诺贝尔文学经典:《宠儿》第7章Part 4
"Is that damn dog lost his mind?" shouted Baby Suggs.
"He's on the porch," said Sethe. "See for yourself."
"Well, what's that I'm hearing then?"
Sethe slammed the stove lid. "Buglar! Buglar! I told you all not to use that ball in here." Shelooked at the white stairs and saw Denver at the top.
"She was trying to get upstairs."
"What?" The cloth she used to handle the stove lid was balled in Sethe's hand.
"The baby," said Denver. "Didn't you hear her crawling?"
What to jump on first was the problem: that Denver heard anything at all or that the crawling-already? baby girl was still at it but more so.
The return of Denver's hearing, cut off by an answershe could not hear to hear, cut on by the sound of her dead sister trying to climb the stairs, signaledanother shift in the fortunes of the people of 124. From then on the presence was full of spite.
Instead of sighs and accidents there was pointed and deliberate abuse. Buglar and Howard grewfurious at the company of the women in the house, and spent in sullen reproach any time they hadaway from their odd work in town carrying water and feed at the stables. Until the spite became sopersonal it drove each off. Baby Suggs grew tired, went to bed and stayed there until her big oldheart quit. Except for an occasional request for color she said practically nothing — until theafternoon of the last day of her life when she got out of bed, skipped slowly to the door of thekeeping room and announced to Sethe and Denver the lesson she had learned from her sixty yearsa slave and ten years free: that there was no bad luck in the world but white people. "They don'tknow when to stop," she said, and returned to her bed, pulled up the quilt and left them to hold that thought forever.
Shortly afterward Sethe and Denver tried to call up and reason with the babyghost, but got nowhere. It took a man, Paul D, to shout it off, beat it off and take its place forhimself. And carnival or no carnival, Denver preferred the venomous baby to him any day. Duringthe first days after Paul D moved in, Denver stayed in her emerald closet as long as she could,lonely as a mountain and almost as big, thinking everybody had somebody but her; thinking even aghost's company was denied her. So when she saw the black dress with two unlaced shoes beneathit she trembled with secret thanks. Whatever her power and however she used it, Beloved was hers.
Denver was alarmed by the harm she thought Beloved planned for Sethe, but felt helpless to thwartit, so unrestricted was her need to love another. The display she witnessed at the Clearing shamedher because the choice between Sethe and Beloved was without conflict.
Walking toward thestream, beyond her green bush house, she let herself wonder what if Beloved really decided tochoke her mother. Would she let it happen? Murder, Nelson Lord had said. "Didn't your motherget locked away for murder? Wasn't you in there with her when she went?"
"是那该死的狗发昏了吗？"贝比·萨格斯嚷道。
"它在门廊呢，"塞丝道，"不信你自己去看。"
"那我听到的是什么呀？"
塞丝砰地盖上炉盖。"巴格勒！巴格勒！我跟你们俩都说过，不许在这儿玩球。"她看了看白楼梯，见丹芙站在顶层。
"她在学着爬楼梯。"
"什么？"开炉盖用的垫布在塞丝手里攥成一团。
"那个小孩，"丹芙说，"你没听见她在爬吗？"
首先跳出的是这样一个问题：到底是丹芙真的听见了什么动静，还是那个"都会爬了？"的小女儿仍旧在这里肆虐，变本加厉？
丹芙的听觉被一声她不忍听到的回答切断，又被她死去的姐姐试图爬楼梯的响动接上，它的恢复标志着124号里面的人们命运的又一次转折。
从那时起，鬼魂的出没就充满了恶意。不再是叹息和意外事故了，而是变成了直截了当和蓄意为之的摧残。巴格勒和霍华德对于跟女人们一起住在房子里感到怒不可遏，如果不去城里干送水和喂牲口的临时工作，他们便时时刻刻都闷闷不乐地怪罪她们。直到最后，这恶意变成了过分的个人攻击，把他们两个统统赶走。贝比·萨格斯累了，在床上长卧不起，直到她那伟大而苍老的心停止跳动。除了不定期的对色彩的要求，她实际上一语不发——直到她生命中最后一天的那个下午，她下了床，慢悠悠地颠到起居室门口，向塞丝和丹芙宣告她从六十年奴隶生涯和十年自由人的日子中学到的一课：这世界上除了白人没有别的不幸。"他们不懂得适可而止。"她说道，然后就离开她们，回到床上，拉上被子，让她们永远地记住那个思想。
此后不久，塞丝和丹芙试图召唤那个小鬼魂，跟它论理，可是毫无结果。结果来了一个男人，保罗·D，将它吼走、打跑，再自己取代它的位置。无论有没有狂欢节那回事，丹芙都更愿意接受那个满腔怒火的婴儿，而不是他。保罗·D搬来后最初的那些日子，丹芙尽可能久地待在她的那间祖母绿密室里，像山一样孤独，也几乎一样庞大；她常想，谁都有个伴儿，单单她没有，连让一个鬼跟她做伴都不行。所以，当她看见那条黑裙子和下面的两只没系好鞋带的鞋子时，她浑身发抖，暗自谢天谢地。无论宠儿有怎样的威力，无论她怎样发威，宠儿总是她的。
想到宠儿对塞丝的计划的危害性，丹芙警惕起来，但又觉得无力阻挠；她太渴望去爱别人了。在"林间空地"目睹的一幕令她羞辱，因为在塞丝和宠儿之间作选择并不存在矛盾。
她离开她的绿色灌木小屋，朝着小溪走去，不禁心想，如果宠儿真的决定掐死她的妈妈，那该怎么办。她会任其发生吗？谋杀，内尔森·洛德说过的。"你妈妈不是因为谋杀给关起来了吗？她进去的时候你没跟着吗？"
