Chapter 2

Chapter 2 The Man of the Family Normally, they would have walked into the house through the back door. But there was no back door. There was hardly even a back wall. Evan couldn't believe it once they unlocked the front door and made their way through the dark into the kitchen. There was a hole in the back kitchen wall big enough to drive a car through. It looked like someone had driven a car straight through it, except that the edges of the hole were as black as coal and the smell of smoke was everywhere. Someone had taped heavy clear plastic to the wall, but one edge had come undone and was flapping in the wind.

正常情况下，他们会从后门走进房子。 但是没有后门。 甚至连后墙都没有。 当他们打开前门，穿过黑暗进入厨房时，埃文简直不敢相信。 厨房后墙上有个洞，大得足以让一辆车开过去。 看起来就像有人开车直接穿过它，只不过洞口的边缘像煤一样黑，到处都是烟味。 有人把厚厚的透明塑料布粘在墙上，但有一面边沿松动了，在风中飘动。

"Where's Grandma's stove?" asked Jessie. "Well, duh," said Evan, a little more sharply than he'd meant to. "They had to get rid of it. It was probably melted down to nothing." "I thought you said it was a little fire," said Jessie. "I thought it was," said Mrs. Treski. "And why's it so cold?" "I guess the heat isn't working?" answered their mom. "I didn't realize..." Evan had never seen his mom so surprised. Usually, she handled just about anything that came her way: bats in the basement, a squirrel trapped in the chimney flue, the time that Jessie

“奶奶的炉子在哪里？”杰西问。 “嗯，废话。”埃文说，语气比他原本想说的要尖锐一些。 “他们必须摆脱它。 它可能已经融化成灰烬了。” “我以为你说的是小火，”杰西说。 “我也这么认为，”特雷斯基太太说。 “为什么这么冷？”“我猜是暖气坏了吧？”他们的妈妈回答。 “我没意识到……”埃文从未见过妈妈如此惊讶。 通常，她会处理任何遇到的事情：地下室里的蝙蝠，困在烟囱里的松鼠，还有杰西

got her head stuck between the railings on the stairs. No matter what, you could count on their mom to solve pretty much any problem. But now she just stared at the hole in the wall and didn't move. Evan reached under the sink and found the heavy Maglite that Grandma always kept there. He flashed the beam across the walls, looking for something— anything—that looked the way it was supposed to. "What's that?" asked Jessie. Evan shone the flashlight where Jessie was pointing. "Wow," said Evan. "That's a hole," said Mrs. Treski. There was a two-foot-wide hole that went straight through the kitchen ceiling, which meant there was a hole in the floor upstairs. "What room are we under?" Evan thought about how the rooms upstairs were laid out, but it was hard to piece it together. Was it Grandma's bedroom? Or Mom's

她的头卡在楼梯栏杆中间了。 无论如何，你可以依靠他们的妈妈来解决几乎所有的问题。 但现在她只是盯着墙上的洞，一动也不动。 埃文把手伸到水槽下面，找到了奶奶一直放在那里的那支沉重的闪灯。 他用光束扫过墙壁，寻找着什么东西——任何东西——看起来像它应该有的样子。 “那是什么？”杰西问。 埃文把手电筒照向杰西指的地方。 “哇，”埃文说。“那是一个洞，”特雷斯基太太说。 厨房的天花板上有一个两英尺宽的洞，这意味着楼上的地板上有一个洞。 “我们在哪个房间下面？”埃文想了想楼上的房间是怎么布置的，但很难拼凑起来。 是奶奶的卧室吗？和妈妈的

old room? Jessie came up with the answer first. She was good with maps. "It's Evan's room." Oh, great, thought Evan. All three of them trooped upstairs, Evan leading the way with the flashlight. Sure enough, all the doors to the upstairs rooms were open except for the one that led to Grandma's office, which doubled as Evan's bedroom when he visited. That door was shut tight with a layer of thick plastic taped over it. When they pushed it open, they found the hole in the floor. Both windows were shattered, the glass lying in shards scattered across the room. Again, someone had taped plastic around the edges, but the wind had teased its way in. When it blew outside, handfuls of snow gusted into the room and landed on the floor. "You can't sleep in here, Evan," said his mom. "I don't even want the two of you coming into this room at all. I'll clean up the glass tomorrow."

