9 Chapter 9

Chapter 9 Kyle couldn't wait to tell his family the good news. "I won the essay contest!" He showed them his shiny new library card. "Congratulations!" said his mom. "Way to go!" said his dad. His brothers, Curtis and Mike, were more interested in Kyle's other card: his five-hundreddollar Lemoncello gift card. "It's good for twelve months," said Kyle.

凯尔迫不及待地把这个好消息告诉了家人。 “我赢了作文比赛!”他给他们看了他崭新的图书证。 “恭喜你!”妈妈说。 “干得好!”他爸爸说。 他的兄弟，柯蒂斯和迈克，对凯尔的另一张卡更感兴趣:那张500美元的莱蒙切罗礼品卡。 “有效期为12个月，”凯尔说。

"But you need to use it now," said Mike. "We need to go to the store tonight so you can buy me Mr. Lemoncello's Kooky-Wacky Hockey." "I can't." "Why not?" "I have to show my library card at the store to cash it in." "And?" "Um, I'm grounded, remember?" "You know, Kyle," said his dad, looking at his mother, who nodded, "since you worked extra hard and did such a bang-up job on your essay, I think we might consider suspending your punishment." "Really?" "Really." Kyle's mom and dad smiled at him. The way they smiled whenever Mike won a football game or Curtis won the science fair. After supper, all five Keeleys piled into the family van and headed off to the local toy store.

“但是你现在需要使用它，”迈克说。 “我们今晚得去趟商店，这样你就能给我买莱蒙塞罗先生的古怪冰球了。” “我不能。”“为什么不?”“我必须在书店出示借书证才能兑现。” “然后呢?”“嗯，我被禁足了，记得吗?”“你知道，凯尔，”爸爸看着妈妈说，妈妈点点头，“既然你学习特别努力，论文写得又这么好，我想我们可以考虑暂缓对你的处罚。” “真的吗?”“真的。”凯尔的爸爸妈妈对他微笑。 每当迈克赢了足球比赛，柯蒂斯赢了科学竞赛，他们都笑了。 晚饭后，基利一家五口挤进家里的货车，前往当地的玩具店。

"Lemoncello's hockey game is awesome," said Mike as they drove to the store. "Especially when the penguins play the polar bears." "I'm hoping to find a classic board game," mused Curtis. "Mr. Lemoncello's Bewilderingly Baffling Bibliomania." "Is that about the Bible?" asked their dad from behind the wheel. "Not exactly," said Curtis, "although the Bible, especially a rare Gutenberg edition, may be one of the treasures you must find and collect, because the object of the game is to collect rare and valuable books by—" "The penguins in Kooky-Wacky Hockey aren't from Pittsburgh like in the NHL," said Mike, cutting off Curtis. "They're from Antarctica. And the polar bears? They're from Alaska." Kyle had decided to divvy up his gift card five ways. To give everybody—including his mom and dad—one hundred dollars to play with. As soon as they entered the toy store, the family split up, cruising the aisles with their own shopping carts. His mom was going to upgrade to Mr. Lemoncello's Restaurant Rush. His dad was

“莱蒙塞罗的冰球比赛太棒了，”他们开车去商店的时候迈克说。 “尤其是当企鹅和北极熊比赛的时候。” “我希望能找到一款经典的棋盘游戏，”柯蒂斯若有所思地说。 莱蒙塞罗先生的《令人困惑的藏书家》 “那是关于《圣经》的吗?”他们的爸爸坐在方向盘后面问。 “不完全是，”柯蒂斯说，“尽管《圣经》，尤其是一本罕见的古腾堡版，可能是你必须找到和收集的宝藏之一，因为这个游戏的目标是收集稀有和有价值的书籍——”“《古怪曲棍球》里的企鹅不像NHL里的企鹅来自匹兹堡，”迈克打断柯蒂斯说。 “他们来自南极洲。那么北极熊呢? 他们来自阿拉斯加。”凯尔决定把他的礼品卡分成五份。 给每个人——包括他的父母——一百美元玩。 他们一进玩具店，一家人就分开了，推着自己的购物车在过道里逛来逛去。 他妈妈打算升级到莱蒙塞洛先生的餐厅。 他的父亲

looking for one of Mr. Lemoncello's complicated What If? historical games: What If the Romans Had Won the American Civil War? Kyle hung with Curtis and Mike for a while. Being the one with the gift card made him feel like he was suddenly their big brother. Mike quickly found his PlayStation hockey game and Curtis was in geek heaven when he finally found Bibliomania. "They only have one left!" he gushed, tearing off the cellophane shrink-wrap and prying open the lid. He sat down right in the middle of the store and unfolded the game board on his lap. "You see, you start under the rotunda in this circular reading room. Then you go upstairs and enter each of these ten chambers, where you have to answer a question about a book.…" "Um, I think I hear Mom calling me," said Kyle. "She must need the gift card. Enjoy!" And Kyle took off. "The store will close in fifteen minutes," announced a voice from the ceiling speakers. Kyle flew up and down the aisles and grabbed a couple of board games he didn't own yet,

