【荆棘鸟】第三章 15

"我希望你能告诉我，妈。"
　　她叹了口气，合上了古钢琴，抹掉了手指上的金粉。"没什么可说的，根本就没有什么可说的。得了，帮我把这些东西挪到屋子中间去，这样你爸就好包装了。"
　　这次航程是一场恶梦。"韦汉"号还没出惠灵顿港，他们就全呕吐了；在狂风大作，风雪交加的1200英里的海程中，他们吐了一路。帕迪也顾不上刺骨的寒风和飞溅不停的海水，把男孩子们都带到了甲板上，让他们呆在那里，只是在有好心人自愿照看那四个可怜巴巴的、干呕着的小子们时，他才下到底舱里去看他的女眷和婴儿。弗兰克尽管特别想去呼吸一下新鲜空气，但还是自愿留在了下面，照护女人们。船舱很狭小而且令人窒息，散发着油味儿，因为它是在水线以下，靠近船艏，是船只簸得最剧烈的地方。
　　出了惠灵顿之后数小时，弗兰克和梅吉相信他们的母亲快要死了；一个熟悉的乘务员从头等舱里叫来了一位医生，他悲观地摇着头。
　　"不过，这段航程很短。"他说道，吩咐他的护士给婴儿倒些牛奶来。
　　弗兰克和梅吉在干呕的空隙里，设法用奶瓶喂哈尔，他不肯好好喝奶。菲已经不再挣扎着呕吐，而是陷入了昏迷状态，他们唤都唤不醒她。乘务员帮着弗兰克把她放到了顶铺上，那里的空气略微新鲜一些。弗兰克把毛巾举在嘴边，以便挡住依然在往外翻呕的稀胆汁。他坐在她的铺边上，从额头向后捋着她那黯无光泽的黄头发。他不顾自己的呕吐，一个小时又一个小时地坚持着。帕迪每次进来，都看见他和他母亲呆在一起，摩挲着她的头发，而梅吉则与哈尔蜷缩在下铺，嘴上捂着一块毛巾。
　　出了悉尼后三个钟头，海面变得一平如镜，雾气悄悄地从南极飘来，团团地围住了这艘旧船。梅吉的精神稍微恢复了一些。她想象着可怕的浪击已经过去，但海洋仍在有节奏地、痛苦地狂吼着。他们缓缓地穿过浓重的灰雾，像一只被追赶的猎物那样胆战心惊地潜行着，直到那深沉而单调浪吼声又从船的上部传来，这是一种茫茫然然、凄切切的难以形容的悲苦之声。随后，当他们滑行穿过那幽灵般的水雾进入港口时，他们周围的空中响起了一片痛苦的号声。
 

"I wish you'd tell me, Mum."
  She sighed and shut the spinet 1, dusting the gold off her fingers. "There's nothing to tell, nothing at all. Come on, help me move these things into the middle of the room, so Daddy can pack them."
  The voyage was a nightmare. Before the Wahine was out of Wellington harbor they were all seasick 2, and they continued to be seasick all the way across twelve hundred miles of gale-stirred, wintry seas. Paddy took the boys up on deck and kept them there in spite of the bitter wind and constant spray, only going below to see his women and baby when some kind soul volunteered to keep an eye on his four miserable 3, retching boys. Much though he yearned 4 for fresh air, Frank had elected to remain below to guard the women. The cabin was tiny, stifling 5 and reeked 6 of oil, for it was below the water line and toward the bow, where the ship's motion was most violent. Some hours out of Wellington Frank and Meggie became convinced their mother was going to die; the doctor, summoned from first class by a very worried steward 7, shook his head over her pessimistically. "Just as well it's only a short voyage," he said, instructing his nurse to find milk for the baby.
  Between bouts 8 of retching Frank and Meggie managed to bottle-feed Hal, who didn't take to it kindly 9. Fee had stopped trying to vomit 10 and had sunk into a kind of coma 11, from which they could not rouse her. The steward helped Frank put her in the top bunk 12, where the air was a little less stale, and holding a towel to his mouth to stem the watery 13 bile he still brought up, Frank perched himself on the edge beside her, stroking the matted yellow hair back from her brow. Hour after hour he stuck to his post in spite of his own sickness; every time Paddy came in he was with his mother, stroking her hair, while Meggie huddled 14 on a lower berth 15 with Hal, a towel to her mouth. Three hours out of Sydney the seas dropped to a glassy calm and fog stole in furtively 16 from the far Antarctic, wrapping itself about the old ship. Meggie, reviving a little, imagined it bellowed 17 regularly in pain now the terrible buffeting 18 was over. They inched through the gluey greyness as stealthily as a hunted thing until that deep, monotonous 19 bawl 20 sounded again from somewhere on the superstructure, a lost and lonely, indescribably sad noise. Then all around them the air was filled with mournful bellows 21 as they slipped through ghostly smoking water into the harbor.