21 A Gift

Chapter 21 A GIFT When Pep woke up the next morning, the first thing she did was to go outside and look for signs of anything suspicious. Sure enough, taped to the exterior of the RV right near her window was an envelope. Pep ripped it open and found a slip of paper with this written on it … OGO THT LEV INI RGO OM "I knew it!" she said as she ran inside to show it to her brother. "What does it mean?" Coke asked. "I don't know," Pep replied, "yet." The family got a late start that day because Mrs. McDonald did a load of laundry in the campground washing machine and Coke did a

第二十一章礼物第二天早上佩普醒来后，她做的第一件事就是到外面去寻找可疑的东西。 果然，在她的房车外窗附近粘着一个信封。 佩普把它撕开，发现了一张纸条，上面写着：“我就知道！”她一边跑进去给弟弟看，一边说。 “这是什么意思？”可口可乐问道。 “我还不知道，”佩普回答说。 那天全家起得晚了，因为麦克唐纳太太在露营地的洗衣机里洗了一大堆衣服，而科克也洗了

dump to clear out the RV holding tank. Finally, around ten o'clock, they left South of the Border and were on I-95 South again. A billboard said PEDRO SAD THAT YOU ARE LEAVING. Dr. McDonald hoped to make it halfway across South Carolina, to Columbia, before lunchtime. It would be a little more than a hundred miles. As usual, Mrs. McDonald had her head in a guidebook. "We could stop off at the Rice Museum in Georgetown," she mused out loud. "Please tell me the Rice Museum is named after somebody named Rice," said Coke. "Jerry Rice, the football player? Condoleezza Rice?" "Actually, no, it's a museum about rice," said Mrs. McDonald. "No!" the kids shouted. "They can't have a museum about rice!" Coke whined. "It can't be true!" It was true, but much to the relief of Coke and Pep, their mother did not insist on visiting

倾卸以清空RV储罐。 最后，在十点钟左右，他们离开了南部的边界，又在I-95号公路上南行。 广告牌上写着佩德罗说你要走了。 麦克唐纳博士希望能在午餐前穿过南卡罗来纳到达哥伦比亚大学。 大概是一百多英里。 像往常一样，麦克唐纳太太把头埋在旅游指南里。 “我们可以在乔治城的赖斯博物馆停一下，”她若有所思地大声说。 “请告诉我赖斯博物馆是以一个叫赖斯的人命名的，”科克说。 “杰瑞·赖斯，那个橄榄球运动员？” 康多莉扎·赖斯?”“其实不是，这是一个关于大米的博物馆，”麦克唐纳太太说。 “不！”孩子们喊道。“他们不能有一个关于大米的博物馆！”可口可乐嘟哝道。 “这不可能是真的！”这是真的，但让可口可乐和佩普松了一口气的是，他们的母亲并没有坚持要来看他们

the Rice Museum. Pep took out her notebook and examined the cipher that had been taped to the RV in the middle of the night: OGO THT LEV INI RGO OM. Coke opened his backpack and read over the instructions that came with the fireworks he had bought. When I-95 intersected with Route 20 near Florence, South Carolina, Dr. McDonald pulled off the road and into a service station. It was one of those big ones, with a dozen pumps and a convenience store. "We need to gas up," he announced. "Why didn't you gas up when we were at South of the Border?" Mrs. McDonald asked him. "There was a gas station there." "I forgot, okay?" he replied. "I'm not perfect." "Are you and Mom fighting?" Pep asked from the backseat. "No!" Dr. McDonald inserted his credit card into the slot on the pump to pay for the gas.

赖斯博物馆。佩普拿出她的笔记本，仔细检查了半夜贴在房车上的密码：OGO THT LEV INI RGO OM。 科克打开背包，看了看他买的烟花附带的说明。 当95号州际公路与20号公路在南卡罗莱纳州佛罗伦萨附近交汇时。 麦克唐纳把车停在路边，进了一个加油站。 那是一个大商店，有十几个油泵和一家便利店。 “我们需要加油，”他宣布。 “我们在边境以南的时候，你为什么不加油？”麦克唐纳太太问他。 “那里有一个加油站。” “我忘了，好吗？”他回答。 “我并不完美。”“你和妈妈吵架了吗？”佩普在后座上问。 “不!”麦克唐纳医生把他的信用卡插进了油泵的插槽，付了油钱。

