Which is what everybody else says, he said hesitantly, is hallucinations?
Yes, but Arthur that’s ridiculous. People think that if you just say “hallucinations” it explains anything you want it to explain and eventually whatever it is you can’t understand will just go away. It’s just a word, it doesn’t explain anything. It doesn’t explain why the dolphins disappeared.
No, said Arthur. No, he added thoughtfully. No, he added again, even more thoughtfully. What? he said at last.
Doesn’t explain the dolphins disappearing.
No, said Arthur, I see that. Which dolphins do you mean?
What do you mean which dolphins? I’m talking about when all the dolphins disappeared.
She put her hand on his knee, which made him realize that the tingling going up and down his spine was not her gently stroking his back, and must instead be one of the nasty creepy feelings he so often got when people were trying to explain things to him.
The dolphins?
Yes.
All the dolphins, said Arthur, disappeared?
Yes.
The dolphins? You’re saying the dolphins all disappeared? Is this, said Arthur, trying to be absolutely clear on this point, what you’re saying?
Arthur where have you been for heaven’s sake? The dolphins all disappeared on the same day I… She stared him intently in his startled eyes.
What?…
No dolphins. All gone. Vanished.
She searched his face.
Did you really not know that?
It was clear from his startled expression that he did not.
Where did they go? he asked.
No one knows. That’s what vanished means. She paused. Well, there is one man who says he knows about it, but everyone says he lives in California, she said, and is mad. I was thinking of going to see him because it seems the only lead I’ve got on what happened to me.
She shrugged, and then looked at him long and quietly. She lay her hand on the side of his face.
I really would like to know where you’ve been, she said. I think something terrible happened to you then as well. And that’s why we recognized each other.
She glanced around the park, which was now being gathered into the clutches of dusk.
Well, she said, now you’ve got someone you can tell.
Arthur slowly let out a long year of a sigh.
vt. 理解,懂,听说,获悉,将 ... 理解为,认为<