2 And Now for Something Completely Different

Chapter 2 AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT Pep felt her body rising slowly off the ground. Some mysterious, invisible force was gently lifting her up, as if she were filled with helium. She gripped her brother's hand tightly, so tightly that she was crushing his fingers together. But he didn't even notice the pain. The twins had their eyes shut tightly, but the bluish glare from two powerful beams of light managed to penetrate their eyelids. The temperature had suddenly dropped twenty degrees. But Coke and Pep didn't feel it. The wind whipped at their clothes. A humming sound was coming from above, and the air seemed to vibrate around them. There was an odor they had never experienced before.

现在，为了一件完全不同的事，佩普感到她的身体慢慢地离开了地面。 某种神秘的、看不见的力量轻轻地把她举起来，仿佛她充满了氦气。 她紧紧抓住哥哥的手，紧紧地攥在一起，把他的手指都捏碎了。 但他甚至没有注意到疼痛。 双胞胎紧紧地闭着眼睛，但两束强光的蓝色光芒穿透了他们的眼睑。 气温突然下降了二十度。 但可口可乐和佩普没有感觉到。 风抽打着他们的衣服。 上面传来嗡嗡的声音，周围的空气似乎在颤动。 有一种他们以前从未体验过的气味。

Metallic, maybe. Impossible to describe. Powerful. It was too much stimulation at one time. They couldn't move. They couldn't get away. They didn't want to get away. It was frightening, of course. But also magical. Intriguing. "What's happening?" Pep whispered in wonder, fighting the temptation to open her eyes. She was afraid of being blinded by the light, or perhaps she was just afraid of seeing something she didn't want to see. "I don't know," Coke replied. "But it's amazing!" Curiosity had gotten the better of him, as it often did, and Coke forced his eyes open. He involuntarily opened his mouth too as he hovered fifteen feet off the ground. He let out a little gasp. This can't be happening, he thought. Months earlier, at the lunch table in school, he and his friends had had a heated discussion about which superpower they would choose if they could pick just one. One boy said he would

金属,也许。无法形容。 强大。这一次太刺激了。 他们动不了。他们逃不掉。 他们不想逃走。 当然，这很可怕。 但也很神奇。有趣的。 “发生了什么?”佩普惊讶地小声说，忍住不睁开眼睛。 她害怕被光弄瞎，或者她只是害怕看到她不想看到的东西。 “我不知道，”可口可乐回答。 “但这太神奇了！”像往常一样，好奇心占据了他的上风，科克强迫他睁开眼睛。 当他在离地面15英尺的高空盘旋时，他也不由自主地张开了嘴。 他轻轻地喘了口气。这不可能发生，他想。 几个月前，在学校的午餐桌上，他和他的朋友们激烈地讨论过，如果他们只能选择一种超能力，他们会选择哪种超能力。 一个男孩说他愿意

love to have super vision so he could see through walls, and clothes. Another said he would choose super strength so he could beat up anybody in the world. Coke knew which superpower he would choose—the power to fly. "We're flying," he marveled to his sister. "This is what it must feel like to be a bird." "Where does the power come from?" Pep asked. "Who cares?" he replied. "It's beautiful." She finally opened her eyes too, and her retinas were clobbered by blasts of light coming at her from every direction. Yet she and Coke seemed to be enclosed within a narrow cylinder of air, as if they were going up a glass elevator shaft with no elevator inside it. "ROY G BIV," Coke said, looking all around. "Who's that?" "Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet," Coke replied. "ROY G BIV. It's a mnemonic device people use to learn the colors of the rainbow, in order of decreasing

喜欢有超视力，这样他就能看穿墙壁和衣服。 另一个说他会选择超级力量，这样他就可以打败世界上的任何人。 可口可乐知道他会选择哪种超能力——飞行的能力。 “我们在飞，”他对妹妹惊叹道。 “这就是一只鸟的感觉。” “力量从何而来？”Pep问道。 “谁在乎呢？”他回答。“很漂亮。” 她终于睁开了眼睛，她的视网膜被四面八方射向她的光击得粉碎。 然而，她和可口可乐似乎被封闭在一个狭窄的空气圆柱体中，就好像他们要爬上一个玻璃电梯井，里面没有电梯。 “ROY G BIV，”科克环顾四周说。 “那是谁?”“红色、橙色、黄色、绿色、蓝色、靛蓝、紫色，”可口可乐回答。 罗伊说。这是一种人们用来学习彩虹颜色的记忆工具，按照递减的顺序排列

wavelengths." "Oh, yeah," Pep said, remembering her fifth- grade science class. "Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain. Rinse Out Your Granny's Boots in Vinegar. It's VIBGYOR backward. That's how I remember it." "Look at all the colors!" Coke said. "There are frequencies of light that I've never experienced before. Do you see 'em? Wonderful colors! They don't exist in our spectrum. They don't exist in our world." "I see 'em," Pep said, looking all around. "I see 'em." And then, suddenly, the lights went out. The twins were in total darkness. "Who turned out the lights?" Coke asked, knowing full well that his sister had no idea who turned out the lights. "I'm scared," Pep said, gripping her brother's hand even more tightly. "I have a bad feeling about this." The darkness—the blackness—was total.

