世紀文學經典:《百年孤獨》第4章Part 5
Rebeca shuddered. As in the memory of a dream she saw herself entering the house as a very small girl, with the trunk and the little rocker, and a bag whose contents she had never known. She remembered a bald gentleman dressed in linen and with his collar closed by a gold button, who had nothing to do with the king of hearts. She remembered a very young and beautiful woman with warm and perfumed hands, who had nothing in common with the jack of diamonds and his rheumatic hands, and who used to put flowers in her hair and take her out walking in the afternoon through a town with green streets.
"I don't understand," she said.
Pilar Ternera seemed disconcerted:
"I don't either, but that's what the cards say."
Rebeca was so preoccupied with the enigma that she told it to José Arcadio Buendía, and he scolded her for believing in the predictions of the cards, but he undertook the silent task of searching closets and trunks, moving furniture and turning over beds and floorboards looking for the bag of bones. He remembered that he had not seen it since the time of the rebuilding. He secretly summoned the masons and one of them revealed that he had walled up the bag in some bedroom because it bothered him in his work. After several days of listening, with their ears against the walls, they perceived the deep cloccloc. They penetrated the wall and there were the bones in the intact bag. They buried it the same day in a grave without a stone next to that of Melquíades, and José Arcadio Buendía returned home free of a burden that for a moment had weighed on his conscience as much as the memory of Prudencio Aguilar. When he went through the kitchen he kissed Rebeca on the forehead.
"Get those bad thoughts out of your head," he told her. "You're going to be happy."
The friendship with Rebeca opened up to Pilar Ternera the doors of the house, closed by úrsula since the birth of Arcadio. She would arrive at any hour of the day, like a flock of goats, and would unleash her feverish energy in the hardest tasks. Sometimes she would go into the workshop and help Arcadio sensitize the daguerreotype plates with an efficiency and a tenderness that ended up by confusing him. That woman bothered him. The tan of her skin, her smell of smoke, the disorder of her laughter in the darkroom distracted his attention and made him bump into things.
On a certain occasion Aureliano was there working on his silver, and Pilar Ternera leaned over the table to admire his laborious patience. Suddenly it happened. Aureliano made sure that Arcadio was in the darkroom before raising his eyes and meeting those of Pilar Ternera, whose thought was perfectly visible, as if exposed to the light of noon.
"Well," Aureliano said. "Tell me what it is."
Pilar Ternera bit her lips with a sad smile.
"That you'd be good in a war," she said. "Where you put your eye, you put your bullet."
雷貝卡渾身顫慄。她彷彿想起了很久以前的一場夢，看見自己是個小姑娘，帶着一隻小箱子、一張木搖椅和一條口袋，走進布恩蒂亞的房子——口袋裏是什麼東西，她始終都不知道。她想起一個穿着亞麻布衣服的禿頂先生，他的襯衫領子被一個金色鈕釦扣得緊緊的，但他一點不象紙牌上的紅桃老K.她也想起了一個十分年輕、漂亮的女人，有一雙溫暖、芬芳的手，但是這雙手跟紙牌上那個方塊皇后好象患風溼的手毫不相同；這個年輕女人經常把花朵戴在她的頭髮上，帶她到鎮上綠樹成蔭的傍晚的街頭去閒逛。
“我不明白，”雷貝卡說。
皮拉·苔列娜感到困窘。
“我也不明白，可這是紙牌說的。”
雷貝卡對這模糊的預言感到不安，就把它告訴了霍·阿·布恩蒂亞。他責罵她相信紙牌的占卜，可他自己卻悄悄地翻箱倒櫃，搬動傢俱，撬起地板，掀開牀鋪，尋找那隻裝着骸骨的袋子。據他記得，自從房屋改建以來，他就沒有見過那隻袋子。他暗中把一些泥瓦匠叫來，其中一個承認他把袋子砌在一間臥室的牆壁裏了，因爲它妨礙他幹活。接連幾天，他們都把耳朵貼在每一堵牆壁上仔細傾聽，最後才聽到深沉的“咔嚓咔嚓”聲。他們打通牆壁，骸骨袋子仍然完整無損地放在那兒。同一天，他們就把骸骨埋在一個沒有墓碑的墳坑裏了，那墳坑距離梅爾加德斯的墓塚不遠；霍·阿·布恩蒂亞如釋重負地回到家裏，因爲，對於這件事情，他有時就象想起普魯登希奧·阿吉廖爾那麼沉痛。他經過廚房時，吻了吻雷貝卡的腦門。
“別再胡思亂想啦，”他向她說。“你會幸福的。”
阿卡蒂奧出生之後，烏蘇娜就不讓皮拉·苔列娜來自己家裏了；但是皮拉·苔列娜跟雷貝卡交上了朋友，這家的大門又對她敞開了。她一個人就象一羣山羊，一天要來好多次，來了就幹最重的家務，非常賣力。有時，她也到作坊裏去幫助阿卡蒂奧修照相底片，既勤快又溫存，這個青年終於感到不好意思。他的腦瓜都給這個女人攪昏了。她那溫暖的皮膚，她身上發出的煙味，以及她在暗室裏的狂笑，都分散把他的注意力，使他不斷地跟東西相撞。
有一次，皮拉·苔列娜在作坊裏看見正在幹首飾活的奧雷連諾，她就倚着他的桌子，讚賞地觀察他耐心而精確地工作。事情是突然發生的。奧雷連諾確信阿卡蒂奧是在另一個房間裏，然後才朝皮拉·苔列娜揚起眼來，正巧跟她的視線相遇，她眼裏的意思就象晌午的太陽那麼明朗。
“唔，”奧雷連諾問道。“什麼事哇？”
皮拉·苔列娜咬緊嘴脣，苦笑了一下。
“你打仗真行，”她回答。“彈無虛發。”
