8. In the Mail

8 In the Mail At the end of the awards ceremony, Stanley joined all the special guests onstage for the grand finale. Arthur paced before the line of performers like a general. Stanley was on the end. "This is it!" Arthur said. "Ready?" A murmur of excitement went down the line. Yang, the Flying Chinese Wonder, leaned forward and winked at Stanley. Stanley noticed that, beside him, Carmen del Junco and Oda Nobu were holding hands. "Commence countdown!" Arthur hollered. "Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two… one!" Yin flipped high into the air and landed on her brother Yang's shoulders. Yang bent his knees, and the pair launched straight upward like a rocket. Yang landed on Oda Nobu's shoulders, so they

在颁奖典礼结束时，斯坦利和所有的特别嘉宾一起站在舞台上进行最后的表演。 阿瑟像将军一样在表演队伍前踱来踱去。 斯坦利在最后。“就是这个!”阿瑟说。 “准备好了吗?”一阵兴奋的低语声传遍了电话那头。 “飞翔的中国奇迹”杨，身体前倾，对斯坦利眨了眨眼睛。 斯坦利注意到，在他旁边，卡门·德尔·琼科和织田伸手牵着手。 “开始倒计时!”亚瑟大声喊道。 “十、九、八、七、六、五、四、三、二……一!”尹跳到空中，落在她哥哥杨的肩膀上。 杨弯下膝盖，两人像火箭一样笔直向上发射。 杨落在Oda Nobu的肩膀上，所以他们

were now three people tall. At that moment, Carmen del Junco grabbed Stanley's hands and spun him around. His feet left the ground, and she let go. Stanley arced around the theater like a boomerang, until he saw Yang's face come into view, and they grabbed each other's hands.

我们现在有三个人那么高。 就在那一刻，卡门·德尔·琼科抓住斯坦利的手，把他转了个身。 他的脚离开了地面，她松手了。 斯坦利像回旋镖一样绕着剧院转了一圈，直到他看到了杨的脸，他们抓住了对方的手。

Stanley held his body out to the side and waved his legs gently atop the flagpole formed by his friends. The crowd leaped to their feet. "That's my boy!" cried his father. "Bravo!" yelled the president of the United States. "Be careful!" cried Stanley's mother. High over his friends from all over the world, Stanley waved his body proudly. "Now me!" called Arthur. That spring, Arthur and Stanley were playing in their room at home when their mother burst in. "Look!" she cried, waving an enormous envelope. "What is it?" asked Stanley. "Open it!" said his mother. The envelope was made of thick, creamy paper, and Stanley slipped his finger under the flap and slit it open. He pulled out a grand square of paper and read:

斯坦利把身子伸到一边，在朋友们搭成的旗杆上轻轻地挥动着双腿。 人群一跃而起。 “这是我的孩子!”他的父亲叫道。 “太棒了!”美国总统喊道。 “小心!”斯坦利的妈妈叫道。 斯坦利高高站在来自世界各地的朋友们的头顶上，骄傲地挥舞着他的身体。 “现在轮到我了!”那年春天，阿瑟和斯坦利正在家里的房间里玩，这时他们的母亲闯了进来。 “看!”她喊道，挥舞着一个巨大的信封。 “这是什么?”斯坦利问。 “打开它!”他妈妈说。 信封是用厚厚的奶油色的纸做的，斯坦利把手指伸进封口下面，把它撕开。 他抽出一张很大的正方形纸，读道:

You are cordially invited to join us in celebrating our wedding. Oda Nobu of Tokyo, Japan and Carmen del Junco of Mexico City, Mexico In the corner of the invitation was a note jotted in blue pen. Stanley peeked inside the envelope and spotted something else inside. He pulled out a piece of card that was shaped just like a very small version of himself. "What's that?" said Arthur. "RSVP via Flat Stanley," Stanley read. "You're starting a trend," Arthur said. He sounded impressed. Stanley smiled to himself and walked over to his bulletin board. He looked for a free spot among all of the things tacked up there. His eyes passed over a newspaper headline from when he

我们诚挚地邀请你来参加我们的婚礼。 日本东京的Oda Nobu和墨西哥墨西哥城的Carmen del Junco在邀请函的一角用蓝笔写了一张纸条。 斯坦利偷看了一下信封，发现里面还有别的东西。 他拿出一张卡片，卡片的形状就像一个很小的他自己。 “那是什么?”阿瑟问。 “请通过Flat Stanley回复，”Stanley读道。 “你正在开创一种潮流。”阿瑟说。 他听起来印象深刻。斯坦利对自己笑了笑，走到他的布告栏前。 他在那堆东西中找了个空位置。 他的眼睛掠过了一张报纸的大标题

saved Mount Rushmore, pinned next to a postcard from Calamity Jane. There was a snapshot of him and Amisi in front of Egyptian pyramids and a picture of Oda Nobu in a karate class in Japan. Underneath one corner of an Australian boomerang, there was a picture he took at the Beijing Zoo of a ferocious-looking panda bear. There was a newspaper headline from his plunge over Niagara Falls next to a flat fish head skull from Africa. He'd had a lot of adventures, and he hoped to have many more. Near the center of the board, with its red, white, and blue ribbon hanging from a pushpin, was his National Medal of Achievement. Stanley tacked the wedding invitation right next to the bronze medal. He read again the note jotted in the corner:

拯救了拉什莫尔山，钉在灾难简的明信片旁边。 有一张他和阿米西在埃及金字塔前的照片，还有一张织田信在日本空手道课上的照片。 在一个澳大利亚回旋镖的一个角下，有一张他在北京动物园拍摄的长相狰狞的熊猫的照片。 他从尼亚加拉大瀑布跳入水中，旁边是一个来自非洲的扁平鱼头头骨。 他经历了很多冒险，他希望能有更多的冒险。 图钉上挂着红、白、蓝三色缎带，靠近黑板中央的地方，是他的国家成就勋章。 斯坦利把婚礼请柬钉在铜牌旁边。 他又读了一遍草草写在角落里的纸条:

Stanley, Thank you for bringing us together.

斯坦利，谢谢你让我们聚在一起。