by Joyce Carol Oates

喬伊斯·卡羅爾·奧茨（Joyce Carol Oates），出生于1938年，美國當(dāng)代著名女作家，現(xiàn)任普林斯頓大學(xué)駐校作家、客座教授，講授文學(xué)創(chuàng)作。奧茨是一位多產(chǎn)作家，自1963年出版首部短篇小說集《北門邊》以來，一直筆耕不斷，佳作連連，活躍至今。因其文學(xué)造詣之深，創(chuàng)作成果之豐富，風(fēng)格之鮮明，故有“女?？思{”之稱，并于1978年當(dāng)選為美國文學(xué)藝術(shù)院院士。迄今為止已發(fā)表長篇小說四十余部，另著有多部短篇小說、詩歌、戲劇、隨筆等文集。1970年，奧茨以長篇小說《Them》獲得美國國家圖書獎(jiǎng)；曾以《Black Water》等3部作品獲得普利策獎(jiǎng)提名；《The Falls》榮獲2005年度法國費(fèi)米納文學(xué)獎(jiǎng)；《We Were the Mulvaneys》于2001年成為“奧普拉讀書俱樂部”的推薦書目，這使得奧茨首次榮登《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》暢銷書排行榜榜首。憑借她多年來的文學(xué)成就，奧茨至今已兩度獲得諾貝爾文學(xué)獎(jiǎng)提名。

奧茨的作品充滿了暴力性和悲劇性，她筆下的很多人物常常是其所處的社會(huì)環(huán)境和自身情感弱點(diǎn)的犧牲品。她特別喜好運(yùn)用細(xì)微的筆觸來陳述她個(gè)人對(duì)于命運(yùn)的探索，對(duì)象通常是遭受各種折磨以及誤入歧途的女性，本期推薦的短篇小說講述的內(nèi)容也大致如此：剛剛喪夫、還未走出悲痛的哈德莉，合作超市里謙卑、笨拙、愛慕哈德莉并比其小10歲的員工安東·克魯普夫，這場剃頭挑子一頭熱的感情鬧劇在開篇的惡作劇玩笑中就已展露無遺，而它將如何收?qǐng)鼍统蔀榫咀∥覀兡抗獾哪莻€(gè)點(diǎn)，吸引我們關(guān)注到最后。哈德莉能否敞開心扉，而安東又是否能夠覓得美人芳心，而為整個(gè)故事罩上了驚悚色彩的南瓜頭是否還有著其它用途？讓我們拭目以待……

In late March， thered been a sleet storm throughout north-central New Jersey. Her husband had died several days before. There was no connection， she knew. But since that time shed begun to notice at twilight a curious glistening to the air. Often， she found herself in the doorway of her house， or outside， not remembering how shed got there. For long minutes， she would stare as the colors faded and a glassy light emerged from the sky and from the 1）Scotch pines surrounding the house. It did not seem to her a natural light， and in weak moments she thought， This is the crossing-over time. She watched， not knowing what she might be seeing. She felt aroused， 2）vigilant. She felt apprehension. She wondered if the strange glistening to the air had always been there but in her previous， protected life she hadnt noticed it.

This October evening， before the sun had entirely set， a pair of headlights turned in to the driveway， some distance away by the road. She was startled into alertness—at first not sure where she was. Then she remembered： Anton Kruppev was dropping by to see her.

Dropping by， hed said. Or maybe shed said， Why dont you drop by？

She couldnt make out his face. He was driving a 3）pickup truck with white lettering on one side. He climbed down from the drivers seat in the high cab and 4）lurched toward her on the shadowy path—a tall male 5）scarecrow figure with a misshapen Halloween pumpkin for a head. What a shock！ Hadley backed away， not sure what she was seeing. A grinning pumpkin head on a mans shoulders， its leering cutout eyes not lit from within， like a 6）jack-o-lantern， but dark， glassy. And the voice issuing through the grinning slash-mouth in heavily accented English： “Maam？ Is correct address？ You are—lady of the house？”

She laughed， nervously. She supposed she was meant to laugh.

