‘No,’ said Tricia. ‘No I don’t. And I couldn’t carry on doing what I was doing either. I was an astrophysicist, you see. You can’t be an astrophysicist properly if you’ve actually met someone from another planet who’s got a second head that pretends to be a parrot. You just can’t do it. I couldn’t at least.’

“不，”崔茜卡说，“我不觉得。而且我也没法再干我过去的活计。你知道，我本来是个天体物理学家。可如果你当真遇上这么个家伙，从外星来、长了两个脑袋还把其中一个装成鹦鹉，你是当不好天体物理学家的。你绝对不行，至少我不行。”

‘I can see it would be hard. And that’s probably why you tend to be a little hard on other people who talk what sounds like complete nonsense.’

“看得出来肯定不容易。大概就为这个，你一听有人说话好像全不着调，反应就会稍微有些激烈。”

‘Yes,’ said Tricia. ‘I expect you’re right. I’m sorry.’

“是的。”崔茜卡道，“我猜你说得没错。对不起。”

‘That’s OK.’

“没什么。”

‘You’re the first person I’ve ever told this, by the way.’

“对了，这事儿我过去从没告诉过任何人。”

‘I wondered. You married?’

“这我也想到过。你结婚了吗？”

‘Er, no. So hard to tell these days isn’t it? But you’re right to ask because that was probably the reason. I came very close a few times, mostly because I wanted to have a kid. But every guy ended up asking why I was constantly looking over his shoulder. What do you tell someone? At one point I even thought I might just go to a sperm bank and take pot luck. Have somebody’s child at random.’

“呃，没有。如今这还真不容易看出来，不是吗？不过你问得对，因为原因多半就在那上头。有几次只差一点就结了，主要是想要个孩子。可最后他们都问我干吗老是看他们的肩膀。这你该怎么说？后来我甚至想，干脆去精子库碰碰运气。随便生个谁的孩子。”

‘You can’t seriously do that, can you?’

“你不会真那么干吧，嗯？”

Tricia laughed. ‘Probably not. I never quite went and found out for real. Never quite did it. Story of my life. Never quite did the real thing. That’s why I’m in television I guess. Nothing is real.’

崔茜卡笑起来，“多半不会。我都没当真去问过，从没真去过。我一生的主题故事：从没怎么干过什么真事儿。所以我才搞电视这行，我猜。全都不是真的。”

‘Excuse me lady, is your name Tricia McMillan!’

“打扰一下，女士，你是叫崔茜卡?麦克米伦吗？”

Tricia looked round in surprise. There was a man standing there in a chauffeur’s hat.

崔茜卡惊讶地转过身去，说话的是个戴着司机帽的人。

‘Yes,’ she said, instantly pulling herself back together again.

“是的。”她立刻振作起来。

‘Lady, I been looking for you for about an hour. Hotel said they didn’t have anybody of that name, but I checked back with Mr. Martin’s office and they said that this was definitely where you staying. So I ask again, they still say they never heard of you, so I get them to page you anyway and they can’t find you. In the end I get the office to FAX a picture of you through to the car and have a look myself.’

“女士，我已经找了你一个钟头了。酒店说他们这儿没叫这名字的，可我重新跟马丁先生的办公室确认过，他们说你绝对是住这儿没错。所以我又问酒店的人，他们还是说从没听说过你，我还是坚持让他们给你房间打电话，可他们就是找不到。最后我让办公室传真了张你的照片到车上，自己看了看。”

He looked at his watch.

他瞅眼手表。