3 I’ll Believe It When I See It

Chapter 3 I'LL BELIEVE IT WHEN I SEE IT Now, those of you who have been following the Genius Files know that I don't particularly like to describe what characters look like. For one thing, it's boring. Nobody wants to read page after page about somebody's face. For another thing, if you have a short attention span like many of us do, you probably forget what characters look like five minutes after you read the description. That's why it doesn't say what Coke and Pep look like in any of these books. You want to know what the twins look like? Look at the book covers! There they are, jumping off a cliff, diving out of a boat or a helicopter. And if you want to know what Dr. Warsaw, Mrs. Higgins, the bowler dudes, or any of the other characters look like, use your

现在，那些一直关注《天才档案》的人都知道，我不太喜欢描述人物的长相。 首先，它很无聊。 没人愿意一页一页地看别人的脸。 另一方面，如果你的注意力持续时间很短，你可能会在阅读描述五分钟后忘记角色的长相。 这就是为什么在这些书中都没有提到可口可乐和Pep是什么样子的。 你想知道那对双胞胎长什么样吗？ 看这些书的封面！他们在那里，从悬崖上跳下来，从船上或直升机上跳下来。 如果你想知道。 华沙，希金斯夫人，那些打保龄球的家伙，或者其他角色，用你的

imagination. That's what it's there for. Having said all that, rules are meant to be broken. And this seems like the perfect time to break one. You probably have a mental image of what a space alien looks like. You've seen hundreds of them in schlocky movies, TV shows, commercials, comic books, and so on. They're usually green, for some unknown reason, and they have these enormous, bulbous heads that are way out of proportion to their ridiculously skinny bodies. They never seem to have any hair, and they just stand there with emotionless, creepy-looking, almond-shaped eyes. They move in slow motion, if they move at all. Well, just because somebody in Hollywood decided that aliens should look like that doesn't mean that's what they really look like. No, when Pep opened her eyes and glimpsed the alien for the first time, she saw a creature that was completely different from what she expected. Picture this...

的想象力。这就是它存在的意义。 说了这么多，规则就是用来打破的。 而现在似乎是打破规则的最佳时机。 你可能在脑海中对外星人的样子有一个印象。 你已经在拙劣的电影、电视节目、广告、漫画书等中看到过数百个这样的人。 它们通常是绿色的，出于某种未知的原因，它们有巨大的球状头部，与它们可笑的瘦身体不成比例。 他们似乎从来没有头发，他们只是站在那里，没有感情，看起来令人毛骨悚然，杏仁状的眼睛。 它们以慢动作移动，如果它们移动的话。 好吧，仅仅因为好莱坞的某个人认为外星人应该长这样并不意味着他们真的是这样的。 不，当佩普睁开眼睛第一次看到外星人时，她看到的是一个与她想象中完全不同的生物。 想象这样一幅图景……

A round, doughy creature, about the size of a portable refrigerator. It had very small legs and feet with no pinky toes. At the end of each arm was a "hand" that was sort of a cross between a claw and a pair of pliers. The alien was wearing some sort of robe that changed color every few seconds. The alien's face was a wonder to behold. It had two eyes (which shouldn't be taken for granted outside our solar system), but they were red. The eyes popped out slightly from the head, and they were all the more noticeable because the creature did not have any visible eyebrows or eyelashes. Or eyelids, for that matter. The eyes could not be closed, which made them even more frightening. Its nose looked much like ours, but the alien had a wide, lipless, sunken mouth with one golden tooth in the middle. The other teeth appeared to have hair on them. The alien had no external ears. Unlike your typical Hollywood alien, this

一种圆形的、面团状的生物，大约有便携式冰箱那么大。 它有非常小的腿和脚，没有粉红色的脚趾。 每只手臂的末端都有一只“手”，有点像爪子和钳子的混合体。 外星人穿着某种长袍，每隔几秒钟就会变色。 那外星人的脸看起来很奇怪。 它有两只眼睛（在我们的太阳系之外不应该被认为是理所当然的），但它们是红色的。 它的眼睛从头上微微伸出来，因为它没有任何可见的眉毛和睫毛，所以更引人注目。 或者眼睑，就此而言。 眼睛不能闭上，这使他们更加可怕。 它的鼻子看起来很像我们的，但它有一个宽的、没有嘴唇的、凹陷的嘴，中间有一颗金牙。 其他牙齿上似乎有毛。 外星人没有外耳。 不像典型的好莱坞外星人，这个

one had hair on its head—a patch of yellow-, black-, orange-, and red-patterned hair that glowed in the dark. The skin, if you could call it skin, was reddish and translucent—much like fish scales. It appeared to be slimy to the touch, if one were to be so inclined to reach out and touch it. Got all that? A few pages from now you'll probably forget the description, which is fine. Just remember this—it was a hideous-looking creature. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Pep shrieked. It was a scream that seemed to go on forever. If the twins had not been confined inside a sealed, soundproof enclosure, Pep would have been heard for miles in each direction. Everything went dark again. "Did you see that?" "No, see what?" her brother replied. "I was facing the other way." "It was like... an alien. Or something." "You're hallucinating," Coke told his sister.

