Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4 The growling noise got louder. GRRR guh guh gug gug GRRR guh, guh, guh, guh… "Is it dogs?" Tony asked nervously. He looked around, eyes wide. Carmen's stomach tightened. The North End was infested with vicious stray dogs that roamed in packs. They howled in alleys at night. And many of them had rabies. If you got

咆哮声更响了。 GRRR guh guh gug gug GRRR guh, guh, guh， guh…是狗吗？托尼紧张地问。 他环顾四周，眼睛睁得大大的。 卡门的胃绷紧了。 北端到处都是成群游荡的恶毒的流浪狗。 他们晚上在小巷里嚎叫。 他们中的许多人患有狂犬病。 如果你有

bitten, you'd die a grisly death if you didn't get rabies shots stabbed right into your stomach. The sound got even louder. GRRR guh guh gug gug GRRR guh, guh, guh, guh… The ground around the tank shook. Carmen's heart pounded. Could it be an earthquake? She didn't think they had those in Boston. But what did she know? She whirled around, ready to grab Tony and bolt. She imagined the North End crumbling apart, like her village back in Italy. But the men working along the waterfront seemed to be doing what they always did. They were rolling their barrels and lugging their crates, talking and laughing. "Look!" Tony cried. Carmen followed Tony's gaze to the tank. The metal in front of them was vibrating, as if it was breathing.

如果你不打狂犬疫苗的话，你会被咬死的。 声音变得更大了。 GRRR guh guh gug gug GRRR guh, guh, guh， guh…坦克周围的地面震动了。 卡门的心怦怦直跳。会是地震吗？ 她以为波士顿没有这种东西。 但是她知道什么呢？她转过身来，准备抓住托尼逃走。 她想象着伦敦北端分崩离析，就像她在意大利的村庄一样。 但是沿着海滨工作的人们似乎在做他们一直在做的事情。 他们滚着桶，拖着板条箱，有说有笑。 “看!”托尼叫道。卡门跟着托尼的目光来到了水池。 他们面前的金属在振动，好像在呼吸。

Is… is there something in there? Carmen thought. Her heart skipped a beat. What if it's a— But just as quickly as the noise started, it stopped. The tank went still. Carmen and Tony were so focused on the tank, they didn't hear the footsteps creeping up behind them. "Hey! What do you think you're doing?" boomed a voice. Carmen practically jumped out of her skin. She and Tony slowly turned around. A big-bellied man with a greasy black beard and small, mean eyes stood over them. He was holding a huge club—and he looked like he was ready to crack some skulls. "You're not allowed to be here," he growled. "This is private property!" Carmen realized he must work for the company that owned the tank.

里面有什么东西吗？ 卡门的想法。她的心跳了一下。 如果这是-但声音刚开始就停了。 坦克静止了。卡门和托尼的注意力都集中在坦克上，没有听到身后传来的脚步声。 “嘿!你以为你在干什么？”一个声音轰隆轰隆地说。 卡门简直吓呆了。 她和托尼慢慢转过身来。 一个大肚子的男人，留着油腻腻的黑胡子，一双小而刻薄的眼睛站在他们旁边。 他手里拿着一根巨大的棍棒——看起来他已经准备好要敲碎一些人的头骨了。 “你不能来这里。”他咆哮道。 “这是私人财产！”卡门意识到他一定是为拥有坦克的公司工作。

"Sorry," Carmen said, her voice shaking. "We were just worried. We… we heard noises coming from the tank." The man shook his head and rolled his eyes, like she and Tony were scared little babies. "So what?" he said. "It's always doing that. Molasses makes noise. It boils up sometimes." He raised his club. "Now get out of here before I give you something to cry about!" Carmen and Tony took off. The stable was only a couple hundred yards away. They stopped to catch their breath behind a shed. Their eyes met—and they burst out laughing. "I thought there was a monster inside the tank!" Tony cried. He made a face and turned his sticky hands into claws. "Rarrrrr!" he said. I'm the molasses monster! Slime shoots out of my eyes!

