雙語讀電影 《愛麗絲夢(mèng)游仙境-2》第14章 :如果三年的航海經(jīng)歷教會(huì)了我什么的話，

A bright light woke Alice. She cracked her eyes open, raising her hand to shield them. Feeling a bit dizzy, she sat up slowly. 
She was lying in a metal-framed bed. The room was shaped in a peculiar circle and f?illed with other beds, all of them empty. Across the room, a man in a white doctor’s coat stood in front of a washbasin mirror, smoothing his hair. 
Fabric rustled and Alice turned to see her mother in a chair by her side. 
A creeping suspicion snuck into Alice’s mind. Where had her mother brought her? This place was strange and oddly menacing. Surely she hadn’t locked her up in an asylum ... had she? 
Drifting up to the sides of her head, Alice’s f?ingers patted half frantically at the strands of her hair. They were shorter than they should have been—much shorter. Someone had cut her hair while she’d slept. 
“Where am I?” Alice asked. “How long have I been here?” 
“Not long,” her mother said reassuringly. “You were in an upstairs room at the Ascots. Perhaps you fainted?” 
“No,” Alice said. She hadn’t fainted; she was sure of that. She was not the fainting sort. 
Helen darted a glance at the doctor, who was approaching, then lowered her voice. “They say you were trying to get under the furniture. Talking about the atmosphere?” Her eyes looked worried. 
“The Chronosphere,” the doctor clarif?ied, peering at his notes. 
“The Chronosphere!” Alice began patting her clothes. The sphere was gone. “I have to get it back and save the Hightopps before the end of Time!” 
“Let’s see,” the doctor said, marking things down on his clipboard. “Excitable, emotional, prone to fantasy—a textbook case of female hysteria.” 
Alice glared at him, but Helen ignored the doctor and brought her face close to Alice’s. Brushing her hand over Alice’s cheek, she spoke soothingly. “Alice, please,” she said. “You’ve had a long voyage and you’re exhausted. We can all agree to that.” 
Just beyond her mother’s head, Alice spotted a table laid out with medical tools. A gigantic syringe f?illed with golden liquid gleamed ominously at her. 
“Excuse us, Mrs. Kingsleigh,” Dr. Bennet interrupted. “What Alice needs right now is a long, dreamless sleep.” He nodded to two orderlies who had just entered. 
The orderlies reached Helen’s side, and their hands gently guided her toward the door. She obeyed reluctantly, staring back over her shoulder at her struggling daughter as though she wasn’t sure she was doing the right thing. 
As Dr. Bennet lifted his eyes to watch them leave, Alice’s hand snaked out to the side, then quickly back. The door swung shut behind her mother, and Dr. Bennet turned toward his tools. 
“That’s odd,” he muttered. “Where did I put the nee—” 
Springing up, Alice plunged the needle into the doctor’s back. She injected the golden liquid, then leapt out of the way as he slumped toward the f?loor. 
“Oi!” An orderly shouted as he came back into the room. He and his partner raced toward her. 
Alice crouched and snatched the key ring from Dr. Bennet’s side. Her eyes landed on her father’s pocket watch, which the doctor must have conf?iscated, among the tools. Grabbing that, too, Alice vaulted over the next bed as the orderlies pounded near. She shoved through the door and out into the main hallway. 
Rushing out after her, the men shouted to their colleagues. More orderlies poured into the hallway from the other direction and Alice skidded to a stop, the soles of her shoes sliding on the wooden f?loorboards. She pivoted sharply and barreled up a stairwell, taking the steps two at a time. At the top, she heard music coming from behind a set of double doors. 
As she weighed her options, Alice glanced down the stairwell. The orderlies were panting as they jogged toward her. Quickly, she ducked through the doors and found herself surrounded by a soothing harmony. 
F?ifty or so patients sat on stiff wooden chairs, facing the front, where a string quartet played for them. Slouched against the wall, a bored orderly had his back to her. 
Alice slid into a row, excusing herself to the people she passed. They gazed blankly up at her as she made her way to an empty seat. Just as the doors swung inward and a very out-of-breath group of orderlies tramped in, Alice slipped onto the chair. Out of the corner of her eye, Alice watched as they split up and began searching the crowd. 
