諾貝爾文學經典:《寵兒》第6章Part 3
The fingers touching the back of her neck were stronger now — the strokes bolder as though BabySuggs were gathering strength. Putting the thumbs at the nape, while the fingers pressed the sides.
Harder, harder, the fingers moved slowly around toward her windpipe, making little circles on theway. Sethe was actually more surprised than frightened to find that she was being strangled. Or soit seemed. In any case, Baby Suggs' fingers had a grip on her that would not let her breathe.
Tumbling forward from her seat on the rock, she clawed at the hands that were not there. Her feetwere thrashing by the time Denver got to her and then Beloved.
"Ma'am! Ma'am!" Denver shouted. "Ma'ammy!" and turned her mother over on her back.
The fingers left off and Sethe had to swallow huge draughts of air before she recognized herdaughter's face next to her own and Beloved's hovering above.
"You all right?"
"Somebody choked me," said Sethe.
"Who?"
Sethe rubbed her neck and struggled to a sitting position. "Grandma Baby, I reckon. I just askedher to rub my neck, like she used to and she was doing fine and then just got crazy with it, Iguess."
"She wouldn't do that to you, Ma'am. Grandma Baby? Uh uh."
"Help me up from here."
"Look." Beloved was pointing at Sethe's neck.
"What is it? What you see?" asked Sethe.
"Bruises," said Denver.
"On my neck?"
"Here," said Beloved. "Here and here, too." She reached out her hand and touched the splotches,gathering color darker than Sethe's dark throat, and her fingers were mighty cool.
"That don't help nothing," Denver said, but Beloved was leaning in, her two hands stroking thedamp skin that felt like chamois and looked like taffeta.
撫摸着她後脖子的手指這時有力些了——手法更大膽了，好像貝比·薩格斯正在積聚力氣。大拇指放在後頸上，其餘的手指按着兩邊。
重了一些，又重了一些，手指慢慢移向她的氣管，一路划着小圓圈。塞絲與其說是恐懼，不如說是驚訝地發現自己正在被扼殺。至少表面上如此。不管怎麼說，貝比·薩格斯的手指扼得她喘不過氣來。
她從坐着的石頭上向前摔去，抓扯着不存在的手。她正雙腳亂踢，丹芙來到身邊；接着寵兒也來了。
"太太!太太!"丹芙叫着。"媽媽!"她把媽媽翻過來，讓她仰臥着。
手指鬆開了，塞絲大口大口地吞着空氣，然後辨認出自己身旁女兒的臉和上面遊移不定的寵兒的臉。
"你沒事吧？"
"有人要掐死我。"塞絲說。
"誰？"
塞絲揉着脖子，掙扎着坐起來。"貝比奶奶，我估計。我不過求她揉揉脖子，像她從前那樣，起初她揉得好好的，可後來就揉瘋了，我猜是。"
"她不可能對你那樣，太太。貝比奶奶？不可能。"
"幫我起來。"
"看哪。"寵兒指着塞絲的脖子。
"是什麼？你看見什麼了？"塞絲問。
"傷。"丹芙道。
"在我脖子上？"
"這兒，"寵兒道，"這兒，還有這兒。"她伸手摸着那些斑點，發現它們的顏色比塞絲黑黑的脖子還黑；她的手指冰涼冰涼的。
"那沒用。"丹芙說道，可是寵兒仍然探出身子，用兩隻手去撫摸塞絲溼乎乎的皮膚。她的皮膚摸起來像羚羊皮，看着像塔夫綢。
