司氏姐妹 第十章： 逃离

http://theswitchsisters.wordpress.com/2012/06/26/chapter-10-escape/

第十章  逃离

门框里的影子越来越大，灰橙色的光芒在其背后闪耀。玛丽深吸了一口气，让她内心得以清醒。她深深知道她需要她的所有能力，她把手伸向摩根。

我们总算遇到它了（看来得来全不费工夫），摩根回想给她。玛丽捏了捏妹妹的手，在黑暗中点了点头。

阴影开始大阔步地快速向走廊深处迈进。摩根集中精力想尽力带回她的光。一个小小的火焰在空气中闪亮了一下，又很快熄灭。突然，整个房间亮了起来。有一会儿，女孩们沉默无语。

“妈妈？”

站在她们面前的是穿着黑色长外套的法妈。在灯光上，她突然变得矮小很多。她的脸色铁青而苍白。

“你们，”她说，“你们知道你们在干什么吗？”她的声音小的几乎听不到，却充满了整个房间。声音很尖很细，姐妹们能感觉到它像针线一样穿透她们的皮肤。

“你们以为我会没有注意到？”摩根刚开始说话，法妈已从三个妹妹那儿转向玛拉，给她们一个以后再说的表情。

她对着牢房门口的锁挥了挥手，锁咔嚓一声打开。

“来吧，”她说着，把门打开。

玛拉抬头用湿润和红红的眼睛看着她的母亲，但没有移步。 “妈妈，”她说。 “我很抱歉。”

挺直着背，瞪着冷冷的眼睛，法妈没有回应。

“我们已经试过了，”米娜尖着嗓子说，但看到母亲默默地瞪了她一眼，又躲回玛丽的身后。

法妈再次把牢门咔嚓一声关闭，看了她的大女儿最后一眼，转身向出口走去。姐妹们互相看着，皱起的额头充满了担心和困惑。

“摩根”，法妈说着，头也不回。 “给我们一些你的光。”灯光暗淡下来，而玛拉的牢房中再次出现了摩根的火球。它通过栏杆随着法妈飘走在过道上。玛丽和摩根把手透过栏杆伸向玛拉。米娜拽着她的衣服。

“你确定吗？”摩根说。

“好好照顾自己，”玛丽说。

姐妹们七手八脚地站起身，跟随她们的母亲出了门。

在前面的房间，锁在浴室的看守已经放弃了试图脱身。淙淙流水声从关闭的卫生间里传来，厕所的水仍在轻轻搅动。法妈看了一下门，又看了一下玛丽。玛丽微微点头，流水的噪音便停止了。

法妈伸出手来。

“钥匙”。

米娜把钥匙交给她的母亲，她手攥着钥匙，走出门外，示意她的女儿们隐藏在离房子不远的一丛灌木丛中。女孩们跟着她出了门，向灌木丛跑去。

火势已经蔓延，已靠近猫尾巴花丛的边缘。被她们引诱出来的看守拿着水桶在池塘和草地之间狂乱地跑来跑去，并对着空气大声的诅咒。法妈把她黑色外套的罩布披在头上。罩布又轻又黑，她似乎消失在黑暗之中。她快速无声地走到看守哪里，把钥匙扣回他的皮带上的，又无声地滑回她的女儿们等待的地方。回来时她已气喘吁吁。

她说：“我们要快点。他可能已经呼叫了增援。大家正在赶来的路上。“

女孩们立即站起来，即使这样，她们已开始听到人群从街上赶来的声音。路上投射过来的一个个拉长的身影，证实了法妈的猜测。

玛丽闭上眼睛，在地面漂浮的薄雾瞬时变成像云一样浓厚，几乎完全隐蔽了周围的房子。摩根烧亮了她的火球以清除法妈和姐妹们周围的浓雾。米娜拉着她们俩的手，跟着法妈，跑向小镇另一头的街道。

这段路跑得又快又静。姐妹们真想大声喘息，但她们知道，噪声会带给她们追加的惩罚。她们在想象回家后会发生什么。现在她们与法妈在一起，她们不再有那种让呼吸停止在喉咙里的对未知的紧张恐惧。代替它的是对妈妈的惩罚的畏缩焦虑。她们可以看到从母亲的小小身体里散发出的愤怒。

米娜在脑海里回想着今晚发生的事情，试图去理解每件发生的事都合附常情。她不太明白为什么玛拉不愿离开。然而，更令人费解的是，她的母亲为何如此轻易放弃。在法妈赶到时，米娜的那部分害怕被逮个正着的恐惧消除了。虽然姐妹们无法说服玛拉回家，法妈应该会有办法的。为什么母亲不试一试？她甚至似乎不关心，对玛拉蓬头垢面的形象没有如何的怜悯和感动。米娜不理解，她只能解释，认为母亲必然知道一些她们所不知道的东西。她真希望自己能和玛丽和摩根沟通一下，而且不用说话，就像她们相互之间那样。

但摩根和玛丽并没有互相沟通。她们各自迷失在她们自己的思想中。摩根不知道她们是如何被发现的，她偷偷溜出去那么多次，对母亲的提防措施从前到后了解得一清二楚。玛丽把今晚的事情重新演播了一番，她在寻找是否有什么细节被人注意到或怀疑，是否有什么地方可以值得改进。

她们转进塔玛尼巷，她们摇摇欲坠的房子就座落在巷尾， 其歪斜的黑色轮廓衬托着紫色的夜空。风吹拂着，在断断续续的雾块中，房子看上去就像是一个弯腰驼背的孤独的身影，为今晚的失败而悲痛。

Chapter 10 – Escape

The shadow grew in the frame of the door, and a gray orange light glowed behind it. Marie took a deep breath to clear her mind, knowing she would need all of her faculties, and reached for Morgan´s hand.

