《麦田里的守望者》(8)

译声翻译公司精品翻译知识导读：

It was too late to call up for a cab or anything, so I walked the whole way to the

　　station. It wasn't too far, but it was cold as hell, and the snow made it hard for walking,

　　and my Gladstones kept banging hell out of my legs. I sort of enjoyed the air and all,

　　though. The only trouble was, the cold made my nose hurt, and right under my upper lip,

　　where old Stradlater'd laid one on me. He'd smacked my lip right on my teeth, and it was

　　pretty sore. My ears were nice and warm, though. That hat I bought had earlaps in it, and

　　I put them on--I didn't give a damn how I looked. Nobody was around anyway.

　　Everybody was in the sack.

　　I was quite lucky when I got to the station, because I only had to wait about ten

　　minutes for a train. While I waited, I got some snow in my hand and washed my face

　　with it. I still had quite a bit of blood on.

　　Usually I like riding on trains, especially at night, with the lights on and the

　　windows so black, and one of those guys coming up the aisle selling coffee and

　　sandwiches and magazines. I usually buy a ham sandwich and about four magazines. If

　　I'm on a train at night, I can usually even read one of those dumb stories in a magazine

　　without puking. You know. One of those stories with a lot of phony, lean-jawed guys

　　named David in it, and a lot of phony girls named Linda or Marcia that are always

　　lighting all the goddam Davids' pipes for them. I can even read one of those lousy stories

　　on a train at night, usually. But this time, it was different. I just didn't feel like it. I just

　　sort of sat and not did anything. All I did was take off my hunting hat and put it in my

　　pocket.

　　All of a sudden, this lady got on at Trenton and sat down next to me. Practically

　　the whole car was empty, because it was pretty late and all, but she sat down next to me,

　　instead of an empty seat, because she had this big bag with her and I was sitting in the

　　front seat. She stuck the bag right out in the middle of the aisle, where the conductor and

　　everybody could trip over it. She had these orchids on, like she'd just been to a big party

　　or something. She was around forty or forty-five, I guess, but she was very good looking.

　　Women kill me. They really do. I don't mean I'm oversexed or anything like that--

　　although I am quite sexy. I just like them, I mean. They're always leaving their goddam

　　bags out in the middle of the aisle.

　　

　　Anyway, we were sitting there, and all of a sudden she said to me, "Excuse me,

　　but isn't that a Pencey Prep sticker?" She was looking up at my suitcases, up on the rack.

　　"Yes, it is," I said. She was right. I did have a goddam Pencey sticker on one of

　　my Gladstones. Very corny, I'll admit.

　　"Oh, do you go to Pencey?" she said. She had a nice voice. A nice telephone

　　voice, mostly. She should've carried a goddam telephone around with her.

　　"Yes, I do," I said.

　　"Oh, how lovely! Perhaps you know my son, then, Ernest Morrow? He goes to

　　Pencey."

　　"Yes, I do. He's in my class."

　　Her son was doubtless the biggest bastard that ever went to Pencey, in the whole

　　crumby history of the school. He was always going down the corridor, after he'd had a

　　shower, snapping his soggy old wet towel at people's asses. That's exactly the kind of a

　　guy he was.

　　"Oh, how nice!" the lady said. But not corny. She was just nice and all. "I must

　　tell Ernest we met," she said. "May I ask your name, dear?"

　　"Rudolf Schmidt," I told her. I didn't feel like giving her my whole life history.

　　Rudolf Schmidt was the name of the janitor of our dorm.

　　"Do you like Pencey?" she asked me.

　　"Pencey? It's not too bad. It's not paradise or anything, but it's as good as most

　　schools. Some of the faculty are pretty conscientious."

　　"Ernest just adores it."

　　"I know he does," I said. Then I started shooting the old crap around a little bit.

　　"He adapts himself very well to things. He really does. I mean he really knows how to

　　adapt himself."

　　"Do you think so?" she asked me. She sounded interested as hell.

　　"Ernest? Sure," I said. Then I watched her take off her gloves. Boy, was she lousy

　　with rocks.

　　"I just broke a nail, getting out of a cab," she said. She looked up at me and sort of

　　smiled. She had a terrifically nice smile. She really did. Most people have hardly any

　　smile at all, or a lousy one. "Ernest's father and I sometimes worry about him," she said.

　　"We sometimes feel he's not a terribly good mixer."

　　"How do you mean?"

　　"Well. He's a very sensitive boy. He's really never been a terribly good mixer with

　　other boys. Perhaps he takes things a little more seriously than he should at his age."

　　Sensitive. That killed me. That guy Morrow was about as sensitive as a goddam

　　toilet seat.

　　I gave her a good look. She didn't look like any dope to me. She looked like she

　　might have a pretty damn good idea what a bastard she was the mother of. But you can't

　　always tell--with somebody's mother, I mean. Mothers are all slightly insane. The thing

　　is, though, I liked old Morrow's mother. She was all right. "Would you care for a

　　cigarette?" I asked her.

　　She looked all around. "I don't believe this is a smoker, Rudolf," she said. Rudolf.

　　That killed me.

