22 Accidents Happen

Chapter 22 ACCIDENTS HAPPEN You're probably getting a little impatient, maybe even a little angry, by now. On the first page of this book, you were told—you were promised—that Coke was going to be thrown into a giant shredder. So far, we have encountered no shredder. Not a shred of a shredder. You have every right to be mad. Promises should be kept. But trust me, dear reader. Your patience will be rewarded. Soon. Interstate 20 starts close to the gas station where the twins met up with Bones and Mya. It cuts all the way across the state of South Carolina and doesn't end until it reaches West Texas. The highway looked like it stretched ahead

到现在为止，你可能有点不耐烦了，甚至可能有点生气了。 在这本书的第一页，你被告知——你被承诺——可口可乐将被扔进一个巨大的碎纸机。 到目前为止，我们还没遇到碎纸机。 连碎纸机都没有。 你完全有理由生气。 诺言应该遵守。但是请相信我，亲爱的读者。 你的耐心会得到回报的。 很快。20号州际公路开始于双胞胎与骨头和米亚相遇的加油站附近。 它穿过南卡罗来纳州，直到西德克萨斯州才结束。 高速公路似乎一直延伸到前方

to infinity, so Pep pulled out the cipher she had been puzzling over ever since she received it that morning. OGO THT LEV INI RGO OM It looked so easy, but she couldn't seem to crack it. Then, as they were driving through Lee State Park near Bishopville, South Carolina, she figured it out. Pep noticed that when the first four letters—OGOT—were reversed, it spelled out TOGO. TOGO very probably meant TO GO, which possibly meant GO TO. "Go to" would be an obvious way to start a message. So if reversing the first two letters made sense, and reversing the next pair of letters made sense, what would happen if she reversed all the pairs of letters after that? She wrote it out in her notebook.... GOT OTH ELI VIN GRO OM "Go to the living room!" Pep shouted. "What are you talking about?" her father said

于是佩普拿出了她从那天早上收到这封邮件起就一直在琢磨的密码。 奥戈：这看起来很容易，但她似乎打不开。 然后，当他们开车经过南卡罗来纳州毕晓普维尔附近的李州立公园时，她想通了。 佩普注意到，如果把前四个字母ogot颠倒过来，就会拼成TOGO。 “TOGO”很可能是“去”的意思，也可能是“去”的意思。 “Go to”是一个很明显的开始信息的方式。 所以如果颠倒前两个字母是有意义的，颠倒下一对字母也是有意义的，如果她颠倒之后所有的字母对会发生什么？ 她把它写在她的笔记本.... “到客厅去！”Pep喊道。 “你在说什么？”她父亲说

from the driver's seat. "It's an RV. We don't even have a living room." "Uh, nothing, Dad," Pep said. "I was just having a dream or something." She leaned over to show Coke how she had figured out the cipher. "Go to the living room?" Coke whispered. "What's that supposed to mean?" "Beats me." As the highway unrolled endlessly in front of them, each person in the family was deep in thought. Pep tried to figure out what "go to the living room" meant. Coke was trying to figure out how he would be able to use the fireworks he had purchased as weapons without hurting anyone in his family. Mrs. McDonald was trying to think of a way to convince the rest of the family to visit the Button Museum, which was right nearby. Yes, it's a museum about buttons. Look it up if you don't believe me.

坐在驾驶座上。“这是一辆房车。 我们甚至连客厅都没有。” “嗯，没什么，爸爸，”佩普说。 “我只是做了个梦什么的。” 她俯下身来向科克展示她是如何破解密码的。 “到客厅去？”可口可乐低声说。 “这是什么意思？”“难倒我了。” 高速公路无止境地在他们面前展开，家里的每个人都陷入了沉思。 佩普想弄明白“去客厅”是什么意思。 可口可乐试图弄清楚如何才能将他购买的烟花用作武器而不伤害他的家人。 麦克唐纳太太正在想办法说服家里的其他人去参观巴顿博物馆，它就在附近。 是的，这是一个关于纽扣的博物馆。 如果你不相信我，就去查一下。

