Chapter 6

Chapter 6 Afternoon Shadows Evan didn't want to stop. He and Pete were fixing the holes in the roof. Pete was outside, up on the extension ladder, ripping up shingles and tossing them through the hole to Evan. Evan was inside, crouching under the sloping ceiling so that he could catch the shingles as they fell and heave them into the garbage barrel. He also had to hand Pete whatever tools he needed. So when Mrs. Treski appeared in the doorway of Grandma's office/construction site and asked Evan if he would please take Grandma for a walk, he made a face and said, "Can't Jessie do it?" Evan, kneeling under the hole, looked up and caught sight of Pete's face looking right back at him. Pete didn't need to say a word. He just

第六章下午的阴影埃文不想停下来。 他和皮特正在修补屋顶上的洞。 皮特在外面，站在加长梯上，撕下瓦片，从洞口扔给埃文。 埃文在里面，蹲在倾斜的天花板下，这样他就可以抓住掉落的瓦片，把它们扔进垃圾桶。 他还必须把皮特需要的任何工具交给他。 所以，当特雷斯基太太出现在奶奶办公室/建筑工地的门口，问埃文是否愿意带奶奶去散步时，他做了个鬼脸，说：“杰西就不能去吗？”埃文跪在洞下面，抬起头来，看见皮特的脸正看着他。 皮特什么都不用说。 他只是

shook his head once, and Evan knew that was that. "Yeah, okay, Mom," said Evan. He stood up and wiped the grit from the knees of his pants. "I'll be back in a few minutes," he hollered up to Pete. "I'll be here," Pete called down. "Same as before. Take good care of your grandma, Big E." Evan followed his mother, scowling. "Why can't Grandma take a walk by herself?" Grandma was a nut about walking. She took long walks by herself every day. Sometimes she'd walk five miles, circling her property, which covered a hundred acres at the foot of Black Bear Mountain. "Evan, please," said his mother in the voice she used that meant there would be no more discussion. Evan walked into the mudroom just off the kitchen. Grandma was looping her new purple scarf around her neck, the one that Jessie had

他摇了摇头，埃文知道这是真的。 “好的，妈妈，”埃文说。 他站起来，擦去裤子膝盖上的砂砾。 “我几分钟后就回来。”他朝皮特喊道。 “我就在这儿。”皮特朝下喊道。 “和以前一样。好好照顾你奶奶，大e。” 埃文跟着母亲，皱着眉头。 “为什么奶奶不能自己去散步呢？”奶奶对走路很着迷。 她每天独自散步很长时间。 有时她会走五英里，绕着她在黑熊山脚下占地一百英亩的房子转一圈。 “埃文，求你了。”他妈妈说，她用的声音意味着不会再讨论了。 埃文走进厨房旁边的储藏室。 奶奶把她的新紫色围巾绕在脖子上，就是杰西的那条

knit for her for Christmas. Her injured arm was tucked inside her bulky winter coat, which was zipped closed over it. "Hey, Grandma," said Evan. "Something tells me you don't feel like going for a walk right now," said Grandma. Evan bent over his boots, tugging them onto his feet and hiding his face. Was it that obvious? The memory of what his grandmother had said to him two days ago in the kitchen flickered in his brain, but then he remembered his mother's explanation. She's not herself, Evan. "No, I want to go," he said, knowing that it was okay to fudge the truth when you didn't want to hurt someone's feelings. "It's just that I was helping Pete, and he kind of needs me right now." "Pete's a good boy," said Grandma. "Boy!" said Evan. "He's a grown man." "Not to me, he's not. Everyone looks young to me!" Grandma used her mouth to hold a mitten

