Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7 Cleo threw up all day. Barry tried to help keep her calm, but even he couldn't get her to stop crying. Mom managed to talk to their doctor, who had evacuated to Baton Rouge. He said there was a bad flu going around and Cleo wouldn't start to feel better for at least another day. Mom and Dad talked about going to the Superdome. But the newscaster on TV said there were already ten thousand people at the football

第七章克利奥呕吐了一整天。 巴里试图让她冷静下来，但即使是他也无法让她停止哭泣。 妈妈设法和他们的医生谈了谈，医生已经疏散到巴吞鲁日。 他说现在流感很严重，克莱奥至少还要再过一天才会好起来。 妈妈和爸爸说要去超级圆顶球场。 但是电视上的新闻播音员说已经有一万人去看足球赛了

stadium, with thousands more lined up around the building. "We're hearing there is not enough food or water at the Dome," the newscaster said. "And if the power goes off, it's going to be like an oven in there." Then they showed a man who had been turned away because he wanted to bring his little dog with him. "They say no pets," the man said, holding the dog up to the camera. "But I can't leave this guy all by himself!" Looking at those crowds on television, Barry was relieved when Mom and Dad decided they were better off at home. Throughout the afternoon, Barry kept his eyes on the sky. By six o'clock, the wind had kicked up. The sky turned gray with streaks of silver. But the strangest thing was the silence. Their block was deserted. There were no motorcycles vrooming. No kids laughing and shouting. No music playing or basketballs bouncing. Usually the trees were filled with birds, and frogs chirped from the bushes. But there wasn't a bird in sight, and not a peep was to be heard.

体育馆，还有数千人在大楼周围排队。 “我们听说圆顶体育场没有足够的食物和水，”新闻播音员说。 “如果停电了，里面就会像烤箱一样热。” 然后他们展示了一个男人，他因为想带着他的小狗而被拒绝了。 “他们说不能养宠物，”这名男子说着，把狗举到镜头前。 “但我不能让这家伙一个人呆着!”看着电视上的人群，巴里松了一口气，因为爸爸妈妈认为他们还是呆在家里比较好。 整个下午，巴里一直盯着天空。 到六点钟时，起风了。 天空变成了灰色的银色条纹。 但最奇怪的是沉默。 他们所在的街区空无一人。那里没有摩托车。 没有孩子欢笑和喊叫。 没有音乐，也没有篮球弹跳。 通常，树上满是鸟儿，灌木丛中有青蛙叫。 但是看不见一只鸟，也听不到一点动静。

And then, around ten o'clock that night, the wind and rain started for real. Dad and Barry were settled on the living room couch. The baseball playoffs were on, and Dad had set them up with a feast of chips, salsa, and sodas. Mom and Cleo were fast asleep in Mom and Dad's room. The wind moaned at first. Then it started to howl, and finally it was shrieking so loudly Dad had to turn up the TV. Barry moved closer to Dad. Soon there were other noises. Pom, pom, pom. "That's just the rain banging against the metal roof on the shed," Dad said. Ka-bang! "Whoops, a gutter came loose." Che-chong! "There goes part of someone's fence." Dad sat there calmly, watching the game, munching on chips. Barry remembered their plane ride to New York the past summer. An hour into the flight, they had flown into a thunderstorm. How that airplane bounced up and down! It felt like a giant hand was dribbling the plane like a basketball. Flashes of lightning exploded in the sky. A woman sitting across

然后，那天晚上十点左右，真正开始刮风下雨了。 爸爸和巴瑞坐在客厅的沙发上。 棒球季后赛就要开始了，爸爸给他们准备了一顿薯条、萨尔萨酱和苏打水的盛宴。 妈妈和Cleo在爸爸妈妈的房间里睡得很熟。 起初，风在呻吟。然后它开始嚎叫，最后尖叫得太大声了，爸爸不得不把电视开大。 巴里靠近爸爸。 很快又传来了别的声音。 砰，砰，砰。爸爸说:“那只是雨水打在小屋的金属屋顶上的声音。” Ka-bang !“哎呀，一条排水沟松了。” Che-chong !“有人的篱笆掉了一部分。” 爸爸平静地坐在那里，一边看比赛，一边嚼着薯片。 巴里想起了去年夏天他们坐飞机去纽约的情景。 飞行一小时后，他们飞进了雷雨中。 那架飞机怎么上下颠簸啊!感觉就像一只大手在像打篮球一样运球。 闪电在天空中爆炸了。 坐在对面的女人

from Barry burst into tears. The pilot made everyone sit down, even the stewardesses. The plane rattled so badly Barry was sure one of the wings would fall off. And in all that commotion, Dad had just sat there, reading his book. A few times he'd patted Barry's leg. "Quite a ride," he'd said, never taking his eyes from the book, never once looking outside at the lightning or craning his neck to see the scared expressions on the stewardesses' faces. So Barry had kept his eyes glued to Dad's face. As long as Dad was calm, he decided, he didn't have to worry. Finally the bouncing stopped. The plane flew out of the clouds and into the clear blue sky. Later, when they were in a taxi heading into the city, Barry asked Dad how he had stayed so calm. "What were you thinking about?" "'Blueberry Hill.'" Barry gave Dad a funny look. "When I get nervous, I play the song 'Blueberry Hill' in my mind."

