Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5 Josh turned and started running for his life. "Stop!" a girl's voice shouted. Josh stopped so suddenly he lost his balance. He fell forward, rolling onto the scratchy brown grass. Before he could scramble to his feet, the massive beast was there, its head right in front of Josh's trembling face. It glared at Josh through

第五章乔希转身开始逃命。 “停下！”一个女孩的声音喊道。 乔希突然停了下来，失去了平衡。 他向前倒下，滚到粗糙的棕色草地上。 他还没来得及爬起来，那头巨大的野兽就出现了，它的头正对着乔希颤抖的脸。 它狠狠地瞪着乔希

small, glowing yellow-brown eyes. Josh braced himself for the crunch of his nose being ripped from his face. He closed his eyes and held his breath. One second passed. Two. Fffffffttttt! Something soft brushed against his cheek. Josh opened one eye. Ffffftttt! A long skinny tongue—bubble-gum pink and forked at the end—came shooting out of the beast's mouth. The tongue felt surprisingly soft on Josh's skin, like a feather. The lizard batted its eyes at Josh. Hello, friend, it seemed to say.

小小的、发光的黄褐色眼睛。 乔希做好了准备，他的鼻子被从脸上扯下来时发出的嘎吱声。 他闭上眼睛，屏住呼吸。 一秒钟过去了。两个。Fffffffttttt !有什么柔软的东西拂过他的脸颊。 乔希睁开一只眼睛。Ffffftttt !一条又长又细的舌头——粉红色的泡泡糖，末端呈分叉状——从那只野兽的嘴里冒了出来。 舌头在乔希的皮肤上出奇地柔软，就像一根羽毛。 那只蜥蜴朝乔希眨了眨眼睛。 你好，朋友，它似乎在说。

A girl with a curly brown hair came running up to Josh. He recognized Holly from the photo Mom had shown him. She was barefoot and wearing faded cutoff shorts and a T-shirt with a panda on it. A little red feather poked up from her hair. Definitely a different type than Josh. "Sorry," she said, smiling, as she caught her breath. "I doubt she would have bitten you.

一个棕色卷发的女孩向乔希跑来。 他从妈妈给他看的照片中认出了霍莉。 她光着脚，穿着褪色的短裤和一件印有熊猫图案的t恤。 一根红色的小羽毛从她的头发上伸出来。 绝对是和乔什不同的类型。 “对不起，”她笑着说，同时喘了口气。 “我怀疑她不会咬你。

Savannah monitor lizards are usually pretty calm. But you never know." Josh eyed the creature as he slowly stood up. "I'm Holly." She grinned. "In case you hadn't figured that out." She pushed a curl away from her bright green eyes and pointed to the lizard. "And this beauty is Bubbles." Bubbles? And it dawned on Josh. "That's… your… pet?" COOL! Wait until Greg and the guys heard about this. Dad had to buy Josh one! He'd name his giant lizard LeBron and take it on walks. Everyone at home would freak! Maybe Holly was cooler than he'd thought. "No, no, no," Holly said, shaking her head. "Bubbles is not my pet. Nobody should be allowed to keep these amazing wild creatures as pets." "So… where did you get her?" Josh asked.

萨凡纳巨蜥通常都很平静。 但谁知道呢。”乔希看着这个生物，慢慢地站了起来。 “我是冬青。”她咧嘴一笑。“以防你还没想明白。” 她把亮绿色眼睛上的鬈发拨开，指着那条蜥蜴。 “这个美就是泡泡。” 泡沫呢?乔希明白了。 “那是……你的……宠物？”太酷了!等格雷格和他们听说了就知道了。 爸爸不得不给乔什买一个！他会给他的大蜥蜴起名叫勒布朗，带它出去散步。 家里的每个人都会吓坏的！也许霍莉比他想象的要酷。 “不，不，不，”霍莉摇着头说。 “泡泡不是我的宠物。任何人都不应该被允许养这些神奇的野生动物作为宠物。” “那么……你从哪里得到她的？”杰克问。

"Someone bought her as a pet, then probably abandoned her in the forest," Holly said, looking sadly at Bubbles. "She would have died—lizards can't survive the winters here. But luckily someone found her and knew to call us. We run a little reptile shelter here, with a few of our friends." A reptile shelter in their home? Josh couldn't imagine that happening back in New Jersey. "The animal shelter in town accepts dogs and cats, but not reptiles," Holly explained. "So we take them in—as long as they're not venomous or aggressive. We take care of them until we can find them good homes, like a wildlife refuge, or a zoo where they treat the reptiles really well." That's a little… weird, Josh thought, but pretty nice, too. Holly told Josh that monitor lizards like Bubbles were native to Africa and Indonesia. "They shouldn't be living anywhere near here,"

“有人买了她当宠物，然后可能把她遗弃在森林里，”霍莉说，悲伤地看着泡泡。 “她会死的——蜥蜴在这里是熬不过冬天的。 但幸运的是，有人发现了她，知道给我们打电话。 我们和几个朋友在这里开了一个小型爬行动物收容所。” 家里有爬行动物的庇护所？ 乔什无法想象在新泽西会发生这样的事。 “镇上的动物收容所接受狗和猫，但不接受爬行动物，”霍莉解释说。 “所以只要它们不有毒或没有攻击性，我们就会把它们收留进来。 我们会照顾它们，直到我们为它们找到好的家，比如野生动物保护区，或者动物园，在那里它们对爬行动物非常好。” 这有点……奇怪，乔希想，但也很不错。 霍莉告诉乔希，像泡泡这样的巨蜥原产于非洲和印度尼西亚。 “他们不应该住在这附近。”

she said. "But you can buy pretty much anything online these days. Pythons, monitor lizards, anacondas. It's crazy. People don't realize that little pythons can grow to be twenty feet long, and cute baby lizards grow up to look… like Bubbles." Bubbles lifted her head a little higher. Aren't I gorgeous? she seemed to say. Josh brushed his fingers across Bubbles's head, expecting it to be all slick and slimy. But her skin felt warm and surprisingly smooth, like an old football. Fffffffttttt! She gave Josh another kiss, this time on his calf. They walked toward the shade as Holly chattered away about different kinds of monitor lizards. This girl could talk. At least what she was saying was pretty interesting. "Some monitor lizards are really aggressive," she went on. "But savannahs like Bubbles are calm. And super smart."

她说。“但现在你几乎可以在网上买到任何东西。 蟒蛇，巨蜥，水蟒。 这太疯狂了。人们没有意识到小蟒蛇可以长到二十英尺长，而可爱的小蜥蜴长得……像泡泡。” 泡泡把她的头抬得高一点。 我是不是很漂亮？她似乎在说。 乔希用手指擦了擦泡泡的头，以为它会变得又滑又黏。 但她的皮肤感到温暖，出奇地光滑，就像一个旧足球。 Fffffffttttt !她又吻了乔什一下，这次是在他的小腿上。 他们朝阴凉处走去，霍莉喋喋不休地谈论着各种巨蜥。 这个女孩会说话。至少她说的很有趣。 “有些巨蜥真的很有攻击性，”她接着说。 “但像泡泡这样的大草原是平静的。 而且超级聪明。”