5 NO SUCH THING AS GHOSTS

CHAPTER 5 NO SUCH THING AS GHOSTS Claire clutched her book to her chest, grabbed her bag, and hurried to open the door. The whole library was dark. Kaz swam into the entryway. He moved much faster in the dark than Claire did. He was used to darkness. His old haunt was always dark. Those hot things in the ceiling lit up, and the library became bright again. A small crowd had gathered in the entryway. "I saw it!" cried a solid boy in a striped shirt. "I saw the library ghost." Squinting in the bright light, Kaz looked around. Solids could only see ghosts when they

克莱尔把书抱在胸前，抓起书包，急忙去开门。 整个图书馆一片漆黑。 卡兹游进了入口通道。 他在黑暗中走得比克莱尔快得多。 他习惯了黑暗。他常去的地方总是漆黑一片。 天花板上那些热的东西亮了起来，图书馆又亮了起来。 入口处聚集了一小群人。 “我看见了！”一个穿着条纹衬衫的结实男孩叫道。 “我看到图书馆的鬼魂了。” 在明亮的灯光下，卡兹眯起眼睛环顾四周。 固体只能看到鬼魂，当他们

were glowing. But ghosts could see other ghosts all the time. Kaz didn't see any other ghosts. "I saw it, too!" said a solid girl in pigtails. "So did I," said another solid boy, wearing glasses. "It was right there." "Right where?" Claire asked as she opened her book. "There." The boy with the glasses pointed at the air above the sprawling floor plant, next to the spiral staircase. "Henry," said a lady who was probably the boy's mother. "You know there's no such thing as ghosts." No such thing as ghosts! That was like saying

是发光的。但是鬼魂总是可以看到别的鬼魂。 卡兹没看见别的鬼。 “我也看见了！”一个扎着小辫的结实女孩说。 “我也是，”另一个戴着眼镜的结实男孩说。 “它就在那儿。”“在吗?”克莱尔打开书问道。 “在那里。”戴眼镜的男孩指着螺旋形楼梯旁蔓生的地板植物上方的空气。 “亨利，”一位可能是男孩母亲的女士说。 “你知道没有鬼这种东西。” 没有鬼这种东西！这就像是在说

there was no such thing as solids. "Maybe you saw a shadow behind the plant," the mother went on. "It wasn't a shadow." Henry stuck out his bottom lip. "It was a ghost. It was floating above the plant, up by the ceiling. You could see right through him." "We all heard him moan," the girl in pigtails said. "Shadows don't moan." "And they don't turn off the lights," said the boy in the striped shirt. Kaz drifted among the solids. The ghost man, Beckett, had passed through the bookcase and hadn't returned. So who had these solid kids seen? Finn, he thought. Who else? But where did Finn go? "This isn't the first time that someone has seen a ghost in this library," Grandma Karen said in a mysterious voice. "That's right," said a very old solid as she hobbled over with her cane. It was the same lady

没有固体这种东西。 “也许你看到了植物后面的影子，”母亲继续说。 “那不是影子。”亨利伸出他的下嘴唇。 “那是个鬼。它漂浮在植物上方，靠近天花板。 你一眼就能看穿他。” “我们都听到他呻吟了，”扎着小辫的女孩说。 “影子是不会呻吟的。”“他们也不关灯，”穿条纹衬衫的男孩说。 和子飘浮在固体之间。 那个鬼人贝克特穿过书柜，没有回来。 谁见过这些结实的孩子？ 芬恩，他想。还有谁? 但是芬恩去哪儿了？“这不是第一次有人在这个图书馆里看到鬼了，”凯伦奶奶用一种神秘的声音说。 “没错，”一个年迈的老太婆拄着拐杖一瘸一拐地走过来，说道。 是同一位女士

who had gotten mad at Claire for running in the library earlier. "I used to own this house," the older solid said in a croaky voice. "Back before it was a library. I had a small apartment here on the first floor, and I rented out the rest of the house. We saw ghosts here all the time back then. It was hard to keep renters. When Mrs. Lindstrom said she wanted to buy the place, turn the first floor into a library, and live on the second floor, I was happy to sell it to her." "Well, I don't believe there are any ghosts here," said Henry's mother. "Kids, let's check out our books. It's time to go home." The old woman and all the other solids, except for Claire, walked away. "That Beckett!" Claire shook her head as she wrote some more in her book. "What about him?" Kaz asked. "I don't know why he keeps coming out and— what was that word you used before? Glow? I

