Chapter 6

Chapter six After lunch, I threw on my Mets baseball sweatshirt and went downstairs to wait for Papa Pete. (I should mention here that I also put on pants and sneakers. I don't want you to think I was standing in the lobby with only a sweatshirt on.) Papa Pete arrived with two black-and-white cookies for us, and we set out for Riverside Drive Park. I tucked my baseball glove under my arm while I ate the chocolate part of the cookie first. By the time we reached the park, the only thing left was the icing on my fingers. We found a place on the grass right next to the basketball courts. Papa Pete tossed me the ball, and I caught it, no problem. It wasn't hard

午饭后，我匆匆穿上大都会棒球队的运动衫，下楼去等皮特爸爸。 (我应该在这里提一下，我也穿上了裤子和运动鞋。 我不想让你以为我站在大厅里，只穿着一件运动衫。)皮特爸爸来了，给我们拿了两块黑白饼干，我们就出发去河滨大道公园。 我把棒球手套夹在腋下，先吃了饼干的巧克力部分。 当我们到达公园时，只剩下手指上的糖霜了。 我们在篮球场旁边的草地上找了个地方。 皮特爸爸把球扔给我，我接住了，没问题。 这并不难

because I was really close to him. "Back up, Hankie," he said after a few minutes. "I'm going to toss you some heat." "Not too fast, Papa Pete," I said, being careful to keep my voice down. "You know my eyes and my hands are not always friends." "Why are you whispering?" he asked me. "Oh, no reason." I shrugged. "This wouldn't have anything to do with... oh... zombies, could it?" He raised one eyebrow. I laughed, a little too hard. Okay, way too hard. "You've got to be kidding me," I said. Papa Pete nodded. I think he knew what I was really scared of. Papa Pete always knows everything about me. "Well, we're here to have fun, so let's do it," he said. "Just back up a little more, Hankie. Every couple of throws you can back up another step. Pretty soon, you'll be catching and throwing like a Major Leaguer." We tossed the ball back and forth. i

因为我和他很亲近。 “后退，汉克。”几分钟后，他说。 “我要给你点热量。” “别太快，皮特爸爸。”我说，小心地压低声音。 “你知道我的眼睛和我的手并不总是朋友。” “你为什么这么小声？”他问我。 “哦，没什么。”我耸了耸肩。 “这跟…… 哦……是僵尸吗？”他扬起一条眉毛。 我笑了，笑得有点用力过猛。 好吧，太难了。“你在跟我开玩笑吧，”我说。 皮特爸爸点点头。我想他知道我真正害怕什么。 皮特爸爸总是知道我的一切。 “好吧，我们是来玩的，那就开始吧，”他说。 “再往后退一点，汉克。 每扔几次，你就可以后退一步。 很快，你就能像大联盟球员一样接球投球了。” 我们把球抛来抛去。 我

dropped some of the balls. To be honest, I dropped most of them. But Papa Pete didn't mind. He just smiled and said, "Good try." I took another few steps back, and Papa Pete threw me a real smoker. He has a good arm for a grandpa. Just as I stretched up in the air to catch it, I heard a mean-sounding voice shout, "I got this one, Zipperbutt." From out of nowhere, Nick McKelty had zoomed right in front of me. Where had he come from? He held his claw-like hand up in the air and snagged the ball just before it reached my glove. "That's how you catch a ball, ding-dong," he snarled.

