文字难度：★★☆
Strange that our new neighbor doesn’t want to talk much to us…” Marianne said 1)pensively over her tea 2)mug. “Talked with him about planting flowers the other day. And now every time he sees me he seems to be…well, avoiding me almost.”
“That’s strange,” I reached for a biscuit. “Didn’t you say he 3)was into gardening just like you? You gave him advice on planting flowers, if I remember right.”
“Yes, which makes it 4)all the more strange.”
“So what did you tell him?”
“Let me think… Well, in the morning we were planting flowers in our garden... Beautiful yellow and violet 5)pansies.”
“Ah, yes, pansies, you love them.”
奇怪,我们的新邻居不大想和我们说话……”玛丽安喝着茶,若有所思地说道,“那天,我和他聊了聊种花的一些事。现在,他每次看到我都好像……唉……算是避开我。”
“那就奇怪了,”我伸手去拿一块饼干,“你不是说过他和你一样很喜欢园艺吗?如果我没记错,你还给他提过一些有关种花的建议呢。”
“对啊,就是这样才更显得奇怪。”
“那你和他说过什么?”
“让我想想……噢,那天早上,我们在花园里种花……种的是漂亮的黄色和紫色的三色堇。”
“啊,对,三色堇,你很喜欢这种花。”
I remembered Marianne’s beautiful garden. She and her husband spent all their free time there. Their garden had been featured in a garden magazine a few years back, a great cause of envy in a small village, resulting in the whole village planting flowers in the hopes of the reporter returning one day.
“So in the evening, after we had finished the flower planting in a new flower bed, we sat down on our porch to admire our garden. You know how the light is so amazing in the evening: brings out the violet hues perfectly. This year we have lots of violet and blue flowers. We were sipping juice and then something caught my eye. Something moving. I turned my head and saw one of the pansies walking on the lawn.”
I 6)spluttered tea out of my mouth. “You… saw a flower walking on the lawn?”
“Yes,” Marianne nodded. “I did think that either there was something wrong with my eyes or I had 7)gone barmy. Especially when John didn’t seem to pay any attention to it.” She drank her tea, dipping her biscuit into it.
“Well? Where did the flower walk then?”
“Oh, yes, quite…” she collected her thoughts, “It walked across the lawn and disappeared under the 8)playhouse. You know—the old playhouse we haven’t had the heart to tear down even though we don’t have children. It looks so cute.”
They had bought their house from an old couple whose grandchildren had used the playhouse. No one had been planting flowers around the house before them, and the playhouse was now almost covered with 9)rambling roses, 10)Flammentanz I think it was. It made the playhouse look like something out of a fairy tale.
我记得玛丽安那漂亮的花园。她和她丈夫把所有的空闲时间都花在那个花园里。几年前,某本花园杂志还专题介绍过他们的花园。这事在这个小村庄里惹人艳羡不已,结果,整个村庄的人都种花,个个都希望那位记者某天会再次回来报道。
“到了晚上,我们把花种在了新弄的一块花圃里,然后坐在走廊上欣赏我们的花园。你知道吗,夜晚的灯光美极了,花儿的紫色调完美呈现。今年,我们种了很多紫色和蓝色的花。我们喝着果汁,就在那时,我注意到有点儿不对劲。有东西在移动。我转过头,看见其中一朵三色堇在草地上走动。”
我把喝到嘴里的一口茶喷了出来。“你……看见一朵花在草地上走动?”
“嗯,”玛丽安点了点头道,“我当时确实以为要么我的眼睛有问题要么就是我疯了,尤其是约翰当时似乎并没有留意到那个情况,我就更是这么以为。”她喝着茶,并把她手里的那块饼干浸到茶里。
“噢?那么,那朵花是往哪个方向走的呢?”
“噢,对,很……”她整理了一下思绪道,“它走过那片草地,然后消失在花园里那间“游戏小屋”的底下。你知道——尽管我们没有孩子,但我们并不忍心把那破旧的游戏小屋拆掉。那小屋实在是太可爱了。”
他们的房子是从一对老夫妇那儿买来的,那游戏小屋是那对老夫妇的孙子孙女们从前用来玩耍的。在他们之前,房子周围没种过花,而如今这小木屋上几乎爬满了藤蔓玫瑰——我想那些是“火焰舞”,让小木屋看上去就像童话里的屋子一般。
“So. You saw a pansy walk across the garden and disappear under the playhouse. And you told this to your neighbor? And now you wonder why he doesn’t want to talk to you?”
“Yes, strange isn’t it? Well—actually I told him I saw lots of pansies following the first one. The fun point was they were all yellow. None of the violet ones walked.”
“Ahha… Marianne… Have you been out in the sun too much?