We got this, Morgan thought to her. Marie squeezed her sister´s hand and nodded in the dark.

The shadow started to move down the hall with long, brisk strides. Morgan concentrated, trying her best to bring back her light. A small flame flickered in the air between and quickly went out. Then, the whole room lit up. For a moment, the girls were silent.

“Mom?”

Standing in front of them was Fa Switch in her long black coat. Now that the lights were on, she suddenly appeared much shorter. Her face was livid and pale.

“What,” she said, “do you think you’re doing?” Her voice was a whisper that was almost inaudible yet filled the room. It was sharp and thin, and the sisters could feel it penetrating their skin like a needle and thread.

“Did you think I wouldn’t notice?” Morgan started to speak but Fa turned from the three younger sisters to Mara, giving them a look that said there would be more to discuss later.

She waved her hand over the lock of the cell door, and it clicked open immediately.

“Come,” she said, holding the gate open.

Mara looked up at her mother with wet, red eyes but didn’t budge. “Mom,” she said. “I’m so sorry.”

Back straight and eyes cold, Fa didn’t respond.

“We already tried,” Mina piped up, but hid behind Marie again when her mother shot her a silencing stare.

Fa clicked the cell door shut again, took one last look at her oldest daughter, and turned around. She walked toward the exit. The sisters looked at each other with folded foreheads that were at once worried and confused.

“Morgan,” Fa said without turning around. “Give us some of your light.” The lights dimmed, and Morgan’s ball of flame reappeared in Mara’s cell. It floated through the bars and down the hallway after Fa. Marie and Morgan reached through the bars and took Mara’s hand. Mina tugged on her dress.

“Are you sure?” Morgan said.

“Take care of yourself,” Marie said.

The sisters scrambled to their feet and followed their mother out of the door.

In the front room, the guard who had been locked in the bathroom had given up trying to get out. A light gurgling came from the closed bathroom door, the toilet still churning lightly. Fa looked at the door and then at Marie. Marie nodded slightly, and the noise stopped.

Fa held out her hand.

“The keys.”

Mina handed the keys to her mother, who clutched them in her hand, stepped outside, and motioned for her daughters to hide in a clump of bushes some yards from the house. The girls followed her out and ran to the bush.

By now the fire had grown and was lapping up the edge of the cattails. The officer they had lured outside was running about frantically to and from the water with the bucket, and was shouting curses in to the air. Fa Switch pulled the hood of her long black jacket over her head. The cloth was so light and dark that she seemed to disappear into the darkness. She walked swiftly and silently to where the officer was, looped the keys back on his belt, and glided noiselessly back to where her daughters were waiting. She arrived panting and out of breath.

“We have to hurry. He’s called for help. People are on their way.”

The girls got up immediately, but even as they did they started to hear the sound of a crowd coming down the street. The shadows of bodies elongated on the road confirmed their suspicions.

Marie closed her eyes, and the thin mist that already floated near the ground thickened into a cloudy fog that obscured the house almost completely. Mara burned the fire brighter to clear the fog near the sisters and Fa. Mina clutched both of their hands, and following Fa, they ran up the street towards the other side of town.

The walk was silent and quick. The sisters would have gasped to catch their breath, but they knew that the noise would bring them additional punishment from their mother. They wondered what would happen when they got home. Now that they were with Fa, the nervous fear of the unknown that made their breath stop in their throat was no longer there. It was replaced by a cowering anxiety. They could see their mother’s wrath emanating from her small body.

Mina turned the events of the night over in her mind, trying to make sense of what had happened. She couldn’t quite understand why Mara would not leave. More puzzling, however, was why her mother had so easily given up. When Fa arrived, the part of Mina that wasn’t terrified at being caught red handed was relieved. Even if the sisters could not convince Mara to go, Fa would make her. Why hadn’t her mother tried at all? She hadn’t even seemed to care, and didn’t appear hurt or moved by Mara’s disheveled appearance. Mina did not understand it, and could only explain it by thinking that Fa must know something that they did not. She wished that she could communicate to Marie and Morgan without speaking, like they could to each other.

But Morgan and Marie were not communicating with each other. Each was lost in her own thoughts. Morgan wondered how they had been caught: she had snuck out so many times and knew her mother’s precautions front to back. Marie rolled over the events of the evening, looking for gaps where someone might have seen them or suspected, trying to decide if there was anything that could have gone better.

They turned on Tamany Lane, where their rickety house sat on the end, a crooked black outline against the purple night sky. The wind was blowing, and in the pulsing fog, the house looked like it was bending over and clutching its middle–a lonely figure, grieving for the losses of the night.