Chapter 1

The Lemonade War Series The Bell Bandit Jacqueline Davies

《柠檬水之战》系列《钟贼》杰奎琳·戴维斯

Chapter 1 Stuck in the Back "How much longer?" Jessie asked from the back seat, tapping the window glass three times. Jessie always tapped the window three times when they passed under a bridge. "Another hour," said Mrs. Treski. She glanced at the clock on the dashboard. "At least." They had already been driving for three hours, climbing steadily higher and higher into the mountains, and Jessie could feel herself sinking into a sulk. Everything about this trip to Grandma's house was different. First of all, Evan was sitting in the front seat. Jessie could tell he was listening to his iPod. From behind, she could see his head bobbing slightly to the beat of the music as he stared out the window.

第1章被困在后面“还要多久？”杰西在后座上问，敲了三下车窗玻璃。 当他们从桥下经过时，杰西总是轻敲窗户三次。 “再过一个小时，”特雷斯基太太说。 她瞥了一眼仪表盘上的时钟。 “至少”。他们已经开了三个小时的车，在山上越爬越高，杰西觉得自己在生闷气。 这次去外婆家的一切都不一样了。 首先，埃文坐在前座。 杰西看得出他在听iPod。 从后面，她可以看到他的头随着音乐的节拍微微摆动，他凝视着窗外。

Evan had never been allowed to sit up front before. But this time when he'd asked—for the ten thousandth time—Mrs. Treski had given him a long, thoughtful look and said yes. He was ten and tall for his age, so Mrs. Treski said he was old enough to move up front. Jessie was nine—and stuck in the back. "Hey," Jessie said, trying to get Evan to turn around and notice her. But he didn't. He couldn't hear her. It was like he wasn't even in the car with her. Jessie stared out the window at the farmland as it whizzed by them. Usually, she loved this drive. She loved to count things along the way— cows, hawks, Mini Coopers, out-of-state license plates. She kept tally marks in her notebook, and at the end of the trip, she would count them all up to see who had won. It was almost always the cows. She also tracked their progress by looking for important landmarks along the way—like the

埃文以前从来没有被允许坐在前排。 但这一次，他问了一万遍了。 特雷斯基若有所思地看了他很久，然后答应了。 他十岁了，就他的年龄来说个子很高，所以特雷斯基太太说他已经大到可以搬到前面去了。 杰西9岁，被困在后面。 “嘿，”杰西说，试图让埃文转过身来注意到她。 但他没有。他听不见她说话。 就好像他根本没跟她在车里一样。 杰西凝视着窗外从他们身边呼啸而过的农田。 通常，她喜欢开车。 她喜欢在路上数东西——牛、鹰、迷你库珀、州外的车牌。 她在笔记本上做了记录，在旅行结束时，她会把他们全部数出来，看看谁赢了。 几乎总是奶牛。 她还通过寻找沿途的重要地标来跟踪他们的进展

pest control building that had a forty-foot fiberglass cockroach creeping over the roof, or the two-story carved wooden totem pole that was really a cell phone tower, or the billboard for a diner that had a big metal teapot with real steam coming out of it. Evan used to be on the lookout for these landmarks, too, and it was a race to see who could spot each one first. But this year, he didn't seem to care. Even when the giant water storage tank painted like a ladybug came into view and Jessie pointed it out to him, he just shrugged, as if he couldn't be bothered. He was no fun, and suddenly the trip felt long.

害虫控制大楼的屋顶上爬着一只40英尺高的玻璃纤维蟑螂，或者是两层楼高的雕刻木制图腾柱，实际上是一个手机塔，或者是一个餐馆的广告牌，上面有一个大金属茶壶，里面冒着真正的蒸汽。 埃文过去也会去寻找这些地标，比赛看谁能先发现每一个。 但今年，他似乎并不在乎。 甚至当杰西把画得像瓢虫的巨大储水箱指给他看时，他也只是耸耸肩，好像他不介意。 他一点也不有趣，突然间，这趟旅行感觉很长。

They passed under another bridge, and Jessie tapped the window three times. "Why did Grandma set her house on fire?" she asked. Mrs. Treski's eyes shifted from the road to the rearview mirror, locking on Jessie's reflection for a second before returning to the highway. "She didn't mean to. It was an accident." "I know," said Jessie. "But why did it happen this time?" Mrs. Treski tipped her head to one side. "Accidents happen. Sometimes there's no reason. She left something on the stove, and it caught on fire. It could happen to anyone." But it hadn't happened to her grandmother before. Jessie thought about all the times Grandma had cooked noodles for her or made hot chocolate for her or heated up soup for her. Not once had she set the house on fire. It was because of the fire that they were driving up to Grandma's two days after Christmas instead of the day before, the way

他们从另一座桥下经过，杰西敲了三下窗户。 “奶奶为什么放火烧她的房子？”她问。 特雷斯基太太的目光从马路转向后视镜，盯着杰西的倒影看了一会儿，然后又回到公路上。 “她不是故意的。这是个意外。” “我知道，”杰西说。“但这次为什么会发生呢？”特雷斯基太太把头歪向一边。 “事故发生。有时候没有理由。 她把什么东西落在炉子上了，然后炉子就着火了。 这可能发生在任何人身上。” 但这种情况以前从未发生在她的祖母身上。 杰西想起了奶奶为她煮面条、做热巧克力或给她热汤的所有时光。 她一次也没有放火烧过房子。 正是因为那场大火，他们才在圣诞节后两天开车去奶奶家，而不是在圣诞节前一天

they always did. And it was because of the fire that they weren't even sure if they would be staying at Grandma's for New Year's Eve did every year. And that was the really big thing that was different this time. For as long as Jessie could remember, New Year's Eve meant staying at Grandma's house and the long, slow climb to the top of Lovell's Hill, where the trees parted and the sky opened and there stood the old iron bell hanging on its heavy wooden crossbeam. Just before midnight they would gather, walking through the snow-covered woods, coming from all sides of the hill—neighbors and friends, family and sometimes even strangers—to sing the old songs and talk about the year gone by. And then, just before midnight, the youngest one in the crowd and the oldest one, too, would step forward and both take hold of the rope that hung from the clapper of the dark and heavy

他们总是这样。正是因为这场大火，他们甚至不确定他们是否会在奶奶家度过每年的除夕。 这才是这次真正不同的地方。 从杰西记事起，除夕夜就意味着呆在奶奶家，慢慢地爬上洛弗尔山的山顶，在那里，树木分开，天空裂开，那口古老的铁钟挂在沉重的木横梁上。 午夜之前，他们会从四面八方——邻居、朋友、家人，有时甚至是陌生人——聚集在一起，穿过白雪覆盖的树林，唱着老歌，谈论着过去的一年。 然后，就在午夜之前，人群中最年轻的那个和最年长的那个都会走上前来，抓住挂在黑暗和沉重的拍子上的绳子