经典科幻文学:《 基本上无害 Mostly Harmless》 第2章16

‘You got everything?’ said the chauffeur. ‘You don’t want to pick up your bag or anything?’

“东西都拿好了？”司机问，“你不想回去拿上包什么的吗？”

‘If there’s one thing that life’s taught me,’ said Tricia, ‘it’s never go back for your bag.’

“如果生活真教会了我什么，”崔茜卡说，“那就是永远不要回去拿你的包。”

Just a little over an hour later, Tricia sat on one of the pair of beds in her hotel room. For a few minutes she didn’t move. She just stared at her bag, which was sitting innocently on top of the other bed.

刚过了一个钟头多一点，崔茜卡已经回到了酒店的房间，坐在床上。有几分钟她完全没动弹，只是盯着自己的包。她的包挺无辜地坐在另一张床上。

In her hand was a note from Gail Andrews, saying, ‘Don’t be too disappointed. Do ring if you want to talk about it. If I were you I’d stay in at home tomorrow night. Get some rest. But don’t mind me, and don’t worry. It’s only astrology. It’s not the end of the world. Gail.’

她手里捏着张盖尔?安德鲁斯留的便条，上头写着：“别太失望。如果你想谈谈尽管打电话。如果我是你，明晚我会留在家里。好好休息。别在意我，也别担心。只不过是占星术，又不是世界末日。盖尔。”

The chauffeur had been dead right. In fact the chauffeur seemed to know more about what was going on inside NBS than any other single person she had encountered in the organisation. Martin had been keen, Zwingler had not. She had had her one shot at proving Martin right and she had blown it.

全让那司机说准了。事实上，那个司机似乎比她在NBS遇上的任何一个人都更了解各种内幕。马丁很热心，茨威格勒正相反。她只有一次机会去证明马丁是对的，结果她搞砸了。

Oh well. Oh well, oh well, oh well.

哦好吧。哦好吧。哦好吧。哦好吧。

Time to go home. Time to phone the airline and see if she could still get the red-eye back to Heathrow tonight. She reached for the big phone directory.

该回家了。该打电话去航空公司，看现在还能不能搭上今晚到希思罗的红眼航班。她伸手去拿厚厚的电话簿。

Oh. First things first.

哦，还有一件事得先解决。

She put down the directory again, picked up her handbag, and took it through to the bathroom. She put it down and took out the small plastic case which held her contact lenses, without which she had been unable properly to read either the script or the autocue.

她把电话簿放下，拿起自己的手提包，把它一路带到了浴室。她把包放下，拿出装隐形眼镜的塑料匣子，没有隐形眼镜，无论是剧本还是自动提词机她都别想看清楚。

As she dabbed each tiny plastic cup into her eyes she reflected that if there was one thing life had taught her it was that there are times when you do not go back for your bag and other times when you do. It had yet to teach her to distinguish between the two types of occasion.

她把两个小塑料片贴进眼里，心里暗想，如果生活真教会了自己什么，那就是有时候你不应该回去拿包，有时候你应该回去。只不过，它还没教会她应该怎么分辨这两种情况。