诺贝尔文学奖历代作品 诺贝尔文学经典:《宠儿》第14章Part4

诺贝尔文学经典:《宠儿》第14章Part4  

Baby Suggs shook her head. "One ata time
" she said and traded the living for the dead
which she carried into the keeping room. Whenshe came back
Sethe was aiming a bloody nipple into the baby's mouth. Baby Suggs slammed herfist on the table and shouted
"Clean up! Clean yourself up!"They fought then. Like rivals over the heart of the loved
they fought. Each struggling for thenursing child. Baby Suggs lost when she slipped in a red puddle and fell. So Denver took hermother's milk right along with the blood of her sister. And that's the way they were when thesheriff returned
having mandeered a neighbor's cart
and ordered Stamp to drive it.
utside a throng
now
of black faces stopped murmuring. Holding the living child
Sethe walkedpast them in their silence and hers. She climbed into the cart
her profile knife-clean against acheery blue sky. A profile that shocked them with its clarity. Was her head a bit too high? Herback a little too straight? Probably. Otherwise the singing would have begun at once
the momentshe appeared in the doorway of the house on Bluestone Road. Some cape of sound would havequickly been wrapped around her
like arms to hold and steady her on the way. As it was
theywaited till the cart turned about
headed west to town. And then no words. Humming. No words atall.
Baby Suggs meant to run
skip down the porch steps after the cart
screaming
No. No. Don't lether take that last one too. She meant to. Had started to
but when she got up from the floor andreached the yard the cart was gone and a wagon was rolling up. A red-haired boy and a yellow-haired girl jumped down and ran through the crowd toward her. The boy had a half-eaten sweetpepper in one hand and a pair of shoes in the other.
"Mama says Wednesday." He held them together by their tongues. "She says you got to have thesefixed by Wednesday." Baby Suggs looked at him
and then at the woman holding a itching leadhorse to the road.