9 The Bad-Luck Magnet

Chapter 9 The Bad-Luck Magnet "Wow!" Dad exclaimed when he saw the pumpkin in the window. "You weren't kidding. That is one big pumpkin!" "Hello, there!" said Dan. "Back again?" "My school really needs books," I said. "And he really likes candy," said Dad with a smile. "Matter of fact, so do I." "Is No-name around?" I asked. "I just got here a few minutes ago," said Dan. "But I haven't seen her. Maybe someone decided to take her home." "My daughter will be disappointed if they did," said Dad. "She spent all of our dinner begging us to add No-name to our family." No No-name was good news. Finally I could concentrate on more important things. I thought about the world's biggest pumpkin.

第9章倒霉石“哇!”当爸爸看到橱窗里的南瓜时，他惊呼道。 “你不是在开玩笑。那是一个大南瓜!”“你好!”丹说。 “回来了?”“我的学校真的需要书，”我说。 “他真的很喜欢糖果，”爸爸笑着说。 “事实上，我也是。” “无名在附近吗?”我问。 “我几分钟前才到这里，”丹说。 “可是我还没见过她。也许有人决定带她回家。” “如果他们这么做了，我女儿会很失望的，”爸爸说。 “我们吃饭的时候，她一直在求我们给家里添个无名氏。” 没有，没有名字是好消息。最后我可以集中精力在更重要的事情上。 我想到了世界上最大的南瓜。

Mr. Page had said it was over one thousand six hundred pounds. He'd shown us a picture of it too. The bookstore pumpkin was smaller than that. But it was still pretty big. I thought about the medium-sized pumpkin at school Ms. Diz had weighed. It was seventeen pounds. The bookstore pumpkin weighed a lot more than that one. Finally I felt ready to take a guess. I wrote down my number: 964 I put ROSCOE RILEY on my paper. And also my telephone number.

佩奇先生说它超过1600磅。 他还给我们看了它的照片。 书店里的南瓜比那还小。 但它仍然很大。 我想到了学校里那个中等大小的南瓜。 迪兹称过。它重17磅。 书店里的南瓜比那个重多了。 最后，我觉得可以猜一猜了。 我写下了我的号码:964，我在纸上写上了罗斯科·莱利。 还有我的电话号码。

Then I folded up the paper and put it into the plastic pumpkin that held the other guesses. There were a lot of other guesses. "Good luck," said Dan. "We'll be announcing the winner on Saturday morning during the Fall Festival." Dad looked at his watch. "We've got a few minutes before we have to pick up Max," he said. "Let's go check out the kids' books section." That's where Hazel had run into No-name! "We should probably go get Max," I said quickly. "We've got plenty of time," Dad said. I followed him very closely down the aisle. So far, so good. No No-name. We passed the picture book part. And the pop-up book part. And the books that have a lot of big words and not enough pictures part. Just as we passed a tall stack of wizard books, I tripped. My shoelace was untied. That happens about twenty times a day. I bent down to tie my shoe.

然后我把纸折叠起来，放进装着其他猜测的塑料南瓜里。 还有很多其他的猜测。 “祝你好运，”丹说。“我们将在周六上午的秋季庆典上宣布获胜者。” 爸爸看了看手表。“再过几分钟我们就得去接麦克斯了，”他说。 “我们去童书区看看吧。” 黑兹尔就是在那里遇到无名的!“我们应该去找麦克斯，”我赶紧说。 “我们有足够的时间，”爸爸说。 我紧紧地跟着他走过过道。 到目前为止，一切顺利。没有无名。 我们通过了绘本部分。 还有立体书的部分。还有那些有很多大字而没有足够图片的书。 正当我们经过一大堆魔法书时，我绊了一跤。 我的鞋带松开了。这种情况每天大约发生20次。 我弯下腰系鞋带。

But somebody else wanted to help. No-name! She leaped out of a bookshelf and grabbed my shoelace. "It's her, Dad!" I cried. I could feel the bad luck rubbing off on me. "Just relax," said Dad. "She's only playing. Kittens love string." I stood statue still. "Dad," I said in a trembly voice, "I will have to burn this shoe. It is totally covered with unluckiness."

但是有人想帮忙。 无名!她从书架上跳下来，抓住我的鞋带。 “是她，爸爸!”我哭了。我能感觉到厄运在我身上蔓延。 “放轻松，”爸爸说。“她只是在玩。 小猫喜欢绳子。”我一动不动地站着。 “爸爸，”我颤抖着说，“我得把这只鞋烧了。 它完全被厄运所覆盖。”

No-name rubbed on me. Right on my lucky red sock. "Great," I said. "Now I have bad-luck cat stink all over my red sock." Dad grinned. "I think she likes you." "Dad," I said. "We have to get out of here. If she walks in front of us, we are cursed forever. Or for seven years. I'm not exactly sure which." Gently Dad pulled the shoelace from Noname's little claws. Then he picked her up. "Dad!" I cried. "What is wrong with you?" "I'm just holding her," he said. "It's not like she's crossing my path." No-name made that rumbly purring noise again. She sounded like she'd swallowed a little toy engine. It was a good sound. But I knew it was just a sneaky cat trick. She wanted me to think she was cute so she could cross my path and ruin my life. "Please can we go now? She's already unlucked my lucky sock." "All right," Dad said. I dashed ahead of him down the aisle.

我身上没有名字。正好在我的幸运红袜子上。 “太好了，”我说。“现在我的红袜子上全是倒霉猫的臭味。” 爸爸笑了。“我想她喜欢你。” “爸爸，”我说。“我们必须离开这里。 如果她走在我们前面，我们就永远被诅咒了。 或者七年。我不太确定是哪一种。” 爸爸轻轻地把鞋带从小名的小爪子上扯下来。 然后他把她抱起来。“爸爸!”我哭了。 “你怎么了?”“我只是抱着她，”他说。 “她又不是来找我的。” 无名又发出了那咕噜咕噜的声音。 她的声音听起来像是吞下了一个小玩具引擎。 这是一个很好的声音。但我知道这只是猫的鬼把戏。 她想让我觉得她很可爱这样她就能穿过我的道路，毁了我的生活。 “我们现在可以走了吗?”她已经把我的幸运袜弄倒霉了。” “好吧，”爸爸说。我冲在他前面穿过过道。

I guess No-name thought I wanted to play catch-the-boy. She jumped right out of Dad's arms. And she ran right after me and my shoelace. "Help!" I cried. "I'm being chased by bad luck!"

我猜无名氏以为我想玩接球游戏。 她从爸爸的怀里跳了出来。 她追着我和我的鞋带跑。 “救命!”我哭了。“我正在被厄运追赶!”