Traveller_Levin's Blog

The Neighborhood

Aimee Bender

Aimee Bender 1969年生於洛杉磯。現於南加州大學教授創作，以超現實寫作風格聞名，常被歸類為美國魔幻寫實作家。自述師承安徒生童話及格林童話。於某次訪談中，被問到最想推薦給大家的一本小說，她說是村上春樹的發條鳥年代記。她於2010年出版的長篇小說The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake(檸檬蛋糕的特種憂傷)，與《追風箏的孩子》同獲美國圖書館協會ALEX獎，一出版便躍登《紐約時報》、《獨立書商協會》、《洛杉磯時報》等暢銷榜，更獲選美國獨立書商協會當月選書、南加州獨立書商協會最佳小說獎。

The barking does not stop even though neighbors have been throwing dog bones1 out their upstairs windows for awhile now. Everyone is afraid to leave their house and go see. It is a ragged bark2 and the word rabies3 has come up in over ten kitchens in the last hour, people looking it up in their never-before-used encyclopedias, searching down the page, index finger skating over the gloss, finding the words froth and lather4, shivering with fear, closing the book on the finger, looking out the window.5

Dogs can break through windows. Dogs don't care about alarms. If this dog wants, he can bite his way into any skin, make lather rise like a car wash.

The truth is, outside the dog is barking because a kid has fallen down on his roller skates and knocked himself out, face down flat; there is no blood but no movement either.6 The parents of this kid, Eddie, are away, they are out to dinner for their fifth anniversary, (silverware), and the kid is supposed to be with his friend rollerskating but the friend likes to skate ahead and never look behind, the friend likes the movement forward alone, he likes the wind in his face so hard it forces water from his eyes7; his friend never notices until later when he reaches a front door that Eddie is not there and even then he assumes Eddie is just very slow. When the friend's mom says: where's Eddie? the friend says, back there, Eddie is slow, and the mom stands looking on her front porch, searching for the figure of a second dogged skater8 but all she hears is the damn dog barking and she's never liked dogs, it's a childhood thing9, it was a next door mean pinscher that had snapped once at her outstretched hand—no contact, just intent.

1.    throw及物動詞+間接受詞dog+直接受詞bones。人們從樓上窗戶丟骨頭給狗。

2.   ragged: harsh, rasping 形容狗吠的聲音刺耳淒厲。

3.   rabies 狂犬病。

4.   froth跟lather這兩個字都是泡沫的意思。

5.   狗吠淒厲，人心惶恐，躲在家裡，怕會是狂犬病，查詢從未使用過的百科全書。開首簡略描述即將故事背景、人心冷漠勾勒得生動有趣，名家出手果是不凡。

6.   事實上是有個男孩滾輪滑冰摔倒，失去知覺。

7.   這裡water指的是淚水。快速滑冰，強風將淚水逼出眼眶。

She sees no sign of Eddie yet and goes back inside.

After twenty empty minutes10 she says we have to go find Eddie, get in the car.

The friend, her son, says no because he is now busy building a tower.

The mother, deciding a child alone indoors is better off11 than a child alone outdoors, leaves the house.

She has bad eyesight and driving at night is difficult. She strains to see his moving skating body, stepping in clumpsover the sidewalk. 12

The dog's barking gets louder and she grips the wheel and when she reaches Eddie, still flattened and alone, she can't see much, just flashes of the dog's teeth and the dog runs up to her car window and barks more, and she sees triangles of canine white and she would've missed Eddie completely if not for the silvery glint of the wheel on his skate catching her headlights like a diamond. 13

She feels her lungs grow smaller and meaner and the air swimming around for a place to spread out.14

What to do? If she gets out and scoops him up, she might be eaten by the dog. The dog, perhaps, has rabies. But what choice is there really? The boy could be dead.

She puts the car in park and opens the door, the barking is louder and cleaner outside, and dog biscuits are hitting the ground like tiny food drops in wartime and she extends one foot and waits for the bite but the dog just keeps sending sound out. She puts out her other leg and goes over to Eddie who is stirring and she kneels down next to him and screams out, into the evening, call 911. A man in a house, watching out his bright yellow kitchen window, dials it up right away and says to the phone Come fast, Hurry, There's a screaming woman and a rabid dog. 15

8.   dog當動詞使用指在後頭緊緊跟隨。

9.   Eddie朋友的母親害怕狗，因為小時候隔壁惡犬曾經朝她伸出的手突咬過來，其實也沒咬到，只是作勢要咬她。pinscher杜賓犬。

10. after twenty empty minutes 等了二十分鐘，不見人來。這裡只用了empty一個字，就表明Eddie沒跟上來，她沒等到人。

11. 小孩獨自在家比小孩獨自在外頭，情況會更好。這裡要用better off而非better。better off: in a better or more prosperous condition 情況更好。

