14 This Is Why We Travel

Chapter 14 THIS IS WHY WE TRAVEL Dr. McDonald hit the gas a little harder than necessary, because frustration needs to be expressed somehow, right? He followed Route 69 south for ten miles, and then merged onto Route 82 heading east. Paris, Texas, was a little more than an hour from Denison. The twins pulled out magazines to help pass the time. Mrs. McDonald turned on the radio, fiddling with the buttons until she stopped at a country music station. Nobody in the family was a big fan of country music, but who could resist "My Wife Ran Off with My Best Friend and I Sure Do Miss Him"? In the middle of the song, the music suddenly stopped. A male voice came on and repeated a series of letters:

第十四章这就是我们旅行的原因。 麦当劳踩油门的力度比必要的要大一些，因为沮丧需要以某种方式表达出来，对吧？ 他沿着69号公路向南行驶了10英里，然后汇入82号公路向东行驶。 德克萨斯州的巴黎距离丹尼森只有一个多小时的路程。 双胞胎拿出杂志来打发时间。 麦克唐纳太太打开收音机，摆弄着按钮，直到她停在一个乡村音乐电台前。 家里没有人是乡村音乐的狂热爱好者，但谁能抗拒“我的妻子和我最好的朋友私奔了，我真的很想念他”呢？ 歌唱到一半，音乐突然停了下来。 一个男声传来，重复了一串字母：

"P-C-F-T-H-B-L-R-N-Y-S-T-N." There was a two-second pause, and then the voice said it again. "P-C-F-T-H-B-L-R-N-Y-S-T-N." Startled, Coke looked up from the magazine he had been reading. He recognized the voice. It was the same as the voice on the telephone the other night. It sounded vaguely computer generated. The voice repeated the letters. "P-C-F-T-H-B-L-R-N-Y-S-T-N." "It must be a broken record or something," said Mrs. McDonald. "You'd think somebody at the radio station would notice," said Dr. McDonald. "Change the station, Bridge." "Wait," said Coke. He looked over at his sister. She nodded her head. Pep grabbed the little notepad she'd bought back in Memphis and quickly wrote the letters down. On the radio, the song returned, and when it ended a new song came on—"If the Phone Don't

“P-C-F-T-H-B-L-R-N-Y-S-T-N。” 停顿了两秒钟，然后那个声音又说了一遍。 “P-C-F-T-H-B-L-R-N-Y-S-T-N。” 可乐吃了一惊，从正在看的杂志上抬起头来。 他认出了那个声音。这声音和那天晚上电话里的声音一模一样。 听起来像是电脑生成的。 那个声音重复着那些字母。 “P-C-F-T-H-B-L-R-N-Y-S-T-N。” “一定是坏了唱片之类的，”麦克唐纳太太说。 “你以为广播电台的人会注意到的。” 麦当劳。“换站，布里奇。” “等等，”可口可乐说。他看了看妹妹。 她点了点头。佩普抓起她从孟菲斯买来的小记事本，迅速把信写了下来。 广播里，这首歌又回来了，当它结束时，一首新歌出现了——《如果电话不响》

Ring, You'll Know It's Me." Mrs. McDonald turned it up loud and began to sing along. While their parents were occupied in the front seat, Coke and Pep put their heads together. "That sounded just like the guy on the phone who told me to look under my pillow," Coke whispered to his sister. "It's a cipher," Pep replied. "It has to be. They're coming at us over the radio now." The twins looked at the letters Pep had written in her notepad: P-C-F-T-H-B-L-R-N-YS- T-N. "Oh, come on," Coke said. "You gotta be kidding me. No way we're gonna figure this one out." "You give up too easily," his sister told him. Pep took the notepad and slid over to her side of the seat so she could concentrate. This one didn't look so hard. They had solved tougher ciphers before. Pep tried all the usual strategies that had

