5. The Plunge

5 The Plunge Carmen waited until the other children were out of sight before continuing up the steps with Stanley. Stanley wished she hadn't sent his friends away. "Why couldn't they come, too?" he sulked. "Because they could not," Carmen declared. "They were just trying to help," Stanley said. "They came all this way, and you made them stop just steps from La Abuela's house. It's not fair." He kicked a step hard with his toe. "Stanley," Carmen said. "How did you become flat?" "The bulletin board over my bed squashed me in the middle of the night," Stanley grumbled. "Was that fair?" said Carmen. "No." Stanley shook his head. "It wasn't fair at all. People make fun of me. They stare at me.

卡门一直等到其他孩子都看不见了，才和斯坦利一起继续上台阶。 斯坦利真希望她没有把他的朋友们赶走。 “他们为什么不能也来呢?”他生气地说。 “因为他们不能。”卡门说。 “他们只是想帮忙，”斯坦利说。 “他们大老远跑来，你让他们在离外婆家几步远的地方停下来。 这不公平。”他用脚趾狠狠地踢了一脚。 “斯坦利，”卡门说。“你是怎么变平的?”“我床上的布告栏在半夜把我压扁了。”斯坦利抱怨道。 “这样公平吗?”卡门说。 “没有。”斯坦利摇了摇头。 “这一点都不公平。人们取笑我。 他们盯着我看。

Sometimes I wish it had been my brother, Arthur." Carmen nodded thoughtfully. Together, they climbed the last step. Stanley took a moment to straighten himself and flatten his hair before stepping inside to meet La Abuela.

有时候我真希望那是我哥哥，亚瑟。” 卡门若有所思地点了点头。 他们一起爬上了最后一级台阶。 斯坦利花了一点时间整理了一下自己，整理了一下头发，然后走进屋里去见拉阿布拉。

"Hello?" Stanley called, leaning through the archway. ".Hola? La Abuela?" His voice echoed from one end of the building to the other. It was empty. There wasn't even any furniture. "Where is she?" Stanley said. Carmen walked across the floor. She turned to face Stanley, her silhouette framed by an archway identical to the one they had entered. "When I was your age," Carmen said, "only boys were matadors. Even then, I knew I wanted to fight bulls. I cried very much, because it was not fair. It was not fair that I was a girl. It was not fair that I had this body. "But then, someone very wise told me a secret. And now I will tell that secret to you: It is not what you have that matters," said Carmen. "It is what you do with it." She beckoned for Stanley to come and look. Stanley gasped. There were no steps down the other side of the pyramid. In fact, there was no other side to the pyramid at all. There was only a cliff that dropped from this side of the building

“喂?”斯坦利叫道，身子探过拱门。 “.Hola ?La祖母吗?”他的声音从大楼的一头传到另一头。 它是空的。甚至没有任何家具。 “她在哪儿?”斯坦利说。 卡门走过地板。 她转过身来面对斯坦利，她的剪影被一道拱门映衬着，和他们进来时一模一样。 “我像你这么大的时候，”卡门说，“只有男孩才会当斗牛士。 即使在那时，我也知道我想和公牛搏斗。 我哭得很厉害，因为这不公平。 我是个女孩是不公平的。 我拥有这样的身体是不公平的。 “但是，一个非常聪明的人告诉了我一个秘密。 现在我要告诉你这个秘密:你拥有什么并不重要，”卡门说。 “关键是你用它做什么。” 她示意斯坦利过来看看。 斯坦利气喘吁吁地说。金字塔的另一边没有台阶。 事实上，金字塔根本就没有另一面。 只有一座悬崖从大楼的这边垂下来

like a huge wall, all the way down to a blue pool of water far, far below. The green of the jungle made a blanket over the land. Stanley felt as if he could see for miles. "So where does La Abuela live?" he said. "I don't know," said Carmen. "What?" "No one has ever been able to go beyond this point to find her. I know only that the water leads to her." "But how are we supposed to get down to the water?" "We are not," said Carmen. "You are." Stanley was speechless. Carmen's dark eyes twinkled. "What are you going to do with what you have, Stanley?" Stanley peered over the edge. He could not float down like a kite, because there was no wind. And this was nothing like Niagara Falls, which had been an accident, in any case. In a flash, Stanley knew what he had to do. He took several big steps back. "Buena suerte," Carmen whispered. "Good luck." He took three deep breaths.

就像一堵巨大的墙，一直延伸到远处的蓝色水池。 丛林的绿色像毯子一样覆盖着大地。 斯坦利觉得他能看到几英里远的地方。 “那么拉阿布拉住在哪里?”他说。 “我不知道，”卡门说。 “什么?”“从来没有人能够越过这个点找到她。 我只知道水是通向她的。” “可是我们怎么到水里去呢?”“我们不是，”卡门说。 “你是。”斯坦利说不出话来。 卡门的黑眼睛闪着光。 “你打算怎么处理你的财产呢，斯坦利?”斯坦利从悬崖边上往外看。 他不能像风筝一样飘下来，因为没有风。 这一点也不像尼亚加拉大瀑布，无论如何，那都是一场意外。 刹那间，斯坦利知道他该怎么做了。 他后退了几大步。 “美丽的阳光。”卡门低声说。 “祝你好运”。他深吸了三口气。

And then he ran and dived over the edge.

然后他跑下去，从悬崖边跳下去。