我真正進入彈珠玩具的咒術世界是1973年的事。那半年左右,我覺得好像在黑洞裡過的似的。在草原正中央挖了一口適合我尺寸的洞穴,在那裡蒙起頭把身體埋進去,並塞起耳朵斷絕所有的聲音。任何事情發生也引不起我的興趣。而每天傍晚一醒過來就穿上大衣,到遊樂場的角落裡消遣時間。
機器是好不容易才找到的三把式「太空船」,跟傑式酒吧完全相同的機型。硬幣放進去壓一下開始的按鈕,機器便動也不動一下就發出一連串的聲音,出現10個目標,得獎燈消失,得分還原成6個0,球道彈出第一粒彈珠,無限的硬幣丟進機器,那恰是一個月後冷雨下個不停的初冬的黃昏。我的得分像氣球拋下最後一包砂袋一樣,越過了第6位數。
我把顫抖的手指像要擰下揮把的按鈕似的放著,背靠在牆上,一面喝著冷得像冰一樣的罐裝啤酒,一面長時間凝視著得分板上標示出來的105220這6位數字。
我和彈珠玩具的短暫蜜月就那樣開始了。
*本書中譯本<<1973>>由時報出版。
Pinball, 1973 is Murakami's second novel, available for the first time in English outside Japan. With a new introduction by the author.
Hear the Wind Sing and Pinball, 1973 are Haruki Murakami’s earliest novels. They follow the fortunes of the narrator and his friend, known only by his nickname, the Rat. Pinball, 1973 picks up three years after the events of Hear the Wind Sing. The narrator has moved to Tokyo to work as a translator and live with indistinguishable twin girls, but the Rat has remained behind, despite his efforts to leave both the town and his girlfriend. The narrator finds himself haunted by memories of his own doomed relationship but also, more bizarrely, by his short-lived obsession with playing pinball in J’s Bar. This sends him on a quest to find the exact model of pinball machine he had enjoyed playing years earlier: the three-flipper Spaceship.