經典科幻文學:《 基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第4章2

She then spent another hour dithering about what to wear. At last she settled on a smart little black dress she'd got in New York. She phoned a friend to see who was likely to be at the club that evening, and was told that it was closed this evening for a private wedding party.

然後她又花了一個鐘頭優柔寡斷，不知道該穿什麼好。最後她打定主意，正巧在紐約買了條漂亮的黑色小裙子，今晚就穿它。她給一個朋友打電話，問都有誰會過去；結果對方告訴她今晚有人結婚，在那兒開私人派對，不對外開放。

She thought that trying to live life according to any plan you actually work out is like trying to buy ingredients for a recipe from the supermarket. You get one of those trolleys which simply will not go in the direction you push it and end up just having to buy completely different stuff. What do you do with it? What do you do with the recipe? She didn't know.

她暗暗嘆口氣，沒錯，你大可以整出各種各樣的方案來規劃你的生活，可要想按部就班地執行那簡直就像手拿菜譜在超市找材料，你會攤上一輛破手推車，無論如何都不肯往你推的那個方向去，結果只好買上一車完全不同的東西。你該拿它們怎麼辦？你該拿你的菜譜怎麼辦？她不知道。

Anyway, that night an alien spacecraft landed on her lawn.

對了，那天晚上一艘外星飛船降落到了她家的草坪上。

She watched it coming in from over the Henley direction with mild curiosity at first, wondering what those lights were. Living, as she did, not a million miles from Heathrow, she was used to seeing lights in the sky. Not usually so late in the evening, or so low, though, which was why she was mildly curious.

她望着它從亨利方向飛過來，起先只是稍微有些好奇，奇怪那些燈是什麼東西。崔茜卡住的地方跟希斯羅機場並沒隔着百萬英里，天上有燈光她早就見怪不怪了。當然它們出現的時間通常都不會這麼晚，高度也不會這麼低，所以她才稍微有些好奇。

When whatever it was began to come closer and closer her curiosity began to turn to bemusement.

等那個什麼東西越來越近越來越近，她的好奇變成了茫然。

'Hmmm,' she thought, which was about as far as she could get with thinking. She was still feeling dopey and jet-lagged and the messages that one part of her brain was busy sending to another were not necessarily arriving on time or the right way up. She left the kitchen where she'd been fixing herself a coffee and went to open the back door which led out to the garden. She took a deep breath of cool evening air, stepped outside and looked up.

“呣。”她想。論起思考，這是她目前所能達到的最高境界。時差還沒倒過來，她仍然昏昏沉沉的，半邊大腦發給另一邊的信息不一定能準時抵達或者跑對方向。她已經倒好了咖啡，現在走出廚房，打開通向後花園的後門。她深深地吸了口夜晚涼爽的空氣，走出門去，擡頭往上看。

There was something roughly the size of a large camper van parked about a hundred feet above her lawn.

有個東西——差不多跟一輛大號露營車一般大小——正停在她家草坪上方一百英尺的地方。

It was really there. Hanging there. Almost silent.

它真的在那兒。懸在那兒。幾乎沒有聲音。