波长”。“哦，是的，”佩普说，想起了她五年级的科学课。 "约克的理查徒劳无功。 用醋清洗奶奶的靴子。 它是向后的。这就是我的记忆。” “看看这些颜色！”可口可乐表示。 “光的频率是我以前从未经历过的。 你看到他们了吗？美好的颜色!它们不存在于我们的光谱中。 他们在我们的世界里不存在。” “我看到他们了，”佩普说，环顾四周。 “我看见了。”然后，突然，灯灭了。 这对双胞胎完全处于黑暗之中。 “谁把灯关了？”科克问，他很清楚妹妹不知道是谁把灯关掉的。 “我很害怕，”佩普说，把哥哥的手抓得更紧了。 “我有不好的预感。” 黑暗——黑暗——是完全的。

There were no pinpricks of light scattered about. It felt like they must be indoors. They must have entered something. But there were no slits under a doorway where outside light could sneak through. Nothing. Their eyes were not going to adjust to the dark. There was nothing to adjust to. It was a power outage. A blackout. It was like all the light in the world had suddenly been switched off. "What's happening?" Pep asked, just to make sure her brother was still there. "Your guess is as good as mine." "Maybe we were blinded," Pep said, shivering. "Maybe those lights wiped out our retinas, like an eraser on a whiteboard. Maybe we'll be blind forever." And deaf? Coke wondered. The silence was overwhelming. The humming noises were gone. There was no wind, no rustling of leaves in the trees, no chirping of birds. The twins could hear only the sound of their breathing. Pep thought she could detect her own heartbeat. But that

周围没有零星的光点。 感觉他们一定是在室内。 他们一定是输入了什么东西。 但是门洞下面没有缝隙，外面的光线无法透进来。 什么都没有。他们的眼睛无法适应黑暗。 没有什么需要适应的。 停电了。停电。 就好像世界上所有的光突然都熄灭了。 “发生了什么?”佩普问，只是为了确定她哥哥还在那里。 “你猜的跟我猜的一样。” “也许我们被蒙蔽了，”佩普颤抖着说。 “也许那些灯抹去了我们的视网膜，就像白板上的橡皮擦一样。 也许我们会永远失明。” 和聋人吗?可口可乐想知道。四周一片寂静。 嗡嗡声消失了。 没有风，没有树叶的沙沙声，没有鸟儿的啁啾声。 这对双胞胎只能听到自己的呼吸声。 佩普觉得她能察觉到自己的心跳。 但这

was because it was beating very hard, and very fast. She began to sob softly. Coke put his arm around her. "Shhhh," he said. "We're gonna be okay." It was wishful thinking. Coke realized, an instant before his sister did, that he was no longer floating. His feet were on a surface now, and he could support his own weight. The floor must have come up from under them. He let go of Pep's hand and got down on his knees. "It's soft," he whispered. "I can push my thumb into it and it springs back. It's sort of rubbery. Spongy. Like a padded playground." "Let's get out of here," Pep whimpered. "I want to go back to the motel. Back to Mom and Dad." "We've got to find the edge," Coke said, feeling around on the ground. "It must end somewhere. Maybe there's a door." Pep had no choice but to get down on the

是因为它跳动得又快又猛。 她开始轻声抽泣。科克伸出胳膊搂住了她。 “嘘，”他说。“我们会没事的。” 这是一厢情愿的想法。在他姐姐意识到这一点之前，科克意识到他不再漂浮了。 他的脚现在站在水面上，他可以支撑自己的体重了。 地板一定是从他们下面掀起来的。 他放开佩普的手，跪了下来。 “它很软，”他低声说。 “我可以把拇指按进去，它就会弹回来。 有点像橡胶。海绵。 就像一个有衬垫的操场。” “我们离开这里吧，”佩普呜咽着说。 “我想回汽车旅馆。 回到爸爸妈妈身边。”“我们必须找到边缘，”科克边说边在地上摸索着。 “它必须在某个地方结束。也许有一扇门。” 佩普没办法，只能趴在