深夜小狗神秘事件

十五歲的克里斯托弗·布恩擁有超強的記憶力和邏輯思維能力，他知道世界上所有國家及其首都的名稱，能說出7057以內(nèi)的全部質(zhì)數(shù)，可以輕松解開復(fù)雜的數(shù)學(xué)問題;但他卻無法理解常人的情感和交流方式，不能忍受噪音和人群，厭惡別人碰觸他的身體，喜歡單獨待在狹小安靜的空間里;他固執(zhí)地用規(guī)律、秩序和可預(yù)見性在這雜亂的世界上為自己營造出一片安全地帶——他是一名自閉癥患者。

一天夜里，克里斯托弗發(fā)現(xiàn)鄰居家的狗威靈頓慘遭謀殺。他決意要查出真兇，并以這本書來記錄他的探案經(jīng)過。但在追查真相的過程中，他卻無意間與自己家庭的深重危機迎面相撞，他努力構(gòu)建的小小世界也遇到了前所未有的沖擊……

看書的標(biāo)題和情節(jié)介紹，你會以為這是一本推理懸疑小說，但稍稍“劇透”一下，其實謎底在讀到一半的時候就已經(jīng)揭曉了;看書的題材和那貌似稚嫩的語言，你又會覺得這或許就是一本單純的兒童小說，但讀著讀著就知道沒那么簡單;讀到后來，你甚至?xí)耄哼@就是一本很好的心理學(xué)書籍嘛，把一個自閉癥少年的內(nèi)心世界寫得如此真實可感……盡管不知這本書該歸為何類，但從克里斯托弗異于常人的視角和口吻、那以質(zhì)數(shù)命名的章節(jié)名，還有散落在書中的各種表情符號、圖表、智力題、清單、照片等等文字之外的元素來看，這都是一本特別的書，等待你的將是一場獨特而深刻的閱讀體驗。

I pulled the fork out of the dog and lifted him into my arms and hugged him. He was leaking blood from the fork holes.

I like dogs. You always know what a dog is thinking. It has four moods. Happy， sad， cross and concentrating. Also， dogs are faithful and they do not tell lies because they cannot talk.

I had been hugging the dog for 4 minutes when I heard screaming. I looked up and saw Mrs. Shears running towards me from the patio. She was wearing pajamas and a housecoat. Her toenails were painted bright pink and she had no shoes on.

She was shouting， “What in fuck’s name have you done to my dog？”

I do not like people shouting at me. It makes me scared that they are going to hit me or touch me and I do not know what is going to happen.

“Let go of the dog，” （she shouted.）“Let go of the dog for Christ’s sake.”

I put the dog down on the lawn and moved back 2 meters.

She bent down. I thought she was going to pick the dog up herself， but she didn’t. Perhaps she noticed how much blood there was and didn’t want to get dirty. Instead she started screaming again.

I put my hands over my ears and closed my eyes and rolled forward till I was hunched up with my forehead pressed onto the grass. The grass was wet and cold.

Then the police arrived. I like the police. They have uniforms and numbers and you know what they are meant to be doing. There was a policewoman and a policeman. The policewoman had a little hole in her tights on her left ankle and a red scratch in the middle of the hole. The policeman had a big orange leaf stuck to the bottom of his shoe which was poking out from one side.

The policewoman put her arms round Mrs. Shears and led her back towards the house.

I lifted my head off the grass.

The policeman squatted down beside me （and said，） “Would you like to tell me what’s going on here， young man？”

I sat up （and said，） “The dog is dead.”

“I’d got that far，” （he said.）

（I said，） “I think someone killed the dog.”

“How old are you？” （he asked.）

（I replied，） “I’m 15 years and 3 months and 2 days.”

“And what， precisely， were you doing in the garden？”（he asked.）

“I was holding the dog，” （I replied.）

“And why were you holding the dog？”（he asked.）

This was a difficult question. It was something I wanted to do. I like dogs. It made me sad to see that the dog was dead.

I like policemen， too， and I wanted to answer the question properly， but the policeman did not give me enough time to work out the correct answer.

“Why were you holding the dog？” （he asked again.）

“I like dogs，”（I said.）

“Did you kill the dog？” （he asked.）

（I said，） “I did not kill the dog.”

“Is this your fork？” （he asked.）

（I said，） “No.”

“You seem very upset about this，” （he said.）

He was asking too many questions and he was asking them too quickly. They were stacking up in my head like loaves in the factory where Uncle Terry works. The factory is a bakery and he operates the slicing machine. And sometimes the slicer is not working fast enough but the bread keeps coming and there is a blockage. I sometimes think of my mind as a machine， but not always as a bread-slicing machine. It makes it easier to explain to other people what is going on inside it.

