日本科幻文学 经典科幻文学:《宇宙尽头的餐馆》第18章5

经典科幻文学:《宇宙尽头的餐馆》第18章5  

All eyes were fixed on the dome
other than those of Hotblack Desiato’s bodyguard
which were looking intently at Hotblack Desiato
and those of Hotblack Desiato himself which the bodyguard had closed out of respect.
The bodyguard leaned forward over the table. Had Hotblack Desiato been alive
he probably would have deemed this a good moment to lean back
or even go for a short walk. His bodyguard was not a man which improved with proximity. On account of his unfortunate condition
however
Hotblack Desiato remained totally inert.
“Mr. Desiato
sir?” whispered the bodyguard. Whenever he spoke
it looked as if the muscles on either side of his mouth were clambering over each other to get out of the way.
“Mr. Desiato? Can you hear me?”
Hotblack Desiato
quit naturally
said nothing.
“Hotblack?” hissed the bodyguard.
Again
quite naturally
Hotblack Desiato did not reply. Supernaturally
however
he did.
On the table in front of him a wine glass rattled
and a fork rose an inch or so and tapped against the glass. It settled on the table again.
The bodyguard gave a satisfied grunt.
“It’s time we get going
Mr. Desiato
” muttered the bodyguard
“don’t want to get caught in the rush
not in your condition. You want to get to the next gig nice and relaxed. There was a really big audience for it. One of the best. Kakrafoon. Five-hundred seventy-six thousand and o million years ago. Had you will have been looking forward to it?”
The fork rose again
waggled in a non-mittal sort of way and dropped again.
“Ah
e on
” said the bodyguard
“it’s going to have been great. You knocked ‘em cold.” The bodyguard would have given Dr. Dan Streetmentioner an apoplectic attack.
“The black ship going into the sun always gets ‘em
and the new one’s a beauty. Be real sorry to see it go. If we get on down there
I’ll set the black ship autopilot and we’ll cruise off in the limo. OK?”
The fork tapped once in agreement
and the glass of wine mysteriously emptied itself.
The bodyguard wheeled Hotblack Desiato’s chair out of the Restaurant.