by Joyce Carol Oates

乔伊斯·卡罗尔·奥茨（Joyce Carol Oates），出生于1938年，美国当代著名女作家，现任普林斯顿大学驻校作家、客座教授，讲授文学创作。奥茨是一位多产作家，自1963年出版首部短篇小说集《北门边》以来，一直笔耕不断，佳作连连，活跃至今。因其文学造诣之深，创作成果之丰富，风格之鲜明，故有“女福克纳”之称，并于1978年当选为美国文学艺术院院士。迄今为止已发表长篇小说四十余部，另著有多部短篇小说、诗歌、戏剧、随笔等文集。1970年，奥茨以长篇小说《Them》获得美国国家图书奖；曾以《Black Water》等3部作品获得普利策奖提名；《The Falls》荣获2005年度法国费米纳文学奖；《We Were the Mulvaneys》于2001年成为“奥普拉读书俱乐部”的推荐书目，这使得奥茨首次荣登《纽约时报》畅销书排行榜榜首。凭借她多年来的文学成就，奥茨至今已两度获得诺贝尔文学奖提名。

奥茨的作品充满了暴力性和悲剧性，她笔下的很多人物常常是其所处的社会环境和自身情感弱点的牺牲品。她特别喜好运用细微的笔触来陈述她个人对于命运的探索，对象通常是遭受各种折磨以及误入歧途的女性，本期推荐的短篇小说讲述的内容也大致如此：刚刚丧夫、还未走出悲痛的哈德莉，合作超市里谦卑、笨拙、爱慕哈德莉并比其小10岁的员工安东·克鲁普夫，这场剃头挑子一头热的感情闹剧在开篇的恶作剧玩笑中就已展露无遗，而它将如何收场就成为揪住我们目光的那个点，吸引我们关注到最后。哈德莉能否敞开心扉，而安东又是否能够觅得美人芳心，而为整个故事罩上了惊悚色彩的南瓜头是否还有着其它用途？让我们拭目以待……

In late March， thered been a sleet storm throughout north-central New Jersey. Her husband had died several days before. There was no connection， she knew. But since that time shed begun to notice at twilight a curious glistening to the air. Often， she found herself in the doorway of her house， or outside， not remembering how shed got there. For long minutes， she would stare as the colors faded and a glassy light emerged from the sky and from the 1）Scotch pines surrounding the house. It did not seem to her a natural light， and in weak moments she thought， This is the crossing-over time. She watched， not knowing what she might be seeing. She felt aroused， 2）vigilant. She felt apprehension. She wondered if the strange glistening to the air had always been there but in her previous， protected life she hadnt noticed it.

This October evening， before the sun had entirely set， a pair of headlights turned in to the driveway， some distance away by the road. She was startled into alertness—at first not sure where she was. Then she remembered： Anton Kruppev was dropping by to see her.

Dropping by， hed said. Or maybe shed said， Why dont you drop by？

She couldnt make out his face. He was driving a 3）pickup truck with white lettering on one side. He climbed down from the drivers seat in the high cab and 4）lurched toward her on the shadowy path—a tall male 5）scarecrow figure with a misshapen Halloween pumpkin for a head. What a shock！ Hadley backed away， not sure what she was seeing. A grinning pumpkin head on a mans shoulders， its leering cutout eyes not lit from within， like a 6）jack-o-lantern， but dark， glassy. And the voice issuing through the grinning slash-mouth in heavily accented English： “Maam？ Is correct address？ You are—lady of the house？”

She laughed， nervously. She supposed she was meant to laugh.