（The policeman said，） “I am going to ask you once again…”

I rolled back onto the lawn and pressed my forehead onto the ground again and made the noise that Father calls groaning. I make this noise when there is too much information coming into my head from the outside world. It is like when you are upset and you hold the radio against your ear and you tune it halfway between two stations so that all you get is white noise and then you turn the volume right up so that this is all you can hear and then you know you are safe because you cannot hear anything else.

The policeman took hold of my arm and lifted me onto my feet.

I didn’t like him touching me like this.

And this is when I hit him.

我把鐵叉從狗身上拔出來，把狗抱進(jìn)懷里。鮮血從鐵叉扎出的洞里滲出來。

我喜歡狗。狗的心思很容易了解。它們有四種情緒：高興、難過、生氣和專注。而且，狗很忠誠，不會說謊，因為它們不會說話。

我一直抱著它，直到四分鐘后我聽到有人尖叫。我抬頭看到希爾斯太太正穿過院子朝我跑來。她穿著睡衣和一件家居外套，趾甲涂成了亮粉色，腳上沒有穿鞋。

她大嚷著：“該死的，你把我的狗怎么了？”

我不喜歡有人沖我大喊大叫，這讓我害怕他們會打我或者碰我，而且我不知道之后會發(fā)生什么事。

“把狗放下！”（她大喊道，）“看在上帝的份上，放下那只狗。”

我把狗放在草地上，向后退了兩米。

她彎下腰。我以為她要自己抱起那只狗，但她卻沒有。也許她發(fā)現(xiàn)那兒有很多血，不想把自己弄臟。出乎我意料的是，她又一次尖叫起來。

我捂住耳朵，閉上眼睛，蜷起身體，直到額頭貼到草地。草地又濕又涼。

后來警察來了。我喜歡警察，因為他們都穿制服，有編號，而且你知道他們會干些什么。來的是一個女警察和一個男警察。女警察的絲襪在左腳踝處破了個小洞，洞中央有一道紅色的刮痕。男警察的一只鞋底上粘了一片橙色的大葉子，葉子從鞋底的一邊露了出來。

女警察摟著希爾斯太太的肩，扶她進(jìn)屋。

我把頭從草地上抬起來。

男警察蹲在我旁邊，（說：）“能告訴我這兒發(fā)生了什么事嗎，小伙子？”

我坐起身，（說：）“這只狗死了。”

“這我已經(jīng)知道了。”（他說。）

（我說：）“我想是有人殺了它。”

“你多大了？”（他問。）

（我回答道：）“十五歲三個月零兩天。”

“那么，你剛才都在這花園里做了什么呢？”（他問。）

“我抱著這只狗。”（我回答。）

“你為什么要抱著這只狗？”（他問。）

這是一個很難回答的問題。我就是想這么做。我喜歡狗，看到狗死了我很難過。

我也喜歡警察，我想好好回答這個問題，但是這位警察沒有給我足夠的時間來找到正確的答案。

“你為什么要抱著這只狗？”（他又問了一遍。）

“我喜歡狗。”（我說。）

“是你殺了它嗎？”（他問。）

（我說：）“沒有。”

“這把鐵叉是你的嗎？”（他問。）

（我說：）“不是。”

“你好像對這件事感到很難過。”（他說。）

他問了太多問題，而且問得太快。這些問題堆積在我的大腦里，就像特里叔叔工作的面包工廠里的大塊面包。他在那里負(fù)責(zé)操作切片機。有時切刀切得不夠快，而面包卻又不停地傳送過來，就會形成擁堵。我有時會把我的大腦想象成一臺機器——不過不一定就是面包切片機——這樣比較容易向人解釋那里都發(fā)生了些什么。

（他說：）“我再問你一遍……”

我再次在草坪上蜷起身體，把額頭貼在地上，發(fā)出一種爸爸稱為“呻吟”的聲音。當(dāng)外界有太多信息一下子躥入我的腦中時，我就會發(fā)出這樣的聲音。這就好比你在煩亂不堪時，把收音機貼在耳邊，把它調(diào)到兩個電臺之間的頻段，然后把音量調(diào)到最大。這樣，你就只能聽到沙沙的雜音。這樣，你就會有安全感，因為聽不到任何其他的聲音。

男警察拽住我的胳膊，把我從地上拉了起來。

我不喜歡他這樣碰我。

于是，我打了他。

穿休閑服

Penguin： I’ve been invited to a party.

John： Then why so sad？

Penguin： The invitation said “dress casual”.

企鵝：我被邀請參加一個派對。

John：那為什么這么傷心？

企鵝：邀請說：“穿休閑服”。