掉了一些球。 说实话，我把大部分都扔了。 但是皮特爸爸并不介意。 他只是笑着说：“干得好。” 我又往后退了几步，皮特爸爸扔给我一个真正的烟枪。 作为一个爷爷，他的胳膊很好。 就在我伸直身子想要抓住它的时候，我听到一个刻薄的声音喊道：“我抓到这个了，拉链屁股。” 不知从哪里冒出来，尼克·麦凯尔蒂突然出现在我面前。 他是从哪里来的？他把爪子一样的手举在空中，在球到达我的手套之前把它抓住了。 “这就是接球的方法，叮咚，”他咆哮道。

"Excuse me, young man," Papa Pete called to him. "My grandson and I are having a catch here." "You call this having a catch?" McKelty snickered. "I call it tossing around meatballs." "Who brought you here?" Papa Pete asked, giving Nick a stern eye. "My dad. We just came from checking out his new bowling alley. It's going to have one hundred fifty lanes. Oh and did I mention, the balls glow a million different colors. It's so

“对不起，年轻人。”皮特爸爸对他喊道。 “我的孙子和我在这里有个圈套。” “你管这叫钓鱼？”McKelty窃笑起来。 “我把它叫做扔肉丸。” “谁带你来的？”皮特爸爸严厉地看了尼克一眼，问道。 “我的爸爸。我们刚看完他的新保龄球馆。 它将有150条车道。 哦，我有没有说过，这些球会发出一百万种不同的颜色。 它是如此

bright, you can bowl in the dark." "Are you sure you're not making some of this up?" Papa Pete asked him. I wanted to blurt out that McKelty was nothing but a big bully and a liar. But I didn't want to raise my voice in case of zombies. "I've heard about this new bowling alley," Papa Pete said. "In fact, I've been looking forward to starting a bowling league in the neighborhood. Maybe I'll go discuss it with your father." "My dad's over there on the basketball court," McKelty said. "He's the one making all the slam dunks." "Actually, he's the short guy who keeps dropping the ball," I told Papa Pete. "Why don't you two boys toss the ball around while I talk with your dad," Papa Pete said. "I'll be back before you can say 'Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.'" "Why would I want to say that?" McKelty said. Obviously the big lug had never heard of Mother Goose.

明亮，你可以在黑暗中打保龄球。” “你确定这不是你瞎编的吗？”皮特爸爸问他。 我想脱口而出，麦凯尔蒂就是个大恶霸和骗子。 但我不想提高我的声音，以防僵尸。 “我听说了这个新的保龄球馆，”皮特爸爸说。 “事实上，我一直期待着在附近成立一个保龄球联盟。 也许我该去和你父亲商量一下。” “我爸爸在那边的篮球场上，”麦凯尔蒂说。 “他总是灌篮。” “事实上，他是那个老是丢球的矮个子，”我告诉皮特爸爸。 “为什么你们两个男孩子不把球扔来扔去，我和你们爸爸说话呢？”皮特爸爸说。 “你还没来得及说‘彼得·派珀捏了一撮腌辣椒’，我就回来了。’”“我为什么要这么说呢？”McKelty说。 显然，这只大鹅从来没有听说过鹅妈妈。

Papa Pete walked over to the basketball court. Instead of backing up for a catch, McKelty came really close to my face and flashed me a crooked smile. "So, Zipperhead, you almost wet your pants last night, didn't you?" "I don't know what you're talking about, Nick." "I saw you covering your eyes during Attack of the Zombies. You were so scared, I thought you were going to cry. I bet you had zombie dreams, too." "Who told you that?" I frowned, making my voice sound angry just like my dad's does when he looks at my report card. "I know these things," McKelty said. "You don't know anything!" I insisted. "I wasn't scared." "That's good, Zipperbutt, because i

皮特爸爸向篮球场走去。 麦凯尔蒂没有倒车接球，而是走到我的脸跟前，向我露出一个歪歪的微笑。 “那么，拉链头，你昨晚差点尿裤子，是吗？”“我不知道你在说什么，尼克。” “我看到你在《僵尸攻击》中捂着眼睛。 你那么害怕，我以为你要哭了。 我打赌你也做过僵尸梦。” “谁告诉你的？”我皱起眉头，让我的声音听起来很生气，就像我爸爸看着我的成绩单时的声音一样。 “我知道这些事情，”麦凯尔蒂说。 “你什么都不知道！”我坚持。 “我不害怕。”“很好，拉链屁股，因为我。