Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13 MARCH 25, 2011 NARITA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TOKYO, JAPAN Ben sat between Mom and Harry on the airplane. Soon they would take off. It was two weeks after the wave, and they were heading home. The stewardess came by for the third time and asked Mom to please turn off her phone. Mom was talking to Dr. Sato. They'd been working together nonstop these past two weeks, trying to

2011年3月25日日本东京成田国际机场本在飞机上坐在妈妈和哈里之间。 他们很快就要起飞了。那是海啸过后的两个星期，他们正准备回家。 空姐第三次过来，请妈妈关掉手机。 妈妈在和佐藤医生说话。 过去两周他们一直在一起不停地工作，试图

get supplies to Shogahama. Mom's friends in the air force were helping. Finally, Mom said good-bye to Dr. Sato and turned off her phone. She smiled at Ben, put her head back, and closed her eyes. None of them had slept much lately. Harry had Nya's cage on his lap. He was giving the old cat one last scratch on the head before he'd have to put her under the seat. Ojisan had asked them to take Nya home with them, to keep an eye on her. Of course they were happy about that. Ben looked at the scar on Harry's arm. "Your scar is cooler than Darth Vader's," Ben said. "Way cooler," Harry said with a grin. It amazed Ben that Harry had come through the disaster with no other injuries. By some miracle, Mom and Harry and Ojisan had managed to stay together after they fell out of the car. The water had swept them into the parking garage of

把补给送到坂滨。 妈妈在空军的朋友也在帮忙。 最后，妈妈向他告别。 佐藤关掉了手机。 她对本笑了笑，把头往后仰，闭上了眼睛。 他们最近谁也没怎么睡。 哈利腿上放着妮雅的笼子。 他在把那只老猫放到座位下面之前，最后搔了搔它的头。 欧吉桑让他们把妮娅带回家，好照看她。 他们当然对此感到高兴。 本看着哈利手臂上的伤疤。 “你的伤疤比达斯·维德的还酷，”本说。 “酷多了。”哈利笑着说。 哈利在这场灾难中毫发无伤，这让本很吃惊。 奇迹发生了，妈妈、哈里和欧吉桑从车里掉下来后还能在一起。 水把他们冲进了停车场

Shogahama's only apartment building. They'd rushed up the stairway, just steps ahead of the wave. They'd made it to the roof, waiting there with dozens of other people until the water subsided. Like all of them, Harry had seen some terrible things. He was having nightmares almost every night. Loud noises made him jump. Ben, too. Ben knew how lucky they were to be together, that they were safe. But it was hard to feel happy when there was so much sadness all around. The quake had been the strongest ever to hit Japan, the fourth-strongest ever recorded in the world. The tsunami had destroyed towns and cities up and down the Japanese coast for hundreds of miles. Thousands and thousands of people had died, and thousands more were still missing. There had been some happy moments at the school, like when Akira's parents finally came, and then Hidecki's. But

这是坂滨唯一的公寓楼。 他们冲上了楼梯，离海浪只有几步之遥。 他们成功爬上了屋顶，和其他几十个人一起在那里等着，直到洪水退去。 和他们所有人一样，哈利也见过一些可怕的事情。 他几乎每晚都做噩梦。 巨大的噪音使他跳了起来。 本。本知道他们能在一起是多么幸运，他们很安全。 但当周围充满悲伤时，很难感到快乐。 这次地震是日本有史以来最强烈的一次，也是世界上有记录以来第四强烈的地震。 海啸摧毁了日本海岸上下数百英里的城镇和城市。 成千上万的人死亡，还有成千上万的人失踪。 在学校里也有过一些快乐的时刻，比如阿基的父母终于来了，然后是希德基的父母。 但

many people couldn't find their relatives. In the end, it was Kazu's aunt from Tokyo who came to pick him up. And just when it seemed the news couldn't get scarier, there was another disaster. The quake and wave had damaged a nuclear power station in a place called Fukushima, about forty miles up the coast from Shogahama. Radioactive particles were leaking out of the power plant. Even small amounts of radiation can make people very sick, especially children. People living close to the plant had to flee their homes. For a while, people worried that the radioactive cloud could spread to Shogahama — or beyond. These past few days, the news from Fukushima had been a little bit better — the winds had shifted, blowing the poisonous clouds out to sea. And life in Shogahama had improved, too. Some of the roads to the village were finally clear, so food and water were coming into the town. Ben

