Chapter 27

chapter twenty-seven

27章

I'm on my fifth bag of Tropical Skittles Jack brought, because he figured I'd be hungry. Which I was. And I'm ALWAYS in the mood to taste the rainbow. "Guys, should this be our new hangout?" Dirk asks, looking around. "I dig the skulls. I dig the crossbones. I dig the whole thing." I shake my head. "Hard pass. Please." Quint plucks an electric blue Skittle out of my hands. "June, next time you decide to get lost—could you please keep track of your walkie? I had to listen to hours of weird Wretch stomach grumbling before I could pinpoint your location." I laugh. "Not surprised. Neon's diet is—well —unusual would be putting it lightly." They all glance down at Neon. He's gnawing on a Rifter ax handle like it's a bone. My friends eye him warily. "And you sure he's not evil?" Jack asks again. "Like... REALLY sure?" "I'm sure."

杰克给我带了第五袋热带彩虹糖，因为他觉得我会饿。 我确实是。我总是有心情去品尝彩虹。 “伙计们，这里应该成为我们的新去处吗？”德克环顾四周，问道。 “我挖头骨。我喜欢交叉的骨头。 我喜欢整件事。”我摇了摇头。 “硬。请。”昆特从我手里拿了一只蓝色的闪电鸟。 “琼，下次你想迷路的时候，能不能把你的对讲机带好？” 我听了好几个小时的怪肚子咕咕叫，才确定了你的位置。” 我笑了起来。“不奇怪。霓虹的饮食——嗯——不寻常——可以轻描淡写。” 他们都低头看了看霓虹。 他像啃骨头一样啃着利器斧柄。 我的朋友们警惕地注视着他。 “你确定他不邪恶吗？”杰克又问。 “就像……真的确定吗?”“我确定。”

"I'm not worried," Dirk says. "Look, Rover loves the shiny dude. They're golf buddies already." It's true. Now Rover and Neon are jumping and playing on the eighteenth hole like they're old friends. "Hey, Jack," I say, grinning. "Did you help Quint with the radio and the map?" "Me?" he says. He sticks his hands in his pockets and looks embarrassed. "No, no, of course not. I was, uh, stargazing."

“我不担心，”德克说。 “看，罗孚喜欢这个闪亮的家伙。 他们已经是高尔夫球友了。” 这是真的。现在罗孚和霓虹像老朋友一样在第十八洞跳来跳去。 “嘿，杰克，”我笑着说。 “你帮昆特弄收音机和地图了吗？”“我？”他说。 他把手插在口袋里，一副尴尬的样子。 “不，不，当然不是。我在看星星。”

"Dude," I say, "you are the worst liar." "He was just freaking out the whole time," Dirk says. "No way!" Jack protests. "I was very cool. Very calm. I said, you know, June? She'll be fine on her own. Maybe she'll come back someday, maybe she won't, no big deal." "Oh yeah?" I say, raising my eyebrows. "Pretty much," he says with a shrug. "I guess, sure, I was slightly nervous. Medium nervous. Like, a four on a scale of one to ten." Dirk erupts in laughter. "Medium nervous!!" he howls. "Oh man. The kid was having kittens! He calls it a four. You should've seen him...."

“老兄，”我说，“你是最差劲的骗子。” 德克说：“他整个过程都很紧张。 “不可能!”杰克的抗议。“我很酷。 非常平静。我说，你知道，June？ 她自己会没事的。 也许有一天她会回来，也许不会，没什么大不了的。” “哦?”我扬起眉毛说。 “差不多，”他耸耸肩说。 “我想，当然，我有点紧张。 中紧张。就像在1到10的范围内打4分。” 德克突然大笑起来。“中度紧张！！”他吼道。 “哦。那孩子生小猫了！他称之为4。 你真该看看他....”

Where could she be? I know she can handle herself, but she shouldn't HAVE TO because we're a team. And the whole point of being a team is that we handle things together. Like, remember that time we all ate one pizza TOGETHER by each holding a side and then racing to see who could reach the middle first. And all of our noses touched that once. And we, laughed well, I'm NOT LAUGHING NOW because June's a MAJOR DANGER and take a breath. Jack Jack blushes. His face is practically magenta. "I really did know you'd be okay out here on your own. I just... y'know. I wasn't sure we'd be okay without you."

她会在哪里呢？我知道她能处理好自己，但她没必要这么做，因为我们是一个团队。 作为一个团队的意义就在于我们要一起处理事情。 比如，记得有一次我们一起吃披萨，每个人拿着一边，然后比赛看谁先到中间。 我们所有人的鼻子都碰过一次。 我们笑了，好吧，我现在不笑了，因为六月是一个主要的危险，深呼吸。 杰克脸红了。他的脸几乎是紫红色的。 “我真的知道你一个人在这里会没事的。 我只是…你知道的。我不确定没有你我们会过得好不好。”

"We'd all be okay on our own," I say. "But we're better together. Like peanut butter and marshmallow fluff." I'm trying to find a free second to tell my friends the stuff I learned about Thrull and what the Boss Rifter revealed about the Outpost, but Globlet and Johnny Steve are sort of dominating the conversation. They're regaling everyone with the story of their epic journey and blowing the whole thing way out of proportion. Dismantled seventeen victors bare handed. Of course I do everything bare handed

“我们自己都可以过得很好，”我说。 “但我们在一起会更好。 比如花生酱和棉花糖。” 我试着找个空闲时间告诉我的朋友我从《Thrull》中学到的东西，以及Boss Rifter透露的关于《Outpost》的信息，但Globlet和Johnny Steve似乎主导了谈话。 他们正在用他们史诗般的旅程的故事来取悦每个人，并把整个事情搞得不成比例。 赤手空拳摧毁了十七个胜利者。 当然我什么都是徒手做的