This, said Fenny.
Arthur whirled round in his seat and stared into her suddenly open but utterly vacant eyes. Whatever she was looking at wasn’t in the car. Her eyes fluttered, her head jerked once, and then she was sleeping peacefully.
What did she say? he asked anxiously.
She said “this”.
This what?
This what? How the heck should I know? This hedgehog, that chimney pot, the other pair of Don Alfonso’s tweezers. She’s barking mad, I thought I’d mentioned that.
You don’t seem to care very much. Arthur tried to say it as matter-of-factly as possible but it didn’t seem to work.
Look, buster…
OK, I’m sorry. It’s none of my business. I didn’t mean it to sound like that, said Arthur. I know you care a lot, obviously, he added, lying. I know that you have to deal with it somehow. You’ll have to excuse me. I just hitched from the other side of the Horsehead Nebula.
He stared furiously out of the window.
He was astonished that of all the sensations fighting for room in his head on this night as he returned to the home that he had thought had vanished into oblivion for ever, the one that was compelling him was an obsession with this bizarre girl of whom he knew nothing other than that she had said “this” to him, and that he wouldn’t wish her brother on a Vogon.
So, er, what were the jumps, these jumps you mentioned? he went on to say as quickly as he could.
Look, this is my sister, I don’t even know why I’m talking to you about…
OK, I’m sorry. Perhaps you’d better let me out. This is…
At the moment he said it, it became impossible, because the storm which had passed them by suddenly erupted again. Lightning belted through the sky, and someone seemed to be pouring something which closely resembled the Atlantic Ocean over them through a sieve. Russell swore and steered intently for a few seconds as the sky blattered at them. He worked out his anger by rashly accelerating to pass a lorry marked “McKeena’s All-Weather Haulage”. The tension eased as the rain subsided.
It started with all that business of the CIA agent they found in the reservoir, when everybody had all the hallucinations and everything, you remember?
Arthur wondered for a moment whether to mention again that he had just hitch-hiked back from the other side of the Horsehead Nebula and was for this and various other related and astounding reasons a little out of touch with recent events, but he decided it would only confuse matters further.
No, he said.
“这个，”芬妮说。
阿瑟把身子拧过去盯着她突然睁开但完全茫然的双眼。无论她正在看什么，那都不会是车里的东西。她的眼睛眨了几下，脑袋抽搐了一下，接着沉沉睡去了。
“她说什么？”他紧张地问。
“她说‘这个’。”
“这个什么？”
“这个什么？他妈的我哪儿知道？这只刺猬，那只烟囱，另外那只唐.阿方索牌的镊子。她就是疯了，我想我已经说过了。”
“你看起来不是很关心她。”阿瑟尝试着尽量就事论事，但似乎没用。
“你小子听着......”
“好，我错了，对不起。这不关我的事儿。我并不是那个意思，”阿瑟说。“我知道你很关心她，这是很明显的。”他补充着，不过是谎话。“我知道你总是要应付这些。请你原谅我。我是刚从马头星云那儿搭便车来的。”
他烦躁地盯着窗外。
他对自己今夜心中涌出的那些情感而震惊，他回到了他认为早已永远湮灭在虚空中的故乡，他被一个除了会对他说“这个”之外一无所知的奇妙女孩所迷住，而他觉得她的兄弟连沃贡人都不如。
“所以，呃，那些波动是什么？那些你提到过的波动？”他尽可能快地说着。
“瞧，这是我妹妹，我甚至不知道我为什么要跟你说这些......”
“好，我错了。也许你该让我下车。这是......”
此时他想说，但已经不能说出来了，因为刚才平息掉的暴风雨突然卷土重来了。闪电划破天际，好像有天上人把大西洋一类的东西透过滤网倒在他们头上。拉塞尔诅咒着，专心地向前开了几秒，雨包围着他们。他为了发泄自己的愤怒，就猛地加速，超过了那辆标有“麦克基纳风雨无阻货运”的大卡车。雨减弱了，情绪也放松下来了。
“这全都是从水库里那个中情局探员开始的，所有人都有幻觉，你记得么？”
阿瑟想了一会，琢磨自己到底要不要再提一次：他从马头星云的另一边搭便车而来，由于这个，以及其他有关的惊人原因，他与时事有些脱节。但他认为这只会把问题弄复杂。
“不记得。”他说。