經典科幻文學:《 基本上無害 Mostly Harmless》 第2章3

The word was out that maybe, just maybe, a British accent would fit. The hair, the skin tone and the bridgework would have to be up to American network standards, but there had been a lot of British accents up there thanking their mothers for their Oscars, a lot of British accents singing on Broadway, and some unusually big audiences tuning in to British accents in wigs on Masterpiece Theatre. British accents were telling jokes on David Letterman and Jay Leno. Nobody understood the jokes but they were really responding to the accents, so maybe it was time, just maybe. A British accent on US/AM. Well, hell.

有風聲說，或許，只是或許，這次NBS會找個英國口音。頭髮、膚色和牙套當然必須達到美國傳媒的水準，可眼下英國口音多熱啊：有英國口音拿着奧斯卡小金人感謝自己的老媽，有英國口音在百老匯又唱又跳，更有多得離奇的觀衆每週收看“戲劇名著”系列裏那些英國口音戴着假髮演戲。英國口音還拿大衛?萊特曼和傑伊?萊諾開涮；雖說那些笑話沒人聽得懂，但大家都對他們的口音有反應。所以說現在也許正是時候，只是也許。《早安美國》上的英國口音？管他呢，見鬼。

That was why Tricia was here. This was why loving New York was a great career move.

所以崔茜卡纔來這兒。所以說，熱愛紐約真是出色的職業策略。

It wasn’t, of course, the stated reason. Her TV company back in the UK would hardly have stumped up the air fare and hotel bill for her to go job hunting in Manhattan. Since she was chasing something like ten times her present salary, they might have felt that she could have forked out her own expenses, but she’d found a story, found a pretext, kept very quiet about anything ulterior, and they’d stumped up for the trip. A business class ticket, of course, but her face was known and she’d smiled herself an upgrade. The right moves had got her a nice room at the Brentwood and here she was, wondering what to do next.

當然了，這並不是她擺上檯面的理由。要是去曼哈頓找工作的事兒露了餡，恐怕很難指望她的英國老闆再爲飛機票和旅館埋單。當然，美國那份薪水差不多是她現在的十倍，人家沒準兒會覺得她大可以自掏腰包。不過崔茜卡找了個新聞故事作掩護，對換工作守口如瓶，她的英國老闆於是掏了錢。買的當然是商務艙，不過她大小也算個名人，只露齒一笑就免費升了艙。正確的策略還爲她在布倫特伍德大酒店搞到個挺不錯的房間，於是一切順利，她開始琢磨接下來該怎麼辦。

The word on the street was one thing, making contact was another. She had a couple of names, a couple of numbers, but all it took was being put on indeterminate hold a couple of times and she was back at square one. She’d put out feelers, left messages, but so far none had been returned. The actual job she had come to do she had done in a morning; the imagined job she was after was only shimmering tantalisingly on an unreachable horizon.

聽到風聲是一回事兒，真正接觸又是另一回事兒。她包裏有兩個名字、兩個號碼，可最後卻只是無休無止地“稍等”了兩回，然後就重新回到了起點。她試探過，也留了口信，可至今沒有迴音。她實際上需要乾的活兒一早上就搞定了，而她想象中的活兒卻在遙不可及的地平線上閃啊閃，讓人心焦。

Shit.

見鬼。