2. Talk to the Hand

2 Talk to the Hand The next day was Saturday, so I got to sleep late. Yay! No school! When I woke up and opened my window shades, I saw a blue minivan pull up in front of our house. On the side, it said...

第二天是星期六，所以我睡得很晚。 耶!没有学校!当我醒来打开窗帘时，我看到一辆蓝色的小货车停在我们家门前。 旁边写着……

Mr. Marty We Won't Be Tardy To Your Party! It's Your Party So Eat Hearty! That was weird. "My old friend Marty is here!" Mom hollered. "I haven't seen him since college." I came downstairs, and you'll never believe who walked through the door at that moment. Nobody! You can't walk through a door. Doors are made out of wood. But you'll never believe who walked through the doorway. It was Mr. Marty, of course. You

马蒂先生，我们不会迟到的！这是你的派对，尽情享用吧！这很奇怪。 “我的老朋友马蒂来了！”妈妈大声喊道。 “大学毕业后我就没见过他了。” 我下楼了，你绝对不会相信那一刻谁走了进来。 没有人!你不能穿过一扇门。 门是用木头做的。 但你绝对不会相信谁走进了门口。 当然是马蒂先生。 你

should have been able to guess that. Who else could it have been? Mr. Marty looked pretty normal. Well, he did have a sock puppet on one hand. The puppet looked like a miniature version of Mr. Marty. But other than that, Mr. Marty seemed pretty normal. He stuck his puppet in my face. "You must be the birthday boy!" the puppet said in a weird, high voice. "Is your name A.J.?"

我应该能猜到的。 还能是谁呢？ 马蒂先生看起来很正常。 他确实一手拿着个袜子木偶。 这个木偶看起来就像马蒂先生的微缩版。 但除此之外，马蒂先生看起来很正常。 他把木偶伸到我脸上。 “你一定是寿星吧！”木偶用一种奇怪的高亢的声音说。 “你叫A.J.吗？”

My parents always tell me not to talk to strangers, especially strangers who have a puppet on their hand. But I figured it would be okay because Mr. Marty was my mom's old friend. "Why are you wearing a sock on your hand?" I asked Mr. Marty. "Just ignore that big guy behind me," said Mr. Marty's sock puppet. "Talk to the hand. My name is Mini-Marty, and I

我的父母总是告诉我不要和陌生人说话，尤其是手里拿着木偶的陌生人。 但我觉得没关系因为马蒂先生是我妈妈的老朋友。 “你为什么手上戴着一只袜子？”我问马蒂先生。 “别理我身后那个大家伙，”马蒂的木偶说。 “跟手说话。我叫迷你马蒂，我

love a party!" Mini-Marty?* People who walk around with sock puppets of themselves are weird. "I bet you're excited about your birthday coming up," said Mini-Marty. "Yeah, I guess," I replied unexcitedly. "I know what it's like," Mini-Marty said. "I was a boy once." "Just once?" I replied. "I'm a boy all the time." "Hey, that's a good one!" said Mini-Marty. Then the puppet let out a weird laugh even though I didn't say anything funny. My mom came over to give Mr. Marty a hug. She pretended like it wasn't weird for Mr. Marty to walk around with a sock puppet of himself on his hand. She also gave him a cup of

我喜欢派对！”Mini-Marty吗?*带着自己的袜子玩偶走来走去的人很奇怪。 “我敢打赌，你对即将到来的生日一定很兴奋，”迷你马蒂说。 “是的，我想，”我平静地回答。 “我知道那是什么感觉，”迷你马蒂说。 “我曾经是个男孩。”“只有一次?”我回答说。 “我一直是个男孩。”“嘿，这是个好主意！”迷你马蒂说。 然后木偶发出一阵奇怪的笑声，尽管我没有说什么好笑的话。 我妈妈过来给马蒂先生一个拥抱。 她假装马蒂先生手里拿着一个自己的袜子木偶走来走去并不奇怪。 她还给了他一杯

coffee, which is what grown-ups do. Anytime grown-ups come over to your house, they have to drink coffee together. That's the first rule of being a grown-up. Mr. Marty drank the coffee using his non-puppet hand. Mini-Marty didn't drink any coffee. I wondered if Mr. Marty ever took Mini-Marty off his hand. I mean, it would be hard to take a shower with a puppet on your hand. How would you soap yourself up? "This is going to be your birthday party, A.J.," said Mini-Marty, "so you should make the important decisions. What kind of party do you want to have?" "How about a skateboarding party?" I suggested.

咖啡，这是成年人的最爱。 每次大人来你家，他们都得一起喝咖啡。 这是成年人的第一准则。 马蒂先生用他那只没有木偶的手喝了咖啡。 迷你马蒂没有喝咖啡。 我想知道马蒂先生有没有把小马蒂从他手里夺走。 我的意思是，手上拿着木偶很难洗澡。 你会怎么打扮自己？ “这将是你的生日派对，aj，”迷你马蒂说，“所以重要的决定应该由你来做。 你想要什么样的聚会？”“滑板派对怎么样？”我建议。