经典科幻文学:《银河系漫游指南》第1章Part 8
Ford beckoned to Prosser who sadly, awkwardly, sat down in the mud. He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it. The mud folded itself round his bottom and his arms and oozed into his shoes.
Ford looked at him severely.
"And no sneaky knocking down Mr Dent's house whilst he's away, alright?" he said.
"The mere thought," growled Mr Prosser, "hadn't even begun to speculate," he continued, settling himself back, "about the merest possibility of crossing my mind."
He saw the bulldozer driver's union representative approaching and let his head sink back and closed his eyes. He was trying to marshal his arguments for proving that he did not now constitute a mental health hazard himself. He was far from certain about this — his mind seemed to be full of noise, horses, smoke, and the stench of blood. This always happened when he felt miserable and put upon, and he had never been able to explain it to himself. In a high dimension of which we know nothing the mighty Khan bellowed with rage, but Mr Prosser only trembled slightly and whimpered. He began to fell little pricks of water behind the eyelids. Bureaucratic cock-ups, angry men lying in the mud, indecipherable strangers handing out inexplicable humiliations and an unidentified army of horsemen laughing at him in his head — what a day.
What a day. Ford Prefect knew that it didn't matter a pair of dingo's kidneys whether Arthur's house got knocked down or not now.
Arthur remained very worried.
"But can we trust him?" he said.
"Myself I'd trust him to the end of the Earth," said Ford.
"Oh yes," said Arthur, "and how far's that?"
"About twelve minutes away," said Ford, "come on, I need a drink."
福特又朝普洛塞招了招手，于是他一脸沮丧，笨拙地坐到了泥浆里。这个时候，普洛塞感觉他的整个人生就像是一场梦，有时还不能确定这梦是谁的，以及他们能否从中获得快乐。泥浆裹住了他的下半身和手臂，还渗进了鞋子。
福特严厉地看着他。
“你们不会趁邓特先生离开的这会儿去打扰他的房子，是吧？”他说。
“这样的念头，”普洛塞先生抱怨说，“根本还没有冒出来过呢，”他继续道，往后坐了坐，“反正在我脑子里是没有可能的。”
这时，他看见推土机司机一伙的代表正走过来，于是索性头往后一倒，闭上了眼睛。他想组织一下辩论语言，以证明自己不是突然间神经出了毛病。不过这一点看上去不大可能——他的头脑里仿佛充满了噪音、马、烟雾以及血腥的气味。每当他感到自己很悲惨或者是成了牺牲品，就会出现这种情形，连他自己也解释不了。在某个我们一无所知的空间里，伟大的可汗愤怒地咆哮着，但普洛塞先生却只是微微地颤抖和呜咽。他开始感觉到眼帘后面快有泪水流出了。官僚政治一团糟，愤怒的人躺在泥浆里，身份不明的陌生人带来解释不清楚的屈辱，还有不知道从哪儿冒出来的一队骑兵在脑子里嘲笑着自己——天啊，这是什么鬼日子。
什么鬼日子。福特·普里弗克特知道，阿瑟的房子现在被推倒了没有，这个问题的价值甚至不值一对澳洲野狗的腰子。
阿瑟依旧很担心。
“我们能相信他吗？”他问。
“就我自己来说，我相信他，直到地球的毁灭。”福特说。
“噢，是吗，”阿瑟说，“我们离地球毁灭有多远？”
“大概12分钟的路程。”福特说，“走吧，我需要喝一杯。”
