Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2 ONE DAY EARLIER DECEMBER 6, 1941 PEARL CITY, HAWAII Danny stood with his mother at the kitchen window of their tiny house. Ma put her arm around Danny. "Just look at that view," she said. "Can you believe we live

第二章1941年12月6日一天前，夏威夷珍珠城丹尼和母亲站在他们小房子的厨房窗前。 妈妈搂着丹尼。 “看看那景色，”她说。 “你能相信我们还活着吗

here? I think it's the most beautiful place on earth." Ma was right; it looked like a postcard out there, with the palm trees swaying in the breeze, the bushes covered with pink and white flowers, and the ocean a sparkling silver strip in the distance. Danny couldn't stand looking at it. All he wanted was to be back in New York City, looking out his old apartment window at the jumble of dirty buildings, the smoke thick in the air, the garbage in the streets, and his best friend, Finn, waving to him from down in the alley below. Ma thought that coming here to Hawaii would give Danny a fresh start. She wanted to get him away from danger and trouble, away from Earl Gasky and his gang. It was true that Danny and Finn had gotten into trouble sometimes. But nothing big! Just skipping school and sneaking into movie houses and nabbing an apple or two from the fruit stand. Sure, they ran with Earl and his gang. Some folks in the neighborhood said Earl was a vicious

在这里吗?我认为这是地球上最美丽的地方。” 妈妈是对的;外面看起来就像一张明信片，棕榈树在微风中摇曳，灌木上覆盖着粉红色和白色的花朵，远处的海洋是闪闪发光的银色条纹。 丹尼看不下去了。 他只想回到纽约，从他那旧公寓的窗户望出去，看着杂乱的肮脏建筑，空气中弥漫着浓浓的烟雾，街道上堆满了垃圾，还有他最好的朋友芬恩，在楼下的巷子里向他挥手。 妈妈认为来夏威夷会给丹尼一个新的开始。 她想让他远离危险和麻烦，远离厄尔·加斯基和他的同伙。 丹尼和芬恩确实有时会遇到麻烦。 但没什么大不了的!就是逃学，溜进电影院在水果摊上买一两个苹果。 当然，他们跟厄尔一伙跑了。 邻居们说厄尔是个恶毒的人

criminal, that he'd break your legs if you looked at him wrong. But others said he and his guys protected the streets and took care of old ladies. He had always been good to Danny and Finn. He paid them a dollar a day to run errands. He even taught them how to drive one of his cars. Sometimes it was scary, being on the streets so much, just Danny and Finn. But no matter what they were up to, they always looked out for each other. Because who else was going to look after them? Danny's father had been gone since before Danny was born. Ma did her best, but how could she watch over Danny when she was working all the time? She was so tired when she got home from her nursing shifts at the hospital. After kissing Danny hello, she would close her eyes for ten minutes, make their dinner, and then head out to clean offices until midnight. And Finn's parents had five other kids crammed into a dark two-room apartment. So Danny and Finn stuck together, more than best friends, closer even than brothers. As long as they

罪犯，如果你看错了他，他会打断你的腿。 但也有人说他和他的手下保护街道，照顾老太太。 他一直对丹尼和芬恩很好。 他每天付给他们一美元让他们跑腿。 他甚至教他们如何驾驶他的一辆车。 有时候很可怕，整天在街上，只有丹尼和芬恩。 但无论他们在做什么，他们总是互相照顾。 因为还有谁会照顾他们呢? 丹尼的父亲在丹尼出生前就走了。 妈妈尽了最大的努力，但当她一直在工作时，她怎么能照顾丹尼呢? 当她从医院的护理班回到家时，她太累了。 在和丹尼吻别之后，她会闭上眼睛十分钟，为他们做晚饭，然后出去打扫办公室，直到午夜。 芬恩的父母还有五个孩子挤在一间黑暗的两室公寓里。 所以丹尼和芬恩在一起，比最好的朋友更亲密，甚至比兄弟更亲密。 只要他们

had each other, they felt like nothing bad could ever happen to them. And nothing ever did. Until one night two months ago. Even standing here, looking out on the palm trees, it all came back to Danny. It was like a horror movie playing in his mind. He could hear the screech of the metal on the fire escape breaking away from the building. He heard Finn's shout, and the thud of Finn's body hitting the sidewalk fifteen feet below. He could see Finn lying there on the sidewalk, the blood seeping out of his head, the flashing lights of the ambulance. And then later, seeing him in that hospital bed, groaning in pain.

如果有了彼此，他们觉得不会有什么坏事发生在他们身上。 但从来没有发生过。直到两个月前的一个晚上。 即使是站在这里，看着窗外的棕榈树，丹尼也想起了这一切。 这就像一部恐怖电影在他的脑海里播放。 他能听到防火梯上的金属冲出大楼的尖叫声。 他听到了芬恩的喊叫，还有芬恩的身体撞在下面15英尺的人行道上的砰的一声。 他可以看到芬恩躺在人行道上，血从他的头上渗出，救护车的灯在闪烁。 后来，看到他躺在医院的病床上，痛苦地呻吟。

It was that night that Ma said they had to leave the city. "It's time for us to go," Ma said. "Before something terrible happens to you." When she first told him they were moving to Hawaii, Danny thought she was kidding. Wasn't Hawaii a made-up place, like Shangri-La?

就在那天晚上，马说他们必须离开这座城市。 “我们该走了，”马说。 “在你发生可怕的事情之前。” 当她第一次告诉他他们要搬去夏威夷时，丹尼以为她在开玩笑。 夏威夷不就是一个虚构的地方吗，就像香格里拉?

But no. It turned out it was a bunch of islands owned by America. There was a huge U.S. military base there called Pearl Harbor. They needed nurses at a hospital on an air base called Hickam. They wanted Ma right away. A week later, the Cranes were on a train heading to San Francisco. From there, they took a ship halfway across the Pacific Ocean, to Oahu, one of the Hawaiian Islands. Ma kept telling Danny how they needed to put New York behind them. "We're starting out fresh," she said. But how could Danny turn his back on Finn? He couldn't, not when Finn needed him most. Besides, it was Danny's fault Finn got hurt. He was the one who wanted to climb up that fire escape, to explore that abandoned building on 23rd Street. Finn said it was a bad idea, but Danny told him to stop being a sissy. And then, as they were climbing up past the second floor, there was a terrible screech as the rusted metal of the fire escape gave way. Danny managed to climb onto

但是没有。原来那是美国拥有的一群岛屿。 那里有一个巨大的美国军事基地，叫做珍珠港。 他们需要希卡姆空军基地医院的护士。 他们想马上要妈妈。 一周后，crane一家登上了开往旧金山的火车。 从那里，他们乘船横跨半个太平洋，来到夏威夷群岛之一的瓦胡岛。 妈妈一直跟丹尼说，他们要把纽约抛在脑后。 “我们要重新开始，”她说。 但丹尼怎么能背弃芬恩呢? 他不能，在芬恩最需要他的时候。 再说了，芬恩受伤是丹尼的错。 是他想爬上防火梯，去探索23街那栋废弃的建筑。 芬恩说这不是个好主意，但丹尼让他别那么娘娘腔。 然后，当他们爬过二楼时，传来一声可怕的尖叫声，因为防火梯生锈的金属坍塌了。 丹尼设法爬了上去