With 7）grating mock gravity， the voice persevered： “You are—resident here， Maam？ I am—welcome here？ Yes？”

It was a joke. One of Anton Kruppevs awkward jokes. Hed succeeded in frightening Hadley， though probably that hadnt been his intention—probably hed just meant to make her laugh. It was embarrassing that shed been genuinely frightened， for she had known perfectly well that Anton was coming. And who else but Anton Kruppev would show up like this， with a Halloween pumpkin for a head？

At the co-op， Anton was the most eager and courteous of workers. He was the one who joked with customers， and laughed at his own jokes； he was boyish， vulnerable， and touching. His halting speech was itself a kind of laughter， not fully intelligible yet 8）contagious. For all his clumsiness， you could tell that he was an exceptionally intelligent man. Hadley could see that hed gone to painstaking trouble carving the pumpkin head： it was large， 9）bulbous，

三月下旬，一場暴風(fēng)雪席卷了新澤西州的中北部。她的丈夫前幾天已經(jīng)去世了。她知道，這兩者之前并沒什么聯(lián)系。但從那之后，她開始在暮色中留意到空中一道古怪的亮光。她時(shí)常發(fā)現(xiàn)自己站在房子的門廊或門外，卻不記得自己是如何站到那兒的。她會(huì)盯住那道光芒看上很長一段時(shí)間，直至那些色彩褪盡，而后一道亮光在空中和房子周圍的赤松叢中顯現(xiàn)。對(duì)于她來說，那并不是一道天然的光線，當(dāng)她極其脆弱時(shí)，她覺得穿越的時(shí)間到了。她注視著，并不知道自己會(huì)看到什么。她既興奮，又警覺。她感到憂慮。她想知道那道射到空中的古怪閃光是否一直都在，只是因?yàn)樽约褐暗纳顐涫芎亲o(hù)所以從未察覺而已。

十月的這個(gè)傍晚，太陽并未完全下山之前，兩束車前燈的燈光射到了屋前的車道上來，遠(yuǎn)離了馬路。她嚇了一跳，提起警覺——起初她又不知道自己在哪兒了。之后她才記起：安東·克魯普夫要順道來看看她。

“順道拜訪一下，”他當(dāng)時(shí)說過?；蛘咚徇^，“要不順道來坐坐？”

她無法辨出他的臉。他駕駛著一輛敞篷貨車，車的一側(cè)刷著白色的正體字。他從高高的司機(jī)駕駛座上爬下來，在漆黑的小路上蹣跚走向她——稻草人般的高大男子，頭戴著一個(gè)形狀怪異的萬圣節(jié)南瓜。太嚇人了！哈德莉慢慢往后退，不大確定她所看到的東西。一個(gè)咧著嘴笑的南瓜帽罩著一個(gè)男子的頭，那被挖剪出的詭異眼睛并未從內(nèi)部點(diǎn)燃，像是個(gè)杰克燈籠，卻又是黑暗的、呆滯的。而后透過那咧嘴呲牙傳來帶著重重口音的英語：“太太？這地址對(duì)嗎？您是——這所房子的女主人？”

她緊張地笑了。她覺得自己有必要笑出來。

帶著惱氣故作嚴(yán)肅，那聲音繼續(xù)說道：“您——住在這里，太太？歡迎我來這里的，對(duì)嗎？”

這是個(gè)玩笑。安東·克魯普夫那些古怪玩笑之一。他成功嚇到了哈德莉，雖然那可能不是他的本意——或許他只是想讓她笑。她實(shí)實(shí)在在地被嚇到了，這挺丟人的，因?yàn)樗缫呀?jīng)知道安東要來了。而且除了安東·克魯普夫，還有誰會(huì)這么出現(xiàn)呢，頭上戴個(gè)萬圣節(jié)南瓜？

在合作超市里，安東是最熱情、最謙卑的員工。他是一個(gè)會(huì)跟顧客們開玩笑，并為自己的笑話大笑不止的人；他是個(gè)充滿孩子氣、脆弱、且讓人感動(dòng)的人。他那磕磕絆絆的說話本身就算得上是笑料了，雖然不能被完全理解，卻很有感染力。盡管表面笨拙，但你可以斷定他是一個(gè)絕頂聰明的人。哈德莉能看得出，刻出那個(gè)南瓜頭，安東費(fèi)了不少工夫：那個(gè)南瓜頭很大，球形的，

weirdly veined and striated， twice the size of a normal mans head， with triangular eyes， a triangular nose， and a mouth 10）studded with fangteeth. Somehow， hed managed to force the thing over his head—Hadley couldnt quite see how.

“How ingenious， Anton！ Did you carve it yourself？”

This was the sort of inane question you asked Anton Kruppev. For you had to say something to alleviate the tension of the mans aggressivedoggy eagerness to please， to impress， to make you laugh. Hadley recalled the first time Anton had come by to see her， which had been the previous week—the strained and 11）protracted conversation between them when， after Hadley had served h i m c o ff e e a n d little sandwiches on multigrain bread， Anton hadnt seemed to know how to depart； his lurching over her， his 12）spasm of a handshake， and his clumsy wet kiss on her cheek which had seemed to sting her， and to thrill her， like the brush of a bats wings.

