诺贝尔文学经典:《宠儿》第6章Part 3
The fingers touching the back of her neck were stronger now — the strokes bolder as though BabySuggs were gathering strength. Putting the thumbs at the nape, while the fingers pressed the sides.
Harder, harder, the fingers moved slowly around toward her windpipe, making little circles on theway. Sethe was actually more surprised than frightened to find that she was being strangled. Or soit seemed. In any case, Baby Suggs' fingers had a grip on her that would not let her breathe.
Tumbling forward from her seat on the rock, she clawed at the hands that were not there. Her feetwere thrashing by the time Denver got to her and then Beloved.
"Ma'am! Ma'am!" Denver shouted. "Ma'ammy!" and turned her mother over on her back.
The fingers left off and Sethe had to swallow huge draughts of air before she recognized herdaughter's face next to her own and Beloved's hovering above.
"You all right?"
"Somebody choked me," said Sethe.
"Who?"
Sethe rubbed her neck and struggled to a sitting position. "Grandma Baby, I reckon. I just askedher to rub my neck, like she used to and she was doing fine and then just got crazy with it, Iguess."
"She wouldn't do that to you, Ma'am. Grandma Baby? Uh uh."
"Help me up from here."
"Look." Beloved was pointing at Sethe's neck.
"What is it? What you see?" asked Sethe.
"Bruises," said Denver.
"On my neck?"
"Here," said Beloved. "Here and here, too." She reached out her hand and touched the splotches,gathering color darker than Sethe's dark throat, and her fingers were mighty cool.
"That don't help nothing," Denver said, but Beloved was leaning in, her two hands stroking thedamp skin that felt like chamois and looked like taffeta.
抚摸着她后脖子的手指这时有力些了——手法更大胆了，好像贝比·萨格斯正在积聚力气。大拇指放在后颈上，其余的手指按着两边。
重了一些，又重了一些，手指慢慢移向她的气管，一路划着小圆圈。塞丝与其说是恐惧，不如说是惊讶地发现自己正在被扼杀。至少表面上如此。不管怎么说，贝比·萨格斯的手指扼得她喘不过气来。
她从坐着的石头上向前摔去，抓扯着不存在的手。她正双脚乱踢，丹芙来到身边；接着宠儿也来了。
"太太!太太!"丹芙叫着。"妈妈!"她把妈妈翻过来，让她仰卧着。
手指松开了，塞丝大口大口地吞着空气，然后辨认出自己身旁女儿的脸和上面游移不定的宠儿的脸。
"你没事吧？"
"有人要掐死我。"塞丝说。
"谁？"
塞丝揉着脖子，挣扎着坐起来。"贝比奶奶，我估计。我不过求她揉揉脖子，像她从前那样，起初她揉得好好的，可后来就揉疯了，我猜是。"
"她不可能对你那样，太太。贝比奶奶？不可能。"
"帮我起来。"
"看哪。"宠儿指着塞丝的脖子。
"是什么？你看见什么了？"塞丝问。
"伤。"丹芙道。
"在我脖子上？"
"这儿，"宠儿道，"这儿，还有这儿。"她伸手摸着那些斑点，发现它们的颜色比塞丝黑黑的脖子还黑；她的手指冰凉冰凉的。
"那没用。"丹芙说道，可是宠儿仍然探出身子，用两只手去抚摸塞丝湿乎乎的皮肤。她的皮肤摸起来像羚羊皮，看着像塔夫绸。
