Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15 LATER THAT NIGHT. The sun dropped down behind the mountains, and the sky turned bright purple. They'd changed out of their sweaty clothes and were now in the dining room eating dinner. The sounds of happy chatter and clinking silverware rang out around them. But the mood at their table

第十五章那天晚上。 太阳落在山的后面，天空变成了明亮的紫色。 他们已经换掉了汗湿的衣服，正在餐厅里吃晚饭。 快乐的闲谈声和银器的叮当声在他们周围响起。 但他们餐桌上的气氛

was grim. Mel picked at her bowl of beef stew. She pictured it sitting in the dump, covered in flies. They talked quietly about what they'd learned that day and who Cassie was planning to call once they got back to the cabin. "I'm pretty sure National Geographic is going to want the story," she said. Mel could tell she was itching to get started. Pops had an old typewriter in the cabin, for writing letters. Cassie figured she could have the article finished within a few days. But then it would be at least two months before it was published, maybe more. Mel wished she could press a button and instantly send this story to people all over the world. But this was real life in 1967, not some science fiction story set a thousand years from now. The dining room was buzzing with excitement. There were about thirty people here, including a

是严峻的。梅尔拿起她那碗炖牛肉。 她想象着它坐在垃圾堆里，满身苍蝇。 他们安静地谈论着那天所学到的东西，以及回到小屋后卡西打算给谁打电话。 “我很确定《国家地理》杂志会想要这个故事，”她说。 梅尔看得出来，她迫不及待地要开始了。 老爷子的小屋里有一台旧打字机，用来写信的。 卡西认为她可以在几天内完成这篇文章。 但至少要等两个月才能发表，也许还要更久。 梅尔希望她能按下一个按钮，立即把这个故事发给全世界的人。 但这是1967年的真实生活，而不是一千年后的科幻故事。 餐厅里热闹非凡。 大约有三十个人在这里，包括一个

family with little kids. They'd overheard Greg talking about the even bigger crowd that would be there over the weekend. "Every room is booked," he'd said. "We'll have people out in the campground, too." How many of those people were coming to see the grizzlies eat garbage? Mel didn't want to know. Thinking about it made her nauseous. Dinner was winding down. The waitress brought them all fat slices of chocolate cake. But none of them took a bite. A woman at the next table stood up. "It's time for our sing-along!" she exclaimed. People clapped and cheered. Steve turned to a man at the next table. "What's happening?" "It's a Granite Park tradition," the man said. "Every night after dinner. There's a sing-along." Cassie groaned. "I have a voice like a screeching parrot."

有小孩的家庭。他们无意中听到格雷格说周末会有更多的人来。 “每个房间都订满了，”他说。 “我们也会派人去露营地。” 有多少人是来看灰熊吃垃圾的？ 梅尔不想知道。一想到这件事，她就想吐。 晚餐快结束了。女服务员给他们都端来了大块的巧克力蛋糕。 但没有人咬一口。 邻桌的一位女士站了起来。 “我们一起唱歌的时间到了！”她喊道。 人们鼓掌欢呼。 史蒂夫转向邻桌的一个男人。 “发生了什么?”“这是花岗岩公园的传统，”那人说。 “每天晚饭后。 有一个合唱。”卡西呻吟着。 “我的声音像鹦鹉一样尖叫。”

Steve chuckled. "Bet you it's better than mine." The woman started to sing, and everyone quickly joined in. Row, row, row your boat… That song… the last time Mel had heard it was that night, in the car. The night of the accident. Mel broke out in a cold sweat. Her heart started to pound. She felt as if cold hands were gripping her throat. Everything around disappeared. Her mind seemed to snap. "I… I'll be right back," Mel stammered, pushing herself back from the table and hurrying away. She rushed out the door and into the night. She wasn't thinking. She could barely see. She had no idea where she was going. She sprinted wildly through the darkness. She ran until the sound of the blood pounding in her ears was louder than the singing voices in her head. She collapsed into the grass, buried her face in her hands, and let the tears come pouring out.

史蒂夫笑了。“我打赌比我的好。” 那个女人开始唱歌，大家很快也跟着唱了起来。 划，划，划你的船……那首歌……梅尔最后一次听到它是在那天晚上，在车里。 事故发生的那晚。 梅尔突然出了一身冷汗。 她的心开始怦怦直跳。 她感到仿佛有一双冰冷的手掐住了她的喉咙。 周围的一切都消失了。 她的头脑似乎崩溃了。“我……我马上就回来，”梅尔结结巴巴地说，把自己从桌边推开，匆匆走开了。 她冲出房门，消失在夜色中。 她没有思考。她几乎什么也看不见。 她不知道自己要去哪里。 她在黑暗中狂奔。 她一直跑着，直到血液在耳朵里奔涌的声音比她脑子里的歌声还要响。 她瘫倒在草地上，双手捂着脸，任凭眼泪喷涌而出。

Slowly the spinning stopped. Mel sat for a minute, trying to make sense of what had just happened. She felt dazed, like she'd woken up from a nightmare. She remembered hearing that song, how the room had started to spin. This wasn't the first time this had happened to her. That her panic had sent her on a wild sprint when something reminded her of the car accident. Once, at school, a teacher walked by and Mel caught a whiff of her spicy perfume — the same perfume that Mom always wore. Next thing Mel knew, she was a quarter mile from school, in the middle of a park. She had no idea how long she'd been there. Another time she was at the supermarket with Dad, and she heard an ambulance scream by. It sounded like the ambulance that had taken Mom away, after the crash. That time Mel wound up a block away, sitting on a curb behind a bakery. It always took a few minutes for Mel's mind to really clear. And now she realized she'd better

慢慢地，旋转停止了。 梅尔坐了一会儿，试图弄明白刚才发生的事情。 她感到头晕目眩，就像刚从噩梦中醒来一样。 她记得听到那首歌，房间开始旋转。 这已经不是第一次发生在她身上了。 她的恐慌让她疯狂地冲刺，突然有什么东西让她想起了车祸。 有一次，在学校，一位老师走过，梅尔闻到了她的一股辛辣的香水味——就是妈妈经常用的那种香水。 梅尔所知的下一件事，就是她已经在离学校四分之一英里远的公园中央了。 她不知道自己在那里待了多久。 还有一次她和爸爸在超市，她听到一辆救护车呼啸而过。 听起来像是车祸后把妈妈带走的救护车。 那一次梅尔走到一个街区外，坐在一家面包店后面的路边。 梅尔总是需要几分钟才能真正清醒过来。 现在她意识到她最好

figure out where she was. Steve and Cassie must be looking everywhere for her. She was just standing up when she heard something. A low, gut-twisting growl. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Mel froze, and then slowly looked around. Suddenly she knew exactly where this blind dash had taken her. She was at the back of the chalet, just a few yards away from the garbage dump. And just ahead, glowing in the moonlight, was an enormous grizzly.

弄清楚她在哪里。史蒂夫和凯西肯定在到处找她。 她刚站起来就听到了什么声音。 一声低沉的、令人难受的咆哮。 Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr。梅尔僵住了，然后慢慢地环顾四周。 突然间，她清楚地知道这次盲目的冲刺把她带到了什么地方。 她在小木屋的后面，离垃圾堆只有几码远。 就在前方，在月光下发光的是一只巨大的灰熊。