Chapter 6

Chapter Six IN WHICH They Find Unexpected Things in the Icebox Jared rolled over at the sound of his mother's voice. She was angry. "Jared, you better get up." "What's going on?" Jared asked sleepily, peering up from the covers. For a second he thought he'd missed school, until he remembered they'd moved and not even so much as set foot in the new school yet.

第六章他们在冰箱里发现意想不到的东西听到母亲的声音，贾里德打了个滚。 她很生气。“杰瑞德，你最好起来。” “发生什么事了？”杰瑞德睡眼惺忪地问，从被窝里往上看。 有那么一瞬间，他以为自己错过了学校，后来他想起他们已经搬家了，甚至还没有踏进新学校。

"Up, Jared!" his mother said. "You want to pretend you don't know? Fine, let's go downstairs so you can see what's going on." The kitchen was a mess. Mallory had a broom and was sweeping up broken pieces of a porcelain bowl. The walls were painted with chocolate syrup and orange juice. Raw eggs oozed down the windowpanes. Simon was sitting at the kitchen table. His arms were covered with the same bruises Mallory had been wearing only a day before, and his eyes were red-rimmed, like he'd been crying. "Well?" his mother asked expectantly. "I—I didn't do this," Jared said, looking around at them. They couldn't really believe he would do something like this, could they? And there, on the floor of the kitchen, next to drifts of cereal and scattered pieces of orange peel, Jared saw small tracks in the flour. They were the size of his little finger, and he could clearly see the imprint of the heel of a foot and a feathering in the front that might have been from toes.

“起来，杰瑞德！”他妈妈说。 “你想假装不知道吗？” 好吧，我们下楼去吧，这样你就能看看发生了什么事。” 厨房里一片狼藉。马洛里拿着一把扫帚，正在打扫一个瓷碗的碎片。 墙上涂着巧克力糖浆和橙汁。 生鸡蛋从窗玻璃上渗出来。 西蒙正坐在厨房的桌子旁。 他的手臂上满是马洛里一天前还留下的淤青，眼眶红红的，好像哭过一样。 “怎么样？”他妈妈期待地问。 “这不是我干的，”贾里德说着，环顾四周。 他们不会真的相信他会做出这种事，对吧？ 就在那里，在厨房的地板上，在成堆的谷物和零星的橘子皮旁边，贾里德看到了面粉上的小痕迹。 它们有他的小指那么大，他可以清楚地看到脚后跟的印记，以及前面可能来自脚趾的羽毛。

"Look," Jared said, pointing. "See. Little footprints." Mallory looked up at him, and her eyes were narrowed with fury. "Just shut up, Jared. Mom says she saw you down here last night. You made those footprints!" "I did not!" Jared yelled back. "Why don't you look in the freezer then, huh?"

“看，”贾里德指着说。 ”看到。小的脚印。”马洛里抬头看着他，愤怒地眯起了眼睛。 “闭嘴，杰瑞德。妈妈说她昨晚看到你在这里。 那些脚印是你留下的！”“我没有！”杰瑞德喊道。 “那你为什么不去冰箱里看看呢？”

"What?" Jared asked. Simon gave an especially wet-sounding sob. Their mother took the broom from Mallory's hand and started sweeping up the flour and cereal. "Mom, no, the footprints," Jared said, but his mother didn't pay any attention to him. Two strokes of the broom, and the only proof he had was swept into a pile of rubbish. Mallory opened the freezer door. Each of Simon's tadpoles was frozen into a single cube in the tray. Next to them was a note written in ink on a piece of a cereal box: Not very nice to ice the mice. "And Jeffrey and Lemondrop are gone!" said Simon. "Now, why don't you tell us what you did with your brother's mice?" said his mother. "Mom, I didn't do it. I really didn't." Mallory gripped Jared by the shoulder. "I don't know what you think you're doing, but you're

“什么?”杰瑞德问。西蒙发出一声特别湿润的抽泣。 妈妈从马洛里手里拿过扫帚，开始扫面粉和麦片。 “妈妈，不，是那些脚印。”贾里德说，但他妈妈根本不理会他。 扫把扫了两下，他唯一的证据被扫进了一堆垃圾里。 马洛里打开冰箱门。 西蒙的每只蝌蚪都被冻成一个立方体放在托盘里。 在他们旁边，有一张用墨水写在麦片盒上的便条：把老鼠冻起来不太好。 “杰弗里和柠檬糖也不见了！”西蒙说。 “现在，你为什么不告诉我们你对你哥哥的老鼠做了什么？”他的妈妈说。 “妈妈，不是我干的。我真的没有。” 马洛里抓住杰瑞德的肩膀。 “我不知道你在想什么，但你

about to start regretting it." "Mallory," their mother cautioned. His sister let go, but the look she gave him carried the promise of later violence.

马上就要后悔了。” “马洛里，”他们的母亲警告道。 他的妹妹松手了，但她给他的眼神却预示着以后会有暴力行为。

"Mom, I didn't do it."

“妈妈，不是我干的。”