“Oh, no. You think I was 11)seeing things? That I had 12)sunstroke or something?”
“Well, of course I do! You see flowers walking around the lawn, tell about that to your neighbor and wonder why he isn’t talking to you? He thinks you’re mad! And I am beginning to think along those lines too.”
“Oh, really? Well, come to think of it, you may be right. I don’t mean that I was mad but that he could think so. Hehe—quite funny really.” Marianne laughed quietly.
“And John didn’t see anything?”
“Well, when the second flower started walking across the lawn I noticed John was sitting a bit stiff. You know—he wasn’t drinking his juice anymore. And he loves his strawberry juice so that told me all was not okay. So I asked him if he was seeing the same thing as I was. He was very relieved he wasn’t crazy—he was seeing the same thing. But you know it was kind of scary. Watching all your yellow pansies walking from the flower bed and disappear under the playhouse. For a while we just sat there, wondering if we had entered13)Narnia or something.”
“Well, did you find out what the whole thing was about?”
“Oh, yes,” Marianne laughed out loud now. “We quietly sneaked onto the lawn when one of the flowers disappeared under the playhouse again and tried to get as close to it as we could. And then a tiny thing ran out from there. It was a 14)mole! It headed straight for the pansies, not paying attention to us, and we saw it take another flower and head our way. We looked under the playhouse and there they were—all our yellow pansies. John said the mole had to be male.”
“那么说,你是看见一朵三色堇在花园里走过,然后消失在小木屋底下,接着对邻居说了这么一回事?你还不知道为什么现在人家不愿意跟你说话了?”
“对啊,这很奇怪,不是吗?噢——事实上,我告诉他说,我看见很多三色堇跟随着第一朵三色堇在走动。有趣的是它们清一色都是黄色的。没有一朵紫色的花走动过。”
“啊哈……玛丽安……你是不是在太阳下晒得太久了?”
“噢,不。你以为我产生幻觉了?以为我中暑或是出了别的什么问题吗?”
“噢,我当然会这么想!你看见花儿走过草地,你将你看到的告诉你的邻居,接而又疑惑于他为何不和你说话?他是以为你疯了!我也开始这么想了。”
“噢,你真会这么想吗?嗯,想一想,你也许是对的。我不是说我当时疯了,而是他可能也会这么想。呵呵——真的很有趣。”玛丽安平静地笑着。
“那约翰没有看见什么吗?”
“噢,当第二朵花开始走过草地时,我注意到约翰坐在那儿,身子有些僵硬。你看——他不再喝他的果汁了。他本来很爱喝草莓汁的,所以在我看来,他当时有些不妥。于是我问他是不是也看到了我所看到的东西。知道自己没有疯,他放下心来——他也看到了同样的东西。但你知道,当时的情景让人心生恐惧。看见你所有的黄色三色堇从花圃走下来,消失在小孩子的游戏木屋底下。好一会儿,我们只是坐在那儿,怀疑自己是不是进入了纳尼亚王国或是别的什么地方。”
“Male? Why?”
“Well, if it needed to carry so many flowers, it had obviously done something really bad and needed to make up with the spouse. And females don’t usually bring flowers in such situations, do they? So it was simply Mr. Mole trying to get onto 15)talking terms with the wife again!”
“And did you tell this to your neighbor?”
“Err… No, I didn’t get to the end of the story because the cell phone rang when I had told him I had seen flowers walking and when I had finished the call he had disappeared.”
“You might want to go and explain things to him.”
“Yes, maybe I should do that.”
“Yes, you do that.”
“噢,你弄清楚到底发生什么事了吗?”
“噢,弄清楚了,”玛丽安此刻大笑起来。“我们蹑手蹑脚地潜入花园草坪,这时,其中一朵花儿又消失在小木屋底下,我们试图尽可能地接近它消失的那个地方。这时,一个小东西从那里面跑了出来。是一只鼹鼠!它径直跑向三色堇花丛,没留意到我们,我们看见它又抬走了一朵花,往我们这边走来。我们往小木屋底下看了看,都在那儿——我们所有的黄色三色堇。约翰说,那肯定是一只雄鼹鼠。”
“雄鼹鼠?为什么?”
“噢,如果它需要搬那么多的花,很明显,它肯定是闯了大祸,得好好向另一半赔不是。而母鼹鼠在这种情况下通常不会送花,不是吗?所以,原因很简单——鼹鼠先生正努力想要和妻子言归于好!”
“那你把这一切告诉你的邻居了吗?”
“呃……没呢,我没有把事情的结局告诉他,因为刚说到我看见花儿在走动时,我手机响了,等我讲完电话,他已经消失得无影无踪了。”
“你也许要到他那儿去和他解释一下。”
“是的,也许我该这么做。”
“嗯,你就这么做吧。”