And Dr. McDonald was thinking about his next book. He had to admit that the last one he had written, The Impact of Coal on the Industrial Revolution, had been a bomb. Oh, it sold a few thousand copies and received some nice reviews in scholarly journals. But hardly anybody had read it. He wanted to write something that millions of people would read. Working as a university professor was rewarding, but what he really wanted was to see his name on the bestseller list. "I was thinking that I should try something more commercial next time," he announced to nobody in particular. "I should write a biography

麦克唐纳博士在想他的下一本书。 他不得不承认，他写的最后一本书《煤炭对工业革命的影响》是一颗炸弹。 这本书卖了几千本，在学术期刊上也得到了好评。 但几乎没有人读过它。 他想写一些能让数百万人读到的东西。 作为一名大学教授的工作是值得的，但他真正想要的是看到自己的名字出现在畅销书排行榜上。 “我在想，下次我应该尝试一些更商业化的东西，”他向任何人宣布。 “我应该写一本传记

of somebody really famous." "I thought you had already decided that you were going to write a biography of Herbert Hoover, dear," said Mrs. McDonald. He was going to write a biography of President Hoover. But that was before they visited the Hoover Historical Center in North Canton, Ohio, and found out it was the home of the guy who owned the Hoover Vacuum Cleaner Company. "I changed my mind," he replied. "Nobody cares about Herbert Hoover. Even I don't care about Herbert Hoover." Soon they started seeing road signs for Columbia, the capital of South Carolina. Stomachs had started rumbling. It would be a good time to stop for lunch. Mrs. McDonald decided not to mention the Button Museum to the rest of the family. She had another idea. "Take exit 73A, Ben," she said. "It's coming up on the right." "What's there?" he asked.

一个非常有名的人的照片。” “亲爱的，我以为你已经决定要写一本赫伯特·胡佛的传记了，”麦克唐纳太太说。 他打算写一本胡佛总统的传记。 但那是在他们参观俄亥俄州北坎顿的胡佛历史中心之前，他们发现这里是胡佛真空吸尘器公司老板的家。 “我改变主意了，”他回答。 “没人关心赫伯特·胡佛。 连我都不关心赫伯特·胡佛。” 不久，他们开始看到通往南卡罗来纳首府哥伦比亚的路标。 肚子开始咕咕叫了。 现在正是停下来吃午饭的好时机。 麦克唐纳夫人决定不向家里的其他人提起巴顿博物馆。 她有了另一个主意。“走73A出口，本，”她说。 “它就在右边。” “那是什么？”他问。

"Trust me." She directed him into the heart of the city, until they reached Taylor Street. He pulled into the parking lot of the AgFirst Farm Credit Bank. And there it was, right in the middle of the parking lot. "Behold!" announced Mrs. McDonald with a sweep of her arm. "What is it?" asked Pep. "What do you think it is?" said her mother. "It's the largest fire hydrant in the world!" "You gotta be kidding me," said Coke. But Coke's mother wasn't kidding. Oh sure, there's a twenty-five-foot fire hydrant in Beaumont, Texas, and a twenty-nine-foot fire hydrant in Elm Creek, Manitoba. But this one was thirty-nine feet tall and made of five tons of steel set in a concrete base. Even Dr. McDonald was impressed by the sheer grandeur of it.

“相信我。”她领着他走进市中心，一直走到泰勒街。 他把车开进了农业第一农业信贷银行的停车场。 它就在那里，就在停车场中央。 “瞧！”麦克唐纳太太一挥手宣布。 “这是什么？”佩普问。“你认为这是什么？”她妈妈说。 “这是世界上最大的消防栓！”“你在开玩笑吧，”可口可乐说。 但可口可乐的妈妈不是在开玩笑。 哦，当然，在德克萨斯州的博蒙特有一个25英尺高的消防栓，在马尼托巴省的榆树溪有一个29英尺高的消防栓。 但这一座有39英尺高，由5吨钢铁和混凝土底座组成。 就连麦克唐纳博士也被它的宏伟壮观所折服。