“Alice?” a soft voice asked. 
The song came to an end and Alice recognized her own aunt sitting in front of her. What was she doing there? 
“Aunt Imogene!” Alice said in surprise. 
Her aunt twisted in her seat, her kind face full of hope. “Have you seen my f?iancé?” 
Alice shook her head sadly. Poor Aunt Imogene. Alice couldn’t believe her relatives had locked up her aunt just because she had an imaginary romance. It was perfectly harmless! Evidently her family couldn’t cope with any women who had imagination. 
The musicians’ bows sliced across their instruments as the next song started. With a covert sideways glance, Alice noticed an orderly spot her and start gesturing at his partner. Together, they waded through the patients toward her. 
“He’s a prince, you know,” Aunt Imogene continued blissfully. “He’s coming to get me. All I need to do is wait.” 
Alice leaned forward and pressed the set of keys into her aunt’s hands, gazing into her eyes intently. 
“Don’t wait any longer, Aunt Imogene,” she whispered. As she knew all too well, you had to make the most of your time. Alice sprang to her feet and darted down the row away from the orderlies. 
With a shout, they surged forward, but Alice was already out of the room through another door and climbing up a narrow staircase. 
At the top, Alice emerged on the asylum’s roof. Just then, the door she’d come through was f?lung open. Alice darted toward the f?lag pole, a crazy plan in her head. 
She grabbed the rope and wrapped one end around her waist, her f?ingers moving rapidly. 
“If three years at sea taught me anything,” she muttered to herself, securing the other end to the base of the f?lagpole, “it was how to tie a bloody good knot!” 
Alice spared a glance at the advancing orderlies as she gathered up the slack in the rope; then she spun and leapt off the roof. 
Her feet slammed against the bricks and she pushed off again, letting out more slack in the rope. Below her, an empty carriage waited outside the asylum. Jumping down into the open carriage, she landed with a thud on the cloth seat. 
The horses whinnied in alarm and jolted forward. Alice had to move fast to scramble up into the driver’s seat, untying the rope from her waist as she went. 
“Oi!” The carriage driver raced out from the building, waving frantically at her. “You can’t take that!” 
As she gathered up the reins, Alice turned to wave at him apologetically. “Sorry. Needs must,” she called. “I plead insanity!” 
There was hardly anyone else on the roads, and Alice passed unnoticed through the moon lit landscape. She f?inally pulled the carriage to a stop outside the drive to the Ascots’ mansion. 
Silently, Alice made her way along the path. No movement came from within the Ascot mansion, everyone inside surely fast asleep at that hour. She circled the building until she found a window that had been left ajar. 
With a strong push, she hefted the pane higher, and she wriggled her way up and through, landing in a disheveled heap on a couch just under the window. Sitting up, she recognized the library. Alice strode to the oak door and tugged. 
It didn’t budge. 
She tried again, throwing her weight backward and gripping the knob with both hands. 
Nothing. 
Creak. Alice froze at a noise behind her. As she turned slowly, her heart sank. 
Across the room, James Harcourt sat at a desk, pen in hand. His eyebrows were raised in surprise as he studied her. He slowly got to his feet and edged past a piano toward her. 
Alice backed away. “Please,” she whispered desperately. 
Stopping in front of the door, James lightly pushed against it. The door inched open as he stepped back, smiling. 
“It’s easier if you push,” he said. 
“Thank you!” Alice’s shoulders relaxed. 
“They’re going to ask your mother to sign over the ship. Seeing’s you’re so unwell,” James added as Alice moved toward the door. 
“Buy me some time?” she asked. 
He nodded and Alice shot him a smile before ducking out the door and heading upstairs. 
In the dusty parlor, Alice dropped to the f?loor, searching frantically along the Persian rug and under the chairs. Her heart raced. Where is it? 
Then something twinkled under the sideboard. 
There! 
Alice lunged toward it. Wrapping her f?ingers around the Chronosphere, she brought it to her chest with relief. As she stood, the looking glass shifted, the silver mist swirling once again within the frame. 
Newly determined, Alice climbed up onto the mantelpiece, a f?ierce look in her eyes. With the Chronosphere in one hand and her father’s pocket watch in the other, she stepped through the looking glass one more time. 

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