“Yes， Maam. You think—you will buy？”“That depends， Anton. How much… ”

“For you， Maam， no charge！”

This forced joke， how long would it be kept up？ Hadley wondered in 13）exasperation. In middle school， boys like Anton Kruppev were 14）snubbed—Ha ha， very funny！—but once you were an adult how could you discourage such humor without being rude？ Hadley was thirty-nine. Anton couldnt have been more than twenty-nine. Hed been born in what was now called 15）Bosnia and Herzegovina， had lost his parents， and was brought to the United States by a surviving grandparent. Hed gone to American schools， including 16）M.I.T， and yet in all those years had not become convincingly American.

Trying too hard， Hadley thought. The sign of the foreign-born.

In a kind of anxious triumph， sensing his hostesss exasperation yet determined not to acknowledge it， Anton swung the 17）lurid pumpkin head down from his shoulders， holding it in his chafed-looking， big-knuckled hands.

Now Hadley could see that the pumpkin was only two-thirds of a shell. It had been 18）gutted and carved and its back part cut away—the back of what would be， in a human， the 19）cranium. So the 20）uncanny pumpkin head was a kind of pumpkin mask set on Antons shoulders and held in place by hand. Yet it was so lifelike； as the scarecrow figure had lurched up the walk in her direction， the face had appeared alive.

“Is good？ Is—surprise？ ‘Happy Halloweenis right？”

Was it Halloween？ Hadley was sure it was not. October 31st wasnt for several more days.

脈絡(luò)條紋古怪地纏在上面，兩個(gè)正常人的頭那么大，有雙三角眼，一個(gè)三角形鼻子，還有一個(gè)滿口尖牙的嘴巴。不知他用了什么辦法把那玩意兒硬是套在了頭上——哈德莉看不大出來他是怎么做到的。

“太精致了，安東！是你自己刻的嗎？”

問安東·克魯普夫這個(gè)問題是愚蠢的。因?yàn)槟愕谜f點(diǎn)什么來緩和一下緊張氣氛，那個(gè)男人纏著不放急切地討好取悅你而帶來的緊張氣氛。哈德莉想起上周安東第一次來看她時(shí)的情形——哈德莉以咖啡和用雜糧面包做成的小三明治款待他以后，他卻好像不懂得怎么離開，而后他們之間開始了既別扭又漫長的交談；安東朝她突然的傾斜，與她握手時(shí)的抽搐，以及在她臉頰上留下的笨拙濕吻似乎既刺痛了她，又驚嚇到了她，就像一只蝙蝠的雙翼擦過那種觸感。

“是的，夫人。你覺得——你會(huì)買嗎？”

“這個(gè)要看情況而定，安東。多少錢……”

“對(duì)你，夫人，免費(fèi)！”

“這個(gè)牽強(qiáng)的玩笑，還要持續(xù)多久？”哈德莉忿忿地想道。在中學(xué)里，像安東·克魯普夫那樣的男孩兒會(huì)被冷落——“哈哈，太有趣了！”——但你已然是一個(gè)成人了，如何才能阻止這樣的幽默而又不顯得粗魯呢？哈德莉39歲了。而安東肯定還不到29歲。他出生于現(xiàn)在被叫作波斯尼亞和黑塞哥維那的地方，雙親已故，由幸存的祖父（母）帶到美國。他在美國學(xué)校讀書，還上過麻省理工學(xué)院，然而那么多年過去了，他還沒有成為令人信服的美國人。

哈德莉覺得安東太努力了。那是生于異域的標(biāo)志。

他帶著一種擔(dān)憂的欣喜，察覺到女主人的慍怒，卻決定裝作若無其事。安東把那個(gè)嚇人的南瓜頭從肩頭上扭了下來，把它抱在自己老繭開裂、指節(jié)粗大的手里。

現(xiàn)在哈德莉看清楚了，那個(gè)南瓜外殼只剩下之前的三分之二。它被掏空、雕刻，并且后面的部分被切掉——如果那是一個(gè)人，被切掉的就是頭蓋骨。所以那個(gè)嚇人的南瓜頭只是一個(gè)南瓜面具，一個(gè)罩在安東肩膀上并用手將之固定的南瓜面具。然而它是如此栩栩如生；當(dāng)那個(gè)稻草人朝她的方向蹣跚走來時(shí)，那張臉是那么的栩栩如生。

“不錯(cuò)吧？驚喜嗎？‘萬圣節(jié)快樂對(duì)嗎？”

今天是萬圣節(jié)？哈德莉很肯定不是。還有好幾天才到10月31日。