12

Sometimes Rodrick just took my money outright. Once, when I lost one of my baby teeth, I put it under my pillow for the tooth fairy. But when I went to see if she left me fifty cents, I found a note that I'm pretty sure Rodrick wrote himself. SORRY I'M LIGHT ON CASH TONIGHT. I WILL HOOK YOU UP NEXT TIME. -T.F. Rodrick told me the tooth fairy was only ONE of the fairies that comes in the middle of the night and gives money. He said there was an arm fairy and a leg fairy and a bunch of other ones, too. Rodrick said that when you get older your child arms and legs fall off, and when they do, you put them under your pillow and get money.

有时候罗德里克直接把我的钱拿走了。 有一次，我掉了一颗乳牙，我把它放在枕头下面给牙仙子。 但当我去看她是否给我留下了50美分时，我发现了一张纸条，我敢肯定是罗德里克自己写的。 抱歉，我今晚没钱。 下次我帮你牵线。 - t·f·罗德里克告诉我，牙仙子只是半夜来给钱的仙子之一。 他说有一个胳膊仙子，一个腿仙子，还有一堆其他的仙子。 罗德里克说，当你长大的时候，你的孩子的胳膊和腿会掉下来，当他们这样做的时候，你把他们放在枕头下面，然后拿钱。

He said after THAT, your adult limbs start growing in, but sometimes a kid's arms or legs get loose and the adult ones come in early. I was TERRIFIED that was gonna happen to ME, so I checked every night to make sure my arms and legs were on tight. Rodrick was always coming up with ways to scare me. Back when our basement wasn't finished, there were open gaps under the stair treads.

他说，在那之后，成年人的四肢开始长出来，但有时孩子的胳膊或腿会变松，成年人的四肢就会提早长出来。 我很害怕这也会发生在我身上，所以我每天晚上都检查一下，确保我的胳膊和腿都绷紧了。 罗德里克总是想办法吓唬我。 当我们的地下室还没有完工的时候，楼梯踏板下面有一些敞开的缝隙。

Rodrick said if I went up the stairs too slow, a monster would grab my ankle. From then on, I started taking the stairs two at a time. After I got good at THAT, I tried taking the stairs THREE at a time. But I guess that was a little too ambitious.

罗德里克说如果我上楼太慢，怪物就会抓住我的脚踝。 从那时起，我开始一次爬两级楼梯。 当我擅长这个之后，我试着一次爬三个楼梯。 但我想这有点太雄心勃勃了。

Eventually we finished the basement and the gaps were covered up with wood. But GRAMMA'S basement is still unfinished, and before I go down there I usually make sure everything's all clear first. Another thing Rodrick said to scare me was that if I burped indoors, the ghost of George Washington would haunt me. I have no idea how he came up with THAT one, but it still makes me think twice before opening a can of soda.

最后，我们完成了地下室的施工，并用木头把缝隙盖上。 但奶奶的地下室还没完工，在我去地下室之前，我通常会先确保一切都好。 罗德里克说的另一件让我害怕的事是，如果我在室内打嗝，乔治·华盛顿的鬼魂就会缠着我。 我不知道他是怎么想出这个主意的，但它仍然让我在打开一罐苏打水之前三思。

Sometimes Rodrick would tell me something that actually COULD be true, and that's when things got confusing. He told me once that if a person sleeps with their mouth open they'll eat an average of five spiders a night, which is kind of believable if you think about it. Another time Rodrick told me that it's dangerous to wake someone up when they're sleepwalking. I thought there could be a chance he was actually telling the truth, because I'm pretty sure I heard that one somewhere else.

有时罗德里克会告诉我一些实际上可能是真的事情，这就是事情变得令人困惑的时候。 他曾经告诉我，如果一个人睡觉时张着嘴，他平均每晚会吃掉五只蜘蛛，仔细想想，这还挺可信的。 还有一次罗德里克告诉我，把梦游的人叫醒是很危险的。 我觉得他可能说的是真话，因为我很确定我在别的地方听过这句话。

But then a few nights later I caught Rodrick eating an ice cream sandwich that was supposed to be MINE and I realized it was just another one of his dirty tricks. I've been lied to so much over the years, it could take me the rest of my life to figure out what's true and what's not. In the meantime, I'm not taking any chances.

但几天后的一个晚上，我发现罗德里克在吃冰淇淋三明治，那本应该是我的，我意识到这只是他的另一个肮脏的把戏。 这些年来，我被骗了太多，我可能要用一辈子才能弄清楚什么是真的，什么是假的。 与此同时，我不会冒任何风险。