經典科幻文學:《宇宙盡頭的餐館》第33章5

“Yes, by introducing some random element that can be shaped by that pattern.”
“Like how?”
“Like by pulling Scrabble letters out of a bag blindfolded.”
Ford leapt to his feet.
“Brilliant!” he said. He tugged his towel out of his satchel and with a few deft knots transformed it into a bag.
“Totally mad,” he said, “utter nonsense. But we’ll do it because it’s brilliant nonsense. Come on, come on.”
The sun passed respectfully behind a cloud. A few small sad raindrops fell.
They piled together all the remaining letters and dropped them into the bag. They shook them up.
“Right,” said Ford, “close your eyes. Pull them out. Come on come on, come on.”
Arthur closed his eyes and plunged his hand into the towelful of stones. He jiggled them about, pulled out four and handed them to Ford. Ford laid them along the ground in the order he got them.
“W,” said Ford, “H, A, T… What!”
He blinked.
“I think it’s working!” he said.
Arthur pushed three more at him.
“D, O, Y… Doy. Oh perhaps it isn’t working,” said Ford.
“Here’s the next three.”
“O, U, G… Doyoug… It’s not making sense I’m afraid.”
Arthur pulled another two from the bag. Ford put them in place.
“E, T, doyouget… Do you get!” shouted Ford, “it is working! This is amazing, it really is working!”
“More here.” Arthur was throwing them out feverishly as fast as he could go.
“I, F,” said Ford, “Y, O, U,… M, U, L, T, I, P, L, Y,… What do you get if you multiply,… S, I, X,… six, B, Y, by, six by… what do you get if you multiply six by… N, I, N, E,… six by nine…” He paused. “Come on, where’s the next one?”
“Er, that’s the lot,” said Arthur, “that’s all there were.”
He sat back, nonplussed.
He rooted around again in the knotted up towel but there were no more letters.
“You mean that’s it?” said Ford.
“That’s it.”
“Six by nine. Forty-two.”
“That’s it. That’s all there is.”

“是的，通過引人由潛意識控制的一些隨機因採。”
“怎麼做？”
“比如說，從一個不透明的袋子裏往外取拼字遊戲字母：”
福特跳了起來。
”聰明！”他說。他把他的毛巾從揹包裏扯出來，紮了幾個結，變成了一個袋子，
“這是發瘋，”他說，“絕對是胡鬧。但我們還是要這麼做，因爲這是聰明的胡鬧。來吧，來吧。”
太陽謙卑地從雲層後面穿過。憂傷的小雨滴落了下來。
他們把剩下的字母集中起來，倒進袋子，然後搖勻：
“好了，”福特說，“閉上眼睛，把它們取出來。快，快，快。”
阿瑟閉上眼睛，把手伸進裝滿石塊的毛巾裏。他和了和，然後取出四個，交給福特。福特按照交到他手上的先後順序把它們在地上排開。
“w，”福特念道，“H，A，T…whm，什麼！”
他眨了眨眼。
“我想這招行得通！”他說。
阿瑟又取出3個交給他。
“D，O，Y…D0y0。噢，也許還是行不通。”福特說。
“這是下面三個。”
“O，u，G…D0y叫g恐怕沒有任何意義。”
阿瑟叉從袋子裏取出了兩個。福特把它們擺好。
“E，T，doyDugn…doyouget，你得到！”幅特叫道，“行得通！太令人驚訝了，這招真的行得通！”
“還有呢！”阿瑟興奮地以最快建度取出字母。
“I，F，”福特說，“Y，O，u，M，u，L，T，I，P，L，Y你得到什麼，如果你乘以…s，I，x6B，Y…你得到什麼，如果你乘以6，用s，E，v，E，N7乘以6”他停了下來，“再來，接下來是什麼字母？”
“嗯，就這些了，”阿瑟說，“裏面就這些。”
他坐下來，感到困惑不解。
他又摸了一遍紮起來的毛巾，裏面確實再也沒有字母了。
“懷是說就這些了‘”福特問。
“就這些了。”
“7乘以6。42。”
“就是這個。裏面就這些。”