Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12 "I grew up about a hundred miles north of here, in Canada. My dad and I used to spend lots of time in the woods. One day, when I was thirteen, my dad and I were heading to our favorite fishing spot. We came around a corner and surprised a sow and her cubs." A sow was a mother bear.

第十二章“我在离这里一百英里远的加拿大长大。 我爸爸和我过去经常在树林里度过很多时光。 我十三岁那年，有一天，爸爸和我一起去我们最喜欢的钓鱼地点。 我们拐过一个拐角，吓到了一头母猪和她的幼崽。” 母猪是熊妈妈。

Mel's stomach clenched. She knew what was coming. Mel had heard gruesome stories over the years of hikers slashed and bitten and left half-dead by mother grizzlies. "The sow went after my father first. Just slammed him with her paw. My father went down so hard. It was like he'd been struck by a sledgehammer. When he fell, he cracked his head on a rock." Steve took a breath. "Then the grizzly turned to me." Cassie's hand had crept over and was now gripping Mel's. They'd both stopped eating. Steve explained that there's no way to know for sure what a grizzly will do when it sees a person. "It's extremely rare for a grizzly to attack a person," he said. "It might make noise, growl, and whoof. It might stand up to get a better look. Or it might do a bluff charge…" "What's that?" Mel asked.

梅尔的胃一阵痉挛。她知道接下来会发生什么。 梅尔多年来听过一些可怕的故事，比如徒步旅行者被灰熊妈妈砍伤、咬伤，甚至被打得半死。 母猪先去追我爸爸。 只是用爪子猛击他。 我父亲堕落得很厉害。 就像被大锤砸了一样。 他摔倒的时候，头撞在石头上了。” 史蒂夫深吸了一口气。“然后灰熊转向我。” 卡西的手爬了过来，抓住了梅尔的手。 他们俩都停止了进食。 史蒂夫解释说，当灰熊看到一个人时，没有办法确定它会做什么。 “灰熊攻击人是极其罕见的，”他说。 “它可能会发出噪音，咆哮，呜呜。 它可能会站起来看得更清楚。 或者它可以虚张声势……”“那是什么？”梅尔·问道。

"It's when a bear comes running at you, but it stops short, maybe twenty feet away. It's just trying to scare you." "I bet that works," Aunt Cassie said, with a nervous laugh. "That's when most people would run away, which is a huge mistake. You should just never, ever try to run from a grizzly. Unless maybe there's a tree nearby. But even then, it's risky. Because some grizzlies will climb." "So what should a person do if they think a grizzly is going to attack?" Aunt Cassie asked. "Drop down and play dead," Steve said. "That's what I did. The grizzly came charging toward me, and I could tell she wasn't bluffing." "How?" Mel asked. "She was silent. Her ears were pinned back. She wasn't trying to put on a big noisy show to scare me. She saw me as a threat to her cubs. And she was going to eliminate that threat.

“就是一只熊向你冲过来，但它很快就停了下来，大概在20英尺远的地方。 它只是想吓唬你。” “我打赌这一定管用，”卡西姨妈紧张地笑着说。 “这是大多数人会逃跑的时候，这是一个巨大的错误。 你永远都不应该试图从灰熊身边逃跑。 除非附近有一棵树。 但即便如此，这也有风险。 因为有些灰熊会爬上去。” “那么，如果人们认为灰熊会攻击自己，他们应该怎么做呢？”卡西姨妈问。 “趴下装死，”史蒂夫说。 “我就是这么做的。那只灰熊向我冲过来，我可以看出它不是在虚张声势。” “如何?”梅尔·问道。她沉默了。 她的耳朵被别在脑后。 她不是想搞出一场大吵大闹来吓唬我。 她把我看作是对幼崽的威胁。 她要消除这种威胁。

"So I dropped down onto my stomach and glued myself to the ground. I clasped my hands behind my neck to protect it. The grizzly slashed my back with her claws. I was lucky I had my pack on, because it protected my spine from her bites." Mel cringed. "I stayed perfectly still and quiet as she bit and clawed at me. I dug my toes into the dirt so she couldn't flip me. I didn't want her to slash my face or crush my chest. The whole thing was over in less than a minute. When I finally got up, she and the cubs were gone. I was in pretty bad shape. The worst was my leg. She sliced it open with her claw." He pointed at the scar. "And my dad… it wasn't the bear that killed him. It was the rock he hit when he fell." "Oh, Steve…" Cassie said. "But there was something else… something almost worse than losing my father. Men from

于是我趴在地上，把自己粘在地上。 我双手放在脖子后面保护它。 灰熊用爪子划破了我的背。 幸运的是，我带着背包，因为它保护了我的脊柱不被它咬伤。” 梅尔。“当她又咬又抓我的时候，我完全保持安静。 我把脚趾伸进土里，这样她就不能翻转我了。 我不想让她割伤我的脸或压碎我的胸膛。 整件事不到一分钟就结束了。 当我终于起床的时候，她和她的幼崽都不见了。 我的状态很糟糕。 最糟糕的是我的腿。她用爪子把它切开了。” 他指着伤疤。“还有我爸爸……不是熊杀了他。 那是他摔倒时撞到的石头。” “哦，史蒂夫……”卡西说。 “但还有别的事情……比失去父亲更糟糕的事情。 男人从

town went into the woods. They shot the sow. And her cubs. And that's the last thing my father would have ever wanted. He loved the wild. He wanted to protect grizzlies. He would have understood that the grizzly was protecting her cubs. There were tracks everywhere. We should have known to stay away. My dad shouldn't have died that day. And those bears shouldn't have died, either." "I'm so sorry I asked you about that," Mel said. "Don't say that," Steve said, reaching over and patting Mel's hand. "I didn't have to tell you. But it's good for me to talk about it sometimes. It's never good to keep sadness all bottled up." They all sat there quietly for a moment. And then Steve stood up. He shook his head, as if he was waking up from a dream. "All right," he said. "We've got about a mile left to go." They put their trash into their packs and set out on the trail. Clap, clap.

小镇走进了树林。他们射杀了那头母猪。 还有她的孩子们。这是我父亲最不希望看到的。 他热爱荒野。他想保护灰熊。 他会理解灰熊是在保护她的幼崽。 到处都是铁轨。 我们早该知道离他远点的。 我爸爸那天不该死的。 那些熊也不应该死。” “我很抱歉问了你这个问题，”梅尔说。 “别这么说。”史蒂夫说着，伸手拍了拍梅尔的手。 “我没必要告诉你。 但有时候聊聊对我有好处。 把悲伤都憋在心里是不好的。” 他们都在那儿静静地坐了一会儿。 然后史蒂夫站了起来。他摇了摇头，好像刚从梦中醒来。 “好吧，”他说。“我们还有大约一英里路要走。” 他们把垃圾装进背包，出发了。 鼓掌,鼓掌。

"Hey there, bear! Hey there, bear!" Steve called out. Mel looked around, wondering who — or what — was listening.

“嘿，熊！”嘿，熊！”史蒂夫喊道。 梅尔环顾四周，不知道是谁——或者是什么——在偷听。