Chapter 4

Chapter Four IN WHICH There Are Answers, Although Not Necessarily to the Right Questions Jared woke up to the sound of Mallory's screaming. He jumped out of bed and rushed down the hall, past Simon, and into his sister's room. Long pieces of her hair had been knotted to the brass headboard. Her face was red, but the worst part was the strange pattern of bruises that decorated her arms. Their mother was seated on the mattress, her fingers tugging at the knots.

第四章有答案，尽管未必是正确的问题贾里德被马洛里的尖叫声惊醒。 他跳下床，冲过大厅，经过西蒙，进了他妹妹的房间。 她的几缕长发被绑在黄铜床头板上。 她的脸涨得通红，但最可怕的是她手臂上那奇怪的瘀伤。 他们的母亲坐在床垫上，用手指拉着打结。

"What happened?" Jared asked. "Just chop it," Mallory sobbed. "Cut it off. I want to get out of this bed! I want out of this house! I hate this place!" "Who did this?" Their mother looked at Jared angrily. "I don't know!" Jared glanced at Simon standing in the doorway, looking puzzled. It must have been the thing in the walls. Their mother's eyes got huge. It was scary. "Jared Grace, I saw you arguing with your sister

“发生什么事了?”杰瑞德问。 “快切吧。”马洛里抽泣着说。 “把它剪掉。我要离开这张床！我要离开这房子！我讨厌这个地方！”“这是谁干的？”他们的母亲生气地看着贾里德。 “我不知道！”贾里德瞥了一眼站在门口的西蒙，一脸困惑。 一定是墙里的东西。 他们妈妈的眼睛变得很大。 太可怕了。"杰瑞德·格雷斯，我看到你和你妹妹吵架了

last night!" "Mom, I didn't do it. Honest." He was shocked that she thought he would do something like this. He and Mallory were always fighting, but it didn't mean anything. "Get the scissors, Mom!" Mallory yelled. "Both of you. Out. Jared, I will talk to you later." Mrs. Grace turned back to her daughter. Jared left the room, his heart pounding. When he thought about Mallory's knotted hair, he couldn't contain a shiver. "You think that thing did it, don't you?" Simon asked as they entered the bedroom. Jared looked at his brother in dismay. "Don't you?" Simon nodded. "I keep thinking about that poem I found," Jared said. "It's the only clue we have." "How is a stupid poem going to help?" "I don't know." Jared sighed. "You're the smart one. You should be figuring this out

昨晚!”“妈妈，不是我干的。 诚实。”他很震惊，她竟然认为他会做出这样的事。 他和马洛里总是吵架，但这并不代表什么。 “妈妈，把剪刀拿来！”马洛里喊道。 “你们两个。出去了。杰瑞德，我待会再跟你聊。” 格雷斯太太回过头来看着她的女儿。 贾里德离开了房间，他的心怦怦直跳。 一想到马洛里打结的头发，他禁不住打了个寒颤。 “你认为是那东西干的，是吗？”他们走进卧室时，西蒙问道。 贾里德沮丧地看着他哥哥。 “你不要?”西蒙点点头。 “我一直在想我找到的那首诗，”贾里德说。 “这是我们唯一的线索。” “一首愚蠢的诗有什么用？”“我不知道。” 杰瑞德叹了口气。“你才是聪明的那个。 你应该自己想办法

"How come nothing happened to us? Or to Mom?" Jared hadn't even thought about that. "I don't know," he said again. Simon gave him a long look. "Well? What do you think?" Jared asked. Simon started out the door. "I don't know what I think. I'm going to go try and catch some crickets." Jared watched him go and wondered what he could do. Could he really solve anything by himself? Getting dressed, he thought about the poem. "Up and up and up again" was the simplest line, but what did it mean exactly? Up in the house? Up on the roof? Up in a tree? Maybe the poem was just something that an old, dead relative was keeping around—something that wasn't going to help at all. But since Simon was feeding his animals and Mallory was being freed from her bed, he had

“我们怎么什么事也没发生？” 还是给妈妈？”杰瑞德甚至没有想过这个问题。 “我不知道，”他又说。 西蒙久久地看着他。 “嗯?你觉得怎么样？”杰瑞德问。 西蒙开始出门。 “我不知道我在想什么。 我要去抓一些蟋蟀。” 贾里德看着他走，不知道他能做些什么。 他真的能自己解决任何问题吗？ 他穿好衣服，想着那首诗。 “向上，向上，再向上”是最简单的一句话，但它到底是什么意思呢？ 在楼上的房子里？在屋顶上？ 在树上？也许这首诗只是一个死去的老亲戚保存在身边的东西——一点用都没有。 但因为西蒙在喂他的动物而马洛里也从床上被解放了，所以他

nothing better to do than wonder how far "up and up and up again" he needed to go. So, okay. Maybe it wasn't the easiest clue after all. But Jared figured it couldn't hurt to go up, past the second floor, to the attic.

没有什么比想知道他还需要走多远的了。 所以,好的。也许这并不是最简单的线索。 但杰瑞德觉得爬上去，过了二楼，去阁楼也无妨。

The stairs were worn clean of their paint, and several times the boards he stepped on creaked so dramatically that Jared was afraid they were going to snap from his weight. The attic level was a vast room with a slanted ceiling and a gaping hole in the floor on one end. Through it, he could see down into one of the unusable bedrooms. Old garment bags hung from a clothesline of thin wire stretching across the width of the attic. Birdhouses hung in profusion from the rafters, and a dressmaker's dummy stood alone in a corner, a hat over its knobbed head. And in the center of the room, there was a spiral staircase. Up and up and up again. Jared took the stairs two at a time.

楼梯上的油漆被磨得干干净净，有几次他踩到的木板嘎吱作响，以至于贾里德担心它们会被他的体重压断。 阁楼是一个很大的房间，天花板是倾斜的，一端的地板上有一个大洞。 透过它，他可以看到下面一间不能使用的卧室。 旧的衣服袋挂在一根细钢丝做成的晾衣绳上，这条晾衣绳横跨阁楼的宽度。 屋梁上挂满了鸟窝，一个裁缝的假人孤零零地站在一个角落里，头上戴着一顶帽子。 在房间的中央，有一个螺旋楼梯。 往上，往上，再往上。杰瑞德一步走两级楼梯。