《魔法师的外甥》第13期:各个世界之间的树林(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.
“各个世界之间的树林，”波莉像说梦话似的喃喃自语，“太美妙了。”
“来，”迪格雷说，“我们该跳哪个水潭?”
“喂，”波莉说，“要搞清楚我们是不是可以从原来的水潭回去，否则我不会再去跳别的水潭。我们还不敢肯定是不是能够回去呢。”
“好吧，”迪格雷说，“玩也没玩就让安德鲁舅舅逮住，再把戒指拿走，多没劲儿。”
“我们可不可以跳回原来的水潭，但只走一半，”波莉说，“看看绿戒指能否带我们回去。如果可以，我们在到达凯特利先生的书房以前就换戒指，再回这里。”
“这样行吗?”
“嗯，来时只花了一会儿时间，我想回去也是很快的。”迪格雷对此很有意见，但他只好同意了，因为不弄清是否可以回去，波莉便拒绝到任何新世界里去探险。在危险面前(比如，面对坏人)，波莉和他一样勇敢，但她对探索闻所未闻的新事物并不很感兴趣。由于迪格雷是那种想了解一切的人，长大以后，他成了这个系列故事另外几本书里有名的柯克教授。
经过一番争执，他们都同意戴上绿戒指(“绿色是安全色，”迪格雷说，“这样，你怎么都能记住哪枚戒指派什么用场。”)，手拉手地跳下去。但是，在快到安德鲁舅舅的书房、即将回到自己的世界日寸，波莉将喊一声“换”，他们就脱掉绿戒指，戴上黄的。迪格雷想要喊这一声“换”，但波莉不同意。
他们戴上绿戒指，拉起手，再一次喊“一、二、三，跳”。这次成功了。很难告诉你到底是什么感觉，因为一切都变幻得太快。起初，夜空中游移着明亮的灯光：迪格雷总认为是星星，甚至发誓，他在离得很近的地方看见了木星，连它的卫星也看得一清二楚。接着，周围很快出现了一排一排的屋顶和烟囱的管帽，他们看见圣保罗大教堂，知道已经到了伦敦，而且，能够穿透墙壁，看见房子里面。他们看见安德鲁舅舅模模糊糊的身影，正在越变越清晰、越变越固定，似乎将逐渐聚为视线的中心。就在安德鲁舅舅的身影即将变得完全清晰的时候，波莉喊了一声“换”；他们一换戒指，我们这个世界便像梦一样淡去了，他们头上的绿光越来越强，最后，他们又钻出水潭，趴在岸边。那片树林仍一如既往地青翠、明亮和安静。事情的全部过程发生在不到一分钟的时间里。
“看，”迪格雷说，“很顺利，现在该探险了。随便挑个水潭。来，我们选那个。”
“站住!”波莉说，“我们不在这个水潭边上做标记吗?”
他们面面相觑。当意识到迪格雷刚才差点儿就要做的事有多么严重的后果时，两人脸都吓白了。因为林子里有很多水潭，外表十分相似，树木也没有区别，一旦他们离开了通向我们这个世界的水潭而没有留下任何标记，能重新找到的可能性只有百分之一。
迪格雷颤着手打开了铅笔刀，在水潭边割下一块长长的草皮。泥土(有清香味)呈深暗的红褐色，在绿色的草中十分显眼。“幸亏我们中间有一个人想到了。”波莉说。
“行了，别老吹牛，”迪格雷说，“来吧，我想看看别的水潭里有什么。”波莉回答得尖刻，迪格雷又回敬了几句难听的话。争吵持续了好几分钟，但如果写下来就很枯燥。让我们跳过这一段吧。接着，他们戴上黄戒指，手拉手紧张地站在水潭边上，心怦怦地跳着，再次喊道：“一、二、三，跳!”
水花飞溅!又失败了。这个水潭好像只是一个小水坑。他们没能到达新的世界；那天早晨，已是第二次湿了脚，腿上也溅了水(假设是早晨吧：各个世界之间的树林里似乎没有时间的变化)。
“真烦人!”迪格雷大声说，“哪儿出毛病了?我们戴了黄戒指。他说过，黄的管到外面去。”
其实，安德鲁舅舅对世界之间的树林毫不知哓，对戒指的认识也是错的。黄戒指不是“离去”的戒指，绿戒指也不是“回返”的戒指，至少，不是他理解的那种意思。两种戒指都是用取自这片树林的材料制成的。黄戒指的材料有一种“向心力”，能将你带往树林，是材料本身回归本土，回归那片中间地带。但绿戒指的材料有种“离心力”，想脱离本土，故能带你离开树林。你看，安德鲁舅舅连自己干的事情都没有真正弄懂，大多数魔法师都是这样。当然，迪格雷也没有完全认识到真相，或者，到后来才明白。经过商议，他们决定戴上绿戒指，再跳进去试试，看看结果如何。
“你愿意我也愿意。”波莉说。她之所以这样说，是因为她打心眼里相信，无论哪种戒指都不会在新的水潭里起作用，最多再溅起一阵水花，没什么可怕的。不管怎样，他们戴上绿戒指，又手拉手地站到水边。这一次，他们显得兴高采烈，全不像第一次那么严肃。
“一、二、三，跳!”迪格雷说完，他们就跳了下去。
