Chapter 1

The Lemonade War

柠檬水之战

Chapter 1 Slump slump n. A drop in the activity of a business or the economy. Evan lay on his back in the dark, throwing the baseball up in a straight line and catching it in his bare hands. Thwap. Thwap. The ball made a satisfying sound as it slapped his palm. His legs flopped in a V. His arms stretched up to the ceiling. And the thought that if he missed he'd probably break his nose made the game just interesting enough to keep going. On the floor above he heard footsteps—his mother's—and then a long, loud scraping-groaning sound. He stopped throwing the ball to listen. His mother was dragging something heavy across the kitchen floor. Probably the broken air conditioner.

第1章经济衰退，萧条，萧条，萧条，萧条，萧条，萧条，萧条，萧条，萧条，萧条 埃文在黑暗中仰面躺着，把棒球扔成一条直线，然后徒手接住。 被击穿。被击穿。球打在他的手掌上发出令人满意的声音。 他的双腿耷拉成v形，双臂伸向天花板。 如果他错过了，他可能会打断他的鼻子，这种想法让游戏足够有趣，可以继续下去。 他听到楼上有脚步声——是他母亲的——然后是一阵长长的、响亮的刮擦声。 他停止扔球去听。 他妈妈在厨房地板上拖着很重的东西。 可能是坏了的空调。

A week ago, right at the beginning of the heat wave, the air conditioner in his mother's attic office had broken. The man from Sears had installed a brand-new one but left the old one sitting right in the middle of the kitchen floor. The Treskis had been walking around it all week. Scra-a-a-ape. Evan stood up. His mom was strong, but this was a two-person job. Hopefully she wouldn't ask him why he was hiding in the dark basement. And hopefully Jessie wouldn't be in the kitchen at all. He'd been avoiding her for two days now, and it was getting harder by the minute. The house just wasn't that big. Evan had his hand on the railing when the scraping noise stopped. He heard footsteps fading to silence. She'd given up. Probably the heat, he thought. It was that kind of weather: giving-up kind of weather. He went back to lying on the floor. Thwap. Thwap. Then he heard the basement door open.

一周前，就在热浪开始的时候，他母亲阁楼办公室的空调坏了。 西尔斯的那个人安装了一个全新的，但把旧的放在厨房地板的中央。 特雷斯基一家一整个星期都在附近转悠。 Scra-a-a-ape。埃文站了起来。 他妈妈很坚强，但这是两个人的工作。 希望她不会问他为什么躲在黑暗的地下室里。 希望杰西不会出现在厨房里。 他已经躲了她两天了，一分一秒地躲起来越来越难。 房子没有那么大。 埃文把手放在栏杆上，刮擦声停止了。 他听到脚步声渐渐消失了。 她放弃了。可能是太热了吧，他想。 那就是那种让人放弃的天气。 他又躺在地板上。 被击穿。被击穿。然后他听到地下室的门开了。

Psssshhh. Evan caught the ball and froze. "Evan?" Jessie's voice sounded echo-y in the darkness. "Evan? You down there?" Evan held his breath. He lay completely still. The only thing that moved was the pins-and-needles prickling in his fingers. He heard the door start to close—long breath out —but then it stopped and opened again. Footsteps on the carpeted stairs. A black outline of Jessie standing on the bottom step with daylight squirting all around her. Evan didn't move a muscle. "Evan? Is that you?" Jessie took one short step into the basement. "Is that...? She inched her way toward him, then kicked him with her bare foot. "Hey! Watch it, would ya?" said Evan, swatting her leg. He suddenly felt stupid lying there in the dark. "I thought you were a sleeping bag," she said. "I couldn't see. What are you doing down here? How come the lights are off?" "It's too hot with the lights on," he said. He

Psssshhh。埃文接住了球，愣住了。 “埃文?”杰西的声音在黑暗中回响。 “埃文?你在下面吗？”埃文屏住了呼吸。 他一动不动地躺着。唯一能动的是他手指上的针扎。 他听见门要关上了，长吁了一口气——但接着又停了下来，又打开了。 铺着地毯的楼梯上传来脚步声。 杰西站在最下面的台阶上，周围都是阳光。 埃文纹丝不动。 “埃文?是你吗？”杰西向地下室迈了一小步。 “那是……吗?她慢慢向他靠近，然后光着脚踢了他一脚。 “嘿!小心点，好吗？”埃文说着拍了拍她的腿。 他突然觉得躺在黑暗中很愚蠢。 “我还以为你是个睡袋呢，”她说。 “我看不见。你在这里做什么？ 灯怎么关了？”“开着灯太热了，”他说。 他

talked in a flat voice, trying to sound like the most boring person on the whole planet. If he kept it up, Jessie might just leave him alone. "Mom's back in her office," said Jessie, lying down on the couch. "Working." She groaned as she said the word. Evan didn't say anything. He went back to throwing the ball. Straight up. Straight down. Maybe silence would get Jessie to leave. He was starting to feel words piling up inside him, crowding his lungs, forcing out all the air. It was like having a chestful of bats, beating their wings, fighting to get out. "She tried to move the air conditioner, but it's too heavy," said Jessie. Evan tightened up his lips. Go away, he thought. Go away before I say something mean. "It's gonna be hot a-a-a-all week," Jessie continued. "In the nineties. All the way up 'til Labor Day." Thwap. Thwap. "So, whaddya wanna do?" Jessie asked.

用平淡的声音说话，试图让自己听起来像这个星球上最无聊的人。 如果他继续这样，杰西可能会放过他。 “妈妈回到办公室了，”杰西躺在沙发上说。 “工作”。她说这个词时呻吟了一声。 埃文什么也没说。他继续扔球。 直。垂直向下。 也许沉默能让杰西离开。 他开始觉得话在他心里堆积，挤占了他的肺，挤出了所有的空气。 就像有一箱蝙蝠，拍打着翅膀，挣扎着要出来。 杰西说：“她试着搬空调，但它太重了。” 埃文抿紧了嘴。 走开，他想。在我说刻薄话之前走开。 “整个星期都会很热，”杰西继续说。 “在90年代。一直到劳动节。” 被击穿。被击穿。“那么，你想做什么？”杰西问。

Scream, thought Evan. Jessie never got it when you were giving her the Big Freeze. She just went right on acting as if everything were great. It made it really hard to tell her to bug off without telling her to BUG OFF! Whenever Evan did that, he felt bad. "So, whaddya wanna do?" Jessie asked again, nudging him with her foot. It was a direct question. Evan had to answer it or explain why he wouldn't. And he couldn't get into that. It was too... too complicated. Too hurtful. "Huh? So, whaddya wanna do?" she asked for the third time. "Doin' it," said Evan. "Nah, come on. For real." "For real," he said. "We could ride our bikes to the 7-Eleven," she said. "No money," he said. "You just got ten dollars from Grandma for your birthday." "Spent it," said Evan.

尖叫，埃文想。你给杰西吃冰镇冻的时候她就不懂了。 她只是继续表现得好像一切都很好。 如果不告诉她“走开”，就很难叫她走开！每当埃文这么做时，他都会感到内疚。 “那么，你想做什么？”杰西又问了一遍，用脚轻轻地推了推他。 这是一个直接的问题。埃文要么回答，要么解释他为什么不回答。 他无法深入研究。 太……太复杂了。 太伤人。“嗯?那么，你想做什么？”她第三次问道。 “正在做。”埃文说。“不，算了吧。 真实的。”“说真的，”他说。 “我们可以骑自行车去7- 11便利店，”她说。 “没钱，”他说。“你刚收到奶奶给你的10美元生日礼物。” “花完了。”埃文说。