旧的房间吗?杰西先想到了答案。 她对地图很在行。“这是埃文的房间。” 哦，太好了，埃文想。他们三个人列队上楼，埃文拿着手电筒走在前面。 果然，楼上所有房间的门都开着，只有通往奶奶办公室的那扇门是开着的。 那扇门用一层厚厚的塑料胶带紧紧地关着。 当他们推开门时，他们发现地板上有个洞。 两扇窗户都被打碎了，玻璃碎片散落在房间里。 再一次，有人在边缘贴上了塑料布，但风还是刮了进来。 外面刮风的时候，一把一把的雪吹进房间，落在地板上。 “你不能睡在这里，埃文，”他妈妈说。 “我根本不想让你们俩进这个房间。 我明天会把玻璃擦干净的。”

"Where am I going to sleep?" Evan asked. Ever since he was out of a crib, this had been his room at Grandma's house. He couldn't imagine sleeping anywhere else. "Well, for tonight, why don't you sleep in Grandma's room?" "No way," said Evan. There was something just not right about sleeping in his grandmother's bed. It was hers. "I'll sleep on the couch in the living room." "Okay. It's probably going to be the warmest room in the house." The living room had a wood-burning stove that heated the whole downstairs. "I'll get the fire going, while you two unpack the car. Is it a plan?" That sounded like the mother Evan was used to. He headed back out into the dark yard to start hauling in the suitcases and bags of groceries. "This is weird," said Jessie, grabbing the handle of the biggest suitcase in the car.

“我要睡在哪里？”埃文问。 自从他从婴儿床里出来，这就是他在奶奶家的房间。 他无法想象在别的地方睡觉。 “那么，今晚你为什么不睡在奶奶的房间里呢？”“不可能，”埃文说。 睡在他祖母的床上总觉得不对劲。 这是她的。“我睡在客厅的沙发上。” “好吧。这可能是家里最温暖的房间了。” 客厅里有一个烧木头的炉子，可以给整个楼下供暖。 “我去生火，你们俩把车打开。 这是个计划吗？”这听起来像埃文熟悉的母亲。 他回到黑暗的院子里，开始拖进行李箱和一袋袋的杂货。 “这太奇怪了，”杰西说着，抓住了车里最大的行李箱的把手。

"You can't carry that," said Evan. His sister was small for her age and weighed less than fifty pounds, but for some reason she always thought she could lift heavy stuff. "Let me do it. You take that one." He threw his weight into pulling the suitcase out of the trunk. It landed on the ground with a loud ca-thunk. "What's weird?" he asked. "Everything," said Jessie. "Nothing is the way it's supposed to be." "Well, relax. Grandma will be here tomorrow, and Mom said she already hired some guy to fix the wall. Anyway, we're not staying long. Maybe just three days. And it's still Grandma's house. How weird can it be?" But he knew exactly what Jessie meant. Evan dragged the suitcase into the house, then walked back out to the car to get the food. Three days of sleeping on the couch. Three days with no room of his own. Three days without his friends. Evan couldn't wait to go home.

“你拿不动，”埃文说。 他的妹妹在同龄人中个头偏小，体重不到50磅，但不知为什么，她总觉得自己能举起重物。 “让我来吧。你拿那个吧。” 他竭尽全力把手提箱从后备箱里拖出来。 它砰的一声落在地上。 “有什么奇怪的？”他问。“一切。”杰西说。 “没有什么是它应该有的样子。” “嗯,放松。奶奶明天会来，妈妈说她已经雇了人来修墙了。 不管怎样，我们不会待太久的。 也许就三天。它仍然是奶奶的房子。 能有多奇怪呢？”但他完全明白杰西的意思。 埃文把箱子拖进屋里，然后走回车里去拿食物。 在沙发上睡了三天。 三天没有自己的房间。 三天没有朋友。 埃文迫不及待地想回家。