經典科幻文學:《 基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第2章8

The message light on the phone was flashing though.

不過電話的留言機倒是在閃個不停。

She hit the message button and got the hotel operator.

她按下留言鍵，接通了酒店的接線生。

‘you.have a message from Gary Andress,’ said the operator.

“你有一條留言，來自葛瑞?安大雷司。”接線生說。

‘Yes?’ said Tricia. An unfamiliar name. ‘What does it say?’

“嗯？”崔茜卡說。陌生的名字。“上邊怎麼說？”

‘Not hippy,’ said the operator.

“不嬉皮。”接線生說。

‘Not what?’ said Tricia.

“不什麼？”崔茜卡問。

‘Hippy. What it says. Guy says he’s not a hippy. I guess he wanted you to know that. You want the number?’

“嬉皮。留言就是這麼說的。那人說他不是個嬉皮士。我猜他想讓你知道。想要號碼嗎？”

As she started to dictate the number Tricia suddenly realised that this was just a garbled version of the message she had already had.

她開始念號碼，崔茜卡突然明白過來，這不過是剛纔那條留言的變身版①。

‘OK, OK,’ she said. ‘Are there any other messages for me?’

“OK，OK，”她說，“還有其他留言嗎？”

‘Room number?’

“房間號多少？”

Tricia couldn’t work out why the operator should suddenly ask for her number this late in the conversation, but gave it to her anyway.

都說到這兒了才問這個，崔茜卡實在想不通這是什麼道理，不過她還是說了。

‘Name?’

“名字？”

‘McMillan, Tricia McMillan.’ Tricia spelt it, patiently.

“麥克米倫，崔茜卡?麥克米倫。”崔茜卡拼給對方聽，非常耐心。

‘Not Mr. MacManus?’

“不是麥克馬努斯嗎？”

‘No.’

“不是。”

‘No more messages for you.’ Click.

“沒有你的留言。”咔嗒。

Tricia sighed and dialled again. This time she gave her name and room number all over again, up front. The operator showed not the slightest glimmer of recognition that they had been speaking less than ten seconds ago.

崔茜卡嘆了口氣，重新撥號。她又說了遍自己的名字和房間號，這次一上來就先說這個。儘管兩人不到十秒鐘之前纔講過話，但接線生絲毫沒有表現出任何意識到這一問題的跡象。

‘I’m going to be in the bar,’ Tricia explained. ‘In the bar. If a phone call comes through for me, please would you put it through to me in the bar?’

“我要去酒吧，”崔茜卡解釋道，“去酒吧。如果有人打電話找我，可以請你把它轉到酒吧嗎？”

‘Name?’

“名字？”