14 Slip Sliding Away

CHAPTER FOURTEEN SLIP SLIDING AWAY Vapor (noun). A gas formed by boiling a liquid. Like if you boil water and watch the steam hover above the pot. THE ACTORS SAT IN THE FIRST two rows of the auditorium waiting for me to tell them the schedule. Only I couldn't help them. Not when all the information had been crossed out! I didn't have time to figure out who had played this joke on me. The neurons in my brain had to fire speedy quick to find a solution. "Kate!" said Avery. "Everyone's ready." "Hold on one second!" I called out. "Just have to get something!" Mrs. Hansberry had written the schedule with a ballpoint pen in her elegant cursive handwriting. As quickly as possible, I ran a pencil over the back of the page to get the raised letters to appear. Then I pulled out a little mirror that I had in my bag. When I looked in the mirror, the letters faced in the right direction.

第十四章溜走水汽（名词）。 液体沸腾后形成的气体。 就像你烧水，看着蒸汽在锅上盘旋。 演员们坐在观众席的前两排，等着我告诉他们节目表。 只是我帮不了他们。 所有的信息都被划掉了！我没有时间弄清楚是谁开了我的玩笑。 我大脑里的神经元必须迅速激活才能找到解决办法。 “凯特！”埃弗里说。“每个人都准备好了。” “等一下！”我喊道。 “一定要找点什么！”汉斯伯里太太用圆珠笔用优雅的草书写下了日程表。 我以最快的速度用铅笔在这一页的背面画出凸起的字母。 然后我拿出包里的一面小镜子。 当我照镜子时，那些字母正对着镜子的方向。

Yes, I could read the schedule now! Victory! Sprinting up front, I began explaining what was happening when. "The main dragon roles should go over their lines in the green room." I paused, searching around the auditorium for a green room. The seats were brown. The walls were beige. There was nothing green in sight. "Um, what's the green room?" "You don't know what a green room is?" asked Jeremy in a shocked voice. I bit my lip. Everyone could definitely tell I didn't know what I was doing. "A green room is where actors hang out before a show," explained Avery. "At my dads' theater, it's large with a snack machine." "Um, okay." My stomach twisted. How could I help direct if I didn't even know the basics? "So the main unicorns should go over their lines in the back rows, while the dragon and the unicorn dance teams will work on their choreography onstage. And if you're playing a bunch of smaller roles, go meet in the prop room." As everyone started to leave, Avery held up her hand. "There's something important I've got to do." She opened her bag and rummaged around inside. Then she grabbed a bottle of glue with one hand and lifted it out so she could get to something

是的，我现在可以看日程了！胜利!我冲到前面，开始解释发生了什么。 “龙的主要角色应该在休息室里复习台词。” 我停顿了一下，在礼堂周围寻找一个绿色的房间。 座位是棕色的。墙壁是米黄色的。 眼前没有一片绿色。 “嗯，休息室是什么？”“你不知道绿色房间是什么？”杰里米吃惊地问。 我咬着嘴唇。每个人都可以肯定地说我不知道自己在做什么。 “绿房间是演员在演出前休息的地方，”艾弗里解释说。 “在我爸爸的电影院，它很大，有一个零食机。” “嗯,好。”我的胃一阵痉挛。 如果我连基本的都不知道，我怎么能帮助导演呢？ “所以独角兽的主力应该在后排排练他们的台词，而龙和独角兽的舞蹈团队将在舞台上练习他们的舞蹈。 如果你要演一堆小角色，那就去道具室见面。” 大家开始离开时，艾弗里举起了手。 “我有重要的事情要做。” 她打开包，在里面翻找。 然后她用一只手抓起一瓶胶水，把它拿出来，这样她就可以去拿别的东西了

underneath. A bag of Starbursts. "Catch!" she said, tossing out dozens of candies. "You can do that anytime," said Jeremy, snagging four or five fruit chews, and Avery smiled widely. Some of the actors who didn't get any looked bummed. Especially Birdie. "Next time, maybe you should hand them out," I said. "So everyone gets one." My eyes met Birdie's. "It was just for fun," said Phoenix. "Why are you making such a big deal about it?" "It's good to be fair," said Birdie quietly. Wow. I never thought being assistant director would be this hard. While dragons and unicorns ran through dance steps, I sat in the front row, figuring out how to get the dragons to breathe smoke. I wanted it to look as if the smoke curled right out the dragons' mouths. But how? Up onstage, thumping feet echoed through the theater. "Shake your foot in the air," said Avery who was taking her role as dance captain seriously. Maybe a little too seriously. Her voice sounded irritated. "And now slap your foot on the floor even harder. That's the first part of the box step."

在下面。一袋星爆糖。 “接住！”她说着，扔出了几十颗糖果。 “你随时都可以这么做。”杰里米说着，抓了四五个水果嚼了嚼，埃弗里露出了灿烂的笑容。 一些没有得到任何奖励的演员看起来很沮丧。 尤其是小鸟。“下次，也许你应该把它们分发出去，”我说。 “所以每个人都有一个。”我的目光碰到了伯蒂。 “只是为了好玩，”菲尼克斯说。 “你为什么这么小题大做？”“公平是好事，”小鸟平静地说。 哇。我从没想过当副导演会这么难。 当龙和独角兽在舞步中奔跑时，我坐在前排，想办法让龙呼吸烟雾。 我想让它看起来就像烟从龙嘴里卷出来一样。 但如何?舞台上，咚咚的脚步声回荡在剧院里。 “在空中摇晃你的脚。”艾弗里说，她很认真地对待自己作为舞蹈队长的角色。 也许有点太认真了。 她的声音听起来很恼火。 “现在用脚更用力地拍地板。 这是盒子步骤的第一部分。”