按一下，你就知道是我。” 麦克唐纳太太把声音调大，开始跟着唱起来。 当他们的父母坐在前座时，可口可乐和佩普把头凑在一起。 “这听起来就像电话里那个叫我去枕头下面看看的人，”可口可乐低声对妹妹说。 “这是密码，”佩普回答。 “它必须是。他们现在正通过无线电向我们飞来。” 双胞胎看着佩普写在她笔记本上的字母：P-C-F-T-H-B-L-R-N-YS- T-N。 “哦，得了吧，”可口可乐说。“你在开玩笑吧。 我们不可能解决这个问题。” “你太轻易放弃了，”他姐姐对他说。 佩普拿起记事本，滑到她那一边，好让她集中注意力。 这个看起来没那么难。 他们以前破解过更难的密码。 佩普尝试了所有常用的策略

worked before, but none of them seemed to fit. That only made her more determined. Her forehead would wrinkle, and then she would brighten, and then her forehead would wrinkle again. The previous cipher had been easy. This was a hard one. After almost an hour, she still hadn't cracked it. She, too, was stumped. Dr. McDonald pulled off the exit marked PARIS. It looked like a pretty normal Texas town. Twenty-five thousand people. Forty-four square miles. "Why is it called Paris?" Pep asked. "It's probably in honor of Paris, France," her mother said, leafing through her guidebook. "Actually, there are fifteen American towns named Paris," Coke said, having read that on a poster at school a long time ago. I think you will agree, reader, that nobody should know how many American towns are named Paris. It's just not information that needs to be retained.

以前也试过，但都不合适。 这只会使她更加坚定。 她的额头会起皱纹，然后她会变得容光焕发，然后她的额头又会起皱纹。 之前的密码很简单。 这是一个很难的问题。差不多过了一个小时，她还是没有打开它。 她也被难住了。博士。 麦克唐纳从标有“巴黎”的出口下了车。 它看起来就像一个很普通的德州小镇。 25000人。 44平方英里。“为什么叫巴黎？”Pep问道。 “这可能是为了纪念法国巴黎，”她母亲一边说，一边翻阅着她的旅游指南。 “实际上，美国有十五个城镇叫巴黎，”可口可乐说，很久以前他在学校的海报上看到了这句话。 我想你会同意，读者，没有人应该知道有多少美国城镇被命名为巴黎。 这不是需要保留的信息。

Dr. McDonald drove through the east side of town until he reached the corner of Jefferson Road and South Collegiate Drive next to the LoveCivic Center. "There it is!" Mrs. McDonald shouted, pointing. "Behold!" And there it was—a dark metal structure

麦克唐纳医生开车穿过小镇的东侧，一直开到杰斐逊路和南大学大道的拐角处，旁边是洛夫维奇中心。 “在那儿！”麦克唐纳太太指着喊道。 “看哪!”它就在那里——一个黑色的金属结构

that looked remarkably like the real Eiffel Tower, with the added attraction of having a ten-foot-wide red cowboy hat, slightly tilted at a jaunty angle, on top. Everybody got out of the car to get a better look. "Well," said Dr. McDonald, "I must admit you don't see that every day." "It's just like France," Pep said, "but in Texas." "I can just about smell the baguettes baking," Coke said. "Oh, wait. That's probably just a cattle ranch." "Think of it," Mrs. McDonald told the kids. "You're standing in the only place in the world that has a giant replica of the Eiffel Tower with a cowboy hat on it. This is why we travel, kids. To see things you can't see anywhere else." "Do you think they have a fake Mona Lisa wearing a cowboy hat here too?" Coke asked. Mrs. McDonald was used to her son's snarky remarks. She took out her camera to snap a few pictures, and also jotted down some notes for

它看起来非常像真正的埃菲尔铁塔，还有一个额外的吸引力，那就是顶上有一顶10英尺宽的红色牛仔帽，帽子微微倾斜着，显得很潇洒。 为了看得更清楚，每个人都下了车。 “嗯，”麦克唐纳医生说，“我必须承认，你不是每天都能看到这种情况的。” “就像法国一样，”佩普说，“只不过是在得克萨斯州。” “我几乎能闻到烤法棍面包的味道，”科克说。 “哦,等。那可能只是一个养牛场。” “想想看，”麦克唐纳太太对孩子们说。 “你站在世界上唯一一个拥有巨大的埃菲尔铁塔复制品并戴着牛仔帽的地方。 这就是我们旅行的原因，孩子们。 去看你在其他地方看不到的东西。” “你觉得这里也有戴着牛仔帽的假蒙娜丽莎吗？”可口可乐问道。 麦克唐纳太太已经习惯了儿子尖刻的评论。 她拿出相机拍了几张照片，还草草记下了一些笔记