Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16 TWO MONTHS LATER SUNDAY, JULY 20, 1980 SEATTLE, WASHINGTON Jess was cleaning up her room. She checked the clock. Ten o'clock. Better hurry.,

第十六章两个月后1980年7月20日星期日，华盛顿西雅图杰西正在打扫她的房间。 她看了看钟。十点钟。 更好的快点。

She and Mom were having visitors today, and they'd been working nonstop all weekend to get the apartment ready. They'd been in their new place for only a week, but already they were unpacked. Jess loved her new room, which was bright and sunny. She was still getting used to the Seattle noises and the crowds of people. But she liked it here more than she'd expected to. She moved carefully — the burn on her back still hurt if she turned too suddenly. But it had healed well. She was glad she couldn't see what it looked like. Mom popped her head through the doorway. "Let's not forget our camera," Mom said. "I have it ready," Jess said. Their new camera. Jess had finally worked up the courage to tell Mom the whole story about losing Dad's camera. "It was Dad's prized possession," Jess had said, fighting tears.

她和妈妈今天来了客人，他们整个周末都在不停地工作，把公寓收拾好。 他们搬到新地方才一个星期，就已经把行李拆了。 杰西喜欢她的新房间，它明亮而阳光明媚。 她还在适应西雅图的噪音和人群。 但她比想象中更喜欢这里。 她小心翼翼地移动着——如果她转得太突然，背上的烧伤还在疼。 但它已经愈合得很好。她很高兴自己看不到它的样子。 妈妈从门口探出头来。 “别忘了带相机，”妈妈说。 “我已经准备好了，”杰西说。 他们的新相机。杰西终于鼓起勇气把爸爸的相机丢了的整个故事告诉了妈妈。 “那是爸爸最珍贵的财产，”杰西强忍着泪水说。

Mom had put her arms around her. "No," she'd said. "You were." Mom looked around Jess's room now and smiled. "It looks great in here," she said. Jess agreed. The walls were covered with photographs of trees and birds and of Mom — pictures that Dad had taken. His dream had been for his photographs to hang in a Seattle gallery, and now that dream had come true — almost. "And I really do love the red," Mom said, admiring the freshly painted walls. Jess loved the color, too. She knew that for the rest of her life, red would be her lucky color. Dr. Morales had helped them paint the room. Jess was glad to see that their friend was starting to smile again. He'd been safe at his lab here in Seattle when St. Helens erupted. But like many of the scientists, he blamed himself for not being able to better predict the eruption. And he'd lost one of

妈妈搂着她。 “不，”她说。“你是。” 妈妈环视了一下杰西的房间，笑了。 “这里看起来很棒，”她说。 杰斯同意了。墙上挂满了爸爸拍的树、鸟和妈妈的照片。 他的梦想是把自己的照片挂在西雅图的一家画廊里，现在这个梦想几乎实现了。 “我真的很喜欢红色，”妈妈说，欣赏着新粉刷的墙壁。 杰西也喜欢这种颜色。 她知道，在她的余生中，红色将是她的幸运色。 莫拉莱斯医生帮他们粉刷了房间。 杰西很高兴看到他们的朋友又开始微笑了。 他在西雅图的实验室里很安全。 海伦斯火山爆发了。但像许多科学家一样，他责怪自己没能更好地预测火山喷发。 他失去了一个

his close friends, a young scientist who had been near the mountain when it exploded. That man was one of the fifty-seven people who died in the eruption. Some people were killed instantly, in the pyroclastic surge and blast of rock and ash. Others died in the floods and mudslides that raced down the mountain in the hours afterward. Dr. Morales had been right when he predicted that Mount St. Helens would erupt with terrible violence. But not even he had imagined just how powerful the eruption would be. It was one of the most powerful in history, more explosive even than Pelée. The entire front of the mountain shattered. Millions of tons of rock and ice and volcanic debris crashed down the mountain. The pyroclastic surge instantly destroyed everything within its five-mile path. If Jess and the twins had been much closer, they would not have escaped with their lives.

他的好朋友，一位年轻的科学家，火山爆炸时他就在附近。 那名男子是在火山喷发中丧生的57人之一。 有些人在火山碎屑涌动和岩石和火山灰爆炸中当场死亡。 还有一些人死于洪水和泥石流，泥石流在几个小时后冲下了山。 莫拉莱斯博士的预测是正确的。 海伦会爆发出可怕的暴力。 但就连他也没有想到这次喷发会有多么强大。 它是历史上最强大的组织之一，甚至比pelsame更具爆炸性。 整座山的正面都粉碎了。 数百万吨的岩石、冰和火山碎屑从山上坠落。 火山碎屑涌流立即摧毁了五英里范围内的一切。 如果杰西和双胞胎走得更近，他们就不会死里逃生了。

A mudslide swept down the mountain, picking up trees and logs and trucks and houses and bridges. The downtown of Cedar was spared. But some people lost their homes, including Missy. She and her family were with relatives in Iowa now. Jess was thinking about writing to her. She wanted to tell Missy the news: that Skeleton Woman really did exist! In a way. Jess had discovered this about a month after the eruption. By then Jess's burn had mostly healed. She and Mom had been helping serve meals at a shelter for people who had lost their homes. There was another volunteer working that day, an older woman with a long gray braid and bright blue eyes. "I know you," the woman had said to Jess with a smile. And Jess remembered her — she was the woman with the white pickup who they'd seen in

一场泥石流从山上冲下来，卷走了树木、原木、卡车、房屋和桥梁。 雪松市中心幸免于难。 但有些人失去了家园，包括米西。 她和她的家人现在和爱荷华州的亲戚在一起。 杰西想给她写信。 她想告诉米西这个消息:那个骷髅女人真的存在!在某种程度上。 杰西在火山喷发一个月后发现了这一点。 那时杰茜的烧伤已经基本愈合了。 她和妈妈一直在避难所帮助那些失去家园的人提供食物。 那天还有一位志愿者在工作，她是一位年长的妇女，梳着长长的灰色辫子，有着明亮的蓝眼睛。 “我认识你，”那个女人微笑着对杰西说。 杰茜想起了她——她就是他们看到的开着白色皮卡的那个女人

the Loomis Lake parking lot, the day of that first earthquake. Her name was Gretchen Livingston. She worked for a group that had been trying to save the big old trees near Loomis Lake. Gretchen and Mom had hit it off. And a few nights later at Clive's, Gretchen had told Mom and Jess her secret — that she was Skeleton Woman. "What?" Jess had gasped. Gretchen smiled slyly. "For years our group had been trying to find ways to stop the lumber company from chopping down those beautiful old trees," she'd explained. "But nothing we did worked. And finally the company was going to cut them all down. I was ready to give up. But one day I was at a restaurant over in Cougar." That was a town across the valley. "I overheard some loggers in the booth behind me. They were talking about the old Skeleton

卢米斯湖停车场，第一次地震发生的那天。 她的名字叫格雷琴·利文斯顿。 她为一个试图拯救卢米斯湖附近的大古树的组织工作。 格雷琴和妈妈很合得来。 几天后，在克莱夫家，格雷琴告诉了妈妈和杰西她的秘密——她是骷髅女。 “什么?”杰西倒吸了一口气。格雷琴狡黠地笑了。 “多年来，我们小组一直在设法阻止木材公司砍伐那些美丽的老树，”她解释说。 “但我们所做的一切都不起作用。 最后公司打算把他们全部砍掉。 我准备放弃了。但是有一天我在美洲狮的一家餐馆里。” 那是山谷对面的一个小镇。 “我无意中听到一些伐木工在我身后的摊位上说话。 他们在谈论老骷髅