1 GHOST SKILLS

BY EDGAR AWARD WINNER DORI HILLESTAD BUTLER The HAUNTED LIBRARY

埃德加奖得主多里·希勒斯塔德·巴特勒著《闹鬼的图书馆》

CHAPTER 1 GHOST SKILLS Cuckoo!... Cuckoo!... Cuckoo!... Cuckoo!... "Kaz!" Beckett said sharply. "Are you listening?" Kaz was listening. But he was listening to the cuckoo clock chiming in the library entryway. He was not listening to Beckett. "What's the matter, boy?" Beckett asked as he floated around the craft room. "Why are you so distracted?"

第一章幽灵技能杜鹃！ 布谷鸟!…布谷鸟!…布谷鸟!… “Kaz !”贝克特厉声说。 “你在听吗？”卡兹在听。 但他却在图书馆入口处听着布谷鸟钟的报时声。 他没有听贝克特的话。 “怎么了，孩子？”贝克特在工艺室里漂浮着问道。 “你怎么这么心烦意乱？”

Kaz bit his bottom lip. "Claire's late," he said. Claire was a solid. She lived in an apartment above the library with her family. She could see ghosts like Kaz and Beckett when they weren't glowing. And she could hear them when they weren't wailing. No one knew why. More important, Claire was Kaz's friend. Kaz and Claire hadn't been able to spend much time together lately because Claire had started school last week. She didn't get home until three twenty

卡兹咬着他的下嘴唇。“克莱尔迟到了，”他说。 克莱尔是个可靠的人。她和家人住在图书馆楼上的一套公寓里。 她能看到卡兹和贝克特这样不发光的鬼魂。 他们不哭的时候，她也能听见。 没人知道为什么。更重要的是，克莱尔是卡兹的朋友。 卡兹和克莱尔最近没有多少时间在一起，因为克莱尔上周开始上学了。 她直到三点二十分才到家

in the afternoon. Sometimes even three thirty. But now it was four o'clock. Claire had never been this late before. "What if something bad happened to her?" Kaz said. "I'm sure she's fine," Beckett said. "You should be happy she's late. That gives you more time to practice your ghost skills." Kaz groaned. Beckett had started working with Kaz on his ghost skills while Claire was at school. He said Kaz's skills were an embarrassment to all ghosts. "No groaning!" Beckett barked. "Let's get back to work. It takes a lot of concentration to pick up a solid object. You have to send all your energy to your hands as you reach for the object. Watch!" Beckett stared hard at the wall of books. Kaz watched as Beckett sloooowly pulled a red book from the shelf. "You can't think about anything other than picking up the object," Beckett said, his eyes still

在下午。有时甚至三点半。 可现在已经是四点钟了。 克莱尔从来没有这么晚过。 “如果她出了什么坏事怎么办？”Kaz说。 “我肯定她很好，”贝克特说。 “她迟到了，你应该感到高兴。 这样你就有更多的时间来练习当鬼的技巧了。” Kaz呻吟着。在克莱尔上学的时候，贝克特就开始和卡兹一起学习他的幽灵技能。 他说和子的技能让所有鬼魂都感到尴尬。 “不呻吟!”贝克特吠叫。 “让我们回去工作吧。拿起一个固体物体需要很大的注意力。 当你伸手去拿东西时，你必须把所有的能量都集中到你的手上。 看!”贝克特死死盯着那堵书墙。 卡兹看着贝克特慢慢地从书架上拿出一本红色的书。 “除了捡起这个东西，你什么都不能想，”贝克特说，他的眼睛一动不动

fixed on the book in his hands. "If you let your mind wander, the object will fall." The book slipped through Beckett's hands and hit the floor with a loud thud. Kaz's ghost dog, Cosmo, yelped in surprise. "Now try to pick up that book," Beckett told Kaz. Kaz wanted to learn to pick up solid objects. If he could master that one skill, it would be so much easier to play cards or board games with Claire, because then he'd be able to hold his own cards and move his own game pieces. Arms outstretched, Kaz kicked his feet and dove for the book. "Aaaah!" he screamed as his hands passed through it. "Don't scream!" Beckett ordered. "Concentrate!" Kaz stared hard at the book, like he'd seen Beckett do. He clenched his teeth... and reached for the book. His hand passed through again.

盯着他手里的书。 “如果你走神，物体就会掉下来。” 书从贝克特的手中滑落，砰的一声掉在地板上。 卡兹的鬼狗科斯莫惊讶地叫了起来。 “现在试着把那本书捡起来，”贝克特对卡兹说。 卡兹想学习捡起固体物体。 如果他能够掌握这一技能，那么与Claire一起玩纸牌或棋盘游戏就会容易得多，因为这样他就能够拿着自己的纸牌并移动自己的游戏棋子。 和子张开双臂，踢了踢脚，扑向书。 “啊！”他尖叫着，双手穿过它。 “不要尖叫!”贝克特下令。 “集中!”卡兹紧紧盯着那本书，就像他看到贝克特那样。 他咬紧牙关……伸手去拿书。 他的手又伸了过去。

"You're not concentrating," Beckett said. "I am, too," Kaz said as he gave his hand a shake. He hated the feel of solid objects passing through his body. "It's just hard." And Beckett wasn't a very patient teacher. Not like Kaz's mom or pops. Or his grandparents. Or even his big brother, Finn. Kaz sighed. He missed his family. He hadn't seen them in so long. Not since the old schoolhouse, where they all used to live, was torn down and all the ghosts inside had blown their separate ways. "Try again," Beckett said. Kaz was tired. He didn't want to try again. But he tried one more time, anyway. Pick it up... pick it up... pick it up, he told his hands. He couldn't possibly concentrate any harder than he was already concentrating. It was no use. His hands passed right through the book. "Aha!" came a voice from the doorway. "I

“你没有集中精神，”贝克特说。 “我也是。”卡兹说着，握了握手。 他讨厌固体穿过他身体的感觉。 “这很难。”贝克特不是一个很有耐心的老师。 不像卡兹的妈妈或爸爸。 或者他的祖父母。甚至是他的哥哥芬恩。 Kaz叹了口气。他想念他的家人。 他已经很久没见到他们了。 自从他们以前住过的旧校舍被拆了，里面的鬼魂都被吹散了以后，就再也没有了。 “再试一次，”贝克特说。 卡兹累了。他不想再试了。 但不管怎样，他又试了一次。 捡起来……捡起来…… 把它捡起来，他对自己的手说。 他已经很专心了，不可能再专心了。 这没有用。他的手一直翻阅着那本书。 “啊哈！”门口传来一个声音。 “我