Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4 Barry's stomach did a few nervous flips. The news reports had been warning about Hurricane Katrina for days, but nobody in Barry's house had been paying much attention. Dad and his band had been playing shows in Atlanta. Mom worked full-time at Cleo's preschool. She also had a little business baking cookies for restaurants in the French Quarter, the fancy neighborhood across the canal. As for Barry, he was totally focused on Akivo. A tornado could

巴里的胃紧张地翻腾了几下。 几天来，新闻报道一直在警告卡特里娜飓风，但巴里家里没有人太在意。 爸爸和他的乐队一直在亚特兰大演出。 妈妈在克莱奥的幼儿园全职工作。 她还在运河对岸的法国区(French Quarter)做过小生意，为餐馆烤饼干。 至于巴里，他完全专注于Akivo。 一场龙卷风

have sucked up the house and he wouldn't have noticed. But now Barry's mind started swirling. Like everyone in New Orleans, he understood what could happen if a strong hurricane struck. The city was surrounded by water. The Industrial Canal was just two blocks from their house. Big Lake Pontchartrain was up north. The Mississippi River wormed through the middle of the city. And so many canals and channels jutted this way and that, Barry couldn't keep track of them all. Of course there were levees — big walls of dirt and concrete that protected the city from all that water. But some people said that the levees weren't strong enough for a really big storm. Barry thought of Hurricane Betsy, the storm that hit New Orleans the year before Dad was born. When Gramps was alive, he'd loved telling Betsy stories. He and Gran lived in this same house. The levee broke, and the Lower Nine flooded. Four feet of water filled the living room. It had taken six months to get everything cleaned up. But Gramps was always proud of how the house held up to the winds.

把房子吸干了，他不会注意到的。 但现在巴里的思绪开始混乱起来。 像新奥尔良的每个人一样，他明白如果一场强烈飓风来袭会发生什么。 这座城市被水包围着。 工业运河离他们家只有两个街区。 庞恰特雷恩大湖在北边。 密西西比河从市中心蜿蜒流过。 有那么多的运河和渠道这样那样地伸出来，巴里不可能把它们都看清楚。 当然也有防洪堤——由泥土和混凝土组成的大墙，保护城市免受洪水的侵袭。 但有些人说，这些堤坝不够坚固，抵挡不住真正的大风暴。 巴里想起了飓风贝琪，在爸爸出生前一年袭击新奥尔良的那场风暴。 爷爷活着的时候，他喜欢给贝琪讲故事。 他和奶奶住在同一所房子里。 堤坝决堤，下游九区被洪水淹没。 四英尺深的水淹没了客厅。 把一切都清理干净花了六个月的时间。 但爷爷总是为房子能顶得住风而感到骄傲。

"Barely lost a roof shingle," he liked to say as he patted the wall like you'd pat the back of a loyal friend. Those Betsy stories had fascinated Barry when he was little. But they'd always seemed like ghost stories and fairy tales, stories that could never come true. Now he wondered…. "Barry!" Jay said, waving his hands in front of Barry's face. "Snap out of it!" "Sorry!" said Barry, shaking himself out of his thoughts. "What about Akivo?" They had planned to walk to the post office after school tomorrow and send their package to Acclaim's offices in New York City. Barry had visited New York with Dad the past summer. The president of a famous college there was always inviting Dad to give talks about New Orleans jazz. "I'll mail him tomorrow," Barry said. "From Houston." "Let me have him," Jay said, holding out his hand. "I'll mail him from Birmingham." They stared at each other without budging, until finally Jay blinked.

“差一点就掉了一块屋顶瓦，”他喜欢一边说，一边拍着墙，就像拍忠实朋友的背一样。 贝琪的故事在巴里小时候就深深吸引了他。 但它们看起来总是像鬼故事和童话，永远不会成真的故事。 现在他想知道....“巴里!”杰说着，在巴里面前挥舞着双手。 “振作起来!”“对不起!”巴里说，从思绪中挣扎了出来。 “Akivo怎么样?”他们本来计划明天放学后步行去邮局，把包裹寄到纽约的Acclaim公司的办公室。 去年夏天，巴里和爸爸一起去了纽约。 那里一所著名大学的校长总是邀请爸爸做关于新奥尔良爵士的演讲。 “我明天给他寄邮件，”巴里说。 “从休斯顿。”“把他给我吧。”杰伊伸出手说。 “我从伯明翰寄给他。” 他们盯着对方，一动也不动，直到杰伊眨了眨眼睛。

That settled that. Barry won the stare-out, so he got to mail Akivo. "Don't let anything happen to him," Jay said. "I wouldn't!" They stood there, like they always did before they had to say good-bye. No matter how much time they spent together, it always felt like there was one more idea to talk about, one more joke to tell before they went their own ways. "Barry, honey, we've got to get ready!" Mom called. It was time. Jay raised his hand toward the sky, his pinky pointing up. It took Barry a few seconds to recognize the special move they'd invented for Akivo so the energy from his secret power star, Beta Draconis, could flow from his pinky into his heart.

这就解决了。巴里赢了比赛，所以他给阿基沃寄了信。 “别让他出什么事，”杰伊说。 “我不会!”他们站在那里，就像每次道别前一样。 不管他们在一起待了多久，总觉得在他们分道扬镳之前，还有一个想法可以谈论，还有一个笑话可以讲。 “巴里，亲爱的，我们得准备好了!”妈妈叫。 是时候了。杰伊向天空举起手，小指向上。 巴里花了几秒钟才认出他们为阿基沃发明的特殊动作，这样他的秘密力量之星贝塔龙的能量就可以从他的小指流向他的心脏。

Barry raised his hand too, and he and Jay linked their pinkies together in the air. Barry smiled. For just a few seconds, Barry the believer imagined that he had a power star of his own somewhere.

巴里也举起了手，他和杰伊在空中把小指连在一起。 巴里笑了。有那么几秒钟，信徒巴里想象着他在某个地方有了自己的明星。