7 TRADING STORIES

CHAPTER 7 TRADING STORIES No fair talking in a code we don't know," Little John whined. "Plus, I want to talk to Mom, too!" "Your mom thinks we should stop talking for a while," Pops said. "There are a lot of solid children out and about. She's afraid they'll notice us." He hovered in the window and glowed three long glows, then one long, one short, and one more long glow. "Long-long-long," Little John said, "and long- short-long. What does that spell?"

“用我们不知道的密码讲不公平的话。”小约翰抱怨道。 “另外，我也想和妈妈谈谈！”“你妈妈认为我们应该暂时停止说话，”老爷子说。 “外面有很多健壮的孩子。 她怕他们会注意到我们。” 他在窗户里盘旋，发出了三道长长的光，然后是一道长光，一道短光，还有一道长光。 “长-长-长，”小约翰说，“长-短-长。 那是什么咒语？”

"It spells OK," Pops said. "Long-long-long is O. And long-short-long is K. I'll teach you the whole alphabet, Little John, but not right now. We have to figure out a way to rescue your mom." "If Claire were here, she could help us," Kaz said. "We don't need help from solids. We are perfectly capable of rescuing your mother ourselves!" Pops said. How? Kaz wondered. "We need something to travel in," Pops said. "Something hollow with a lid. Like a bottle or a box." There were several things in the room that could work. A covered coffee cup. A plastic box that had farm animals inside. A toy drum. If the drum was hollow on the inside... Kaz shrank down... down... down... and passed through the side of the drum. It was hollow.

“拼写OK，”老爷子说。 “长-长-长是o，长-短-长是K。 我会教你整个字母表的，小约翰，但不是现在。 我们得想办法救你妈妈。” “如果克莱尔在这里，她会帮助我们的，”卡兹说。 “我们不需要固体的帮助。 我们完全有能力救你妈妈！”持久性有机污染物。 如何?Kaz很好奇。老爷子说：“我们需要旅行穿的东西。” “带盖子的空心东西。 就像一个瓶子或一个盒子。”房间里有几样东西可以用。 有盖的咖啡杯。一个塑料盒子，里面装着家畜。 一个玩具鼓。如果鼓里面是中空的…… 卡兹退缩了……下来…… 下来……穿过了鼓的侧面。 它是空的。

"Good idea, Kaz," Pops called from outside the drum. "We can travel in there." Kaz passed through the outside of the toy drum and returned to the living room. "We could... if we had someone to carry the drum across the street," he said. Someone like Claire. Pops scratched his head. "What if only one of us goes inside the drum, and the others stay here and roll it across the street?" "How do we get it out the door?" Kaz asked. "You could transform it," Little John said. "Then it could roll through the wall!" Kaz peered out the window. "Yeah, but then it would just blow away in the wind," he said, "With one of us inside."

“好主意，卡兹。”老爷子在鼓外面喊道。 “我们可以在里面旅行。”和子穿过玩具鼓的外面，回到客厅。 “我们可以…如果有人扛着鼓穿过街道，”他说。 像克莱尔那样的人。老爷子挠了挠头。 “如果我们中只有一个人进到鼓里，其他人留在这里，把鼓滚到街对面怎么样？”“我们怎么把它弄出去？”Kaz问道。 “你可以改变它，”小约翰说。 “这样它就可以滚穿墙了！”卡兹向窗外望去。 “是的，但它会被风吹走，”他说，“我们其中一个在里面。”

"Oh," Little John said, hanging his head. "That would be bad." Pops sighed. "Maybe we do need help from a solid." "When Margaret comes back, let's glow and wail and tell her to call Claire," Little John said. Pops nodded. "Okay," he said. But the ghosts didn't have to wait for Margaret to come back. And they didn't have to ask her to call Claire. Henry came back before Margaret did. He carried a red case in his arms. "What's that you've got there, Henry?" his mom asked when he came in. "Some cars," Henry said. "Sam's letting me borrow them." He dropped to his knees and opened the case upside down. "See?" It wasn't just cars that came tumbling out of the case. Kaz and Little John's mom wafted out, too.

“哦，”小约翰低下头说。 “那就糟了。”持久性有机污染物叹了口气。 “也许我们确实需要固体的帮助。” 小约翰说：“玛格丽特回来的时候，让我们边哭边发光，告诉她叫克莱尔来。” 持久性有机污染物点点头。“好吧，”他说。 但是鬼魂们并不需要等到玛格丽特回来。 他们不需要让她给克莱尔打电话。 亨利比玛格丽特先回来。 他怀里抱着一个红色的箱子。 “你拿的是什么，亨利？”他进来时妈妈问。 “有些车，”亨利说。“萨姆让我借了。” 他双膝跪地，把箱子倒过来打开。 “看到了吗?”从箱子里滚出来的不只是汽车。 卡兹和小约翰的妈妈也飘出去了。

"Mom!" the ghosts shouted as she expanded to her normal size. They hugged and kissed and danced around. "I'm so happy to see you all!" Mom said. "Us too!" said Pops. "I knew you were nearby. I found beads from your necklace." He reached into his pocket and pulled out three ghostly blue beads. "We found some beads, too. Didn't we, Kaz?" Little John said. Kaz nodded. "I found one at the purple house where Kiley and those other ghosts lived," Little John said.

“妈妈！”当她长到正常大小时，鬼魂们喊道。 他们拥抱、亲吻、跳舞。 “我很高兴见到你们！”母亲说。 “我们也是！”老爷子说。“我知道你就在附近。 我找到了你项链上的珠子。” 他把手伸进口袋，掏出三颗幽灵般的蓝色珠子。 “我们还发现了一些珠子。 不是吗，卡兹？”小约翰说。 Kaz点点头。“我在基利和其他鬼魂住的紫色房子里找到了一个，”小约翰说。

Mom's face glowed in surprise. "You met those ghosts?" "Yes," Little John replied. "They told me you'd been there. Why did you leave?" "I was looking for all of you," Mom said. Pops frowned. "You should've stayed in one place. Then we would've found you instead of all those beads from your necklace." "I didn't want to. I wanted to do something," Mom said. "I was determined to find someone in the family before I ran out of beads." She reached into her pocket and pulled out what was left of her necklace. There were only five beads left. "Well, you found us!" Kaz said. "How did you know to go inside that case?" Little John asked. "How did you know Henry would bring the case over here?" "Because I've been watching the solid children," Mom replied. "I knew that the boy

妈妈惊讶得满脸通红。 “你见过那些鬼吗？”“是的，”小约翰回答。 “他们告诉我你去过那里。 你为什么要离开？”“我在找你们大家，”妈妈说。 持久性有机污染物皱起了眉头。“你应该呆在一个地方。 这样我们就能找到你，而不是你项链上的那些珠子了。” “我不想。我想做点什么，”妈妈说。 “我决定在珠子用完之前在家里找到一个人。” 她把手伸进口袋，拿出项链上剩下的东西。 只剩下五颗珠子了。 “好吧，你找到我们了！”Kaz说。 “你是怎么知道要进那个箱子的？”小约翰问。 “你怎么知道亨利会把箱子带到这里来？”“因为我一直在观察那些结实的孩子，”妈妈回答。 我知道那个男孩