Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2 WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29, 2001 PORT JACKSON, NEW YORK 10:00 A.M. As usual, football practice was brutal. It was ninety-five degrees. Lucas was soaked in sweat. Three guys had already puked up their Gatorades. Lucas's body felt like one big bruise. A football came sailing through the air. It looked like an impossible catch — Lucas's favorite kind. He took off, legs pumping, eyes on the ball. At exactly the right split second, he leaped up as high as he could, plucked the ball

第二章2001年8月29日星期三纽约杰克逊港上午10:00 和往常一样，足球训练是残酷的。 当时是95度。 卢卡斯浑身是汗。 三个人已经吐了他们的佳得乐。 卢卡斯的身体像一大块淤青。 一个足球从空中疾驰而来。 这看起来像是一个不可能的接球——卢卡斯最喜欢的那种。 他起飞了，双腿跳动，眼睛盯着球。 就在那一刹那，他跳得尽可能高，把球捡了起来

from the air, and grabbed it to his chest as he crashed to the ground. All around him, guys hooted and cheered and high-fived. A familiar happy feeling rushed over Lucas. Sure, his entire body ached. Yeah, Coach B. was always screaming at them. But this is where Lucas was happiest, where he belonged: on this broiling hot turf field with his football team, the Port Jackson Jaguars. It had been Uncle Benny's idea that Lucas could be a football player. Benny was Dad's best friend from Ladder 177, the New York City firehouse where they both worked. Lucas had always liked Uncle Benny — everyone did. Dad once said that Benny was like the firehouse cheerleader.

当他坠落在地时，他从空中抓住了它。 他周围的人都欢呼雀跃，击掌庆祝。 一种熟悉的幸福的感觉涌上了卢卡斯的心头。 当然，他全身都痛。 是的，b教练总是对他们大吼大叫。 但这是卢卡斯最快乐的地方，他属于这里:和他的足球队杰克逊港美洲虎队(Port Jackson Jaguars)在这片炙热的草坪上。 本来是本尼叔叔想让卢卡斯当足球运动员的。 本尼是爸爸最好的朋友，在他们都工作的纽约市消防站云梯177工作。 卢卡斯一直很喜欢本尼叔叔——大家都喜欢。 爸爸曾经说过本尼就像消防队的啦啦队长。

A six-foot-two-inch cheerleader with a shamrock tattoo. But it wasn't until Lucas was in third grade that he really got close to Uncle Benny. That year, Lucas's dad was badly hurt in a warehouse fire in Brooklyn. He was in the hospital burn center for almost two months. Uncle Benny practically moved in with Mom and Lucas until Dad was better. Lucas would wake up some mornings and find Uncle Benny reading the sports pages at the kitchen table. Before Lucas could say, "Where's Mom?" Uncle Benny would grab him by the arm and sit him down. "You gotta see this," he'd say,

一个六英尺二英寸的拉拉队长身上有三叶草纹身。 但直到卢卡斯上三年级，他才真正接近本尼叔叔。 那一年，卢卡斯的爸爸在布鲁克林的一场仓库大火中受了重伤。 他在医院烧伤中心住了将近两个月。 本尼叔叔搬去跟妈妈和卢卡斯住直到爸爸好起来。 卢卡斯有时早上醒来，会发现本尼叔叔在厨房的桌子上看体育版。 卢卡斯还没来得及问"妈妈呢"本尼叔叔会抓住他的胳膊，让他坐下。 “你得看看这个，”他说，

holding up a picture of some football player Lucas had never heard of. Lucas would sit there, pretending to be interested. He'd never been a sports kid. He and Dad were always so busy working on their projects. Before Dad got hurt, they'd been spending every weekend in their basement workshop, building a model of the Ladder 177 truck, the Seagrave 75. But Uncle Benny wasn't interested in truck models. What Uncle Benny loved was football. And soon enough he had Lucas glued to Monday Night Football, cheering for Uncle Benny's teams, watching ESPN, and booing the players Uncle Benny hated. Uncle Benny bought Lucas a football, and then spent hours with him in the backyard, teaching him to throw and catch.

举着一张卢卡斯从未听说过的足球运动员的照片。 卢卡斯会坐在那里，假装很感兴趣。 他从来不是个喜欢运动的孩子。 他和爸爸总是忙着做他们的项目。 在爸爸受伤之前，他们每个周末都在地下室的工作室里，制作一辆梯子177卡车的模型，西格雷夫75。 但本尼叔叔对卡车模型不感兴趣。 本尼叔叔喜欢的是足球。 很快，他就把卢卡斯迷上了周一晚上的橄榄球比赛，为本尼叔叔的球队加油，看ESPN，给本尼叔叔讨厌的球员嘘。 本尼叔叔给卢卡斯买了一个足球，然后花了几个小时和他在后院，教他投球和接球。

And then came the day when Uncle Benny appeared with the form to sign up for the Jaguars. "I can't really play football," Lucas said. Back then Lucas had been pudgy, shorter even than some of the girls in his grade. But Uncle Benny got his mom and dad to sign the form. And the next thing Lucas knew, Uncle Benny was driving him to his first practice. Lucas had to smile as he thought back to that day — he was a little butterball stuffed into his pads and brand-new cleats. "I think we should go home," he said to Uncle Benny, choking back tears.

后来有一天，本尼叔叔拿着表格来报名参加美洲虎。 “我真的不会踢足球，”卢卡斯说。 那时候卢卡斯身材矮胖，甚至比同年级的一些女生还矮。 但本尼叔叔让他爸妈在表格上签了名。 卢卡斯知道的下一件事是，本尼叔叔开车送他去第一次练习。 回想起那天，卢卡斯不得不笑了——他是一个塞进脚垫和崭新球鞋的小黄油球。 “我想我们该回家了，”他强忍着眼泪对本尼叔叔说。

"No, you don't," Uncle Benny said. "You want to get out there and show what you can do!" And Uncle Benny's eyes were so big and sparkling, like bright lights spelling out the words You can do it! So Lucas did it. And from that first day, Lucas felt like he'd found his place. It wasn't really the game he loved. It was being on the team, being surrounded by the guys. They watched each other's backs. Winners or losers, they stuck together. Uncle Benny had also taught him the secret of catching a football: that you had to believe you were going to catch it. "You have to feel it in your heart," Uncle Benny said. It worked every time. Almost. Toward the end of practice, someone threw another impossible pass. "Go get it, Lucas!" the guys screamed. And off Lucas went, his eyes glued to the ball, his arms stretched out so long he felt like he could

“不，你不需要，”本尼叔叔说。 “你想走出去，展示你的能力!”本尼叔叔的眼睛又大又亮，就像明亮的灯光在拼着“你能行的!”于是卢卡斯照做了。 从第一天起，卢卡斯就觉得他找到了自己的位置。 这并不是他真正喜欢的比赛。 那就是加入球队，被队友们包围。 他们互相看着对方的背影。 不管是赢家还是输家，他们都团结在一起。 本尼叔叔还教过他接球的秘诀:你必须相信你会接球。 “你必须用心去感受，”本尼叔叔说。 每次都很有效。几乎。 练习快结束时，有人又扔了一个不可能的传球。 “去拿，卢卡斯!” 卢卡斯走了，他的眼睛紧盯着球，他的手臂伸得很长，他觉得自己可以