12. 她視力不好，尤其夜間開車，努力搜尋Eddie溜冰移動的身影，車子不時輾上人行道。

13. Eddie的溜冰鞋輪子於車子頭燈光下折射出銀色閃光，像顆鑽石，此句描述甚佳。

14.她的肺感覺愈來愈小，愈不舒服，空氣(指肺裡的氣)四處流竄要找個出處。這裡描述友人母親因為緊張而呼吸困難的情形，傳神、不俗。mean: in poor physical condition; sick or debilitated

15. 她朝夜裡喊道：快叫911(救護車)。屋裡有個人從黃色明亮的廚房窗戶朝外看，立即撥電話，對著電話說：“趕快來，快，這裡有個尖叫的婦人和一隻有狂犬病的狗。”此處，作者只用一句話就將旁觀鄰人的心態與神情描繪的唯妙唯肖，其文字功力直教人讚嘆折服。

The police arrive in five minutes and she, the mother, is still sitting next to Eddie, not touching him because you never know about the spinal cord16 and the two police hold out their guns and say: Lady it's a rabid dog, it has no collar, move out of there and she says: Officer, this boy is hurt we need an ambulance! The other cop, the partner cop, he calls up on the cop car phone and the first officer looks at the dog which now has stopped barking because it knows something about guns and all the neighbors are silhouettes in their windows, carved shadows inside safe boxes of light. 17

I don't think it's rabid, says the mother. But the boy isn't moving.

The officer steps carefully forward, one tentative boot. I don't think you can be too sure, he says, rabies is rabies, and he points his gun barrel and gets ready to shoot but the dog does a cute thing, it puts its head down on its paws and does a little puzzled eyebrow move and the cop lowers his arm.

It can't have real rabies can it?18 he says as the ambulance pulls up and the stretcher comes out and Eddie is lifted up and taken away. The mother pauses for a moment and then gets in her car, following close on the tail of the ambulance, and the policeman starts petting the dog.

It looks like my old dog, he says. His name was Sam.

His partner leans against the car, smoking.

Come on, he says, let's go.

16.她不敢去動Eddie，不確定他有沒有傷到脊椎神經。

17.警察看著那隻狗，它現在停止吠叫，因為它好歹知道槍是什麼東西 (這一句真幽默，那隻狗被形容的彷彿懂事善解人意，狗若懂事，那些人相形下就很不懂事囉) ，所有鄰人是他們窗戶裡的剪影，是點著燈安全的盒子裡雕刻出來的影子(那些人被降格為剪影、影子)。

18.友人母親說：我不認為它有狂犬病。警察說：我不認為妳能太篤定，狂犬病可不是鬧著玩的。那隻狗可愛的模樣解除警察的戒心，他繼而解嘲道：它應當不是真的有狂犬病，是吧？

The cop picks up the dog whose tail is spanking the pavement and puts it in the backseat. We can't leave it, he says. This dog saved that boy's life. Probably. 19

They rev up20 and the cop car follows the mother, following the ambulance. They put on the siren, but a lot of cars refuse to move to the right, deaf cars, the ones that say: siren? what siren? The cars that say: no one I know has ever been hurt before. 21

At home, the rollerskater who is unhurt makes a building up to the ceiling out of blocks. It is as tall as he is, and it threatens to fall. He stands beneath it and imagines himself in the highest floor, face to face with the giant outside. He waves to his little self inside and the phone rings loud and it's his mother, and she says, into his cheek, Honey are you okay? Honey are you okay? and he says yeah Mom, where is Eddie? Now that kid is slow and she starts crying and he says I'm okay Mom and she says don't touch anything dangerous honey and lock the door and just sit tight22, I'll be back soon.

He says Mom what's going on? and she says: Just don't touch anything dangerous, honey, okay?

And he says: like what Mom? like what? and she's quiet and then says Everything baby everything, just sit still and wait for me, just sit still and don't you move.

When he hangs up the phone, he sits beneath his building.

He imagines all the little people in his building. It's on fire. It's a big scare. They jump from the top story, one at a time. Wheee. He saves them in his puffy palm, and brings them safely to the carpet. They huddle in groups of two and three. When they're all out, he stomps23 the building down.

