寸，波莉將喊一聲“換”，他們就脫掉綠戒指，戴上黃的。迪格雷想要喊這一聲“換”，但波莉不同意。
他們戴上綠戒指，拉起手，再一次喊“一、二、三，跳”。這次成功了。很難告訴你到底是什麼感覺，因爲一切都變幻得太快。起初，夜空中游移着明亮的燈光：迪格雷總認爲是星星，甚至發誓，他在離得很近的地方看見了木星，連它的衛星也看得一清二楚。接着，周圍很快出現了一排一排的屋頂和煙囪的管帽，他們看見聖保羅大教堂，知道已經到了倫敦，而且，能夠穿透牆壁，看見房子裏面。他們看見安德魯舅舅模模糊糊的身影，正在越變越清晰、越變越固定，似乎將逐漸聚爲視線的中心。就在安德魯舅舅的身影即將變得完全清晰的時候，波莉喊了一聲“換”；他們一換戒指，我們這個世界便像夢一樣淡去了，他們頭上的綠光越來越強，最後，他們又鑽出水潭，趴在岸邊。那片樹林仍一如既往地青翠、明亮和安靜。事情的全部過程發生在不到一分鐘的時間裏。
“看，”迪格雷說，“很順利，現在該探險了。隨便挑個水潭。來，我們選那個。”
“站住!”波莉說，“我們不在這個水潭邊上做標記嗎?”
他們面面相覷。當意識到迪格雷剛纔差點兒就要做的事有多麼嚴重的後果時，兩人臉都嚇白了。因爲林子裏有很多水潭，外表十分相似，樹木也沒有區別，一旦他們離開了通向我們這個世界的水潭而沒有留下任何標記，能重新找到的可能性只有百分之一。
迪格雷顫着手打開了鉛筆刀，在水潭邊割下一塊長長的草皮。泥土(有清香味)呈深暗的紅褐色，在綠色的草中十分顯眼。“幸虧我們中間有一個人想到了。”波莉說。
“行了，別老吹牛，”迪格雷說，“來吧，我想看看別的水潭裏有什麼。”波莉回答得尖刻，迪格雷又回敬了幾句難聽的話。爭吵持續了好幾分鐘，但如果寫下來就很枯燥。讓我們跳過這一段吧。接着，他們戴上黃戒指，手拉手緊張地站在水潭邊上，心怦怦地跳着，再次喊道：“一、二、三，跳!”
水花飛濺!又失敗了。這個水潭好像只是一個小水坑。他們沒能到達新的世界；那天早晨，已是第二次溼了腳，腿上也濺了水(假設是早晨吧：各個世界之間的樹林裏似乎沒有時間的變化)。
“真煩人!”迪格雷大聲說，“哪兒出毛病了?我們戴了黃戒指。他說過，黃的管到外面去。”
其實，安德魯舅舅對世界之間的樹林毫不知嘵，對戒指的認識也是錯的。黃戒指不是“離去”的戒指，綠戒指也不是“回返”的戒指，至少，不是他理解的那種意思。兩種戒指都是用取自這片樹林的材料製成的。黃戒指的材料有一種“向心力”，能將你帶往樹林，是材料本身迴歸本土，迴歸那片中間地帶。但綠戒指的材料有種“離心力”，想脫離本土，故能帶你離開樹林。你看，安德魯舅舅連自己乾的事情都沒有真正弄懂，大多數魔法師都是這樣。當然，迪格雷也沒有完全認識到真相，或者，到後來才明白。經過商議，他們決定戴上綠戒指，再跳進去試試，看看結果如何。
“你願意我也願意。”波莉說。她之所以這樣說，是因爲她打心眼裏相信，無論哪種戒指都不會在新的水潭裏起作用，最多再濺起一陣水花，沒什麼可怕的。不管怎樣，他們戴上綠戒指，又手拉手地站到水邊。這一次，他們顯得興高采烈，全不像第一次那麼嚴肅。
“一、二、三，跳!”迪格雷說完，他們就跳了下去。
