Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2 FOUR DAYS EARLIER TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1900 AROUND 2:00 P.M. CHARLIE'S HOUSE GALVESTON, TEXAS It was a hot and sticky afternoon, and Charlie was alone in his room. His two-year-old sister, Lulu,

第二章四天前，星期二，1900年9月4日下午两点左右。 得克萨斯州加尔维斯顿，一个又热又粘的下午，查理独自呆在房间里。 他两岁的妹妹露露

was supposed to be napping. But she was singing away in her bed across the hall. "La, la, la… La, la, la." Mama and Papa's sunny voices drifted from the kitchen. Busy city sounds rose up from the streets—the clop, clop, clop of horses, the squeaks and rumbles of wagons, boys whooping as they played marbles in the alley. But Charlie barely heard. He was busy practicing his magic. One by one Charlie went through his tricks—the disappearing coin, the vanishing balls, the floating card. He'd been practicing all summer. His best friend, Sarah, said he should try out for the talent show at school. But there was no way Charlie would do that. That was something Sarah would do, not Charlie. As for magic, he'd barely thought about it until a few months ago, when Mama and Papa took him to see a magician named Antonio Meraki. Charlie

我本来应该在打盹的。 但她正在走廊对面的床上不停地唱歌。 “啦，啦，啦……啦，啦，啦。” 爸爸妈妈欢快的说话声从厨房里飘了出来。 街道上传来了繁忙的城市声音——马蹄声、马蹄声、马车的吱吱声和隆隆声，孩子们在小巷里玩弹珠时的喧闹声。 但查理几乎没听见。他正忙着练习他的魔法。 查理一个接一个地玩他的把戏——消失的硬币，消失的球，漂浮的纸牌。 他整个夏天都在练习。 他最好的朋友莎拉说他应该去参加学校的才艺表演。 但查理不可能这么做。 那是莎拉会做的事，不是查理。 至于魔术，他几乎没怎么想过，直到几个月前，爸爸妈妈带他去看一个叫安东尼奥·梅拉基的魔术师。 查理

had heard of him, of course—he was practically as famous as President McKinley. And the moment Meraki stepped onto the stage, Charlie understood why. Whoosh! Meraki threw a card into the air, and suddenly it was a yellow bird, fluttering around the theater. Presto! He took a stick, waved his hands, and the stick magically turned into a tree covered with big white flowers. He made a lady float up into the air, turn somersaults near the ceiling, and gently float back down. But the best came near the end. Meraki asked a lady from the audience if he could borrow her ring. He put it into a pouch and smashed it with a hammer. He sprinkled the sparkling crumbs into the barrel of a gun. Pow! Meraki shot the gun at a box hanging at the edge of the stage. He opened the box—and there was the ring, good as new.

当然听说过他——他实际上和麦金利总统一样有名。 当梅拉基走上舞台的那一刻，查理明白了为什么。 嗖!梅拉基向空中扔了一张卡片，突然它变成了一只黄色的鸟，在剧院里飞舞。 您看!他拿起一根棍子，挥挥手，棍子就神奇地变成了一棵开满白色大花的树。 他让一位女士浮到空中，在天花板附近翻个筋斗，然后轻轻地飘下来。 但最好的出现在最后。 梅拉基向观众中的一位女士询问是否可以借用她的戒指。 他把它放进一个袋子里，用锤子把它砸碎。 他把闪闪发光的面包屑撒进枪管里。 战俘!梅拉基对着挂在舞台边缘的盒子开了枪。 他打开盒子——戒指就在里面，完好如初。

The crowd went wild. Charlie just sat there in shock. That's impossible! he thought. And of course he knew it was. None of those things had really happened. That's what a magic trick was—a trick. Behind each one was some secret—a special prop or cleverly built box, a hidden mirror or trapdoor, wires or ropes the audience couldn't see. A magician made impossible things look… possible. Charlie wanted to be a magician! He bought himself a beginner's magic kit and Meraki's book, The Secrets of Magic. He tried doing some basic tricks. But he stank! He could barely shuffle a deck of cards. Coins clattered noisily to the floor. The vanishing balls got stuck in their jars. So Charlie put the kit away. But then a few weeks later, he picked up Meraki's book. The magician's picture was on the

