【荆棘鸟】第一章 03

She was yanking inexpertly ata large knot when the dreadful thing happened. Off came the hair, all of it,dangling in a tousled clump 1 from the teeth of the comb. Above Agnes's smooth broad brow there was nothing; no head, no bald skull 2. Just an awful, yawning hole. Shivering in terror, Meggie leaned forward to peer inside the doll's cranium. The inverted 3 contours of cheeks and chin showed dimly, light glittered between the parted lips with their teeth a black, animal silhouette 4, and above all this were Agnes's eyes, two horrible clicking balls speared by a wire rod that cruelly pierced her head.
  Meggie's scream was high and thin,unchildlike; she flung Agnes away and went on screaming, hands covering herface, shaking and shuddering 5. Then she felt Frank pull at her fingers and take her into his arms, pushing her face into the side of his neck. Wrapping her arms about him, she took comfort from him until his nearness calmed her enoughto become aware of how nice he smelled, all horses and sweat and iron.
When she quietened, Frank made her tell him what was the matter; he picked up the dolland stared into its empty head in wonder, trying to remember if his infantuniverse had been so be set by strange terrors. But his unpleasant phantoms 6 wereof people and whispers and cold glances. Of his mother's face pinched and shrinking, her hand trembling as it held his, the set of her shoulders.
  What had Meggie seen, to make her take on so?He fancied she would not have been nearly so upset if poor Agnes had only bled when she lost her hair. Bleeding was a fact; someone in the Cleary family bled copiously 7 at least once a week.
  "Her eyes, her eyed" Meggie whispered, refusing to look at the doll.
 

"She's a bloody 8 marvel 9, Meggie," he murmured, his face nuzzling into her hair. How fine it was, how rich and full of color! It took him half an hour of cajoling to make her look at Agnes, and half an hour more elapsed before he could persuade her to peer into the scalpedhole. He showed her how the eyes worked, how very carefully they had been aligned 10 to fit snugly 11 yet swing easily opened or closed. "Come on now,it's time you went inside," he told her, swinging her up into his arms and tucking the doll between his chest and hers. "We'll get Mum to fix her up,eh? We'll wash and iron her clothes, and glue on her hair again. I'll make yousome proper hairpins 12 out of those pearls, too, so they can't fall out and you can do her hair in all sorts of ways."
  Fiona Cleary was in the kitchen, peeling potatoes. She was a very handsome, very fair woman a little under medium height, but rather hard-faced and stern; she had an excellent figure with atiny waist which had not thickened, in spite of the six babies she had carried beneath it. Her dress was grey calico, its skirts brushing the spotless floor,its front protected by an enormous starched 13 white apron 14 that looped around herneck and tied in the small of her spine 15 with a crisp, perfect bow. From wakingto sleeping she lived in the kitchen and back garden, her stout 16 black boots beating a circular path from stove to laundry to vegetable patch to clothes lines and thence to the stove again.
  She put her knife on the table and stared at Frank and Meggie, the corners of her beautiful mouth turning down.
  "Meggie, I let you put on your Sunday-best dress this morning on one condition, that you didn't get it dirty. And look at you! What a little grub you are!"
  "Mum, it wasn't her fault," Frank protested. "Jack 17 and Hughie took her doll
 away to try and find out how the arms and legs worked. I promised we'd fix it up as good as new. We can, can't we?"
 

在她生手生脚地动手梳一个大发结的时候，可怕的事发生了。那些头发一下子全掉了下来，七零八落，乱成一团地卡在梳子的齿牙间。艾格尼丝宽宽的额头上瞬时间什么也不见了，既没有头发，甚至连光脑壳也没有了，只剩下了一个可怕的张着口的窟窿。
    梅吉恐惧地颤粟着；俯身向布娃娃的脑壳里看着。那颠倒的脸颊和下巴的轮廓黯然无光，张开的双唇之间透出一缕光亮，牙齿像是一个黑色的野兽的阻影；这一切的上面是艾格尼丝的眼睛，那是两个咔咔作响的、可憎的小球，一根金属丝无情地刺穿她的脑袋，从眼球上穿过。
    梅吉的叫声又高又尖，不像是孩子的叫声了；她一下子扔掉了艾格尼丝，一个劲儿地喊叫着，双手捂住了脸，摇晃着，颤抖着。这时，她感到弗兰克拉开了她的手指，把她抱在怀里，把她的脸按到他的脖子下面。她双手勾着他，从他身上得到了安慰，直到他的亲近使她镇静下来。她感到闻着他身上的气味是那么的舒服，尽管这气味夹杂着马臊、汗臭和铁末味。
    当她平静下来以后，弗兰克叫她告诉他到底出了什么事。他捡起了那布娃娃，迷惑不解地盯着那空空如也的脑袋内部，试图记起他在孩子提时代是否受过奇特的恐惧的困扰。但是，在他心头留下了不愉快的阴影的却是人，是他们的窃窃私语和冷眼；是妈妈那消瘦、皱缩的面庞；她拉着他的那双颤抖的手和她的双肩。
    梅吉到底看到什么一使她成了这副样子？他想，要是可怜的艾格尼丝在头发被撕落的时候流血的话，那梅吉就不会如此懊丧了。流血是实实在在的事：克利里家里至少每个礼拜都有什么人要大流其血的。
    “她的眼睛，她的眼睛！”梅吉喃喃地说道，她不愿再去看那布娃娃了。
    “她是个有血有肉的了不起的东西，梅吉。”他咕哝着说道：他的脸紧紧地贴着她的头发。那头发多么柔美，多么丰厚，多么光彩照人啊！
    他费了半个钟头的时间哄她去看艾格尼丝，又用了半个钟头去说服她从那娃娃头顶的窟窿往里看。他指给她看那对眼睛是怎样做成的，怎样仔细地排成一线，既装得妥贴，又能开合自如。
    “来吧，现在你该进屋去了。”他对她说道，一把将她抱了起来，把布娃娃插进他俩的胸口之间。“咱们去叫妈妈把她修好，好吗？咱们把她的衣服洗一洗，熨一熨，再把她的头发粘上，我还要用这些珠子给你做几个合用的发卡，这样它们就不会掉下来了，你爱怎么给她梳头就可以怎么梳。”
    菲奥娜·克利里正在厨房里削着土豆皮。她是一个略矮于中等个子的非常端庄、相当漂亮，然而却面无笑容、神情严肃的女人。她身段优美，尽管下身已经怀过六个孩子，但纤细的腰肢还没有变粗。她穿着灰洋布的衣服，裙裾拖在一尘不染的地板上，胸前围着一条硕大无朋的、浆得发硬的套头白围裙，上腰背后打着一个利索的、挑不出一点毛病的蝴蝶结。她从早到晚都在厨房和后园子里转，她那双结实的黑靴子踩出了一条从炉台到洗衣房，到那小片菜地，到晒衣绳，再回到炉台的巡回小路。
    她把刀放在桌子上，凝神望着弗兰克和梅吉，她那美丽的嘴耷拉了下来。
    “梅吉，今天早晨是叫你不许把衣服弄脏才让你把最好的衣服穿上的。看看，你都成小邋遢鬼儿啦！”
    “妈，这不怪她，”弗兰克不服气地说道。“杰克和休吉拿了她的布娃娃，他们想弄明白娃娃的胳膊和腿是怎么活动的。我答应了她要把娃娃修得和新的一样，咱们能办到，对吧？”