CARD DENIED flashed on the little screen as the credit card popped back out. "What?!" "Is there a problem, dear?" asked Mrs. McDonald. "The stupid machine won't take my credit card," he replied. He tried again, and again the card was denied. Mrs. McDonald hopped out and went to see if she could help. An attendant saw that they were having trouble and came over. "There must be some mistake," Mrs. McDonald told the guy. "We used this credit card just this morning, and it was fine." "Take it into the office," said the attendant. "They'll take care of you." Dr. and Mrs. McDonald walked purposefully to the office, around the back of the gas station. Most people don't carry around a lot of cash in their wallets. To a grown-up, a credit card is sort of like a life preserver. If they lose it, or can't use it, they're sunk—especially if they're far from

当信用卡弹回时，小屏幕上闪过“CARD DENIED”字样。 “什么? !”“有什么问题吗，亲爱的？”麦克唐纳太太问。 “那台愚蠢的机器不收我的信用卡，”他回答说。 他又试了一次，卡又被拒绝了。 麦克唐纳太太跳下车去看看能不能帮忙。 一个服务员看到他们有麻烦就过来了。 “一定是搞错了，”麦克唐纳太太对那人说。 “我们今天早上才用过这张信用卡，没什么问题。” “把它拿到办公室去，”服务员说。 “他们会照顾你的。” 麦克唐纳夫妇绕着加油站的后面，坚定地走向办公室。 大多数人的钱包里不会带很多现金。 对于一个成年人来说，信用卡就像是一个救生圈。 如果他们失去了它，或者不能使用它，他们就会沉没——特别是如果他们远离

home. Coke and Pep went back to what they were doing. But suddenly, the front doors opened and two grown-ups got in. It wasn't their parents. It was Bones and Mya. "Bones!" shouted Pep. "Mya!" shouted Coke. "What are you doing here?" "We realized we were wrong," Bones said. "We told you that you were safe, that you didn't have to worry anymore." "Your lives are in serious danger," said Mya. "Someone is trying to kill you." "Gee, ya think?" Pep said sarcastically. "Yeah," Coke said, "we kinda figured it out when my sister had a chest of drawers dropped on her head and she was kidnapped by an Elvis impersonator." "Where were you?" Pep said, her voice rising in anger. "I thought you were going to help us. You never do anything for us!" "I'm sorry," Bones said sincerely. "We've let

首页。可口可乐和佩普又回到了他们的工作中。 突然，前门开了，两个大人走了进来。 不是他们的父母。是骨头和米亚。 “骨头！”“米亚！”可口可乐喊道。 “你在这儿干什么？”“我们意识到我们错了，”Bones说。 “我们告诉过你，你很安全，你不用再担心了。” “你们的生命处于严重的危险之中，”米亚说。 “有人想杀你。” “咦，你觉得呢？”佩普讽刺地说。 “是啊，”科克说，“当我妹妹被一个猫王模仿者绑架时，一个抽屉柜砸在了她的头上，我们就明白了。” “你去哪儿了？”佩普说，她愤怒地提高了嗓门。 “我以为你会帮助我们的。 你从来不为我们做任何事！”“对不起，”骨头真诚地说。 “我们让

you down. But we came here today to make it up to you." "We brought a present," Mya said, reaching into her bag. "What is it?" Coke asked. "Another bottle of bubbles? Some more bars of hotel soap? Thanks for nothing." "You've been asking us to give you a weapon," Mya said, "and we didn't want to because you're so young. But we thought it over. And now that we've seen the way you've handled yourselves, we think you're ready." Coke threw a look at Pep, shaking his head to tell her not to let Bones and Mya know about the arsenal of weapons they had purchased at the fireworks store. Mya pulled a blue Frisbee out of her bag and handed it to Pep. "You're giving us a Frisbee?" Coke asked. "Oh, gee, thanks!" "It's not just any Frisbee," Bones told him. "It's a Frisbee grenade."

你失望的。但我们今天来这里是为了补偿你。” “我们带了一份礼物，”米亚说着，把手伸进包里。 “什么事？”可口可乐问道。“再来一瓶气泡？” 再来几块酒店肥皂？ 谢谢你什么都没做。”“你一直要求我们给你一件武器，”米亚说，“我们不想给你，因为你太年轻了。 但我们仔细考虑了一下。现在我们已经看到了你们处理自己的方式，我们认为你们准备好了。” 可口可乐看了佩普一眼，摇了摇头，告诉她不要让骨头和米娅知道他们在烟花店买了大量武器。 米娅从包里掏出一个蓝色飞盘，递给佩普。 “你要给我们一个飞盘？”可口可乐问道。 “哦，天哪，谢谢！”“这可不是一般的飞盘，”骨头告诉他。 “这是一个飞盘手榴弹。”