阿梅莉亞·費拉茲的履歷在伊內絲的平板上展開時，重校準欄已經有三筆。

When Amélia Ferraz’s history opened on Inês’s tablet, there were already three entries under recalibration.

四年前，吸收率百分之九十一。兩年前，八十四。去年秋天，七十六。每一筆後面跟著一個預估保持期，一次比一次短。

Four years ago, uptake ninety-one per cent. Two years ago, eighty-four. Last autumn, seventy-six. Each line ended with a projected retention period, and each was shorter than the last.

老化的神經對映射的保持力會衰退。教科書第一章。

Ageing neurons hold a mapping less well. Chapter one of the textbook.

老太太坐在白色椅子上，雙手疊在膝上，背沒有碰到椅背。她穿一件深灰色的布雷爾外套，埃什特雷拉山區那種壓縮羊毛，扣子扣到最上面一顆。

The old woman sat in the white chair with her hands folded in her lap, her back not touching the backrest. She wore a dark grey coat of burel, the felted wool they make up in the Serra da Estrela, buttoned to the top.

「又來了。」她說，像在說一個總是準時上門的親戚。

“Here we are again,” she said, the way you’d speak of a relative who always turns up on time.

伊內絲在主訴欄輸入：無法歸類之視覺經驗，第四次。這一行她每天要寫十幾次，手指自己會動。

In the presenting-complaint field Inês typed: unclassifiable visual experience, fourth episode. She wrote that line a dozen times a day; her fingers did it on their own.

「第四次了。」她說。

“Fourth time,” she said.

「Água mole em pedra dura……」阿梅莉亞太太說了半句俗語，沒有往下說。

“Água mole em pedra dura…“ Dona Amélia began, and left the rest of the proverb where it was.

「一樣的顏色？」

“The same colour?”

「一樣的。」她想了想，「也不太一樣。它沒有名字。」

“The same.” She thought about it. “Not quite the same. It hasn’t got a name.”

「能描述一下嗎？」

“Can you describe it?”

「它不是看到的。」阿梅莉亞太太伸出食指，在自己的前臂上慢慢劃了一道。「是發生的。會動，有溫度。我小時候，我媽給我編辮子，指節壓在頭皮上，一下一下。它就像那個。還有她縫扣子，線拉過去，布會抖一下。就那一下。」

“It isn’t seen.” Dona Amélia put out her forefinger and drew it slowly along her own forearm. “It happens. It moves, it’s warm. When I was small my mother used to plait my hair, her knuckles pressing on my scalp, one, then one. It’s like that. And when she sewed on a button — the thread pulls through and the cloth gives a little shiver. That shiver.”

伊內絲看了一眼她外套上的扣子。

Inês glanced at the buttons on her coat.

織娘的色彩資料庫有四千萬筆座標，從紫外到紅外，連螳螂蝦用來彼此打信號的偏振都有編號。伊內絲把描述丟進比對，系統回傳：無匹配。建議：情感標籤重校準。

The Tecelã’s colour library held forty million coordinates, ultraviolet to infrared, down to the polarisation mantis shrimp use to signal one another. Inês ran the description against it. No match. Recommendation: affective-label recalibration.

標準流程九分鐘。伊內絲按下執行。阿梅莉亞太太閉上眼睛，像在等一陣風過去。

Standard protocol, nine minutes. Inês pressed run. Dona Amélia closed her eyes like someone waiting for a gust of wind to pass.

結束時系統出了報告。吸收率百分之六十八，預估保持期四到五個月。報告最底下有一行灰色小字：記憶再鞏固事件，二十三起。伊內絲每份報告都看過這一行。它從來沒有標過紅。

When it finished, the system issued a report. Uptake sixty-eight per cent; projected retention four to five months. At the very bottom, in small grey type: memory reconsolidation events, 23. Inês had seen that line on every report she’d ever signed. It had never once been flagged red.

阿梅莉亞太太睜開眼，眨了兩下。

Dona Amélia opened her eyes and blinked twice.

「好多了。」她說。

“Much better,” she said.

伊內絲替她開門。走到門口，她隨口問：「您剛剛說，您母親縫扣子的時候——」

Inês held the door for her. On the threshold she said, almost in passing, “You were saying, when your mother sewed on a button—“

老太太回過頭，有點客氣地笑了笑。

The old woman turned and gave a small, polite smile.

「我說過嗎？」

“Did I say that?”

四個月後，女兒陪她來。

Four months later her daughter brought her.

麗塔四十幾歲，站著不坐，把一張急診出院單放在伊內絲桌上。格拉薩區的階梯巷，左手柯力氏骨折。

Rita was in her forties. She stayed standing, and put an A&E discharge note on Inês’s desk. The escadinhas in Graça. Colles fracture, left wrist.

「她走到一半停住，」麗塔說，「說台階在『發生』。我在後面，差點也跟著滾下去。」

“She stopped halfway down,” Rita said. “Said the steps were happening. I was behind her. I nearly went down with her.”

