15 Liam’s Comet

CHAPTER FIFTEEN LIAM'S COMET Occlusion (noun). In chemistry, this is what forms when you have one molecule within another. For example, that means you could find an impurity trapped inside a crystal. Guess you could no longer say it was crystal clear! ABOUT TWENTY MINUTES LATER, the doorbell rang with the arrival of the first guest, a girl who was dressed like an astronaut. She looked awesome and carried a huge gift that Liam guessed was a spaceship model or a mini drum set. A steady flow of kids arrived, and the house grew louder and louder. Liam handed out alien antennae with silver Styrofoam balls for all of the kids to wear. I still hadn't heard from Birdie. Soon, Mom had me helping with pin-the-tail-on-the-comet. I plonked some antennae on my head and then told the kids to line up. Naturally, I had the birthday boy go first. He placed the comet's streaky yellow tail all the way by the light switch. Then Desmond pinned the tail on our lamp. Another ended up on my elbow.

第十五章利亚姆彗星遮挡（名词）。 在化学中，这是一个分子在另一个分子中形成的。 例如，这意味着你可以在晶体中找到杂质。 我猜你再也不能说一切都很清楚了！大约20分钟后，门铃响了，第一个客人来了，一个穿得像宇航员的女孩。 她看起来棒极了，拿着一个巨大的礼物，利亚姆猜是宇宙飞船模型或迷你架子鼓。 孩子们络绎不绝地来了，屋子里的声音越来越大。 利亚姆分发了带有银色泡沫塑料球的外星人天线给所有的孩子戴。 我仍然没有小鸟的消息。 很快，妈妈让我帮忙做彗星上的针尾。 我把一些天线放在头上，然后让孩子们排队。 自然，我让寿星先走了。 他把彗星的黄色条纹尾巴一直放在电灯开关旁边。 然后德斯蒙德把尾巴别在我们的灯上。 另一个落在了我的手肘上。

Spinning the kids and watching them dizzily trying to place the tail in the right place kept me distracted in a good kind of way. I explained that comets are made of rock, dust, ice, and gases. "Does that mean that comets fart?" asked one boy with two missing front teeth. "Well, they have plenty of sulfur," I said, plugging my nose. "So they're probably stinky." The kids starting giggling. I was actually having fun, so when my watch alarm went off, I was surprised. It was time to get to the rocket launch. And it looked like it would be without Birdie. I tried to ignore a sinking feeling in my stomach. "My boots!" I cried aloud. I wanted to wear my pink cowboy boots. Rummaging through my closet, I couldn't find them anywhere. After letting out a huff of frustration, I dove into my closet, throwing shoes, pushing past pants. Oh, my boots were on a shelf. I slipped them on and instantly felt a little better. Downstairs, I scooped up my bottle rocket and put on my winter coat. Then I grabbed our wagon from the garage, carefully placed my rocket on it, and called out,

旋转着孩子们，看着他们头晕目眩地试图把尾巴放在正确的位置，这让我以一种好的方式分散了注意力。 我解释说彗星是由岩石、尘埃、冰和气体构成的。 “这是不是说彗星会放屁？”一个缺了两颗门牙的男孩问道。 “嗯，它们有很多硫磺，”我堵着鼻子说。 “所以它们可能很臭。” 孩子们开始咯咯地笑。 其实我玩得很开心，所以当我手表的闹钟响的时候，我很惊讶。 是时候发射火箭了。 看起来没有小鸟也会这样。 我试着不去理会胃里一种不祥的感觉。 “我的靴子!”我大声叫起来。 我想穿我的粉色牛仔靴。 我翻遍了我的衣柜，到处都找不到它们。 在发泄了一阵沮丧之后，我冲进衣橱，扔掉鞋子，推开裤子。 我的靴子在架子上。 我把它们穿上，立刻感觉好了一点。 在楼下，我舀起我的瓶子火箭，穿上我的冬衣。 然后我从车库抓起我们的马车，小心翼翼地把我的火箭放在上面，大声喊道：

"Goodbye!" Of course, the house was noisy with birthday guests, so nobody could hear me. As fast as I could pull the wagon, I tore off down the street. Glancing at my watch, I saw that I was supposed to be on the field in ten minutes. If I jogged, I could make it there in time. As I raced past our mailbox, with Liam's planet balloons, our elderly neighbor, Mrs. Schlesinger, was out getting the mail. "How's the party going?" she asked. "Good!" I said, jogging down the sidewalk. "Aren't you going in the wrong direction?" she asked. "Yes!" I called out. "But I'll be right back. I'm going to the school." "Be careful," she called out. "It's icy!" "I will," I said. Casting my eyes down, I scanned for black ice. Black ice forms on the surface of roads. And because it's transparent, it looks just like the road, only shinier. I read about how it has no trapped air bubbles, or occlusions. That's the science word for trapped bubbles in ice. Snow that's melting can get onto the sidewalks and become black ice when it refreezes. And then you can really slip. I know this because I have done it like a thousand times.

“再见!”当然，家里挤满了过生日的客人，所以没人能听到我的声音。 我以最快的速度拉着马车沿着街道飞奔而去。 我看了看表，发现我十分钟后就该到球场了。 如果我慢跑，我就能及时赶到那里。 当我拿着利亚姆的行星气球跑过我们的邮箱时，我们年迈的邻居施莱辛格夫人正在外面取邮件。 “晚会怎么样？”她问。 “好!”我边说边沿着人行道慢跑。 “你是不是走错方向了？”她问。 “是的!”我喊道。“但我马上就回来。 我要去学校了。”“小心，”她喊道。 “这是冰冷的!”“我会的，”我说。 我垂下眼睛，搜寻着黑色的冰。 路面上形成了黑冰。 因为它是透明的，所以看起来就像道路一样，只是更亮一些。 我读到它是如何没有被困住的气泡或闭塞的。 这是被困在冰中的气泡的科学术语。 正在融化的雪可能会落到人行道上，在重新结冰时变成黑冰。 然后你真的会滑倒。 我知道这一点，因为我已经做过一千次了。

And because my parents warn me about it every time I go outside. With an eye out for black ice and giant cracks in the sidewalk, I ran as fast as I could. Looking at my watch, I could see that the club was going to start Operation Rocket Launch in five minutes. I jogged faster. Looking both ways, I crossed Brooke Avenue and made my way to the school, the red wagon clonking behind me. Finally, I made it to the field with three minutes to spare. I spotted my friends: Elijah, Phoenix, Avery, Tala, and Memito. Even Jeremy. Plus, Skyler and Julia as well as a bunch of fourth graders. But no Birdie. What happened to her and where was she?

因为每次我出去的时候我父母都会警告我。 我紧盯着人行道上的黑冰和巨大裂缝，以最快的速度跑着。 我看了看表，俱乐部五分钟后就要开始火箭发射行动了。 我跑得更快了。我朝两边看了看，穿过布鲁克大街，向学校走去，红色的马车在我后面叮当作响。 最后，我在比赛还剩三分钟的时候赶到了赛场。 我看到了我的朋友：以利亚、菲尼克斯、艾弗里、塔拉和梅托。 甚至杰里米。另外，斯凯勒和茱莉亚还有一群四年级学生。 但是没有小鸟。她发生了什么事，她在哪里？