評論
打印
"Norma, we will," he said.
“諾瑪，我們會有的，”他說。
"When?"
“什么時候？”
"Are you" —he seemed to draw back slightly— "are you really saying—"
“你是——”他似乎微微向后退了一下——“難道你是說——”
"I'm saying that they're probably doing it for some research project!" she cut him off. "That they want to know what average people would do under such a circumstance! That they're just saying someone would die, in order to study reactions, see if there'd be guilt, anxiety, whatever! You don't really think they'd kill someone, do you?!''
“我是說他們可能只是為了完成某個研究項目！”她打斷了他的話，“也就是普通人在這樣的情況下會采取什么樣的行動。他們說有人會因此而死是想研究一下人們的反應，看是否會出現罪惡感和焦慮感什么的！你不會真的認為他們會殺人吧，對嗎？！”
Arthur didn't answer. She saw his hands trembling. After a while, he got up and left.
阿瑟沒有回答。她看到他的手在發抖。過了一會兒，他站起來走了。
When he'd gone to work, Norma remained at the table, staring into her coffee. I'm going to be late, she thought. She shrugged. What difference did it make?
阿瑟上班走了以后，諾瑪仍然坐在桌旁，兩眼盯著咖啡。我要遲到了，她想。然后聳了聳肩，遲不遲到又有什么關系呢？
While she was stacking dishes, she turned abruptly, dried her hands, and took the package from the cabinet. Opening it, she set the button unit on the table. She stared at it for a long time before taking the key from its envelope and removing the glass dome. She stared at the button.
她在收拾盤子時，突然轉過身，擦干手，從櫥柜里拿出那個包裹。打開后，她把按鈕裝置放在桌子上。在她從信封里拿出鑰匙前，她盯著裝置看了好久，然后打開了玻璃罩。她盯著按鈕。
How ridiculous, she thought! All this furor over a meaningless button.
多么荒唐可笑，她想，竟為這毫無意義的按鈕發這么大脾氣。
Reaching out, she pressed it down. For us, she thought angrily.
她伸出手，按下按鈕。為了我們倆，她生氣地想。
She shuddered. Was it happening? A chill of horror swept across her.
她顫抖起來，真的會像說的那樣嗎？一陣冷颼颼的恐懼感襲向她。
In a moment, it had passed. She made a contemptuous noise. Ridiculous, she thought, to get so worked up over nothing.
過了一會兒，恐懼感消失。她輕蔑地哼了一聲。真是荒唐，她想，無緣無故地搞得心神不寧。
She threw the button unit into the wastebasket and hurried to dress for work.
她把按鈕裝置扔進廢紙簍里，匆匆穿好衣服上班去了。
She had just turned over the supper steaks when the telephone rang. She picked up the receiver. "Hello?"
她剛剛把晚飯要吃的牛排翻過來，電話鈴響了，她拿起話筒：“喂？”
