Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6 ALMOST FOUR MONTHS LATER JANUARY 15, 1919 7:30 A.M. Carmen was awake, but she kept her eyes squeezed shut. The mornings were always the hardest. She finally eased her eyes open and took some deep

第6章差不多四个月后1919年1月15日上午7:30 卡门醒了，但她一直闭着眼睛。 早晨总是最难熬的。 她终于慢慢睁开眼睛，深吸了一口

breaths. She listened for Papa's voice in her mind like she did every morning. Buongiorno, mia ragazza—Good morning, my girl. "Good morning," Carmen whispered back. "Hi, Carmie!" a little voice chirped. Carmen looked down, and two sleepy brown eyes peeped up at her. It was little Teresa, Tony's three-year-old sister. "Go back to sleep," Carmen said with a smile. "It's still early." Teresa flashed a gap-toothed grin and closed her eyes. At the end of the bed, Tony's other little sister, Marie, was curled up under a tattered blanket. Carmen reached over and tucked her in tighter. A snore rose up from the floor. That was Tony's six-year-old brother, Frankie. He was a skinny little bean. But he snored like a giant! He and Tony were asleep on a mattress tucked into the corner.

呼吸。她像每天早上一样，在心里倾听爸爸的声音。 Buongiorno， mia ragazza -早上好，我的姑娘。 “早上好。”卡门小声回答。 “嗨，卡米！”一个小声音叫道。 卡门低下头，两只睡眼惺忪的棕色眼睛抬头望着她。 是小特蕾莎，托尼三岁的妹妹。 “回去睡吧，”卡门笑着说。 “现在还早呢。”特蕾莎龇牙咧嘴，闭上了眼睛。 在床的那一头，托尼的另一个小妹妹玛丽蜷缩在一条破毯子下面。 卡门伸手把她搂得更紧了。 地板上响起了鼾声。 那是托尼六岁的弟弟弗兰基。 他是一个瘦骨嶙峋的小豆子。 但他鼾声如巨人！他和托尼睡在塞在角落里的床垫上。

Across the room, the curtain that hid Mr. and Mrs. Grasso's bed was already pulled open. Carmen could hear them talking in the kitchen. This was Carmen's home now, the Grassos' two-room apartment. She'd been living here since the night after Papa died, when Mr. Grasso carried her upstairs and tucked her into bed with the two little girls. There were seven of them living here, crammed together like tomatoes in a jar. The noise was constant. The girls' giggles. Frankie's bouncing ball. Mr. Grasso's booming laugh. And the fighting! "Frankie bit me!" "Marie wet the bed!" "Teresa is eating a cockroach!" No wonder Tony couldn't study! But Carmen knew how lucky she was to be with the Grassos, who treated Carmen like family. Carmen looked over at Tony, fast asleep with drool dripping out the corner of his mouth. He had hardly left Carmen's side since Papa died. He'd

在房间的另一边，盖住格拉索夫妇床的窗帘已经拉开了。 卡门能听到他们在厨房里的谈话。 这里现在是卡门的家，格拉索一家的两室公寓。 自从爸爸去世后的那个晚上，格拉索先生把她抱上楼，把她和两个小女孩一起塞进了床上，她就一直住在这里。 他们一共有七个人住在这里，挤在一起，就像一个罐子里的西红柿。 噪音持续不断。女孩们的笑声。 弗兰基的弹跳球。格拉索先生洪亮的笑声。 还有战斗！“弗兰基咬了我！”“玛丽尿床了！”“特蕾莎在吃蟑螂！”难怪托尼不能学习！但卡门知道，能和格拉索一家在一起是多么幸运，他们待卡门就像家人一样。 卡门看了看托尼，他睡得正香，嘴角淌着口水。 自从爸爸死后，他几乎没有离开过卡门的身边。 他会

even started reading The Wonderful Wizard of Oz aloud at bedtime. "It puts the girls to sleep," he said. But Carmen had a feeling he was reading it for her. He somehow sensed that hearing about Dorothy made Carmen feel better, like she wasn't the only girl who sometimes felt completely lost. Worse than lost. There were moments every day when Carmen's heart seemed to be crumbling apart, like the church tower in her village after the quake. But then Tony would tell her one of his dumb jokes. Frankie would come racing over to show her a new baseball card. The girls would climb up onto her lap. Or Mrs. Grasso would ask her to stir the pot of tomato gravy. With all these kids, there was always work to be done. Carmen tried to help Mrs. Grasso out as much as she could. Which was what she should be doing now, instead of lying here like a lump.

