5 THE BARN

CHAPTER 5 THE BARN Mom opened the door, and we stepped inside. The barn felt different. Magical. It was like I'd never seen it before. Now I knew it held secrets. "These cabinets hold the medical supplies I've

第五章谷仓妈妈打开门，我们走了进去。 谷仓感觉不一样。神奇的。 就像我以前从未见过一样。 现在我知道里面藏着秘密。 “这些柜子里装着我的医疗用品

gathered over the years," Mom said. "And over here are some books that you might find helpful. There aren't any books about magical animals. But you'll find that magical creatures and everyday animals are often similar. Once I had a sick winged fox, and it helped to read about both birds and foxes. Sometimes you'll need to run an experiment to figure out what the animal needs or what will work best. You can look through my old science journals over there to get a better idea of what I'm talking about." My heart beat faster. As soon as she was done with the tour, I was heading straight for those journals. My breath caught. There'd be more magical photos in there! I could hardly wait to see them. I interrupted her. "So if I hear the bell, I run out here? And the animal will be at the back door? And I bring it inside and try to figure out what's wrong?" Mom nodded. "Some of the animals can speak, like Pip, but most can't. Remember, you can use the books and my old journals to help you. This must seem like a lot of responsibility. But I know you'll

这些年来积累起来的，”妈妈说。 “这里有一些书，你可能会觉得有用。 没有任何关于神奇动物的书。 但是你会发现魔法生物和日常生活中的动物往往是相似的。 有一次，我养了一只病了的长着翅膀的狐狸，它帮助我读了一些关于鸟类和狐狸的书。 有时你需要做一个实验来弄清楚动物需要什么或者什么是最有效的。 你可以看看那边我的旧科学期刊，更好地理解我在说什么。” 我的心跳加快了。她一结束参观，我就直奔那些日记。 我喘不过气来。里面会有更多神奇的照片！我迫不及待地想见到他们。 我打断了她的话。“所以如果我听到铃声，我就跑到这里来？” 那动物会在后门吗？ 我把它带进去，试着找出问题所在。”妈妈点了点头。 “有些动物会说话，比如匹普，但大多数不会。 记住，你可以用这些书和我的旧日记来帮助你。 你的责任一定很大吧。 但我知道你会的

do your best. Do you have any questions?" My mind was spinning, but I shook my head no. If Mom believed I could handle this, I could. I hoped. And if things got too tricky, I could ask Dad to help. Wait a minute. Mom hadn't mentioned Dad at all. That was definitely strange. "What about Dad? Can't he help me?" "Your father can't see any of the magical animals. Until you saw Pip in that photo, I thought I was the only human who could see them." Mom shook her head sadly. "I tried to introduce Pip to your Dad once, but he couldn't see or hear him." Whoa. So this was definitely all up to me. Mom kissed me on the head. "I've got to go. But I'll see you in a week! I'll let Dad know you're out here before I leave." "Wait!" I piped up. "If a magical creature comes, do I get to take its picture?" I was pretty sure that one of the best parts of this whole thing was going to be collecting magic photos. Mom laughed and opened one of the desk drawers. "Here's my camera. You're free to use it

尽你所能。你有什么问题吗？”我的脑子在转，但我摇了摇头。 如果妈妈相信我能处理好，我就能。 我希望。如果事情变得太棘手，我可以让爸爸帮忙。 等一下。妈妈根本没提过爸爸。 这确实很奇怪。 “爸爸呢？”他不能帮我吗？”“你爸爸看不到任何神奇的动物。 在你看到照片中的皮普之前，我以为我是唯一能看到它们的人。” 妈妈伤心地摇了摇头。“我曾经试着把皮普介绍给你爸爸，但他既看不见也听不见他。” 哇。所以这完全取决于我。 妈妈吻了我的头。 “我得走了。但我们一周后见！在我离开之前，我会告诉爸爸你来了。” “等等!”我尖声说。“如果一个神奇的生物来了，我可以给它拍照吗？”我很确定这整件事最棒的部分之一就是收集神奇的照片。 妈妈笑着打开了一个抽屉。 “这是我的相机。你可以自由使用它

— but since it's instant film, you can't take too many photos or it'll get really expensive. Only take one of each animal, OK? Oh, and here." She dug around at the bottom of the drawer. "A brand new science journal, just for you." I wrapped my arms around my mom and gave her a big squeeze. I was glad to have the stuff in all the cabinets and drawers and Mom's old science journals to distract me. It made saying good-bye much easier.

——但因为是速溶胶卷，你不能拍太多照片，否则会很贵。 每种动物只拿一只，好吗？ 哦，还有这里。”她在抽屉底部翻来翻去。 “一本全新的科学杂志，专为你准备的。” 我抱住妈妈，紧紧地搂住她。 我很高兴所有的橱柜和抽屉里都有东西，还有妈妈的旧科学杂志来分散我的注意力。 这样说再见就容易多了。

I set my Thinking Goggles on the barn desk and grabbed the pile of science notebooks. I spent the next few hours with Sassafras curled up in my lap as I flipped through all of them. The photos were so incredible. I flipped to a page with a creature that

我把我的思考镜放在谷仓的桌子上，抓起那堆科学笔记本。 接下来的几个小时里，我把黄樟草卷在膝上翻看了一遍。 这些照片太不可思议了。 我翻到了一页，上面有个生物

looked like a flower. I leaned in for a closer look and the scent of roses filled my nose. A few pages later I found a photo of something fluffy and blue that was shaped like a snake. I brushed my fingers over the photo and I could feel its soft feathers. This was going to be so much fun. I could hardly wait to see what creature I get to meet first.

看起来像一朵花。我凑近看了看，玫瑰花的香味扑鼻而来。 几页后，我发现了一张照片，上面有一个毛茸茸的蓝色东西，形状像一条蛇。 我用手指拂过照片，感觉到了它柔软的羽毛。 这本来会很有趣的。 我迫不及待地想看看我首先见到的是什么生物。