文◎Ray Bradbury 譯◎王赟 繪◎夏日已盡

細雨即將來臨（一）

There Will Come Soft Rains

暗黑書屋

文◎Ray Bradbury 譯◎王赟 繪◎夏日已盡

In the living room the voice-clock sang， Tick-tock， seven o'clock，time to get up， time to get up， seven o'clock！ as if it were afraid that nobody would. The morning house lay empty. The clock ticked on，repeating and repeating its sounds into the emptiness. Seven-nine，breakfast time， seven-nine！

In the kitchen the breakfast stove gave a hissing sigh and ejected from its warm interior eight pieces of perfectly browned toast， eight eggs sunnyside up， sixteen slices of bacon， two coffees， and two cool glasses of milk.

起居室里的人聲鬧鐘正唱得起勁：“嘀嗒，七點了，快起床。起床了，七點整！”它生怕沒人照它的話去做，在空蕩蕩的房間里，繼續(xù)提醒主人：“七點九分，吃早餐，七點九分！”

廚房里，爐子“咝”地響了一下，便從溫暖的爐箱里推出一套早飯：八片烤得金黃的面包，八個煎了一面的雞蛋，六片熏肉，兩份咖啡和兩杯盛滿的牛奶。

“今天是2026年8月4日，”廚房的天花板接過話頭，“加利福尼亞的阿利達爾市?！睘榱藦娬{(diào)，它把日期重復了三遍。“今天是費萊斯頓先生的生日，今天也是特麗塔的結婚紀念日。今天要支付保險金以及水、電、燃氣費用?！?/p>

墻里的什么地方，記憶磁帶正在電子程序的監(jiān)控下“嗒嗒”地滑動著。

“八點零一分，嘀嗒，八點零一分，上學啦，上班啦，趕快，趕快，八點零一分了！”

車庫的門轟然開啟，它等著車子開出去。停留稍許，才緩緩落下。

“九點十五分，”鬧鐘唱道，“大掃除?！痹S多機器小鼠飛快地從墻里的小洞中鉆出來。不久，房子中所有的塑膠和金屬上都爬滿了這種小清潔工。它們“砰砰”地靠近椅子，轉動觸須把地毯脫落的絨毛揉成團，輕輕地把隱藏在縫隙里的灰塵吸走。然后，它們?nèi)缤衩氐那致哉?，急速奔回先前的小洞。它們淺紅的電子眼熄滅了，房子被打掃得煥然一新。

十點十分。太陽從雨后探出身子。這所房子孤零零地立在這座城市的廢墟中，它是核戰(zhàn)后唯一的幸存者。入夜，幾英里外都能看見這座城市發(fā)出放射性的熒光。

十點十五分。灑水管從院子里緩緩地旋出地面，水花給清晨柔和的空氣帶來了閃爍的光輝。這棟房子原本上了白漆，西墻幾乎焚毀了，只有五個地方保留著原來的漆色。就像映在底片上一樣，這兒顯出一個正在修剪草坪的男人的輪廓，還有一個婦女在彎腰摘花。遠一點的地方，一個小男孩雙手伸向空中，高一點的地方是一只擲出的球的影像。小男孩的對面站著一個女孩，她正要接那只球，但是這只球永遠也不會落下了，就在那威力巨大的一瞬間，他們的剪影被墻面燒焦的部分記錄下來。

五幅畫：男人，婦女，孩子們，還有那只球——靜止的球。薄薄的淺色墻壁，保存下了核浩劫降臨大地那一瞬間，一個充滿生命的歡欣的場景。淅瀝而下的雨水閃著粼光，充溢了整個院子。

"Today is August 4， 2026，" said a second voice from the kitchen ceiling， "in the city of Allendale， California." It repeated the date three times for memory's sake. "Today is Mr. Featherstone' s birthday. Today is the anniversary of Tilita' s marriage. Insurance is payable， as are the water， gas， and light bills."

Somewhere in the walls， relays clicked， memory tapes glided under electric eyes.

Eight-one， tick-tock， eight-one o'clock， off to school， off to work， run， run， eight-one！

And the rain tapped on the empty house， echoing①. Outside， the garage chimed②and lifted its door to reveal the waiting car. After a long wait the door swung down again.

Nine-fi fteen， sang the clock， time to clean.

Out of warrens in the wall， tiny robot mice darted. The rooms were acrawl③with the small cleaning animals， all rubber and metal. They thudded against chairs， whirling their mustached④mustache 英 ［m?'stɑ??］ 美 ［'m?st??］ n. 胡子，髭runners， kneading the rug nap， sucking gently at hidden dust. Then， like mysterious invaders， they popped into their burrows. Their pink electric eyes faded. The house was clean.

Ten o'clock. The sun came out from behind the rain. The house stood alone in a city of rubble and ashes. This was the one house left standing. At night the ruined city gave off a radioactive glow which could be seen for miles.

Ten-fifteen. The garden sprinklers⑤sprinkler 英 ［'spr??kl?］ 美 ［'spr??kl?］n. 灑水車；灑水器whirled up in golden founts， filling the soft morning air with scatterings of brightness. The water pelted windowpanes， running down the charred west side where the house had been burned evenly free of its white paint. The entire west face of the house was black， save for five places. Here the silhouette⑥silhouette英 ［，s?l?'et］ 美 ［，s?lu'?t］ n. 輪廓，剪影vt. 使……照出影子來；使……僅僅顯出輪廓in paint of a man mowing a lawn. Here， as in a photograph， a woman bent to pick flowers. Still farther over， their images burned on wood in one titanic⑦titanic ［ta?'t?n?k］ adj. 巨大的；四價鈦的instant， a small boy， hands flung into the air； higher up， the image of a thrown ball， and opposite him a girl， hands raised to catch a ball which never came down. The five spots of paint—the man， the woman， the children， the ball—remained. The rest was a thin charcoaled layer.

The gentle sprinkler rain filled the garden with falling light.