美国众神14 文本已添加

14

“I’d like a beer, please,” said Shadow.“Whatever you’ve got.”

“请给我拿杯啤酒，谢谢，什么牌子的都好。”影子客气地说。

The flightattendant went away.

空姐转身走开了。

The man in thepale suit in the seat beside Shadow tapped his watch with his fingernail. Itwas a black Rolex.

坐在影子身旁、穿浅色西服的男人又冲着他用手指敲敲手表。那是一只昂贵的黑色劳力士。

 “You’re late,” said the man, and he grinned ahuge grin with no warmth in it at all.

“你来晚了。”男人说着，冲他一咧嘴，露出一个大大的笑容，但却一点温暖的感觉都没有。

“Sorry?”

“你说什么？”

“I said, you’re late.”

“我说你来晚了。”

The flightattendant handed Shadow a glass of beer.

这时空姐递给他一杯啤酒。

For one moment, hewondered if the man was crazy, and then he decided he must have been referringto the plane, waiting for one last passenger.

有那么一阵子，他怀疑这个男人有些神经不正常，然后才明白他一定是指全飞机 的人都在等他这最后一位乘客。

“Sorry if I heldyou up,” he said, politely. “You in a hurry?”

“抱歉我耽搁你了。”他礼貌地说，“你赶时间？”

The plane backedaway from the gate. The flight attendant came back and took away Shadow’s beer.

　飞机驶离登机口。空姐过来拿走影子的啤酒。

The man in thepale suit grinned at her and said, “Don’t worry, I’ll hold onto this tightly,”

穿浅色西装的男人冲她笑笑，说： “别担心，我会抓紧杯子的。”

and she let himkeep his glass of Jack Daniel’s, while protesting, weakly, that it violatedairline regulations. (“Let me be the judge of that, m’dear.”)

　她只好让他继续保留他手中的那杯杰克·丹尼尔威士忌，同时 软弱地抗议说这种做法违反飞行规则。（“我会把握好的，亲爱的。”）

‘Time is certainly of the essence,” said theman. “But no. I was merely concerned that you would not make the plane.”

“时间当然很重要，”那人说，“但我在乎的不是时间。我在乎的只是你能不能赶上这班飞机。”

“That was kind of you.”

　“你真是太好心了。”

The plane satrestlessly on the ground, engines throbbing, aching to be off.

飞机停在跑道上，发动机颤抖着，准备起飞。

“Kind my ass,” said the man in the palesuit. “I’ve got a job for you, Shadow.”

“我就是这种好心人。”穿浅色西装的人接着说，“我有份工作给你，影子。”

A roar of engines.The little plane jerked forward, pushing Shadow back into his seat. Then theywere airborne, and the airport lights were falling away below them.

　发动机轰鸣起来，他们搭乘的这架小飞机猛地向前冲去，影子被惯性猛压在座椅上。瞬间之后，他们升空了，把机场的灯光远远甩在下面。

Shadow looked atthe man in the seat next to him.

影子仔细看着他身边的这个男人。

His hair was areddish gray; his beard, little more than stubble, was grayish red. A craggy,square face with pale gray eyes.

他的头发是微带红色的灰白，胡须只比胡茬长一点点，也是灰红色的，一张满是皱纹的长方脸上长着一双灰眼睛。

The suit lookedexpensive, and was the color of melted vanilla ice cream. His tie was dark graysilk, and the tie pin was a tree, worked in silver: trunk, branches, and deeproots.

他穿的那身西装看起来似乎很昂贵，是融化后的香草冰淇淋的颜色。他的领带是深灰色的丝质领带，银质领带夹是一棵树，有树干、树枝、树根，栩栩如生。