世紀文學經典:《百年孤獨》第5章Part 3

Father Nicanor did not agree: the growing generosity of the faithful permitted him to make more optimistic calculations. To the mute Indignation of Rebeca, who could not finish her lunch, úrsula celebrated Amaranta's idea and contributed a considerable sum for the work to move faster. Father Nicanor felt that with another contribution like that the church would be ready within three years. From then on Rebeca did not say another word to Amaranta, convinced that her initiative had not the innocence that she attempted to give it. "That was the least serious thing I could have done," Amaranta answered her during the violent argument they had that night. "In that way I won't have to kill you for three years." Rebeca accepted the challenge.
When Pietro Crespi found out about the new postponement, he went through a crisis of disappointment, but Rebeca gave him a final proof of her loyalty. "We'll elope whenever you say," she told him. Pietro Crespi, however, was not a man of adventure. He lacked the impulsive character of his fiancée and he considered respect for one's given word as a wealth that should not be squandered.
Then Rebeca turned to more audacious methods. A mysterious wind blew out the lamps in the parlor and úrsula surprised the lovers kissing in the dark. Pietro Crespi gave her some confused explanations about the poor quality of modern pitch lamps and he even helped her install a more secure system of illumination for the room. But the fuel failed again or the wicks became clogged and úrsula found Rebeca sitting on her fiancé's lap. This time she would accept no explanation. She turned the responsibility of the bakery over to the Indian woman and sat in a rocking chair to watch over the young people during the visits, ready to win out over maneuvers that had already been old when she was a girl. "Poor Mama," Rebeca would say with mock indignation, seeing úrsula yawn during the boredom of the visits. "When she dies she'll go off to her reward in that rocking chair." After three months of supervised love, fatigued by the slow progress of the construction, which he went to inspect every day, Pietro Crespi decided to give Father Nicanor the money he needed to finish the church. Amaranta did not grow impatient. As she conversed with her girl friends every afternoon when they came to embroider on the porch, she tried to think of new subterfuges. A mistake in calculation spoiled the one she considered the most effective: removing the mothballs that Rebeca had put in her wedding dress before she put it away in the bedroom dresser. She did it when two months were left for the completion of the church. But Rebeca was so impatient with the approach of the wedding that she wanted to get the dress ready earlier than Amaranta had foreseen. When she opened the dresser and unfolded first the papers and then the protective cloth, she found the fabric of the dress and the stitches of the veil and even the crown of orange blossoms perforated by moths. Although she was sure that she had put a handful of mothballs in the wrappings, the disaster seemed so natural that she did not dare blame Amaranta. There was less than a month untilthe wedding, but Amparo Moscote promised to sew a new dress within a week. Amaranta felt faint that rainy noontime when Amparo came to the house wrapped in the froth of needlework for Rebeca to have the final fitting of the dress. She lost her voice and a thread of cold sweat ran down the path of her spine. For long months she had trembled with fright waiting for that hour, because if she had not been able to conceive the ultimate obstacle to Rebeca's wedding, she was sure that at the last moment, when all the resources of her imagination had failed, she would have the courage to poison her. That afternoon, while Rebeca was suffocating with heat inside the armor of thread that Amparo Moscote was putting about her body with thousands of pins and infinite patience, Amaranta made several mistakes in her crocheting and pricked her finger with the needle, but she decided with frightful coldness that the date would be the last Friday before the wedding and the method would be a dose of laudanum in her coffee.

尼康諾神父不同意她的看法：因爲信徒們越慷慨，他就越能作出樂觀的估計。雷貝卡心中不快，飯也沒有吃完，而烏蘇娜卻贊成阿瑪蘭塔的想法，答應捐助一大筆款子。加快工程進度。尼康諾神父聲稱：再有這樣一筆捐款，教堂三年就能落成。從那一天起，雷貝卡就不跟阿瑪蘭塔說一句話了，因爲她確信，妹妹心裏想的並不象嘴裏說的那麼單純。“算啦，我沒幹更壞的事，”那天晚上她倆之間發生激烈爭論時，阿瑪蘭塔說。“起碼最近三年我不必殺死你。”雷貝卡接受了挑戰。
知道又延期了，皮埃特羅·克列斯比陷入了絕望，但是未婚妻最後向他證明了自己的堅貞。“你啥時候願意，咱們可以離開這兒，”她說。然而皮埃特羅·克列斯比並不是冒險家。他沒有未婚妻那種衝動的性格，但是認爲妻子的話應當重視。
接着，雷貝卡採取了更加放肆的辦法。不知哪兒刮來的風吹滅了客廳裏的燈，烏蘇娜驚異地發現未婚夫婦在黑暗中接吻。皮埃特羅·克列斯比慌亂地向她抱怨新的煤油燈質量太差，甚至答應幫助在客廳裏安裝更加可靠的照明設備。可是現在，這燈不是煤油完了，就是燈芯卡住了，於是烏蘇娜又發現雷貝卡在未婚夫膝上。最後，烏蘇娜再也不聽任何解釋。每逢這個未婚夫來訪的時候，烏蘇娜都把麪包房交給印第安女人照顧，自己坐在搖椅裏，觀察未婚夫婦的動靜，打算探出她年輕時就已司空見慣的花招。“可憐的媽媽，”看見烏蘇娜在未婚夫來訪時打呵欠，生氣的雷貝卡就嘲笑他說。“她準會死在這把搖椅裏，得到報應。”過了三個月受到監視的愛情生活，皮埃特羅·克列斯比每天都檢查工程狀況，對教堂建築的緩慢感到苦惱，決定捐給尼康諾神父短缺的錢，使他能把事情進行到底。這個消息絲毫沒使阿瑪蘭塔着急。每天下午，女友們聚在長廊上繡花的時候，她一面跟她們聊天，一面琢磨新的詭計。可是她的估計錯了，她認爲最有效的一個陰謀也就失敗了；這個陰謀就是掏出臥室五斗櫥裏的樟腦球，因爲雷貝卡是把結婚的衣服保藏在櫥裏的。阿瑪蘭塔是在教堂竣工之前兩個月幹這件事的。然而婚禮迫近，雷貝卡就急於想準備好自己的服裝，時間比阿瑪蘭塔預料的早得多。雷貝卡拉開衣櫥的抽屜，首先揭開幾張紙，然後揭起護布，發現緞子衣服、花邊頭紗、甚至香橙花花冠，都給蟲子蛀壞了，變成了粉末。儘管她清楚地記得，她在衣服包卷下面撒了一把樟腦球，但是災難顯得那麼偶然，她就不敢責怪阿瑪蘭塔了。距離婚禮不到一個月，安芭蘿·摩斯柯特卻答應一星期之內就把新衣服縫好。一個雨天的中午，鎮長的女兒抱着一堆泡沫似的繡裝走進屋來，讓雷貝卡最後試穿的時候，阿瑪蘭塔差點兒昏厥過去。她說不出話，一股冷汗沿着脊椎往下流。幾個月來，阿瑪蘭塔最怕這個時刻的來臨，因她堅信：如果她想不出什麼辦法來最終阻撓這場婚禮，那麼到了一切幻想都已破滅的最後時刻，她就不得不鼓起勇氣毒死雷貝卡了。安芭蘿·摩斯柯特非常耐心地千針萬線縫成的緞子衣服，雷貝卡穿在身上熱得直喘氣，阿瑪蘭塔卻把毛線衣的針數數錯了幾次，並且拿織針扎破了自己的手指，但她異常冷靜地作出決定：日期——婚禮之前的最後一個星期五，辦法——在一杯咖啡裏放進一些鴉片酊。