人群变得疯狂起来。查理只是震惊地坐在那里。 那是不可能的!他想。 他当然知道这是真的。 这些事情都没有真正发生过。 这就是魔术——魔术。 每个人的背后都有一些秘密——一个特殊的道具或巧妙建造的盒子，一个隐藏的镜子或活板门，观众看不见的电线或绳子。 魔术师让不可能的事情看起来…可能。 查理想成为一名魔术师！他给自己买了一个初学者的魔术工具包和梅拉基的书《魔法的秘密》。 他试着做一些基本的把戏。 但是他很臭！他几乎不会洗牌。 硬币哗啦哗啦地掉在地上。 消失球卡在罐子里了。 于是查理把工具箱收起来。 但几周后，他拿起了梅拉基的书。 魔术师的照片在

cover—a bald man with a thick brown mustache and bright blue eyes. The book was long, but definitely not boring. It turned out that Meraki's life was as exciting as his show. He was born on a farm with nothing, lived with his mean uncle, and ran away from home when he was ten. By fifteen, he was performing in circus shows. By twenty, he'd traveled the world. Since then, he'd survived cobra bites, storms at sea, and enemies willing to kill him to steal his tricks. In his chapter about how to do magic, Meraki wrote: The road to fame wasn't easy. I was a failure at magic at first. But I practiced. And that is the first secret that every young magician must learn: to practice. Practice? Charlie had thought. Practice was for boring stuff, like the piano. He'd stunk at that, too—and quit.

盖——一个秃顶的男人，留着浓密的棕色胡子和明亮的蓝眼睛。 这本书很长，但绝对不无聊。 事实证明，梅拉基的生活和他的节目一样令人兴奋。 他出生在一个一无所有的农场，和他吝啬的叔叔住在一起，十岁时离家出走。 15岁时，他在马戏团表演。 20岁时，他已经环游了世界。 从那以后，他从眼镜蛇咬伤，海上风暴，以及想要杀死他以窃取他的技巧的敌人中幸存下来。 在他关于如何变魔术的章节中，梅拉基写道：成名之路并不容易。 我一开始在魔法方面很失败。 但我还是练习了。这是每个年轻魔术师必须学会的第一个秘密：练习。 实践?查理心想。 练习是为了无聊的东西，比如钢琴。 他在这方面也很糟糕，于是辞职了。

But Meraki was right. Charlie practiced his magic tricks, and he got better. And there was something else. Doing his magic tricks gave Charlie a feeling—a bright and strong feeling—that he was more than just the shy boy afraid to talk to kids at school. And speaking of school, it was starting in just two weeks. He hoped Sarah was in his class. But then Charlie thought of another kid at school—Gordon Potts. His stomach twisted. His cards slipped from his hand. Would Gordon start picking on Charlie again? Charlie sat down on his bed and pictured Gordon—an overgrown goon with shadowy eyes and a puffed-up chest. Gordon was always making some poor chump's life miserable. And toward the end of last school year, that miserable chump was Charlie. Gordon had started tormenting Charlie last spring, and it went on until the last day of school. Happily, Gordon had been gone all summer. His

但梅拉基是对的。查理练习他的魔术，他变得更好了。 还有一件事。 他的魔术表演给了查理一种感觉——一种明亮而强烈的感觉——他不仅仅是一个在学校害怕和孩子说话的害羞男孩。 说到学校，还有两周就要开学了。 他希望萨拉在他的班上。 但这时查理想起了学校里的另一个孩子——戈登·波茨。 他的胃一阵痉挛。他的牌从手中滑落。 戈登会再找查理的麻烦吗？ 查理坐在他的床上，想象着戈登——一个长得太大、眼睛模糊、胸膛鼓鼓的笨蛋。 戈登总是让一些可怜的笨蛋过得很痛苦。 上个学年快结束的时候，那个可怜的笨蛋就是查理。 戈登从去年春天开始折磨查理，一直持续到学校的最后一天。 令人高兴的是，戈登整个夏天都不在。 他的