巴里大哭起来。 飞行员让所有人都坐下，甚至包括空姐。 飞机嘎嘎作响，巴里确信其中一个机翼会掉下来。 在一片混乱中，爸爸只是坐在那里读他的书。 有几次他拍了拍巴里的腿。 “真是一段美妙的旅程。”他说，眼睛一直盯着书，一次也没有看外面的闪电，也没有伸长脖子去看空姐脸上惊恐的表情。 所以巴里一直盯着爸爸的脸。 他决定，只要爸爸保持冷静，他就不必担心。 最后，弹跳停止了。 飞机冲出云层，飞向晴朗的蓝天。 后来，当他们坐出租车进城时，巴里问爸爸他是怎么保持冷静的。 “你在想什么?”“蓝莓山。’”巴里奇怪地看了爸爸一眼。 “当我感到紧张时，我就会在脑海中播放‘蓝莓山’这首歌。”

Barry knew the song. It was a hit by Fats Domino, the most famous citizen of the Lower Nine. Fats had struck it rich singing songs way before Dad was born. But he never moved out of the neighborhood. Barry and Jay loved to walk by his bright yellow house. Sometimes Fats was out on his porch to wave hello. Barry watched Dad now as the wind howled and moaned and shrieked. "Hey, Dad," Barry said, "are you playing 'Blueberry Hill' in your mind?" Dad laughed. He put his arm around Barry and pulled him close. "Nah, I was thinking that wind is making a pretty song." "Sounds like wolves," Barry said. "Nah," Dad said. "Ghosts," Barry said. "Don't think so," Dad said, listening more closely, tilting his head and half closing his eyes. Dad clicked off the TV. He reached over and grabbed his trumpet, which he always kept nearby. The wind shrieked a high note. Dad put his trumpet to his lips and played along.

巴里知道这首歌。这首歌是法兹·多米诺的杰作，他是下九区最有名的市民。 早在爸爸出生前，胖子就靠唱歌发家了。 但他从未搬离过这个社区。 巴里和杰伊喜欢走过他那明黄色的房子。 有时，法兹会到他的门廊上跟他打招呼。 巴里看着爸爸，这时风在咆哮、呻吟、尖叫。 “嘿，爸爸，”巴里说，“你在脑子里弹《蓝莓山》吗?”爸爸笑了。 他搂着巴里，把他拉近。 “不，我在想风唱的歌很好听。” “听起来像狼。”巴里说。 “不，”爸爸说。“鬼。”巴里说。 “我不这么认为，”爸爸说，他更仔细地听着，歪着头，半闭上眼睛。 爸爸关掉了电视。他伸手抓起他的小号，他总是把它放在身边。 风尖声地发出高音。 爸爸把小号放到嘴边，跟着吹起来。

The wind shifted lower, and so did Dad. He played softly, along with the wind, until after a while that wind didn't seem so scary, and it actually sounded like a song. Not as pretty as 'Blueberry Hill,' but still a song. Barry almost smiled, imagining Cleo's big fat lady in the sky. Not a vampire, but a pretty singer, belting out her song. The house shook and rattled, but as Dad's music filled the air, Barry started to feel safe. The lights were bright. Mom and Cleo were cozy in bed. He thought of Gramps patting the walls of the house. In a few hours the sky would turn blue again. Barry had planned to stay up with Dad, to help him keep an eye out for leaks, to watch over Cleo and Mom. But now he felt tired. All the late nights he'd stayed up working on Akivo… and all today he'd been so worried about Clee…. Maybe he could take a little rest, catnap like Mom did after dinner, before she started her hours of baking. Barry closed his eyes… drifting, drifting, drifting… And then his eyes popped open.

风变小了，爸爸也变小了。 他和着风轻轻地吹着，过了一会儿，风听起来不那么可怕了，实际上听起来像一首歌。 虽然不如《蓝莓山》(Blueberry Hill)漂亮，但仍是一首歌。 巴里几乎笑了，想象着克利奥的胖夫人在天上。 不是吸血鬼，而是一个漂亮的歌手，唱着她的歌。 房子摇晃着，嘎嘎作响，但当爸爸的音乐弥漫在空气中时，巴里开始感到安全了。 灯光很亮。妈妈和Cleo舒服地躺在床上。 他想起祖父拍着房子的墙壁。 再过几个小时，天空又会变成蓝色。 巴里本来打算和爸爸一起熬夜，帮他留意漏水的地方，照看克莱奥和妈妈。 但现在他觉得累了。他为了开发Akivo熬夜了好几个晚上……今天他又一直很担心Clee.... 也许他可以休息一下，像妈妈那样在晚饭后，在开始烘烤之前打个盹。 巴瑞闭上眼睛，漂浮着，漂浮着，然后他的眼睛突然睁开了。