諾貝爾文學經典:《寵兒》第8章Part 6
So he raced from dogwood to blossoming peach. When they thinned out he headed for the cherryblossoms, then magnolia, chinaberry, pecan, walnut and prickly pear. At last he reached a field ofapple trees whose flowers were just becoming tiny knots of fruit. Spring sauntered north, but hehad to run like hell to keep it as his traveling companion. From February to July he was on thelookout for blossoms. When he lost them, and found himself without so much as a petal to guide him, he paused, climbed a tree on a hillock and scanned the horizon for a flash of pink or white inthe leaf world that surrounded him. He did not touch them or stop to smell. He merely followed intheir wake, a dark ragged figure guided by the blossoming plums.
The apple field turned out to be Delaware where the weaver lady lived. She snapped him up assoon as he finished the sausage she fed him and he crawled into her bed crying. She passed him offas her nephew from Syracuse simply by calling him that nephew's name. Eighteen months and hewas looking out again for blossoms only this time he did the looking on a dray.
It was some time before he could put Alfred, Georgia, Sixo, schoolteacher, Halle, his brothers,Sethe, Mister, the taste of iron, the sight of butter, the smell of hickory, notebook paper, one byone, into the tobacco tin lodged in his chest. By the time he got to 124 nothing in this world couldpry it open.
SHE MOVED HIM.
Not the way he had beat off the baby's ghost — all bang and shriek with windows smashed andicily iars rolled in a heap. But she moved him nonetheless, and Paul D didn't know how to stop itbecause it looked like he was moving himself. Imperceptibly, downright reasonably, he wasmoving out of 124.
The beginning was so simple. One day, after supper, he sat in the rocker by the stove, bone-tired,river-whipped, and fell asleep. He woke to the footsteps of Sethe coming down the white stairs tomake breakfast.
"I thought you went out somewhere," she said.
於是，他從山茱萸跑向盛開的桃花。桃花稀疏、消失時，他就奔向櫻桃花；然後是木蘭花、苦楝花、山核桃花、胡桃花和刺梨花。最後他來到一片蘋果樹林，花兒剛剛結出小青果。春天信步北上，可是他得拼命地奔跑才能趕上這個旅伴。從二月到七月他一直在找花兒。當他找不見它們，發現再也沒有一片花瓣來指引他，他便停下來，爬上土坡上的一棵樹，在地平線上極力搜尋環繞的葉海中一點粉紅或白色的閃動。他從未撫摸過它們，也沒有停下來聞上一聞。他只是簇簇梅花指引下的一個黝黑、襤褸的形象，緊緊追隨着它們的芳痕。
那片蘋果地，原來就是那個女織工居住的特拉華。他剛剛吃完她給的香腸，她就一下子摟住了他，然後，他哭着爬上她的牀。她讓他假裝成她在希拉庫斯的外甥，直接用那外甥的名字稱呼他。十八個月後，他再次出來找花兒，不過這回他是坐着大車找的。
過了好一段時間，他才把佐治亞的阿爾弗雷德、西克索、"學校老師"、黑爾、他的哥哥們、塞絲、"先生"、鐵嚼子的滋味、牛油的情景、胡桃的氣味、筆記本的紙，一個一個地鎖進他胸前的菸草罐裏。等他來到124號的時候，這個世界上已沒有任何東西能夠撬開它了。
她趕走了他。
不是他打跑嬰兒鬼魂的那種方式——又摔又叫，砸碎了窗戶，果醬罐滾作一堆。可她仍然趕走了他，而保羅·D不知道怎樣制止她，因爲看起來像是他自己搬走的。不知不覺地，完全合情合理地，他在搬出124號。
事情的開頭簡單極了。一天，晚飯以後，他坐在爐邊的搖椅上，腰痠腿疼，出汗出得好像剛從水裏撈出來，就那樣睡着了。塞絲走下白樓梯來做早飯的聲音吵醒了他。
"我以爲你到外頭什麼地方去了。"她說。
