Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15 TWO WEEKS LATER, MONDAY, JUNE 6 7:00 A.M. Dex sat up in bed, his heart pounding. He'd heard a noise. Was it the tornado siren? He held his breath. No. It was just Dad's phone alarm. Zeke was sprawled out next to Dex. He stared up with worried eyes, his ears pressed back.

第十五章两周后，6月6日星期一上午7点 德克斯从床上坐起来，心怦怦直跳。 他听到有声音。是龙卷风警报吗? 他屏住了呼吸。不。只是爸爸的电话闹铃。 齐克躺在德克斯旁边。 他忧心忡忡地抬起头来，耳朵贴在后面。

"We're okay," Dex whispered, kissing Zeke on the head. And they were. Still, it took a minute for Dex's heart to stop pounding, for the nauseous swirl to clear from his stomach. Though he was sleeping better, the tornado howled through his dreams. And he always woke up in a sweaty panic, reliving the terror of the storm, the jumbled darkness of those first few days. Joplin had been cut off from the world. Many of the roads were closed. Phones were dead and power blacked out. Every hour brought more terrible news. One hundred and fifty-eight were killed in the storm. They died in their homes, in stores, on the roads, in their cars. More than a thousand were wounded. So many families had lost everything they had. Dex would never forget those terrifying minutes when he was sure Mom and Dad and Zeke were lost in the rubble. It turned out that Mom and Dad

“我们没事。”德克斯低声说，亲了亲齐克的头。 他们确实做到了。不过，过了一分钟，德克斯的心脏才停止跳动，恶心的漩涡才从胃里消失。 虽然他睡得好多了，但龙卷风在他的梦中呼啸而过。 他总是在汗流浃背的恐慌中醒来，重温暴风雨的恐怖，头几天混乱的黑暗。 乔普林与外界隔绝了。 许多道路被封锁了。 电话没电了，电力也中断了。 每小时都传来更多可怕的消息。 158人在风暴中丧生。 他们死在家里、商店里、路上、车里。 一千多人受伤。 许多家庭失去了他们所拥有的一切。 德克斯永远不会忘记那可怕的时刻，他确信爸爸妈妈和齐克都被埋在废墟里了。 结果是妈妈和爸爸

weren't in the house at all. They'd been driving home from the graduation when the sirens went off. Luckily they'd had enough time to pull the car over and sprint into the basement of a restaurant. Their car had been sucked away; they still hadn't been able to find it. None of them wanted to think about what would have happened if anyone had been in the house when the tornado hit. What if Mom and Dad hadn't stayed after the graduation to help take pictures? What if Dex hadn't gone with Dr. Gage that day? What if they had been in the basement when the beams of their house cracked? A crushing mountain of wood and plaster and appliances and furniture had come crashing into the basement, filling every inch. Nobody would have survived down there. A big mystery was how Zeke made it through. None of them could figure out how he had suddenly just appeared when Dex was searching through the rubble.

我们根本不在房子里。 他们刚从毕业典礼上开车回家，警笛就响了。 幸运的是，他们有足够的时间把车停在路边，冲进一家餐馆的地下室。 他们的汽车被吸走了;他们仍然没能找到它。 他们谁也不想去想，如果龙卷风来袭时有人在房子里会发生什么。 如果爸爸妈妈毕业后没有留下来帮忙拍照会怎么样? 如果德克斯没有和。 那天盖奇?如果他们在地下室的时候房子的横梁裂开了呢? 堆积如山的木头、灰泥、电器和家具砸进了地下室，填满了每一寸土地。 在那里没人能活下来。 齐克是怎么熬过来的是个大谜团。 他们谁也不明白，当德克斯在废墟中搜寻时，他是怎么突然出现的。

It was Dr. Gage who had the best answer. "I told you, your dog has superpowers," he'd said. Dex smiled to himself, thinking of Dr. Gage safe at his house in Tulsa. For an agonizing week after the storm, Dex had no idea whether Dr. Gage was alive or dead. Joplin's main hospital had been practically destroyed, and so Joplin's wounded were taken to hospitals for miles around. With no phone service, they had no way of tracking him down. Finally the call came from Sara: Dr. Gage was in a hospital in Oklahoma. He was still weak, but getting better every day. Now that Dr. Gage was back at home, he and Dex spoke almost every day. They'd made a plan for Dex and Mom and Dad to visit him in Tulsa in a few weeks. Dex already had the present he would bring. He'd retrieved it from the wreckage of Dr. Gage's SUV.

盖奇医生给出了最好的答案。 “我告诉过你，你的狗有超能力，”他说。 德克斯暗自笑了，想起了医生。 盖奇在塔尔萨的家里很安全。 风暴过后的一个星期里，德克斯很痛苦，他不知道德克斯博士是否还活着。 盖奇是死是活。乔普林的主要医院几乎被摧毁了，所以乔普林的伤员被送往几英里外的医院。 由于没有电话服务，他们无法找到他。 终于，萨拉打来了电话。 盖奇当时在俄克拉荷马州的一家医院。 他仍然很虚弱，但每天都在好转。 现在盖奇医生回到了家，他和德克斯几乎每天都说话。 他们计划好了，让德克斯和爸爸妈妈几周后去塔尔萨看他。 德克斯已经准备好了他要带来的礼物。 这是他从Dr。 计的SUV。

Dad had gone with him to the parking lot of Peter's Garage, to see if there was anything in the SUV they could salvage for Dr. Gage. They found some maps, and some important papers in the glove compartment. And Dex discovered something else: the small hail freezer wedged under the front seat. Dex yanked it free. The battery-operated motor was still humming. And inside, that huge piece of hail was still frozen solid. Dex lifted the glistening ball out of the freezer. At first he wanted to smash it into millions of pieces. That hailstone was part of the storm system that had destroyed his city! Yes it was. And that's why Dex put it back in the little freezer, to save for Dr. Gage. Who knew? Maybe there was some secret inside the icy ball, a clue that would help Dr. Gage unravel the mysteries of tornadoes. Dex finally got out of bed. He got dressed, squeezing around the boxes and bins stacked

爸爸和他一起去了彼得车库的停车场，看看那辆越野车里有没有什么可以抢救出来的。 计。他们在仪表盘的储物柜里发现了一些地图和一些重要的文件。 德克斯还发现了另一件事:前座下面塞着一个小冰柜。 德克斯猛地把它拽了出来。电池驱动的马达还在嗡嗡作响。 在里面，那块巨大的冰雹仍然是冰冻的。 德克斯把闪闪发光的球从冰箱里拿了出来。 起初，他想把它粉碎成数百万块。 那块冰雹是摧毁他的城市的风暴系统的一部分!是的。 这就是为什么德克斯把它放回小冰箱里的原因。 计。谁知道呢?也许在冰球里有什么秘密，一个线索，可以帮助博士。 盖奇揭开了龙卷风的奥秘。 德克斯终于下了床。 他穿好衣服，挤在堆放的箱子和箱子周围

everywhere in their tiny apartment. Each one was filled up with books and dishes and photos and other treasures they'd managed to salvage from the soggy wreckage of their house. For days they had sifted through the pile, with the help of volunteers from around the country. Thousands had flocked to Joplin to help pick up the pieces.

他们的小公寓里到处都是。 每个箱子里都装满了他们从湿漉漉的房子废墟中抢救出来的书、盘子、照片和其他宝贝。 几天来，他们在来自全国各地的志愿者的帮助下，从成堆的垃圾中筛选出来。 成千上万的人涌向乔普林帮助收拾残局。