诺贝尔文学经典:《宠儿》第3章Part 8
In the evening when he came home and the three of them were all there fixing the supper table, hershine was so pronounced he wondered why Denver and Sethe didn't see it. Or maybe they did.
Certainly women could tell, as men could, when one of their number was aroused. Paul D lookedcarefully at Beloved to see if she was aware of it but she paid him no attention at all — frequentlynot even answering a direct question put to her. She would look at him and not open her mouth.
Five weeks she had been with them, and they didn't know any more about her than they did whenthey found her asleep on the stump.
They were seated at the table Paul D had broken the day he arrived at 124. Its mended legs stronger than before. The cabbage was all gone and the shiny ankle bones of smoked pork werepushed in a heap on their plates. Sethe was dishing up bread pudding, murmuring her hopes for it,apologizing in advance the way veteran cooks always do, when something in Beloved's face, somepetlike adoration that took hold of her as she looked at Sethe, made Paul D speak.
"Ain't you got no brothers or sisters?"Beloved diddled her spoon but did not look at him. "I don't have nobody.""What was you looking for when you came here?" he asked her.
"This place. I was looking for this place I could be in.""Somebody tell you about this house?""She told me. When I was at the bridge, she told me.""Must be somebody from the old days," Sethe said. The days when 124 was a way station wheremessages came and then their senders. Where bits of news soaked like dried beans in spring water— until they were soft enough to digest. "How'd you come? Who brought you?"Now she looked steadily at him, but did not answer.
He could feel both Sethe and Denver pulling in, holding their stomach muscles, sending out stickyspiderwebs to touch one another.
He decided to force it anyway.
晚上，他回到家里，她们仨都在那儿摆饭桌时，她的光芒如此逼人，他奇怪塞丝和丹芙怎么看不见。或许她们看见了。
如果女人们中间有一个春情萌动，她们当然能看得出来，就像男人一样。保罗·D仔细地观察宠儿，看她是否有所察觉，可她对他一点也不留意———连直截了当的提问都常常不作回答。她能做到看着他连嘴都不张。
她和他们相处已经有五个星期，可他们对她的了解一点也不比他们发现她在树桩上睡着的那天更多。
他们在保罗·D到达124号当日曾经摔坏的桌子旁就坐。重新接好的桌腿比以前更结实。卷心菜都吃光了，熏猪肉油亮亮的踝骨在他们的盘子里堆成一堆。塞丝正在上面包布丁，嘟囔着她的祝愿，以老练的厨子惯用的方式事先向大家致歉。这时，宠儿脸上现出的某种东西———她眼盯塞丝时攫住她的某种宠物式的迷恋———使得保罗·D开口了。
“你就没啥兄弟姐妹吗？”宠儿摆弄着勺子，却没看他。“我谁都没有。”“你来这儿到底是找什么呢？”他问她。
“这个地方。我是在找这个我能待的地方。”“有谁给你讲过这房子吗？”“她讲给我的。我在桥上的时候，她讲给我的。”“肯定是早先的人。”塞丝道。早先的那些日子里，124号是口信和捎信人的驿站。在124号，点滴的消息就像泡在泉水里的干豆子———直泡到柔软得可以消化。“你怎么来的？谁带你来的？”现在她镇定地看着他，但没有回答。
他能感觉到塞丝和丹芙两人都后退了，收缩腹肌，放出黏糊糊的蛛网来相互触摸。
他决定无论如何也要逼逼她。