　　"That's all right. We can smoke till they start screaming at us," I said. She took a

　　cigarette off me, and I gave her a light.

　　

　　She looked nice, smoking. She inhaled and all, but she didn't wolf the smoke

　　down, the way most women around her age do. She had a lot of charm. She had quite a

　　lot of sex appeal, too, if you really want to know.

　　She was looking at me sort of funny. I may be wrong but I believe your nose is

　　bleeding, dear, she said, all of a sudden.

　　I nodded and took out my handkerchief. "I got hit with a snowball," I said. "One

　　of those very icy ones." I probably would've told her what really happened, but it

　　would've taken too long. I liked her, though. I was beginning to feel sort of sorry I'd told

　　her my name was Rudolf Schmidt. "Old Ernie," I said. "He's one of the most popular

　　boys at Pencey. Did you know that?"

　　"No, I didn't."

　　I nodded. "It really took everybody quite a long time to get to know him. He's a

　　funny guy. A strange guy, in lots of ways--know what I mean? Like when I first met him.

　　When I first met him, I thought he was kind of a snobbish person. That's what I thought.

　　But he isn't. He's just got this very original personality that takes you a little while to get

　　to know him."

　　Old Mrs. Morrow didn't say anything, but boy, you should've seen her. I had her

　　glued to her seat. You take somebody's mother, all they want to hear about is what a hot-

　　shot their son is.

　　Then I really started chucking the old crap around. "Did he tell you about the

　　elections?" I asked her. "The class elections?"

　　She shook her head. I had her in a trance, like. I really did.

　　"Well, a bunch of us wanted old Ernie to be president of the class. I mean he was

　　the unanimous choice. I mean he was the only boy that could really handle the job," I

　　said--boy, was I chucking it. "But this other boy--Harry Fencer--was elected. And the

　　reason he was elected, the simple and obvious reason, was because Ernie wouldn't let us

　　nominate him. Because he's so darn shy and modest and all. He refused. . . Boy, he's

　　really shy. You oughta make him try to get over that." I looked at her. "Didn't he tell you

　　about it?"

　　"No, he didn't."

　　I nodded. "That's Ernie. He wouldn't. That's the one fault with him--he's too shy

　　and modest. You really oughta get him to try to relax occasionally."

　　Right that minute, the conductor came around for old Mrs. Morrow's ticket, and it

　　gave me a chance to quit shooting it. I'm glad I shot it for a while, though. You take a guy

　　like Morrow that's always snapping their towel at people's asses--really trying to hurt

　　somebody with it--they don't just stay a rat while they're a kid. They stay a rat their whole

　　life. But I'll bet, after all the crap I shot, Mrs. Morrow'll keep thinking of him now as this

　　very shy, modest guy that wouldn't let us nominate him for president. She might. You

　　can't tell. Mothers aren't too sharp about that stuff.

　　"Would you care for a cocktail?" I asked her. I was feeling in the mood for one

　　myself. "We can go in the club car. All right?"

　　"Dear, are you allowed to order drinks?" she asked me. Not snotty, though. She

　　was too charming and all to be snotty.

　　"Well, no, not exactly, but I can usually get them on account of my heighth," I

　　said. "And I have quite a bit of gray hair." I turned sideways and showed her my gray

　　

　　hair. It fascinated hell out of her. "C'mon, join me, why don't you?" I said. I'd've enjoyed

　　having her.

　　"I really don't think I'd better. Thank you so much, though, dear," she said.

　　"Anyway, the club car's most likely closed. It's quite late, you know." She was right. I'd

　　forgotten all about what time it was.

　　Then she looked at me and asked me what I was afraid she was going to ask me.

　　"Ernest wrote that he'd be home on Wednesday, that Christmas vacation would start on

　　Wednesday," she said. "I hope you weren't called home suddenly because of illness in the

　　family." She really looked worried about it. She wasn't just being nosy, you could tell.

　　"No, everybody's fine at home," I said. "It's me. I have to have this operation."

　　"Oh! I'm so sorry," she said. She really was, too. I was right away sorry I'd said it,

　　but it was too late.

　　"It isn't very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain."

　　"Oh, no!" She put her hand up to her mouth and all. "Oh, I'll be all right and

　　everything! It's right near the outside. And it's a very tiny one. They can take it out in

　　about two minutes."

　　Then I started reading this timetable I had in my pocket. Just to stop lying. Once I

　　get started, I can go on for hours if I feel like it. No kidding. Hours.

　　We didn't talk too much after that. She started reading this Vogue she had with

　　her, and I looked out the window for a while. She got off at Newark. She wished me a lot

　　of luck with the operation and all. She kept calling me Rudolf. Then she invited me to

　　visit Ernie during the summer, at Gloucester, Massachusetts. She said their house was

　　right on the beach, and they had a tennis court and all, but I just thanked her and told her I

　　was going to South America with my grandmother. Which was really a hot one, because

　　my grandmother hardly ever even goes out of the house, except maybe to go to a goddam

　　matinee or something. But I wouldn't visit that sonuvabitch Morrow for all the dough in

　　the world, even if I was desperate.