Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12 Mrs. Gomez turned and smiled as Michael, Merle, Justin, and Sadie came bursting through Michael's bedroom door. She had been assembling Merle and Pearl's new house all afternoon and had just finished. The final result was a complicated network of plastic tubes, running wheels, and compartments of different sizes that took up almost half the room. Mrs. Gomez loved homemaking— even for squirrels. "Well? What do you—?" "Mom! Someone kidnapped Pearl!" Michael shouted, interrupting her. "I think the correct term would be squirrelnapped," Justin pointed out. "That's not a thing," Sadie said. "Well, she's not a kid." "You don't have to be a kid to be kidna—" "What happened?!" Mrs. Gomez asked, looking worried. "This place is AMAZING!!!" Merle exclaimed, temporarily forgetting the matter at hand as he gazed upon the Taj Mahal of hamster/squirrel cages.

第十二章当迈克尔、梅尔、贾斯汀和赛迪冲进迈克尔卧室的门时，戈麦斯太太转过身来笑了。 她整个下午都在组装梅尔和珠儿的新房子，刚刚完工。 最终的结果是一个由塑料管、跑步轮和大小不同的隔间组成的复杂网络，几乎占据了房间的一半。 戈麦斯太太喜欢做家务——即使是松鼠。 “嗯?你在——？”“妈妈!有人绑架了珠儿！”迈克尔喊道，打断了她。 贾斯汀指出：“我认为正确的说法应该是‘松鼠夹’。” “那不是一件事，”赛迪说。 “嗯，她不是个孩子了。”“你不一定非得是个孩子才会被绑架——”“发生什么事了？！”戈麦斯夫人问道，看上去很担心。 “这个地方太棒了！！”梅尔喊道，他凝视着仓鼠和松鼠笼子的泰姬陵，暂时忘记了手头的事情。

"Isn't it fun?" Mrs. Gomez replied, pleased by Merle's reaction. "MOM!!! MERLE!!! EVERYONE!!! This is serious!" Michael yelled. "We need to find Pearl! The guy. In the park. It's the same guy we saw on the plane and in the airport and at the roller rink. He must have been following us for a while." "You saw him on the plane?" Mrs. Gomez frowned. "If he followed you over from Israel, we're going to need to let your father know right away."

“这不是很有趣吗？”戈麦斯太太回答，对莫尔的反应感到高兴。 “妈妈! !默尔! !大家! !这很严重！”迈克尔喊道。 “我们得找到珠儿！”那个家伙。 在公园里。他就是我们在飞机上、机场和溜冰场看到的那个人。 他一定跟踪我们有一段时间了。” “你在飞机上看见他了？”戈麦斯太太皱起眉头。 “如果他从以色列跟随你过来，我们就要马上告诉你父亲。”

"But he won't be home until later tonight!" Michael cried. "We'll go tell him now," Mrs. Gomez replied. "If that man has ties to Israel, your dad needs to know right away. He may be a government agent." "I thought I was grounded?" Jane asked as her mom strapped her into her car seat. Justin and Sadie piled into the back on either side of her while Michael buckled up in front, with Merle tucked away in Michael's backpack at his feet. "We're going to visit Daddy at work," Mrs. Gomez said. Jane grinned. "Being grounded is fun!" Justin and Sadie laughed. "Why are you grounded?" Sadie asked Jane. "I broke the elephant with a cupcake," Jane responded. Had Michael bothered to turn around, he would have seen Justin and Sadie trade suspicious looks.

“但他今晚晚些时候才会回家！”迈克尔哭了。 “我们现在就去告诉他，”戈麦斯太太回答。 “如果那个人跟以色列有关系，你爸爸应该马上知道。 他可能是政府的特工。” “我以为我被禁足了？”简问道，妈妈把她绑在汽车座椅上。 贾斯汀和赛迪挤在她的两边，迈克尔坐在前面，梅尔藏在迈克尔脚边的背包里。 “我们要去上班的爸爸家看看，”戈麦斯太太说。 简笑了。“被禁足很有趣！”贾斯汀和赛迪笑了。 “你为什么被禁足了？”赛迪问简。 简回答说：“我用一个纸杯蛋糕打碎了大象。” 如果迈克尔转过身来，他就会看到贾斯汀和赛迪互相怀疑地看着对方。