Chapter 24 Luckily there was a strong updraft in the alley because Arthur hadn’t done this sort of thing for a while, at least, not deliberately, and deliberately is exactly the way you are not meant to do it. He swung down sharply, nearly catching himself a nasty crack on the jaw with the doorstep and tumbled through the air, so suddenly stunned with what a profoundly stupid thing he had just done that he completely forgot the bit about hitting the ground and didn’t. A nice trick, he thought to himself, if you can do it. The ground was hanging menacingly above his head. He tried not to think about the ground, what an extraordinarily big thing it was and how much it would hurt him if it decided to stop hanging there and suddenly fell on him. He tried to think nice thoughts about lemurs instead, which was exactly the right thing to do because he couldn’t at that moment remember precisely what a lemur was, if it was one of those things that sweep in great majestic herds across the plains of wherever it was or if that was wildebeests, so it was a tricky kind of thing to think nice thoughts about without simply resorting to an icky sort of general well-disposedness towards things, and all this kept his mind well occupied while his body tried to adjust to the fact that it wasn’t touching anything. A Mars bar wrapper fluttered down the alleyway. After a seeming moment of doubt and indecision it eventually allowed the wind to ease it, fluttering, between him and the ground. Arthur… The ground was still hanging menacingly above his head, and he thought it was probably time to do something about that, such as fall away from it, which is what he did. Slowly. Very, very slowly. As he fell slowly, very, very slowly, he closed his eyes carefully, so as not to jolt anything. The feel of his eyes closing ran down his whole body. Once it had reached his feet, and the whole of his body was alerted to the fact that his eyes were now closed and was not panicked by it, he slowly, very, very slowly, revolved his body one way and his mind the other. That should sort the ground out. He could feel the air clear about him now, breezing around him quite cheerfully, untroubled by his being there, and slowly, very, very slowly, as from a deep and distant sleep, he opened his eyes. He had flown before, of course, flown many times on Krikkit until all the birdtalk had driven him scatty, but this was different. Here he was on his own world, quietly, and without fuss, beyond a slight trembling which could have been attributable to a number of things, being in the air. Ten or fifteen feet below him was the hard tarmac and a few yards off to the right the yellow street lights of Upper Street. Luckily the alleyway was dark since the light which was supposed to see it through the night was on an ingenious timeswitch which meant it came on just before lunchtime and went off again as the evening was beginning to draw in. He was, therefore, safely shrouded in a blanket of dark obscurity. He slowly, very, very slowly, lifted his head to Fenchurch, who was standing in silent breathless amazement, silhouetted in her upstairs doorway. Her face was inches from his. I was about to ask you, she said in a low trembly voice, what you were doing. But then I realized that I could see what you were doing. You were flying. So it seemed, she went on after a slight wondering pause, like a bit of a silly question. Arthur said: Can you do it? No. 第24章 真是運氣，巷子裏面剛好有一陣強烈的上升氣流，因爲阿瑟已經很久沒有做這事情了，至少很久沒有刻意去做了，而且“刻意”正好是做這件事情的時候不該有的。 他飛快地往下翻，差點在門階上撞碎了下巴，從空中跌了下去，於是突然之間因爲自己做了這麼愚蠢透頂的事情而嚇懵了，完全忘記了自己馬上就要撞上地面，所以他就沒撞上地面。 “不錯的伎倆，”他心想，“如果能掌握的話。” 大地在他頭頂上方惡狠狠地懸着。 他盡力不去想大地的事情，萬一大地決定不再那麼懸着，突然間落到他身上的話，那是多嚴重的事情啊，而且還會讓他受多重的傷啊！爲了代替這些念頭，他盡力去想一些跟狐猴有關的好事，這的確是正確的做法，因爲這時候他沒法準確地記起來狐猴是什麼，到底是那些大羣大羣莊嚴地穿過草原的管它什麼玩意兒中的一隻，還是一隻羚羊什麼的。所以去想狐猴是一個很巧妙的方法，你不用去找一些已經安排好的什麼令人厭惡的事情來思考。這些都讓他的大腦忙碌起來，而他的身體開始針對沒有接觸任何東西這一情況作出調整。 一片瑪氏（糖果公司名，德芙就是其旗下品牌）糖紙在巷子裏拍打着地面。 糖紙看起來猶豫了一會，最後決定允許風把它帶起來，在阿瑟和地面之間飄舞。 “阿瑟……” 大地仍然在他頭頂上方惡狠狠地懸着，他覺得現在大概是時候該做點什麼了，比方說離地面遠點，他就這麼做了。緩慢地，非常、非常緩慢。 當他緩慢地，非常、非常緩慢地離開地面的時候，他把眼睛閉上了——很小心地，免得震動任何東西。 閉眼的感覺在他全身流動。當這種感覺到達雙腳時，他的整個身體都警覺到他的雙眼閉上了這個事實，並且爲此恐慌起來。他緩慢地，非常，非常緩慢地把身體向一個方向旋轉，同時想着另一個方向。 這樣可以把地面丟一邊去了。 他可以感覺的周圍的空氣變得清新起來，在身體四周清爽地流動，一點也不擔心他在那裏呆着。他緩慢地，非常、非常緩慢地，就像從一次深沉的睡眠中醒來那樣，睜開了眼睛。 他以前飛過，當然了，在阪丘飛過很多次，直到鳥語把他搞昏了頭爲止，但是這次不一樣。 現在他在自己的世界的空中，很平靜，不慌不忙，只是有一點點因爲一些事情而造成的微微顫抖。 他下面十到十五英尺的地方是堅硬的泊油路，右邊幾碼是阿佩爾街的黃色街燈。 幸運的是巷子很黑，那些燈本來應該整夜都亮着的，可是它們都裝了一個巧妙的定時開關，設定爲午飯後亮起來，天快黑的時候關掉。所以，他現在很安全地被黑暗包圍着。 他緩慢地，非常、非常緩慢地擡頭去看芬切琪，芬切琪這時候正驚訝的氣都透不過來，無聲地站着，在她樓上的前門裏顯出自己的輪廓。 她的臉離他只有幾英寸。 “我正準備問你，”她用發抖的聲音小聲說，“你在幹什麼的。可是然後我發現自己看到你在做什麼了。你在飛。所以這看起來，”她疑惑地頓了頓，然後接着說，“是一個有點笨的問題。” 阿瑟說： “你能做到嗎？” “不能。”
