Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10 Dan had no idea that dying felt so bad on the tongue. "OWWWW… ow-ow-ow-ow-ow!" he screamed, blood trickling over his bottom lip. His eyes opened. The Yugo was in the ditch, slanted to the right. Nellie gunned it forward, her left tires just gripping the ditch's upper ridge. "HANG ON!" With a loud bump, the car lifted upward onto the lip of a downhill exit ramp. It swerved, straightened, and picked up speed. Dan sucked back the blood from his bitten tongue, which was beginning to swell. He watched the dust settle around them. Nellie had managed to backtrack to the exit ramp she'd passed, and they were headed into a bleak-looking area just

丹不知道死在舌头上的感觉是如此糟糕。 “喔WWW...喔-喔-喔-喔-喔-喔！”他尖叫着，血从他的下嘴唇流下来。 他睁开了眼睛。尤戈号在沟里，向右倾斜。 内莉全速前进，她的左轮胎刚好抓住了沟渠的上脊。 “等等!”随着一声巨响，汽车上升到了下坡出口坡道的边缘。 它急转弯，扶正，加速。 丹把被咬的舌头上的血吸了回去，舌头开始肿胀。 他看着他们周围的灰尘落了下来。 内莉设法折回了她经过的出口坡道，他们正驶向一个看起来很荒凉的地方

short of the city skyline. How did she learn to drive like that? "You did it!" Amy cried out. "You got away!" "Why did oo haf thoo do that?" Dan said, his tongue thick and throbbing. "I bit my thongue!" Nellie was staring angrily forward, leaning on her horn. "Hey, who taught you idiots how to drive?" There was a car headed directly toward them. "The left side of the road, Nellie!" Amy shouted. "They drive on the left!" "Oh, right. Brain fart." Nellie adjusted into the left lane and gunned it. She zoomed through an intersection, not stopping for any of the cars. Hugging the left side of the road, Nellie sped past whitewashed buildings and chicken-wire fences, past women balancing buckets on their heads and men three-to-a-seat on motorcycles. A screech of tires made Dan spin around. Through the rear window he spotted the Hummer stuck in the intersection, surrounded by honking

缺少城市的天际线。 她是怎么学会那样开车的？ “你做到了！”艾米叫道。 “你跑了！”“你为什么要那样做？”丹说，他的舌头又粗又痛。 “我咬到舌头了！”内莉倚着她的角，愤怒地盯着前方。 “嘿，谁教你这些白痴开车的？”有一辆车直接朝他们开过来。 “在路的左边，内莉！”艾米喊道。 “他们靠左行驶！”“哦,对。 大脑屁。”内莉调整到左侧车道，并加速前进。 她急速穿过一个十字路口，没有为任何一辆车停下来。 奈莉紧抱着马路的左侧，疾速驶过粉刷成白色的建筑物和铁丝网，驶过头顶水桶的妇女和骑摩托车的三人一座的男子。 一阵刺耳的轮胎声使丹转过身来。 透过后窗，他看到那辆悍马停在十字路口，周围都是喇叭声

motorists. Nellie pushed the Yugo to its limits. The town was small, and the four-lane road soon narrowed to two. Outside the town, the countryside was flat and green, with distant outcroppings resembling enormous stone fists. Cattle grazed in pastures, and the land was dotted with tin shacks and wood huts. "We really lost them," Amy said. But Dan had his eye on the back window. A faint hum grew louder, like an approaching plane. And then, through the dust, a wide black silhouette purred its way up the street. Dan's tongue felt like a wad of paper towel. "Hummuh!" he said. "HUMMUH!" As Nellie sped over a hill, a flock of goats ambled across the road. The goatherd was a craggy old man singing to himself and beating the ground rhythmically with a staff. Seeing the car, the goats lifted their heads as if to say, Sorry, WE were here first. "YO, GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Nellie screamed.

司机。内莉把尤戈推向了极限。 小镇很小，四车道的公路很快就缩成了两车道。 镇外的乡村平坦而绿意盎然，远处露出的岩石就像巨大的石拳。 牛群在牧场上吃草，地上点缀着铁皮棚子和木屋。 “我们真的失去了他们，”艾米说。 但丹的眼睛盯着后窗。 一阵微弱的嗡嗡声越来越响，就像一架正在接近的飞机。 然后，在尘土中，一个巨大的黑色剪影呜呜地走过街道。 丹的舌头摸起来像一团纸巾。 “哼！”他说。“HUMMUH !”内莉飞快地翻过一座小山时，一群山羊慢悠悠地穿过马路。 牧羊人是个瘦削的老人，一边自言自语，一边用手杖有节奏地敲打着地面。 看到车，山羊们抬起头，好像在说：对不起，我们先来的。 “喂，别挡道！”内莉尖叫。

"They're goats!" Amy said. "They don't understand English!" "NO-O-O-O-O-O!" Dan shouted. Nellie slammed on the brakes. The Yugo arced to the left, onto the parched plain. Dan listened for the sound of goat massacre but heard only the crunching of rock underneath them. Then, from behind them, a hollow, unearthly EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE… Dan opened his eyes. The Yugo was careening across open ground. Goatless. The smell of burning rubber reached him from behind. He turned to look out the back window. The goats were thick in the road now, still chewing, still bleating, still alive and safe. The Hummer had narrowly missed the flock and disappeared headfirst into a chicken coop. A cloud of white feathers plumed up around it, and some very angry birds were expressing their disapproval. A farmer drove up to them in a purple-painted pickup and hopped out, yelling. Dan sat back and let out a sigh of relief. He rubbed his tongue against his lips, trying to stop

“他们是山羊!”艾米说。 “他们不懂英语！”“NO-O-O-O-O-O !”丹喊道。 内莉猛踩刹车。 尤戈号向左拐了个弯，来到了干燥的平原上。 丹倾听着屠杀山羊的声音，但只听到脚下岩石的嘎吱声。 然后，从他们身后传来一声空洞的、神秘的“噫噫噫”……丹睁开了眼睛。 那辆尤戈车正横冲直撞地驶过空地。 Goatless。他从后面闻到了橡胶烧焦的味道。 他转身从后窗往外看。 山羊们现在聚集在路上，还在咀嚼，还在咩咩叫，还活着，而且很安全。 那辆悍马差一点就撞上了鸟群，头朝前钻进了一个鸡笼里。 一团白色的羽毛在它周围飞扬起来，一些非常愤怒的小鸟在表达它们的不满。 一个农民开着一辆紫色的小货车向他们驶来，边喊边跳下车。 丹向后一坐，松了一口气。 他用舌头在嘴唇上摩擦，试图停下来

the pain, as Nellie aimed the car back onto the highway.

当内莉把车开回高速公路时，她感到一阵疼痛。