Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9 MONDAY, OCTOBER 9 12:15 A.M. THE SOUTH SIDE OF CHICAGO. HEADING NORTH They left Jennie and Bruno's burning neighborhood behind and headed north. Oscar kept looking over his shoulder at that giant orange glow bleeding through the sky. The main fire was huge now, Oscar could see, and it was spreading fast. And the wind was carrying sparks all over the city. Everywhere Oscar looked, he saw new fires burning. Some fires were very small — a ribbon of flame waving from a tree, a pile of garbage glowing like a campfire.

第九章10月9日星期一中午12点15分 芝加哥南部。 他们把珍妮和布鲁诺住的燃烧着的社区抛在脑后，向北走去。 奥斯卡一直扭头看着天空中渗出的巨大橙色光芒。 奥斯卡可以看到，大火现在已经很大了，而且蔓延得很快。 风把火星吹遍了整个城市。 奥斯卡放眼望去，到处都是新的火焰在燃烧。 有些火非常小——一束火焰在树上摇曳，一堆垃圾像篝火一样发光。

But there were burning houses everywhere, and in places, the smoke was so thick that they had to gasp for breath. But Oscar's gasps also came from what was happening all around them: people sobbing and screaming, horses driven crazy by the heat and sparks, stray dogs howling in fear. Even the rats were running for their lives, rushing out from under the wooden sidewalks and getting squashed under the wheels of the wagons and buggies that plowed through the streets. The crowds got bigger as they moved north. Many people were dragging trunks and suitcases, or struggling with heavy sacks heaved over their shoulders. Two women in nightgowns carried a mattress above their heads. On top was a very old man, curled up under a quilt. The fires turned the night as bright as day, lighting up the terrified faces all around Oscar — the tearstained cheeks, the mouths open in horror, the wide-open eyes looking up at the sky. But the worst part was the howling wind, which seemed to be getting stronger by the minute. Each hot gust was filled with dust and smoke, and spit

但到处都是燃烧的房屋，有些地方的烟太浓了，他们不得不大口喘气。 但奥斯卡的喘息也来自于他们周围发生的事情:人们哭泣和尖叫，马被高温和火花逼疯了，流浪狗在恐惧中嚎叫。 就连老鼠也在逃命，它们从木头人行道下面冲出来，被街上飞驰而过的马车和四轮马车的车轮压得稀里哗啦。 随着他们向北移动，人群越来越多。 许多人拖着衣箱，或者扛着沉重的麻袋挣扎。 两个穿着睡衣的女人头顶着一个床垫。 上面是一位老人，蜷缩在被子里。 火光把黑夜照得像白昼一样明亮，照亮了奥斯卡周围惊恐的面孔——泪痕斑斑的脸颊，惊恐地张大的嘴巴，瞪大的眼睛望着天空。 但最糟糕的是呼啸的风，似乎每分每秒都在增强。 每一阵风都充满了灰尘、烟雾和唾沫

out millions of embers and sparks. One burned a hole clear through the toe of Oscar's boot. Oscar passed a woman just as her skirts erupted into flames. Luckily the man next to her had a canteen of water, and quickly drenched her. The sparks were terrible for Oscar and Jennie, but they tortured poor Bruno. "Hot! Hot!" he kept saying, trying to bury his face in Oscar's neck. Finally Jennie spotted an overturned wheelbarrow with a heap of clothes spilling out. She snatched a lady's hat, its purple velvet smudged with dirt, the wide brim crushed. "I don't think anyone will miss this," she said. She put it on Bruno's head, a perfect helmet to protect his curls. She kept her eyes on Oscar, swatting away embers that came too close to his face or smoldered on his clothes. Oscar was getting the idea that there wasn't much Jennie couldn't take care of. They came to a corner where a crowd of people had stopped to watch a grand brick building burn. Oscar and Jennie tried to push their way through, but they were completely hemmed in.