阿梅莉亞太太的左手腕打著石膏副木。外套還是那件深灰色的，最上面那顆扣子不見了，只剩一小撮斷掉的線頭。

Dona Amélia’s left wrist was in a plaster backslab. The coat was the same dark grey, but the top button was gone, leaving a small tuft of broken thread.

吸收率預估：百分之五十九。保持期：兩到三個月。建議欄多了一行：如下次保持期低於六週，建議轉入長期維護單位（深層覆寫）。

Projected uptake: fifty-nine per cent. Retention: two to three months. The recommendations field had one line more than before: if next retention falls below six weeks, refer to a Long-Term Maintenance unit (deep overwrite).

伊內絲知道深層覆寫是什麼。不再逐次校準，而是把容易出錯的感知通道整條換成穩定的預設映射。病人不會再看到任何不該存在的東西。病人也很少再描述任何東西。

Inês knew what deep overwrite was. No more recalibrations one at a time: the error-prone perceptual channels were replaced wholesale with stable default mappings. Patients stopped seeing anything that oughtn’t to be there. Patients rarely described anything much at all.

「這次會比較快嗎？」麗塔問。

“Will it be quicker this time?” Rita asked.

「標準流程九分鐘。」

“Standard protocol is nine minutes.”

伊內絲看著那一撮線頭。

Inês was looking at the tuft of thread.

「這次我想試另一種方式，」她說，「手動遮罩。只鎖定跟空間、深度、移動有關的通道，讓她下台階不會再停。其他的先不動。」

“I’d like to try something different this time,” she said. “Manual masking. I lock only the channels for space, depth and motion, so she won’t stop on the stairs again. The rest I leave alone for now.”

「其他的是什麼？」

“What’s the rest?”

「她說的那個顏色。」

“The colour she talks about.”

麗塔看了看母親，又看了看伊內絲。「那要多久？」

Rita looked at her mother, then at Inês. “How long does that take?”

「四個小時左右。」

“About four hours.”

「為什麼不全部修好？」

“Why not just fix all of it?”

「全面重校準會牽動記憶。上次有二十三起再鞏固事件，這次會更多。」

“Full recalibration touches memory. Last time there were twenty-three reconsolidation events. This time there’d be more.”

這是真的。

That was true.

麗塔到對面的小咖啡館等，喝了三杯 bica，等了四個小時。

Rita waited four hours in the café across the road and drank three bicas.

手動遮罩得一條通道一條通道地拉。伊內絲讓阿梅莉亞太太一邊做一邊說話，理由是監測反應。老太太說那個顏色出現在泡鱈魚乾的水裡——每天換水，換到第三天的那一盆；出現在窗外晾衣繩上被風掀起來的床單；出現在她自己摸自己手背的時候。伊內絲沒有用系統記錄。她另外開了一個本地文件，一句一句打下來，打錯字也沒停下來改。

Manual masking had to be drawn one channel at a time. Inês kept Dona Amélia talking throughout, on the grounds of monitoring her responses. The old woman said the colour came in the water the bacalhau soaked in — the third day’s water, after you’ve changed it twice. It came in the sheets on the line outside the window when the wind lifted them. It came when she touched the back of her own hand. Inês didn’t log any of it in the system. She opened a local file and typed it in sentence by sentence, and didn’t stop to fix the typos.

快結束時，伊內絲問：「您母親會縫衣服嗎？」

Near the end Inês asked, “Did your mother sew?”

阿梅莉亞太太想了很久。

Dona Amélia thought for a long time.

「應該會吧。」她說，「那個年代的女人都會。」

“I suppose so,” she said. “Women did, back then.”

存檔時，系統要求填寫偏離標準流程的理由。伊內絲寫：患者有跌倒史，優先處理動作安全。

On saving, the system asked for a reason for departing from standard protocol. Inês wrote: history of falls; motor safety prioritised.

每一個字都對。

Every word of it was true.

七週後，阿梅莉亞太太一個人來。

Seven weeks later Dona Amélia came alone.

外套上的扣子縫回去了。線是白的，扣子是深灰的，針腳歪成一個斜十字，線頭沒剪乾淨。

The button was back on her coat. White thread, dark grey button, the stitches skewed into a crooked cross, the ends not quite trimmed.

「我自己縫的。」她看見伊內絲在看。「縫的時候它一直在。」

“I did it myself.” She’d seen Inês looking. “It was there the whole time I was sewing.”

遮罩撐住了。她上下台階再也沒有停過。但履歷上多了一行伊內絲沒見過的數字：未映射通道活動，較上次上升百分之三百四十。

The mask had held. She hadn’t stopped on a stair since. But there was a figure on her record Inês had never seen before: unmapped channel activity, up 340 per cent since last visit.

那個顏色擴散了。它在燒開水的蒸氣裡，在麗塔切羽衣甘藍煮綠菜湯的手上，在晚上的天花板上。以前它一個月來一兩次，現在它不走了。

The colour had spread. It was in the steam off the kettle, in Rita’s hands shredding couve for the caldo verde, on the ceiling at night. It used to come once or twice a month. Now it didn’t leave.