With 7）grating mock gravity， the voice persevered： “You are—resident here， Maam？ I am—welcome here？ Yes？”

It was a joke. One of Anton Kruppevs awkward jokes. Hed succeeded in frightening Hadley， though probably that hadnt been his intention—probably hed just meant to make her laugh. It was embarrassing that shed been genuinely frightened， for she had known perfectly well that Anton was coming. And who else but Anton Kruppev would show up like this， with a Halloween pumpkin for a head？

At the co-op， Anton was the most eager and courteous of workers. He was the one who joked with customers， and laughed at his own jokes； he was boyish， vulnerable， and touching. His halting speech was itself a kind of laughter， not fully intelligible yet 8）contagious. For all his clumsiness， you could tell that he was an exceptionally intelligent man. Hadley could see that hed gone to painstaking trouble carving the pumpkin head： it was large， 9）bulbous，

三月下旬，一场暴风雪席卷了新泽西州的中北部。她的丈夫前几天已经去世了。她知道，这两者之前并没什么联系。但从那之后，她开始在暮色中留意到空中一道古怪的亮光。她时常发现自己站在房子的门廊或门外，却不记得自己是如何站到那儿的。她会盯住那道光芒看上很长一段时间，直至那些色彩褪尽，而后一道亮光在空中和房子周围的赤松丛中显现。对于她来说，那并不是一道天然的光线，当她极其脆弱时，她觉得穿越的时间到了。她注视着，并不知道自己会看到什么。她既兴奋，又警觉。她感到忧虑。她想知道那道射到空中的古怪闪光是否一直都在，只是因为自己之前的生活备受呵护所以从未察觉而已。

十月的这个傍晚，太阳并未完全下山之前，两束车前灯的灯光射到了屋前的车道上来，远离了马路。她吓了一跳，提起警觉——起初她又不知道自己在哪儿了。之后她才记起：安东·克鲁普夫要顺道来看看她。

“顺道拜访一下，”他当时说过。或者她提过，“要不顺道来坐坐？”

她无法辨出他的脸。他驾驶着一辆敞篷货车，车的一侧刷着白色的正体字。他从高高的司机驾驶座上爬下来，在漆黑的小路上蹒跚走向她——稻草人般的高大男子，头戴着一个形状怪异的万圣节南瓜。太吓人了！哈德莉慢慢往后退，不大确定她所看到的东西。一个咧着嘴笑的南瓜帽罩着一个男子的头，那被挖剪出的诡异眼睛并未从内部点燃，像是个杰克灯笼，却又是黑暗的、呆滞的。而后透过那咧嘴呲牙传来带着重重口音的英语：“太太？这地址对吗？您是——这所房子的女主人？”

她紧张地笑了。她觉得自己有必要笑出来。

带着恼气故作严肃，那声音继续说道：“您——住在这里，太太？欢迎我来这里的，对吗？”

这是个玩笑。安东·克鲁普夫那些古怪玩笑之一。他成功吓到了哈德莉，虽然那可能不是他的本意——或许他只是想让她笑。她实实在在地被吓到了，这挺丢人的，因为她早已经知道安东要来了。而且除了安东·克鲁普夫，还有谁会这么出现呢，头上戴个万圣节南瓜？

在合作超市里，安东是最热情、最谦卑的员工。他是一个会跟顾客们开玩笑，并为自己的笑话大笑不止的人；他是个充满孩子气、脆弱、且让人感动的人。他那磕磕绊绊的说话本身就算得上是笑料了，虽然不能被完全理解，却很有感染力。尽管表面笨拙，但你可以断定他是一个绝顶聪明的人。哈德莉能看得出，刻出那个南瓜头，安东费了不少工夫：那个南瓜头很大，球形的，

weirdly veined and striated， twice the size of a normal mans head， with triangular eyes， a triangular nose， and a mouth 10）studded with fangteeth. Somehow， hed managed to force the thing over his head—Hadley couldnt quite see how.

“How ingenious， Anton！ Did you carve it yourself？”

This was the sort of inane question you asked Anton Kruppev. For you had to say something to alleviate the tension of the mans aggressivedoggy eagerness to please， to impress， to make you laugh. Hadley recalled the first time Anton had come by to see her， which had been the previous week—the strained and 11）protracted conversation between them when， after Hadley had served h i m c o ff e e a n d little sandwiches on multigrain bread， Anton hadnt seemed to know how to depart； his lurching over her， his 12）spasm of a handshake， and his clumsy wet kiss on her cheek which had seemed to sting her， and to thrill her， like the brush of a bats wings.