A few of the boys stomped so hard, some kids jumped back in surprise. Groaning dramatically, Avery threw up her hands in exasperation. "The dancing shouldn't scare people." Hmm, the fake smoke should at least be a little scary and surprising, but not dangerous. Jogging up and down the aisle, I pretended to dribble a soccer ball. Somehow I needed to jumpstart my brain. Avery continued with her directions. "Remember the weight is on the right leg," she said. "Shake the left foot." Jeremy started singing "The Hokey Pokey" and some of the kids giggled. "That's not such a bad idea," said Julia, who was one of the lead dragons. "It's not part of the choreography," said Avery in a tight voice. A group of boys wiggled their arms Hokey Pokey–style, and Avery frowned. "Save the Hokey Pokey. Otherwise, exit stage right," I called out. "It's stage left," said Avery. I suddenly remembered just now that stage directions were from the actors' point of view. Not the audience's. Mrs. Hansberry had explained this to us yesterday.

几个男孩使劲跺脚，一些孩子吃惊地向后跳了跳。 埃弗里戏剧性地呻吟着，恼怒地举起双手。 “跳舞不应该吓到人们。” 嗯，假烟至少应该有点吓人和令人惊讶，但并不危险。 我在过道上跑来跑去，假装在运球。 不知怎么的，我需要启动我的大脑。 埃弗里继续给她指路。 “记住，重量在右腿上，”她说。 “摇一摇左脚。”杰里米开始唱“The Hokey Pokey”，一些孩子咯咯地笑起来。 “这主意不坏，”领头龙之一的茱莉亚说。 “这不是舞蹈设计的一部分。”埃弗里用紧张的声音说。 一群男孩像郝琪·波琪一样挥舞着手臂，艾弗里皱起了眉头。 “救救Hokey Pokey。否则，从舞台右边退出。”我喊道。 “在舞台左边。”艾弗里说。 我突然想起刚才舞台指示是从演员的角度出发的。 而不是观众的。汉斯伯里太太昨天已经向我们解释过了。

"And I've got it under control." Avery put her hands on her hips. "I don't need your help." "Of course," I said, trying to sound like Mrs. Hansberry. After a few more tries, Avery was finally able to show everyone how to cross over their right foot. Which didn't seem that hard but was very challenging to Rory and Jeremy, who kept messing up and crossing their left. After I came back from checking on how the actors were doing in the green room (better than the dance team), I sat down in the back of the auditorium to do some thinking. I was itching for my dad's phone so I could watch Dr. Caroline and get some ideas for dragon smoke. The shriveled balloon demo came to mind. Then I remembered Dr. Caroline's special smoking Cheetos that had been dipped in liquid nitrogen. When she chomped on one, it looked like smoke shot right out of her mouth and nose. Only it was just a cloud of the water vaporizing.

“我已经控制住了。” 艾弗里双手叉腰。 “我不需要你的帮助。”“当然，”我说，努力让自己听起来像汉斯伯里太太。 又试了几次之后，埃弗里终于能够向大家展示如何越过他们的右脚。 这似乎并不难，但对罗里和杰里米来说却非常具有挑战性，他们总是把事情搞砸，穿过他们的左边。 在我检查完演员们在休息室的表现（比舞蹈队的表现好）后，我坐在礼堂的后面开始思考。 我很想要我爸的手机，这样我就可以看医生了。 卡洛琳，想点龙烟的点子。 我想到了瘪气球的演示。 然后我想起了卡洛琳医生特制的用液氮浸泡过的烟熏奇多。 当她大嚼一颗时，看起来就像有烟从她的嘴巴和鼻子里喷出来。 只不过是一团水雾在蒸发。

But there was one big problem. If liquid nitrogen was used incorrectly, it could burn someone's throat or mouth. Sort of like frostbite, only without being in the cold. Still, liquid nitrogen was the most awesome thing ever. It was powerful. It made balloons shrink. It could be used to freeze off warts (yuck!). And yes, it would make the absolutely perfect pretend smoke. Bouncing in my seat, I imagined all of the amazing vapor that formed as the liquid nitrogen became a gas. That always happens at its boiling point. Just like water becomes steam. But how could I make it safe enough for Mrs. Hansberry to say it would be okay to use? Maybe we could use sticks to spear the Cheetos. The dragons could blow on them to encourage the nitrogen to evaporate. That way they wouldn't have any of their skin or body parts touching the liquid nitrogen. To be extra safe, I would need those special blue cryogenic gloves that Dr. Caroline used. Somehow, I had to convince Mom and Dad to get me gloves as a very, very early birthday present. As I pushed out of my seat, I stepped on a piece of watermelon-scented chewing gum. "Ugh!" I moaned.

但有一个大问题。 如果使用不当，液氮可能会灼伤人的喉咙或嘴巴。 有点像冻伤，只不过不是在寒冷中。 尽管如此，液氮仍然是有史以来最了不起的东西。 它很强大。它使气球收缩。 它可以用来冷冻疣（恶心！） 是的，它可以制作绝对完美的假烟。 我在座位上跳来跳去，想象着液氮变成气体时形成的所有神奇的蒸汽。 这总是发生在沸点。 就像水变成蒸汽一样。 但我怎样才能保证它足够安全，让汉斯伯里太太同意使用呢？ 也许我们可以用棍子戳奇多。 龙可以对着它们吹气，促使氮气蒸发。 这样他们的皮肤或身体部位就不会接触到液氮。 为了更安全起见，我需要那种特殊的蓝色低温手套。 卡洛琳。不知怎么的，我不得不说服爸爸妈妈早早地给我买了一双手套作为生日礼物。 当我离开座位时，我踩到了一块西瓜味的口香糖。 “哎!”我抱怨道。