其中一只头上长着头发——一簇黄色、黑色、橙色和红色的头发，在黑暗中闪闪发光。 它的皮肤，如果你能称之为皮肤的话，是淡红色和半透明的——很像鱼鳞。 如果一个人愿意伸出手去摸它，它摸起来似乎是黏糊糊的。 明白了吗？从现在开始的几页你可能会忘记描述，这没关系。 记住这一点——那是一种长相可怕的生物。 “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh !”Pep尖叫起来。 这是一声似乎永远不会停止的尖叫。 如果这对双胞胎没有被关在一个密封的、隔音的围栏里，佩普的声音从四面八方都能听到。 一切又变黑了。 “你看到了吗？”“不，看什么？”她哥哥回答。 “我当时面朝另一个方向。” “就像……一个外星人。什么的。” “你在产生幻觉，”科克对妹妹说。

"I saw him!" Pep insisted. "Or it. Or whatever it was. It must have taken a picture of us with that flash of light." "There's no such thing as aliens," Coke scoffed. "Oh, I suppose we just got sucked up off the ground in Roswell, New Mexico, by a mysterious light that doesn't exist in our color spectrum, and aliens had nothing to do with it?" "I'll believe it when I see it with my own eyes," Coke said firmly. At that moment the light flashed on again, and this time it stayed on. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Coke and Pep shrieked simultaneously. Instinctively, they clung to each other for dear life. They were shaking, shivering. Their hearts were beating rapidly. The alien didn't move, or make a sound, or react in any way. "D-do you believe me now?" Pep asked, staring at the thing. "You're crushing my neck!"

“我看见他了！”Pep坚持道。 ”或。不管它是什么。 它一定是用那道闪光拍下了我们的照片。” “根本就没有外星人，”可口可乐嘲笑道。 “哦，我想我们刚刚在新墨西哥州的罗斯威尔被一种神秘的光从地面上吸了起来，这种光在我们的光谱中是不存在的，而且外星人与之无关？”“我要亲眼看到才会相信，”可口可乐坚定地说。 就在这时，那盏灯又亮了起来，这次它一直亮着。 “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh !”可口可乐和佩普同时尖叫起来。 出于本能，他们紧紧地依偎在一起。 他们在颤抖，发抖。 他们的心跳得很快。 外星人没有移动，没有发出声音，也没有任何反应。 “你——你现在相信我了吗？”佩普盯着那东西问。 “你要压死我的脖子了！”

Still terrified, Coke relaxed his grip on his sister, never taking his eyes off the creature on the other side of the bars. "Did you ever hear of the Fermi Paradox?" he whispered. "Of course not," Pep whispered back. "Only nerds like you know stuff like that." Coke ignored that remark. The alien hadn't moved. "Our galaxy has been around for billions of years," Coke whispered. "And there are billions of stars like our sun in the galaxy. And a lot of those stars must have Earth-like planets circling around them. So the Fermi Paradox asks, 'Where is everybody?' With all those billions of planets out there capable of supporting life, humans have never seen evidence of extraterrestrial life." "Until now," Pep whispered, staring at the alien. "I always said I wouldn't believe in anything that I couldn't see with my own eyes," Coke

科克仍然很害怕，他放松了对妹妹的控制，眼睛一直盯着栅栏另一边的那个生物。 “你听说过费米悖论吗？”他低声说。 “当然不是，”佩普小声回答。 “只有像你这样的书呆子才知道这种事。” 可口可乐没有理会这句话。外星人没有动。 “我们的星系已经存在了数十亿年，”科克低声说。 “银河系中有数十亿颗像太阳一样的恒星。 而且很多恒星周围一定有类地行星。 所以费米悖论问，“所有人都在哪里？”尽管有数十亿颗行星能够支持生命存在，但人类从未看到过外星生命存在的证据。” “直到现在，”佩普盯着外星人小声说。 “我总是说，我不会相信任何我没有亲眼看到的东西，”科克说