Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4 Jackson fought tears and tried to steady his heart. It was beating so hard he could hear it pounding in his ears. Boom! Boom! Boom! Mom must have heard it, too. "Hey," she said, gripping his shoulders. "We're going to be all right."

杰克逊强忍着泪水，努力稳住自己的心。 它跳动得如此剧烈，他都能听到它在他耳朵里砰砰作响。 繁荣!繁荣!繁荣!妈妈一定也听到了。 “嘿，”她说，抓住他的肩膀。 “我们会没事的。”

Jackson wanted to believe Mom. But how would they be all right? Without their cabin they'd freeze. Without their food they'd starve. And what if the winter bear came back? Jackson stared at the burning cabin, as if the answer might appear through the flames and smoke. "You know what we have to do," Mom said in a low voice. "We have to get to work." Get to work. That was a Barrett family saying, almost like a prayer. It was what they said when something bad happened, when all you wanted to do was curl into a ball and give up. It meant, Get a grip on yourself. Stop whining. Get busy staying alive. Like that day last winter when Jackson was out rabbit hunting on his own. He'd been about a mile from the cabin when suddenly the sky got dark. Gray clouds cracked open. Snow poured down in thick sheets. Jackson couldn't see two inches

杰克逊想要相信妈妈。 但他们怎么会没事呢？ 没有他们的小屋，他们会冻死的。 没有食物他们就会饿死。 如果冬熊回来了怎么办？ 杰克逊凝视着燃烧着的小屋，仿佛答案可能会从火焰和烟雾中出现。 “你知道我们必须做什么，”妈妈低声说。 “我们得开始工作了。”开始工作吧。 这是巴雷特家族的口头禅，就像祷文一样。 当坏事发生的时候，当你只想蜷缩成一团放弃的时候，他们就会这么说。 意思是，控制住自己。 停止抱怨。忙着活着吧。 就像去年冬天的那一天，杰克逊一个人出去打兔子。 他走到离小屋大约一英里的地方，突然天黑了下来。 灰色的乌云裂开了。大雪倾盆而下。 杰克逊连两英寸都看不见

ahead of him. There was no way he'd make it home. Jackson was so scared he couldn't think straight. He'd run through the trees, slipped, and then bam! Down he went, hard, onto his back. He'd struggled to his feet, then stomped around blindly until he tripped again. Bam! This time he fell flat on his face. He bit his tongue so hard his mouth filled with blood. He lay there as the snow poured down. I'm done, he'd thought. Dad once told Jackson that there were a thousand ways to die in Alaska. He'd meant it as a kind of joke. There definitely weren't one thousand. Probably more like fifty. And freezing to death in a blizzard had to be in the top five. Blinded by snow, people roamed around and around in circles until they were too exhausted to take another step. Finally, they dropped to the ground and gave up. Their bodies disappeared under a blanket of snow until the spring, when the

在他前面。他不可能回家了。 杰克逊吓得无法思考。 他跑过树林，滑倒了，然后砰！他重重地倒在地上，仰面朝天。 他挣扎着站了起来，然后盲目地跺脚，直到又绊倒了。 砰!这次他摔了个稀巴烂。 他把舌头咬得太紧了，嘴里都是血。 大雪纷飞时，他躺在那里。 我完了，他想。爸爸曾经告诉杰克逊，在阿拉斯加有一千种死法。 他只是想开个玩笑。 绝对没有1000人。 可能更像是50。在暴风雪中冻死肯定是前五名。 人们被雪蒙蔽了双眼，一圈一圈地转来转去，直到精疲力竭，再也走不动一步。 最后，他们倒在地上放弃了。 他们的尸体消失在一层雪下，直到春天

wolves and vultures found them… and picked their bones clean. Jackson had imagined his own shining bones. That's going to be me! he'd thought. And then a voice had whispered through his mind. Get to work! And then louder… Get to work! His mind suddenly cleared. He'd stood up and slipped off his beat-up army backpack, which was packed with emergency supplies. A compass and flashlight in case he got lost. Emergency matches for building a fire. Moose jerky and dried blueberries for energy. A whistle to scare away threatening animals. A rope to lower himself down from cliffs. And a shovel… in case he ever got caught in a blizzard. Jackson had used the shovel to dig himself a big hole under a spruce tree. When the hole was good and deep, he'd climbed inside. He'd tugged his

狼和秃鹫发现了他们，把他们的骨头扒得干干净净。 杰克逊想象着自己闪闪发光的骨头。 那将是我！他的想法。 然后，一个声音在他的脑海里低语。 开始工作吧！然后再大声点……开始工作吧！他的头脑突然清醒了。 他站了起来，卸下了他那装着应急物资的破旧军背包。 一个指南针和手电筒，以防他迷路。 生火用的应急火柴。 驼鹿肉干和蓝莓干补充能量。 用来吓跑威胁动物的哨子。 从悬崖上下来的绳子。 还有一把铲子，以防他遇到暴风雪。 杰克逊用铲子在一棵云杉树下给自己挖了一个大洞。 当洞又好又深时，他爬了进去。 他拽了拽他的

parka hood over his head and pulled his knees to his chest. Huddled in his little snow cave, he'd stayed surprisingly warm and dry. After two hours, the snow stopped. Jackson would never forget the looks on Mom's and Dad's faces when he walked through the cabin door, how quickly their worry turned to pride. That was the moment Jackson knew he was tough. Alaska tough. And right now, as the hissing fire destroyed their cabin, Jackson dug deep for that feeling again. Yes, it was freezing cold. Overnight it would get even colder. The winter bear was still out there. That's why he couldn't waste time standing around whimpering. Jackson took a big breath and stood taller. "Okay," he said to Mom. "Let's get to work."

他头上套着派克大衣兜帽，把膝盖拉到胸前。 他蜷缩在小小的雪洞里，出奇地温暖干燥。 两个小时后，雪停了。 杰克逊永远不会忘记，当他走进小屋门时，爸爸妈妈脸上的表情，他们的担忧很快变成了骄傲。 那一刻，杰克逊知道自己很坚强。 阿拉斯加的艰难。而现在，当嘶嘶作响的大火烧毁了他们的小屋时，杰克逊再次深深地挖掘着那种感觉。 是的，天气非常冷。 一夜之间，天气会变得更冷。 冬熊还在外面。 这就是为什么他不能浪费时间站在那里啜泣。 杰克逊深深地吸了一口气，站得更高了。 “好吧，”他对妈妈说。“我们开始工作吧。”