她之前因为克莱尔在图书馆跑步而生她的气 “这房子以前是我的，”老人用沙哑的声音说。 “在它成为图书馆之前。 我在一楼有一间小公寓，我把房子的其他地方租出去了。 那时候我们经常在这里看到鬼。 很难留住租客。 当林德斯特伦太太说她想买下这个地方，把一楼改成图书馆，住在二楼时，我很高兴把它卖给了她。” “嗯，我不相信这里有鬼，”亨利的母亲说。 “孩子们，让我们来看看我们的书。 该回家了。”老妇人和其他固体，除了克莱尔，都走开了。 “那贝克特!”克莱尔一边在书上写着，一边摇了摇头。 “他怎么了？”Kaz问道。 “我不知道他为什么老是出来——你刚才用的那个词是什么来着？” 发光吗?我

don't know why he keeps glowing around all those little kids. He must like to scare them." Kaz drifted in a circle around Claire. "I don't think Beckett is the ghost they saw. I think they saw my brother Finn." Claire looked confused. "The guy in your book," Kaz said, pointing. "We were just talking about him." "Oh, him," Claire said. "I haven't seen him in more than a month. I don't think he's even here anymore." "Well, we know those solids—" "Don't say 'solids,'" Claire interrupted. "Okay, those kids," Kaz corrected. "We know they didn't see me, and they couldn't have seen Beckett. He went back behind that bookcase. So there's got to be another ghost here. I think that ghost is my brother Finn." Claire shook her head. "If there was another ghost here, I would know it. Beckett's been doing this forever. Like I said, I think he likes to scare

真不知道他为什么在那些小孩子面前总是容光焕发。 他一定喜欢吓唬他们。” 卡兹绕着克莱尔转了一圈。 “我不认为贝克特是他们看到的鬼魂。 我想他们看到了我弟弟芬恩。” 克莱尔看起来很困惑。“你书里的那个人。”卡兹指着说。 “我们正在谈论他呢。” “哦，他，”克莱尔说。“我有一个多月没见到他了。 我想他已经不在这里了。” “嗯，我们知道那些固体——”“别说‘固体’，”克莱尔打断了他。 “好吧，那些孩子。”卡兹纠正道。 “我们知道他们没有看到我，他们也不可能看到贝克特。 他回到书柜后面。 所以这里一定有另一个鬼魂。 我想那个鬼是我哥哥芬恩。” 克莱尔摇了摇头。“如果这儿还有别的鬼，我会知道的。 贝克特一直在做这件事。 就像我说的，我觉得他喜欢吓人

little kids." "But wouldn't we have seen him come back through the bookcase?" asked Kaz. "Not if he went through a different wall." That didn't seem possible to Kaz. If Beckett had passed through a different wall, he would've been in the Outside. No ghost ever went into the Outside on purpose. "Well, I'm going to look around and see if Finn is here," Kaz said. He swam toward the children's room. Claire closed her book and put it back inside her bag. "I don't think he is," she said, hoisting the bag onto her shoulder. "But I'll help you look. Just in case." "Finn?" Kaz called as he swam up one aisle of bookshelves and down another. Claire looked high, low, and all around the room. "Finn? Are you here?" Kaz and Claire searched the children's room, the fiction room, and the nonfiction room.

小的孩子。”“可是我们不是看见他从书柜里回来了吗？”卡兹问。 “如果他穿过另一堵墙就不会。” 这在卡兹看来是不可能的。 如果贝克特穿过另一堵墙，他就会在外面。 没有鬼魂是故意到外面去的。 卡兹说：“好吧，我要四处看看芬恩是否在这里。” 他向孩子们的房间游去。 克莱尔合上书，把它放回书包里。 “我不这么认为，”她说着，把书包扛到肩上。 “但我会帮你找的。以防万一。” “芬恩?”卡兹一边在书架的过道上游来游去一边喊道。 克莱尔上下打量了一下房间。 “芬恩?你在这儿吗？”卡兹和克莱尔搜遍了儿童室、小说室和非小说室。