许多人找不到他们的亲戚。 最后，是Kazu从东京来接他的阿姨。 就在新闻看起来不能更可怕的时候，又发生了一场灾难。 地震和海啸已经损坏了福岛的一座核电站，该岛位于离滨四十英里的海岸线上。 放射性粒子从核电站泄漏出来。 即使是少量的辐射也会使人生病，尤其是儿童。 居住在核电站附近的人们不得不逃离家园。 有一段时间，人们担心放射性云可能会扩散到滨或更远的地方。 过去几天，来自福岛的消息稍好一些——风向改变了，把有毒的云吹到了海里。 同时，滨的生活也得到了改善。 一些通往村庄的道路终于畅通了，所以食物和水正在进入城镇。 本

was keeping a close eye on Harry. And of course, they had their Jedi cat to protect them. What worried them all was what would happen to Ojisan. His house was gone. Many of his friends were gone, too. They'd begged him to come back to California with them. "At least for a few months," Mom had said. But Ojisan refused, and Ben came to understand why. Two days ago, he and Ojisan finally took a walk together. They'd made their way into the hills above the school. They looked over at the village below. Ben could see the tears in Ojisan's eyes as he stared at the sea of mud and wreckage. But he also heard the determination in his uncle's voice. "We will clean up," he'd said. "We will build new houses." Already there was talk about building on higher ground.

一直密切注视着哈利。 当然，他们还有绝地猫来保护他们。 他们担心的是欧吉桑会怎么样。 他的房子不见了。他的许多朋友也走了。 他们恳求他和他们一起回加州。 “至少几个月吧，”妈妈说。 但欧吉桑拒绝了，本明白了为什么。 两天前，他终于和欧吉桑一起散步了。 他们已经进入了学校上方的山丘。 他们俯视着下面的村庄。 本可以看到奥吉桑眼睛里的泪水，因为他盯着泥浆和残骸的海洋。 但他也从叔叔的声音里听出了决心。 “我们会清理的，”他说。 “我们将建造新房子。” 已经有人说要在高地上建房了。

Ojisan had turned to Ben. "The people here will rebuild Shogahama," he said. "We will work together. And we will go on." We will go on. Ojisan promised he'd come to visit this summer. Dr. Sato was coming, too. He had a medical conference in California, and was staying an extra week to visit with them. The plane backed away from the gate and taxied over to the runway. Ben used to love flying with Dad, how he'd explain every detail of the plane, the meaning of every rattle and hum. Ben could hear Dad's voice now, as though he was right there with him. And suddenly it hit him, a crazy idea: that Harry's wish had come true. Maybe that cherry tree at Ojisan's had been magical after all. Because, in a way, Dad had come back to Ben. It was Dad who got Ben through his moments of panic in the quake, who helped him escape

欧吉桑转向本。“这里的人们将重建昭滨，”他说。 “我们将共同努力。我们将继续前进。” 我们继续。欧吉桑答应今年夏天会来看他。 佐藤医生也要来。他在加州有一个医学会议，要多待一个星期去看望他们。 飞机从登机口后退，滑行到跑道上。 本曾经很喜欢和爸爸一起坐飞机，听他解释飞机的每一个细节，每一个响动和嗡嗡声的含义。 本现在能听到爸爸的声音了，好像他就在他身边。 突然，一个疯狂的念头闪过他的脑海:哈利的愿望实现了。 也许欧吉森家的那棵樱桃树真的很神奇。 因为，在某种程度上，爸爸回到了本身边。 是爸爸帮本度过了地震中恐慌的时刻，是爸爸帮他逃了出来