燃烧出无数余烬和火花。 其中一颗在奥斯卡的靴尖上烧了一个洞。 奥斯卡从一个女人身边经过时，她的裙子突然燃烧起来。 幸运的是，她旁边的人有一水壶水，很快就把她弄湿了。 火花对奥斯卡和珍妮来说是可怕的，但却折磨着可怜的布鲁诺。 “热!他不停地说，想把脸埋进奥斯卡的脖子里。 最后珍妮看见一辆翻倒的独轮车，上面撒了一堆衣服。 她抓起一顶女士帽子，紫丝绒上沾满了污垢，宽帽檐也被压碎了。 “我认为没有人会错过这个，”她说。 她把它戴在布鲁诺的头上，一个完美的头盔来保护他的卷发。 她目不转睛地盯着奥斯卡，拍拍离他脸太近或在他衣服上闷烧的余烬。 奥斯卡渐渐明白了，没有什么是珍妮不能照顾的。 他们来到一个角落，那里有一群人停下来观看一座宏伟的砖房燃烧。 奥斯卡和珍妮想挤过去，可是他们完全被围住了。

And then, suddenly, the clanging of bells rose above the roar of the fire. "Fire department!" someone shouted. People jumped out of the way as two steam pumper wagons came tearing around the corner, each pulled by two sweating horses. A hose wagon followed. Oscar's heart lifted a bit. He remembered what Mr. Morrow had told them, that Chicago had the best fire department in the world. And here was their chance to prove it. Maybe they could save at least part of the city. People in the crowd watched hopefully as about fifteen firefighters hopped off the wagons and got to work, readying the pumper and uncoiling the heavy canvas hoses. In Castle, there was no fire department or pumper engines. When a fire broke out, people had to rely on themselves and their neighbors. During the big fire, a flurry of sparks had ignited the roof of oscar's barn. Within minutes, thirty people had rushed to their farm ready to help. They grabbed every bucket and jug they could find and formed a bucket brigade,

然后，突然，叮当的钟声盖过了大火的轰鸣声。 “消防部门!”有人喊道。 当两辆蒸汽泵车从拐角处疾驰而来，每辆车都由两匹汗流浃背的马拉着时，人们都跳开了。 后面跟着一辆马车。奥斯卡的心情好了一点。 他想起莫罗先生对他们说过的话，芝加哥有世界上最好的消防部门。 现在是他们证明这一点的机会。 也许他们至少可以拯救一部分城市。 人群中的人们满怀希望地看着大约15名消防队员跳下货车，开始工作，准备抽水机，打开沉重的帆布软管。 在卡塞尔，没有消防部门，也没有消防车。 当火灾发生时，人们不得不依靠自己和邻居。 在大火中，一阵火花点燃了奥斯卡谷仓的屋顶。 几分钟之内，30个人冲到他们的农场准备帮忙。 他们抓住了能找到的每一个水桶和罐子，组成了一个水桶大队，

Mama and two other women had stood at the well, filling the buckets as fast as they could. Everyone else lined up, forming a human chain that led from the well to the barn. Oscar stood on

妈妈和另外两个女人站在井边，以最快的速度把桶装满。 其他人都排好队，形成一条人链，从井通往谷仓。 奥斯卡站在

the line, passing sloshing buckets of cold water toward the fire. It was amazing how those heavy buckets flew across the chain of hands, how the splashes of water tamed the flames. Oscar had kept going even after his arms were numb with pain. It had taken an hour, but they'd put the fire out. The roof of the barn was burned through, but the rest of the building still stood. Oscar would never forget how happy he felt when the last of the flames fizzled out, as if he'd helped slay a monster. He watched now as the firefighters dragged the heavy coils over to the burning buildings, screaming at people in the crowd to stand back as the pumper engines roared and water pulsed into the hoses. Like soldiers in battle, the men aimed their hoses. Cheers rose up from the crowd as thick, powerful sprays of water blasted up at the flames. Very quickly Oscar realized that the firefighters didn't stand a chance. The fire was too big and too hot. The water hissed as it got close to the flames, and then boiled away into puffs of steam. With

队伍里的人把一桶桶晃动的冷水递给炉火。 那些沉重的水桶如何在手链上飞过，水花如何驯服了火焰，真是令人惊叹。 奥斯卡甚至在手臂痛得麻木之后还在继续前进。 花了一个小时，他们终于把火扑灭了。 谷仓的屋顶被烧毁了，但建筑物的其余部分还在。 奥斯卡永远不会忘记，当最后的火焰熄灭时，他感到多么高兴，就好像他帮助杀死了一个怪物。 他看着消防队员拖着沉重的钢圈冲向燃烧的建筑物，一边看着水泵引擎轰鸣着，水涌进水管，一边向人群中尖叫着让他们退后。 像战场上的士兵一样，这些人瞄准了他们的水管。 人群中响起了欢呼声，强烈的水柱向火焰喷射。 奥斯卡很快意识到消防员根本没有机会。 火太大太热了。 水靠近火焰时发出嘶嘶声，然后沸腾成一缕缕蒸汽。 与