Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4 A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Charlie answered it and found his best friend, Sarah, standing on his porch in her redand-white-striped bathing costume. She was carrying a beat-up metal washtub. "Come on!" Sarah said, flashing her very large front teeth. "I heard there's an amazing overflow." "I'm coming!" Charlie said.

第四章几分钟后，有人敲门。 查理接了电话，发现他最好的朋友萨拉穿着红白条纹的泳衣站在他的门廊上。 她拿着一个破旧的金属洗手盆。 “来吧!”萨拉说着，露出她的大门牙。 “我听说有一个惊人的溢出。” “我来了!”查理说。

An overflow was a special kind of Galveston flood. Not from pouring rain—from the Gulf. Galveston sat on a small island. When Charlie saw the island on a map, he always thought of the noodles Mama made for their soup—long, skinny, and very flat. Their noodle island was twenty-seven miles long and only a mile wide in places. It sat on the Gulf of Mexico, about two miles from the main part of Texas. There was water all around them—the Gulf to the south and Galveston Bay to the north. Sometimes during storms and high tides, water from the Gulf overflowed and filled the streets near the beach. There was nothing better than an overflow, especially in the steamy summer. In a flash, Charlie had changed into his bathing shorts and tank top. He quickly peeped in on Lulu—still fast asleep—and waved goodbye to Mama and Papa.

溢流是一种特殊的加尔维斯顿洪水。 不是来自倾盆大雨，而是来自墨西哥湾。 加尔维斯顿坐落在一个小岛上。 当查理在地图上看到这个岛时，他总是想起妈妈为他们做的面条——又长又细，而且很平。 他们的面条岛有27英里长，有些地方只有1英里宽。 它位于墨西哥湾，距离德克萨斯州的主要部分大约两英里。 他们周围都是水——海湾在南面，加尔维斯顿湾在北面。 有时在暴风雨和涨潮期间，海湾的水溢出来，填满了海滩附近的街道。 没有什么比水溢出来更好的了，尤其是在潮湿的夏天。 刹那间，查理换上了游泳短裤和背心。 他飞快地瞥了一眼还在酣睡的露露，向爸爸妈妈挥手告别。

"Have fun!" Papa said. He'd loved playing in the overflows when he was a kid. "Let's go this way," Sarah said, taking the lead as they headed out from Charlie's house. Sarah had strong opinions about everything. Like back in kindergarten, when she announced that she and Charlie would be best friends forever. She could be pushy. But that didn't bother Charlie. He didn't have to think too hard when he was around Sarah. The street was busy—clogged with all kinds of wagons and carriages and buggies. But Charlie was used to it. Every street in Galveston was busy these days—it was the fastest-growing city in all of the south. Papa had told Charlie that. He was always bragging about how great Galveston was. Last night at dinner, Papa had looked up from his stew and said, "You know what I just heard? There are more millionaires in Galveston than in almost any other small city in the world." Mama had waved her hand over her faded apron.

“玩得开心!”爸爸说。当他还是个孩子的时候，他喜欢在溢流中玩耍。 “我们走这边吧，”莎拉说，他们从查理的房子出来时，她走在前面。 萨拉对每件事都有强烈的意见。 就像在幼儿园的时候，她宣布她和查理会永远是最好的朋友。 她可能很强势。但这并没有困扰查理。 当他和莎拉在一起时，他不需要想太多。 街上挤满了各种马车和四轮马车。 但查理已经习惯了。 这些天加尔维斯顿的每条街道都很繁忙——它是整个南方发展最快的城市。 爸爸告诉过查理。 他总是吹嘘加尔维斯顿有多棒。 昨晚晚饭时，爸爸从他的炖菜中抬起头说：“你知道我刚刚听到了什么吗？ 加尔维斯顿的百万富翁比世界上几乎任何一个小城市都要多。” 妈妈在褪了色的围裙上挥了挥手。

"Oh, indeed," she said in a fake fancy voice. "We millionaires love Galveston!" That cracked them all up. But Charlie got why Papa was proud. Who wouldn't want to live in Galveston? It was a city that had everything—restaurants and stores and theaters. They had their port, with big ships coming from all over the world.

“哦，真的，”她用一种做作的声音说。 “我们百万富翁爱加尔维斯顿！”那句话把他们都逗笑了。 但查理知道爸爸为什么骄傲。 谁不想住在加尔维斯顿呢？ 这是一个什么都有的城市——餐馆、商店和剧院。 他们有自己的港口，有来自世界各地的大船。

And the beach, of course—miles and miles of the prettiest beach in Texas. That's what everyone said about the beach, which was on the Gulf side of the island. There were hotels and shops along the beach, and even big bathhouses where you could dry off after swimming, change, and buy a snack. The biggest and best bathhouse was the Pagoda, which Charlie could see now, in the distance. It was built out over the water of the Gulf, maybe thirty feet from the beach. You walked on a long, skinny raised walkway to get to it. Charlie liked to imagine it was a floating palace. "We should have brought Lulu," Sarah said, snapping Charlie out of his thoughts. "She's napping," Charlie said. "The storm scared her. She thinks there's a monster in the sky." Charlie shook his head as her wails echoed through his mind. "It's really sad."

当然还有海滩——绵延数英里的德克萨斯州最美丽的海滩。 每个人都是这么说海滩的，海滩在岛的海湾一侧。 沿着海滩有旅馆和商店，甚至还有大澡堂，在那里你可以在游泳后擦干身体，换衣服，买零食。 最大最好的澡堂是宝塔，查理现在可以看到远处的宝塔了。 它建在海湾的水面上，离海滩大约30英尺。 你要走一条又长又窄的高架走道才能到达那里。 查理喜欢把它想象成一座漂浮的宫殿。 “我们应该把露露带来的。”萨拉说，打断了查理的思绪。 “她在打盹，”查理说。 “暴风雨把她吓坏了。她觉得天上有怪物。” 查理摇了摇头，她的哀号回荡在他的脑海里。 “这真的很可悲。”

"It makes perfect sense to me," Sarah said, blowing a hunk of her thick brown hair out of her eyes. "Lulu doesn't understand what a thunderstorm is. And if you didn't understand the weather, a thunderstorm would be pretty terrifying—all that noise, and the clouds, and the lightning…" Sarah was right. As usual. "Think about it," Sarah said—she started half her sentences with those three words—think about it. "A long time ago, even the smartest people thought gods and goddesses controlled everything, including the weather." "Gods like Poseidon," Charlie said, remembering the book of Greek myths Grandpa used to read to him. "Exactly," Sarah said. Charlie's heart cracked a little as he thought of his grandfather, who'd died last year. He was a hero of the Texas Revolution—he was always

“这对我来说很有意义，”莎拉说，把她浓密的棕色头发从眼睛上吹开。 “露露不明白什么是雷雨。 如果你不了解天气，雷暴会非常可怕——所有的噪音、云层和闪电……”萨拉说得对。 像往常一样。“想想吧，”莎拉说——她用这三个词开始了一半的句子——“想想吧。” “很久以前，即使是最聪明的人也认为神和女神控制着一切，包括天气。” “像波塞冬这样的神，”查理说，他想起了爷爷以前常给他读的那本希腊神话书。 “没错，”萨拉说。想到去年去世的祖父，查理的心有点碎了。 他是德克萨斯革命的英雄——他一直都是