“对不起，”卡门说，她的声音颤抖着。 “我们只是担心。我们……我们听到油箱里有声音。” 那人摇了摇头，翻了个白眼，好像她和托尼是受惊的小婴儿。 “那又怎样？”他说。“它总是这样做。 糖蜜会发出噪音。它有时会沸腾。” 他举起了他的棍棒。“在我让你哭之前，赶紧滚出去！”卡门和托尼离开了。 马厩离这里只有几百码远。 他们在一个棚子后面停下来喘口气。 他们的目光相遇了——他们突然大笑起来。 “我还以为缸里有怪物呢！”托尼叫道。 他做了个鬼脸，把黏糊糊的手变成了爪子。 “啊——啊！”我是糖蜜怪兽！黏液从我的眼睛里喷出来了！

"Or maybe it was a shark!" Tony said, turning his claws into a fin. "It sneaked onto the molasses ship and then wiggled through the pipe into the tank." Carmen smiled. Tony really was smart. It was true that the molasses came to Boston on big ships. The ships traveled from Cuba and Puerto Rico—islands in the Caribbean. The molasses was pumped from the ships into the tank through a giant pipe. Carmen caught her breath and brushed some dirt from her coat. She didn't admit to Tony what she'd really thought when she heard those noises: that a person was trapped inside. What if a worker had fallen in and was drowning, being smothered by the disgusting, bitter goo? Just the idea made her heart pound with horror. But now she looked at Tony's grinning face and laughed. Wait until Papa heard about this!

“也可能是鲨鱼！”托尼说着，把爪子变成了鱼鳍。 “它偷偷溜上了糖蜜船，然后通过管道钻进了油箱。” 卡门笑了。托尼真的很聪明。 没错，糖蜜是用大船运到波士顿的。 这些船只从古巴和加勒比海的波多黎各岛出发。 糖蜜通过一根巨大的管道从船上泵入罐中。 卡门喘了口气，掸掉了大衣上的一些灰尘。 她没有向托尼承认她听到那些声音时的真实想法：有人被困在里面。 如果一个工人掉进去淹死了，被恶心的、苦涩的粘稠物窒息了怎么办？ 光是这个念头就让她的心吓得怦怦直跳。 但现在她看着托尼咧着嘴笑的脸，笑了起来。 等着爸爸听到这件事吧！

Carmen and Tony burst through the squeaking stable door. Instantly, Carmen felt calmer as she breathed in the smell of hay and horses and heard the loud nicker of hello from Rosie. The mare was the only horse still at the stable at this time of day. The others were out pulling wagons back and forth across Boston. Rosie was too old to work anymore. But Mr. Vita loved her too much to sell her. Rosie poked her white head over the door of her stall, flicking her ears and snorting softly. Carmen gave her a kiss on her nose. Tony rubbed her head—he loved her, too. Rosie stuck out her long pink tongue and started licking Tony's fingers. Tony laughed. "I think you like molasses even more than I do," he said to Rosie. "Papa?" Carmen called. "We're here!" Carmen expected to hear Papa's cheerful voice. He usually came running out from the back, to

卡门和托尼冲进了吱吱作响的马厩门。 当卡门呼吸着干草和马的气味，听到罗茜大声喊着“你好”时，她立刻平静了下来。 这匹母马是白天这个时候唯一还在马厩里的马。 其他人则在外拉着马车在波士顿来回奔波。 罗茜太老了，不能再工作了。 但维塔先生太爱她了，不会卖掉她的。 罗茜把头伸到隔间的门上，摇着耳朵，轻轻地哼了一声。 卡门吻了她的鼻子。 托尼揉了揉她的头——他也爱她。 罗茜伸出粉红色的长舌头，开始舔托尼的手指。 托尼笑了。“我觉得你比我更喜欢糖蜜，”他对罗西说。 “爸爸?”卡门。“我们在这里!”卡门期待听到爸爸欢快的声音。 他通常是从后面跑出来的