甚至开始在睡前大声朗读《绿野仙踪》。 “这会让女孩们睡着，”他说。 但卡门有一种感觉，他是在为她读这本书。 他不知怎么地感觉到，听到多萝西的事让卡门感觉好些了，好像她不是唯一一个有时感到完全迷失的女孩。 比失去更糟糕。卡门的心每天都有崩溃的时刻，就像地震后她所在村庄的教堂塔楼一样。 但随后托尼会给她讲他的一个愚蠢的笑话。 弗兰基会跑过来给她看一张新的棒球卡。 女孩们会爬到她的腿上。 或者格拉索太太会让她搅拌一锅番茄肉汁。 有这么多孩子，总有工作要做。 卡门尽她所能地帮助格拉索太太。 这才是她现在应该做的，而不是像个肿块一样躺在这里。

Carmen quickly got dressed. She stared out the window as she brushed the knots from her hair. Of course, her gaze went straight to that ugly molasses tank rising up in the distance. It was impossible to look out the window and not see it. And now the tank would always remind Carmen of that terrible day that Papa got sick. She remembered those strange noises she and Tony had heard, how they'd run away in fear, and then fallen down laughing. It amazed Carmen to think of how carefree she'd felt on that bright September day. She'd had no idea that Papa was sick. That the Spanish influenza had already sunk its fangs into Boston. That they would all soon find themselves caught in the middle of one of the deadliest disease outbreaks in history. The epidemic spread through Boston and across the country—and the world. Tens of millions had died so far. Mr. Lawrence told them it was even

卡门很快穿好衣服。 她一边梳理头发上的结，一边凝视着窗外。 当然，她的目光直接投向了远处那个丑陋的糖蜜罐。 往窗外看，不可能不看见它。 现在，水箱总是让卡门想起爸爸生病的那可怕的一天。 她想起了她和托尼听到的那些奇怪的声音，想起了他们是如何在恐惧中逃跑，然后大笑着摔倒在地。 在那个晴朗的九月的一天，卡门想到自己是多么无忧无虑，感到很惊讶。 她不知道爸爸病了。 西班牙流感已经在波士顿肆虐。 他们很快就会发现自己陷入了历史上最致命的疾病爆发之中。 这种流行病在波士顿、全国乃至全世界蔓延开来。 到目前为止，已有数千万人死亡。 劳伦斯先生告诉他们这是两分的

more deadly than the Black Death, the plague that struck Europe during the time of the knights. Here in Boston, hospitals ran out of beds. Schools and theaters and movie houses were shut down to slow the spread. But nothing helped. Bodies piled up in the streets. There weren't enough gravediggers to bury the hundreds dying each week. Carmen wasn't the only kid at school who'd lost a parent. Some lost two, and brothers and sisters, too. So much had changed since she and Tony stood together in the shadow of the molasses tank. But that tank hadn't changed at all. It was still huge and ugly and leaking. Carmen sat on the edge of the lumpy mattress to button up her brand-new boots. The Grassos had given them to her for Christmas. Her last boots were so small her toenails had turned black. Carmen stood up and wiggled her grateful toes.

比黑死病更致命，黑死病是骑士时代袭击欧洲的瘟疫。 在波士顿，医院已经没有床位了。 学校、剧院和电影院都关闭了，以减缓传播。 但一切都无济于事。尸体堆积在街道上。 没有足够的掘墓人来埋葬每周死去的数百人。 卡门并不是学校里唯一一个失去父母的孩子。 有些人失去了两个，还有兄弟姐妹。 自从她和托尼一起站在糖蜜罐的阴影下以来，发生了很多变化。 但是坦克一点也没变。 它还是那么大，那么丑，那么漏水。 卡门坐在凹凸不平的床垫边上，扣上她新买的靴子。 这是格拉索一家送给她的圣诞礼物。 她最后一双靴子太小了，脚趾甲都黑了。 卡门站了起来，感激地扭动着脚趾头。