「晚上最難。」阿梅莉亞太太說，「關燈以後它還在。它不是可怕的東西。可是它一直在發生，我不知道它要發生到什麼時候。格拉薩教堂敲三點，我還醒著；敲五點，我還醒著。我一閉眼，它就在眼皮裡面。」

“Nights are the worst,” Dona Amélia said. “When the light’s off it’s still there. It isn’t a frightening thing. But it keeps happening, and I don’t know how long it means to go on happening. The Graça bells ring three and I’m awake. They ring five and I’m awake. I close my eyes and it’s on the inside of my eyelids.”

她眼睛下面有兩塊青色。伊內絲調出腕動計紀錄：過去三週，平均每晚睡眠兩小時十一分。

There were two bruise-coloured hollows under her eyes. Inês pulled up the actigraphy: over the last three weeks, an average of two hours eleven minutes’ sleep a night.

阿梅莉亞太太從手提袋裡拿出一張摺了兩次的紙，攤在桌上。知情同意書：轉入長期維護單位，深層覆寫。病人簽名欄簽好了，字有點抖。下面空著一格：主責校正師副署。

Dona Amélia took a sheet of paper, folded twice, out of her handbag and smoothed it on the desk. Informed consent: referral to a Long-Term Maintenance unit, deep overwrite. She had signed where the patient signs, a little shakily. Below was an empty box: countersignature of attending calibrator.

「麗塔說妳會簽。」

“Rita says you’ll sign.”

伊內絲沒有碰那張紙。

Inês didn’t touch the paper.

「如果我不簽，」她說，「系統會轉給別的校正師。」

“If I don’t,” she said, “the system will pass you to another calibrator.”

「我知道。」

“I know.”

「那您為什麼來找我？」

“Then why come to me?”

阿梅莉亞太太低頭看著自己縫的那顆扣子。

Dona Amélia looked down at the button she had sewn on.

「因為妳上次聽了四個小時。」她說，「我想，至少應該跟妳說一聲。」

“Because last time you listened for four hours,” she said. “I thought I ought at least to tell you.”

伊內絲把那份本地文件點開，捲到最底，又關上。

Inês opened the local file, scrolled to the bottom, and closed it again.

她簽了。

She signed.

深層覆寫排在三天後的下午。

The overwrite was booked for three days later, in the afternoon.

阿梅莉亞太太穿著那件外套來。伊內絲讓她坐好，連上線，一切準備就緒，然後在執行鍵上停住。

Dona Amélia came in the coat. Inês settled her, connected her, made everything ready, and then stopped with her finger over run.

「再說一次給我聽，」伊內絲說，「那個顏色。」

“Tell me once more,” Inês said. “The colour.”

她拉開抽屜翻了很久，在最裡面找到一支原子筆，又到候診區的取號機撕了一長條號碼單，翻到背面。

She went through the drawer for a long time and found a biro at the very back, then tore a strip of number tickets off the queue machine in the waiting room and turned them over.

阿梅莉亞太太說了。比第一次短，有幾個地方停下來，像在找一個已經不在原處的詞。辮子她沒有提。扣子她提了，說是她自己縫的。

Dona Amélia told her. It was shorter than the first time, and in places she stopped, as if feeling for a word that was no longer where she’d left it. She didn’t mention the plaits. She mentioned the button, and said she’d sewn it herself.

伊內絲沒有糾正她。她一句一句寫在號碼單背面，一張寫滿換下一張。她很久沒有用手寫字，筆畫歪歪扭扭的。

Inês didn’t correct her. She wrote it down sentence by sentence on the backs of the tickets, one full, then the next. She hadn’t written by hand in a long time, and the letters came out crooked.

寫完，她按了執行。

When she’d finished, she pressed run.

四十分鐘。系統報告：吸收率百分之九十九點六，預估保持期：永久。記憶再鞏固事件：一千四百一十二起。

Forty minutes. System report: uptake ninety-nine point six per cent; projected retention: permanent. Memory reconsolidation events: 1,412.

這一行是紅的。

That line was red.

阿梅莉亞太太睜開眼睛，坐了一會兒，像剛睡完一場很好的午覺。

Dona Amélia opened her eyes and sat for a while, like someone waking from a very good siesta.

「謝謝妳。」她說，「外面天氣好像很好。」

“Obrigada,” she said. “It looks a lovely day out.”

伊內絲送她到門口。老太太走下診所前那三級白色石板台階，一步都沒停。外套上那顆扣子在陽光底下歪著，白線頭翹起來一點。

Inês saw her to the door. The old woman went down the three white calçada steps outside the clinic without a pause. The button on her coat sat crooked in the sun, a white end of thread sticking up.

伊內絲回到診間，把那疊號碼單對齊，對摺，放進抽屜最裡面，和那支原子筆放在一起。她鎖上抽屜。

Inês went back in, squared the tickets, folded them, and put them at the very back of the drawer with the biro. She locked the drawer.

平板上跳出下一位病人的履歷。重校準紀錄，一筆。

The next patient’s history came up on the tablet. Recalibrations: one.

她按下呼叫。候診區的螢幕叮了一聲：A048。

She pressed call. In the waiting room the screen chimed: A048.