Chapter 10

Chapter ten When we got to the apartment, I expected Cheerio to come running to say hello. But he was nowhere to be found. "That's strange," I said out loud. "I wonder where Cheerio is." "You just go change your wet clothes," Papa Pete told me. "He's probably asleep in his bed in the kitchen. I'll go look." "Ashley and I will come with you," Frankie said. "Maybe there are cookies in there, too." I walked into my bedroom and put on a pair of jeans that I had flung over the back of my desk chair. As I went to my bottom drawer to get out one of my many Mets sweatshirts, I noticed a strange thing. Actually two strange

当我们回到公寓时，我以为麦里奥会跑过来打招呼。 但他却无处可寻。 “真奇怪，”我大声说。 “我想知道麦圈在哪里。” “你去换你的湿衣服，”皮特爸爸告诉我。 “他可能在厨房的床上睡着了。 我去看看。”“艾希礼和我跟你一起去，"弗兰基说。 “也许里面也有饼干。” 我走进卧室，穿上一条我随手扔在椅子后面的牛仔裤。 当我走到最下面的抽屉里拿出一件大都会运动衫时，我注意到一件奇怪的事情。 实际上是两个奇怪的

things. Just inside the drawer, where I had left it slightly open, were two red rose petals sitting on my gray sweatshirt. They floated to the rug as I pulled the sweatshirt out of the drawer. I wondered if my mom had put them there to make my drawer smell all rose-y. I would have to talk to her about that. I'd rather my drawers smell all baseball-y. No one was there when I came back into the living room. I glanced at the vase on the coffee table. Was it my imagination, or did all the roses have fewer petals than before? As I looked around the living room, I noticed that there were rose petals tucked all over the place. There were some under the coffee table. There was a little pile of them peeking out from behind the curtain. And a few

的事情。就在抽屉里，我微微打开的地方，有两瓣红玫瑰花瓣落在我灰色的运动衫上。 当我从抽屉里拿出运动衫时，它们飘到了地毯上。 我想知道我妈妈把它们放在那里是不是为了让我的抽屉闻起来都是玫瑰味。 我得跟她谈谈这事。 我宁愿我的抽屉闻起来有棒球味。 当我回到客厅时，没有人在那里。 我瞥了一眼咖啡桌上的花瓶。 是我的想象，还是所有的玫瑰花瓣都比以前少了？ 当我环顾客厅时，我注意到到处都是玫瑰花瓣。 咖啡桌下面有一些。 有一小群人从窗帘后面往外偷看。 还有一些

were even half buried under the leather cushion of my dad's armchair. "Hey, Frankie!" I called. "Hey, Ashley! Can you guys get in here right away?" Frankie and Ashley came in from the kitchen, each one munching on one of my mom's flaxseed chocolate-chip cookies. "These cookies aren't as bad as they look," Frankie said. "Here, we brought one for you." "Thanks," I said, "but this is not cookie time. I've made what I think is an important discovery." "Did you find Fred?" Ashley asked. "No. But I found what I think is a clue." I held my hand open and showed them some of the rose petals I had picked up from under the coffee table. "I don't get it," Frankie said. "Your mom's roses are shedding. Why is that a clue?" "Just watch," I whispered. We stayed very still for a moment. Then, as we stood there, Cheerio came trotting into the living room through the doors from the terrace.

甚至半埋在我爸爸扶手椅的皮垫下面。 “嘿,弗兰基!”我叫。“嘿,希礼!你们能马上过来吗？”弗兰基和阿什莉从厨房走了进来，每个人都在大嚼我妈妈做的一块亚麻籽巧克力饼干。 “这些饼干并不像看上去那么糟糕，”弗兰基说。 “来，我们给你带了一个。” “谢谢，”我说，“但现在不是吃饼干的时间。 我认为这是一个重要的发现。” “你找到弗雷德了吗？”阿什利问道。 “没有。但我发现了一个我认为是线索的东西。” 我张开手，给他们看了一些我从咖啡桌底下捡来的玫瑰花瓣。 “我不明白，”弗兰基说。 “你妈妈的玫瑰在脱落。 为什么这是一条线索？”“看着吧，”我低声说。 我们静静地呆了一会儿。 就在我们站在那里的时候，麦里奥从露台的门里小跑着走进了客厅。

He was too busy to even look up at us. Heading for the pile of rose petals tucked underneath the curtain, he picked a few of them up in his mouth, and went out the same way he had come in. "Cheerio has scattered the petals all over the house," I said. "Your dog is going to get in so much trouble from your dad," Ashley told me. "There's got to be a reason," I said. "Let's follow that dog!" I rushed over to the doors that lead out to our terrace, with Frankie and Ashley following

他忙得连抬头看我们的时间都没有。 他朝藏在窗帘下面的那堆玫瑰花瓣走去，叼了几片在嘴里，然后从进来的路走了出去。 “麦Cheerio把花瓣撒得满屋子都是，”我说。 “你爸爸会给你的狗找麻烦的，”阿什利告诉我。 “一定有原因的，”我说。 “我们跟着那条狗吧！”我冲到通往露台的门口，弗兰基和艾希礼跟在后面

close behind. We watched as Cheerio went to one of the large clay planters that holds my mom's favorite rubber tree. He stood up on his back legs, his front paws holding on to the edge of the planter. Gently, he dropped the petals into a hole in the dirt. Then he whimpered gently, the way he does whenever I rub his belly. Except there was no belly rubbing going on. "Cheerio, are you doing what I think you're doing, boy?" I asked him. And once again, without even looking up at me, he trotted right back into the living room. We rushed over to the planter and looked down into the freshly dug hole. "What do you see down there?" Frankie

紧随其后。我们看着麦里奥走向一个巨大的粘土种植园，那里种着我妈妈最喜欢的橡胶树。 他用后腿站了起来，前爪抓住花盆的边缘。 他轻轻地把花瓣扔进泥土里的一个洞里。 然后他轻轻地呜咽着，每次我揉他的肚子他都会这样。 除了没有揉肚子。 “麦圈，你做的和我想的一样吗，小子？”我问他。 再一次，他连看都没看我一眼，就快步跑回了客厅。 我们冲到播种机前，往下看新挖的洞。 “你在下面看到了什么？”弗兰基

whispered right in my ear. I was so excited, I could hardly speak. At the bottom of the hole was a pile of pink and red rose petals. And peeking out from under them was a pair of droopy eyes and a little froggy face. "Fred!" I screamed. "I've found you! You're here!" Ashley and Frankie leaned in to get a look into the hole. "That's him!" Frankie yelled. "Fred, we were so worried about you!" Ashley told him. The three of us screamed so loud, we probably woke up the dinosaurs at the Museum of Natural History down the block! Papa Pete came running out to the terrace. "You found him?" he cried. "Where was he?" "In his new home in the planter," I

在我耳边低语。 我激动得几乎说不出话来。 在洞的底部是一堆粉红色和红色的玫瑰花瓣。 从它们下面探出头来的是一双下垂的眼睛和一张小青蛙脸。 “弗雷德!”我尖叫起来。“我找到你了！”你在这里!”阿什莉和弗兰基凑过去看洞里的情况。 “就是他!”弗兰基喊道。 “弗雷德，我们都很担心你！”艾希礼告诉他。 我们三个尖叫得那么大声，我们可能把附近自然历史博物馆里的恐龙吵醒了！皮特爸爸跑到阳台上。 “你找到他了？” “他在哪儿？”“在他种植园里的新家，”我说