Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6 "What do we do now?" Mel asked Pops. He was cleaning the cut on her arm. The shard of glass had left her with a nasty, oozing gash. "We need to tell the rangers," he said. "The station is closed now. But I'll call first thing in the morning." "What will they do?"

第六章“我们现在怎么办？”梅尔问老爷子。 他正在清洗她手臂上的伤口。 玻璃碎片在她身上留下了一道恶心的、渗出的伤口。 “我们得告诉护林员，”他说。 “车站现在关闭了。 但我明天早上第一件事就是打电话。” “他们会怎么做？”

"They'll have to trap the bear," he said, tearing open a Band-Aid and carefully pressing it over Mel's cut. "They'll move it up to the mountains, way into the wilderness." He explained that the rangers had a special kind of trailer for trapping problem bears. They'd hitch it to a jeep and drive it to where the bear was last seen. They'd bait the trap with deer or elk meat. The bear would climb inside to get the bait. And then, slam! a door would shut behind it, locking it in. Then the rangers would drive the trailer up into the wilds of the park, far from the campgrounds and hiking trails. They'd release the bear and drive away. "What if that grizzly comes back here?" Mel asked. "It won't," Pops said. But his eyes flickered, and Mel could see he wasn't so sure. Mel wanted to help Pops clean up the broken glass. But Kevin needed her. The little guy was all

“他们得把熊困住，”他说着，撕开一块创可贴，小心地贴在梅尔的伤口上。 “他们会把它搬到山上，一直搬到荒野里。” 他解释说，护林员有一种特殊的拖车用来捕捉问题熊。 他们会把它挂在吉普车上，开到熊最后出现的地方。 他们会用鹿肉或麋鹿肉作饵。 熊会爬进去拿诱饵。 然后，砰！一扇门会在它身后关上，把它锁在里面。 然后，护林员会把拖车开到公园的野外，远离露营地和远足径。 他们会放了熊，然后开车离开。 “如果那只灰熊又回来了怎么办？”梅尔·问道。 “不会的，”老爷子说。但他的眼睛在闪烁，梅尔看得出他不那么肯定。 梅尔想帮老爷子清理碎玻璃。 但是凯文需要她。这个小家伙

shaken up. Mel found him on her tiny cot, tears pouring down his face. "I'm sorry, Mel! I made the bear mad!" "Oh, Kev," Mel said, lying down next to him and pulling him in close. "It's not your fault." She tried to make her voice sound calm like Mom's always did when they were upset. "You didn't do anything wrong. Shhhh, shhhhh." After a few minutes, Kevin's sobs slowed down, and Mel pulled the blanket over them. She thought about all those times Mom's calm words made things better. There was the time they saw bats in the outhouse. And the time they discovered a huge raccoon standing on the counter in the cabin. It had looked at them and hissed. "Well, good morning to you, too," Mom had said to the raccoon. She always made them feel lucky when they saw something wild. To her, a shiny green beetle

动摇了。梅尔发现他躺在她的小床上，泪流满面。 “对不起，梅尔！”我把熊惹疯了！”“哦，凯文，”梅尔说，躺在他身边，把他拉近。 “这不是你的错。”她努力使自己的声音听起来平静，就像妈妈在难过时总是做的那样。 “你没做错什么。 嘘!嘘。”几分钟后，凯文的抽泣慢了下来，梅尔拉上毯子盖住他们。 她想起了妈妈平静的话语让事情变得更好的那些时刻。 有一次他们在屋外看到蝙蝠。 还有一次他们发现一只巨大的浣熊站在小木屋的柜台上。 它看着他们，发出嘶嘶声。 “好吧，你也早上好，”妈妈对浣熊说。 当他们看到野生动物时，她总是让他们感到幸运。 对她来说，是一只闪亮的绿色甲虫

was more beautiful than a diamond ring. Every spider's web was a work of art. But Mom wouldn't have felt lucky tonight. That bear had terrified all of them, even Pops. In fact, Mel was secretly glad that Kevin wanted to sleep with her. She snuggled up closer to him. A few minutes later, he drifted off to sleep with both arms wrapped tight around Mel's neck. Mel could hear Pops moving around the cabin. He'd already hammered a piece of wood over the broken window in the door. Now he was sweeping up the glass. She closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep. But the bear attack kept playing over and over again in her head, like a slideshow that wouldn't stop. It just didn't make sense. Grizzlies didn't act that way. Or smell that way. At least, no grizzly she'd ever heard of. She'd only seen a grizzly one other time in her life. As Kevin breathed softly next to her, she thought back on that unforgettable day.

比钻戒还漂亮。 每一张蜘蛛网都是一件艺术品。 但妈妈今晚不会觉得幸运。 那只熊吓坏了他们所有人，包括老爷子。 事实上，梅尔暗自庆幸凯文想和她上床。 她偎依在他身边。 几分钟后，他慢慢地睡着了，双臂紧紧地搂着梅尔的脖子。 梅尔能听到老爷子在小屋周围走动。 他已经在门上的破窗户上敲了一块木头。 现在他正在打扫玻璃。 她闭上眼睛，试图入睡。 但熊的攻击一遍又一遍地在她的脑海里播放，就像一个不停的幻灯片。 这根本说不通。 灰熊可不是这样的。 或者闻到那种味道。至少她没听说过灰熊。 她一生中只见过灰熊一次。 当凯文在她身边轻轻地呼吸时，她回想起那难忘的一天。