When his mother gets home, hurrying up the stairs, her face older than it was three hours before, she finds him asleep in a pile of colorful blocks, his mouth open, his breathing making a small noise. She takes the blocks and makes a wall around him, tracing the exact shape of his sleeping body. She makes sure each block touches the other one perfectly right. When he wakes up in the middle of the night, her asleep on her arm on the floor next to him, his whole body is framed in blocks, and his stomach seizes up24 in a fear which he does not understand. He shoves down all the blocks and kicks them into the closet but they stick, invisible. Even though he never plays with them again, they are now fixed to his body for years. ♦25

19.“很可能，狗救了男孩的性命。” 警察這句話點出事情的真相。

20. rev up加快速度。

21.救護車發出鳴笛，許多車輛都不讓道，還說：鳴個什麼笛，我所知道的從來就不是有人受了什麼傷。

22. sit tight: informal to be patient and await the next move。乖乖地待在家裡等我。

23. puffy: if a part of your body is puffy, it is swollen膨脹的;腫大的

24. stomp: to tread or trample heavily or violently on 重重或猛力地踐踏

25. seize up: 身體某部位抽縮痙孿，不能動而且很痛苦。

26. 前面敘述Eddie的朋友在家裡用積木堆棟與他一般高的大樓，他想像自己站在最高樓層與樓外頭的巨人面對面。繼而他想像大樓著火，大樓裡有許多小人們一一從最高層跳樓，他伸出膨脹的手掌接住他們，再將他們安全地置放在地毯，等所有人都逃出來，他將大樓猛力踏毀。（此處為童話式的幻想）

當他母親回家發現他睡在一堆彩色積木當中，於是用積木沿著他的身體築一道牆。（此處為象徵主義的寫法）

當他在半夜醒來發現自己身體被積木框住，肚子因無名的恐懼而抽縮痙孿。他推開積木，並將積木踢入儲物櫃，然而無形中這些積木黏住，並且牢牢地困住他的身體好多年。（此處為超現實的描述）

【淺嚐賞味】

Aimee Bender遣詞用字獨特脫俗而且簡潔有力，初讀讓人驚艷，再讀更引人入勝。故事首句：“狗吠不止，盡管鄰人從他們樓上的窗戶丟骨頭已好一會兒。”這一句就包含了好幾個重點：(1) 狗吠不止—到底發生了什麼事？(2) 樓上窗戶—人們立即跑到安全的處所，為什麼是樓上？底下有提到狗會破門而入，樓上代表與地面(現實)隔離。(3) 丟骨頭—人們認為丟骨頭給狗吃，它就不會再叫，但狗還繼續在叫，於是人們認為這事情非同尋常，於是懷疑是狂犬病，於是驚慌查詢從未翻閱的百科全書。一個這麼短的句子就能傳神地表達許多訊息，包括人們明哲保身的態度以及自己嚇自己的神情。名家出手，震懾全場，好戲上演。

人們查詢百科全書後的解讀滑稽古怪，但也很貼切符合其心境：“狗可破窗而入，才不管什麼警報器的，如果它想要的話，狗可咬任何肌膚，咬下後會冒出泡泡像洗車一樣。”car wash這詞真是神來之筆，將平凡的陳述化腐朽為神奇。Aimee Bender用字之精妙，令人讚嘆不已。例如：友人母親在家等了二十分鐘，不見Eddie跟上來，作者只用empty一字便將意思表達完整。又例如：友人母親夜間開車，視力不好，看不到什麼東西，只見狗的牙齒閃過來，她用flash一字很精準。又例如：警察五分鐘趕了過來，警察持槍小心翼翼地靠近那條狗，one tentative boot，這裡用tentative一字十分傳神。

這篇故事裡好幾個場景畫面處理得令人耳目一新。例如：友人母親找到Eddie那一剎那，“她感覺肺愈來愈小，感覺身體愈來愈不舒服，空氣四處流竄，要找個出口擴散開來。”這遠比說她緊張得喘不過氣來要精彩萬分。又例如：“當她將車子停下來打開車門，外頭的狗吠聲愈來愈響亮、愈清晰，狗餅乾不斷擲落於地，像個小型的戰時食物空投。”丟狗餅乾與開頭的丟骨頭相互呼應，戰時食物空投屬救援行動，可見這些鄰人雖然膽小、神經兮兮的，其實心腸滿好的。又例如：「友人母親朝著夜裡尖喊道：快叫911(救護車)。屋裡有個人從黃色明亮的廚房窗戶朝外看，立即撥電話，對著電話說：「趕快來，快，這裡有個尖叫的婦人和一隻有狂犬病的狗。」鄰人這一句話讀來差一點噴飯，直率、有點粗魯、稍帶神經質的語氣簡直是原音重現。又例如描寫警察持槍小心翼翼地靠近那條狗，狗停止吠鳴，因為它好歹知道槍是什麼東西，然後它做了一個很可愛的動作，“它將頭趴在爪子上稍微動了一下困惑的眉毛。”整篇故事到此峰迴路轉，緊張疑懼變成溫馨感人，氛圍與情節的改變，作者寫來如此流暢自然。

至於這篇故事的主題、意義、象徵、意象等等，還有後頭那段超現實描寫，就留待讀者自個兒玩味。

Traveler-Levin