找莱蒙塞罗先生那套复杂的"如果" 历史游戏:如果罗马人赢得了美国内战会怎样? 凯尔跟柯蒂斯和迈克待了一段时间。 拿着礼品卡的那个人让他突然觉得自己成了他们的大哥。 迈克很快就找到了他的PlayStation曲棍球游戏，柯蒂斯终于找到了Bibliomania，他简直到了极客的天堂。 “他们只剩下一个了!”他滔滔不绝地说，撕开玻璃纸的收缩包装，撬开盖子。 他在商店中间坐了下来，把游戏板打开放在腿上。 “你看，你从这个圆形阅览室的圆形大厅下面开始。 然后你上楼进入这十个房间，在那里你必须回答一个关于一本书的问题。“嗯，我想我听到妈妈在叫我，”凯尔说。 “她一定需要礼品卡。 享受!”凯尔离开了。 “商店十五分钟后关门。”天花板上的扩音器里传来一个声音。 凯尔在过道里飞来飞去，拿了几盘他还没有的棋盘游戏，

including Mr. Lemoncello's Absolutely Incredible Iron Horse—a game where you build your own transcontinental railroad, complete with locomotive game pieces that actually puff steam. As Kyle was doing some quick math to see if he'd spent his one hundred dollars, Charles Chiltington rolled up the aisle with a cart crammed full with five hundred dollars' worth of loot. Games stacked on top of games were practically spilling over the sides. Mr. Lemoncello's Phenomenal Picture Word Puzzler, one of Kyle's favorites, was teetering on the top. "Hello, Keeley," said Chiltington with a smirk. He looked down at the three games sitting in the bottom of Kyle's shopping cart. "Just getting started?" "No. I shared my gift card with my family." "Really? Well, that was a mistake, wasn't it?" Kyle was about to answer when Chiltington said, "So long. See you on Friday." Kyle wasn't 100 percent sure but Charles might've also muttered, "Loser." Since the store was about to close, Kyle headed toward the checkout lanes. When he passed the

包括莱蒙切罗先生的《绝对不可思议的铁马》，在这款游戏中，你可以建造自己的横贯大陆的铁路，并配备真正会冒烟的机车游戏部件。 正当凯尔快速算算自己是否花光了那100美元时，查尔斯·奇廷顿推着一辆装满了价值500美元的战利品的推车走过过道。 游戏堆叠在游戏上，几乎溢出了两边。 莱蒙切罗先生的现象图片字谜游戏，凯尔的最爱之一，在顶部摇摇欲坠。 “你好，基利，”奇廷顿得意地笑着说。 他低头看了看凯尔购物车底部的三款游戏。 “才刚刚开始?”“没有。 我和家人分享了我的礼品卡。” “真的吗?嗯，那是个错误，不是吗?”凯尔正要回答，奇廷顿说:“再见了。 星期五见。”凯尔不是百分之百确定，但查尔斯可能也会喃喃自语，“失败者。” 因为商店快关门了，凯尔朝收银台走去。 当他经过

customer service department, he saw Haley Daley. "No," Kyle heard Haley say in a hushed tone to the clerk working the Returns window. "I do not want to return these items for store credit. I would prefer cash." Kyle finally found his family, showed the cashier his library card, and paid for everything with a single swipe of his gift card. "You know, Kyle," said his dad as the family walked across the parking lot, "your mother and I are extremely proud of you. Writing a good essay isn't easy." "Maybe you'll be an author someday," added his mom. "Then you could write books that'll be on the shelves of the new library." "Thanks, little brother," said Curtis, practically hugging his Bibliomania box. "Yeah," said Mike. "This was awesome. Way to win one for the team!" "Best 'family game night' ever," joked their dad. Kyle was enjoying his rare moment of glory, playing Santa Claus for his whole family. As the week dragged on, Friday night and the library

在客户服务部，他看到了海莉·戴利。 “不，”凯尔听到海莉小声对退货窗口的工作人员说。 “我不想退货。 我更喜欢现金。”凯尔终于找到了他的家人，向收银员出示了他的图书卡，然后用礼品卡刷了一下就付了所有的钱。 “你知道吗，凯尔，”当一家人走过停车场时，他爸爸说，“你妈妈和我都为你感到无比骄傲。 写一篇好文章并不容易。” “也许有一天你会成为一名作家，”他妈妈补充道。 “然后你就可以写新图书馆书架上的书了。” “谢谢你，小弟弟。”柯蒂斯说，几乎是抱着他的藏书箱。 “是的，”迈克说。“这太棒了。 为球队赢了一场!”“有史以来最好的‘家庭游戏之夜’，”他们的父亲开玩笑说。 凯尔正在享受他难得的荣耀时刻，为全家扮演圣诞老人。 随着时间的推移，周五晚上和图书馆