“Yes， Maam. You think—you will buy？”“That depends， Anton. How much… ”

“For you， Maam， no charge！”

This forced joke， how long would it be kept up？ Hadley wondered in 13）exasperation. In middle school， boys like Anton Kruppev were 14）snubbed—Ha ha， very funny！—but once you were an adult how could you discourage such humor without being rude？ Hadley was thirty-nine. Anton couldnt have been more than twenty-nine. Hed been born in what was now called 15）Bosnia and Herzegovina， had lost his parents， and was brought to the United States by a surviving grandparent. Hed gone to American schools， including 16）M.I.T， and yet in all those years had not become convincingly American.

Trying too hard， Hadley thought. The sign of the foreign-born.

In a kind of anxious triumph， sensing his hostesss exasperation yet determined not to acknowledge it， Anton swung the 17）lurid pumpkin head down from his shoulders， holding it in his chafed-looking， big-knuckled hands.

Now Hadley could see that the pumpkin was only two-thirds of a shell. It had been 18）gutted and carved and its back part cut away—the back of what would be， in a human， the 19）cranium. So the 20）uncanny pumpkin head was a kind of pumpkin mask set on Antons shoulders and held in place by hand. Yet it was so lifelike； as the scarecrow figure had lurched up the walk in her direction， the face had appeared alive.

“Is good？ Is—surprise？ ‘Happy Halloweenis right？”

Was it Halloween？ Hadley was sure it was not. October 31st wasnt for several more days.

脉络条纹古怪地缠在上面，两个正常人的头那么大，有双三角眼，一个三角形鼻子，还有一个满口尖牙的嘴巴。不知他用了什么办法把那玩意儿硬是套在了头上——哈德莉看不大出来他是怎么做到的。

“太精致了，安东！是你自己刻的吗？”

问安东·克鲁普夫这个问题是愚蠢的。因为你得说点什么来缓和一下紧张气氛，那个男人缠着不放急切地讨好取悦你而带来的紧张气氛。哈德莉想起上周安东第一次来看她时的情形——哈德莉以咖啡和用杂粮面包做成的小三明治款待他以后，他却好像不懂得怎么离开，而后他们之间开始了既别扭又漫长的交谈；安东朝她突然的倾斜，与她握手时的抽搐，以及在她脸颊上留下的笨拙湿吻似乎既刺痛了她，又惊吓到了她，就像一只蝙蝠的双翼擦过那种触感。

“是的，夫人。你觉得——你会买吗？”

“这个要看情况而定，安东。多少钱……”

“对你，夫人，免费！”

“这个牵强的玩笑，还要持续多久？”哈德莉忿忿地想道。在中学里，像安东·克鲁普夫那样的男孩儿会被冷落——“哈哈，太有趣了！”——但你已然是一个成人了，如何才能阻止这样的幽默而又不显得粗鲁呢？哈德莉39岁了。而安东肯定还不到29岁。他出生于现在被叫作波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那的地方，双亲已故，由幸存的祖父（母）带到美国。他在美国学校读书，还上过麻省理工学院，然而那么多年过去了，他还没有成为令人信服的美国人。

哈德莉觉得安东太努力了。那是生于异域的标志。

他带着一种担忧的欣喜，察觉到女主人的愠怒，却决定装作若无其事。安东把那个吓人的南瓜头从肩头上扭了下来，把它抱在自己老茧开裂、指节粗大的手里。

现在哈德莉看清楚了，那个南瓜外壳只剩下之前的三分之二。它被掏空、雕刻，并且后面的部分被切掉——如果那是一个人，被切掉的就是头盖骨。所以那个吓人的南瓜头只是一个南瓜面具，一个罩在安东肩膀上并用手将之固定的南瓜面具。然而它是如此栩栩如生；当那个稻草人朝她的方向蹒跚走来时，那张脸是那么的栩栩如生。

“不错吧？惊喜吗？‘万圣节快乐对吗？”

今天是万圣节？哈德莉很肯定不是。还有好几天才到10月31日。