我为她编织圣诞礼物。 她受伤的手臂塞在笨重的冬衣里，外套上拉着拉链。 “嘿，奶奶，”埃文说。 “我感觉你现在不想出去散步，”奶奶说。 埃文弯下腰，把靴子拖到脚上，遮住了脸。 有那么明显吗？两天前祖母在厨房里对他说的话在他的脑海里闪过，但随后他想起了母亲的解释。 她不是她自己，埃文。“不，我想去，”他说。他知道，如果你不想伤害别人的感情，编造事实是可以的。 “我只是在帮助皮特，他现在有点需要我。” “皮特是个好孩子，”奶奶说。 “孩子！”埃文说。“他是个成年人了。” “对我来说不是，他不是。在我看来，每个人都很年轻！”奶奶用嘴衔着连指手套

still while she wriggled her good hand into it. "Ready?" "Ready," said Evan. Grandma opened the back door and was just about to step out, when Evan's mother called from upstairs. Evan tromped up to the second floor, feeling hot and puffy in his heavy ski coat and boots. "Evan," said his mother, "try to make it a short walk, okay? Grandma thinks she's back to her old self, but I don't want her getting too tired. And try to hold on to her good arm, if she'll let you. Or at least keep close to her, so if she trips you can grab her before she falls. Okay?" Evan didn't like the sound of any of this, but he nodded his head. He wasn't used to taking care of his grandma. She had always taken such good care of him and Jessie. "And, Evan, one more thing," said his mother. "Don't let her go near the bell. Okay? I don't want her... Just keep her away from that hill, okay?"

她还在一边扭动着她那只好手。 “准备好了吗?”“准备好了，”埃文说。 奶奶打开后门，正要出门，埃文的妈妈从楼上叫她。 埃文迈着沉重的步伐上了二楼，穿着厚厚的滑雪外套和靴子，感到又热又肿。 “埃文，”他妈妈说，“尽量走一小段路，好吗？ 奶奶认为她恢复了原来的样子，但我不想让她太累。 如果她愿意的话，试着抓住她那只没受伤的胳膊。 或者至少要靠近她，这样如果她绊倒了，你可以在她摔倒之前抓住她。 没事吧?”埃文不喜欢这些话，但他点了点头。 他不习惯照顾他的奶奶。 她一直把他和杰西照顾得很好。 “还有，埃文，还有一件事，”他妈妈说。 “别让她走近铃声。 好吧?我不想让她……别让她靠近那座山，好吗？”

Afternoon shadows came early to Grandma's woods because the sun set behind the mountain. Evan was surprised that the blue-gray light of late afternoon was already painting the snow. He turned to walk up the long, plowed driveway toward the main road—that would be a good half-mile walk— but Grandma said she wanted to walk a different way, through the woods. She set out on the path that headed for the foot of Black Bear Mountain. There were footprints in the snow along this path and the steady slicing marks of skis, so Evan knew that Jessie and Maxwell had already come this way today. Evan talked about the repair work that he and Pete were doing, especially the thrilling part about ripping out the old scorched studs in the wall and putting in new ones. It had been tricky, because the wall they were working on was a load-bearing wall, which meant it was holding up a lot of the weight of the second story. If they took out too many studs at once, the whole

下午的影子早早地落在奶奶的树林里，因为太阳已经落在山后面了。 埃文惊讶地发现，傍晚的蓝灰色的光线已经在雪地上涂上了颜色。 他转身走上一条长长的、犁过的车道，向大路走去——这将是半英里长的路——但是奶奶说她想走另一条路，穿过树林。 她踏上了通往黑熊山脚下的小路。 这条小路上的雪地上有脚印，还有滑雪板的划痕，所以埃文知道杰西和麦克斯韦尔今天已经来过这里了。 埃文谈到了他和皮特正在做的维修工作，尤其是撕掉墙上旧的烧焦的钉钉并装上新的那部分。 这是件棘手的事情，因为他们正在建造的墙是一面承重墙，这意味着它承受着二楼的很大一部分重量。 如果他们一次取出太多种钉，整个

house could collapse. Evan thought it was like playing Jenga—the game where you build a tower of blocks, then try to pull out each block without causing the tower to fall. Grandma didn't say much. It took some effort to walk on the packed-down snow, and there were branches and rocks you had to watch out for. Even Evan could feel his heart beating fast with the effort, and the cold intake of each breath of frozen air made his breathing seem heavier. He thought about Pete up on the roof all afternoon and wondered how he did it. "Grandma, you want to go back now?" The light was definitely fading, and they'd already been walking for fifteen minutes. Evan wasn't even quite sure where they were, but Grandma knew her property like the back of her hand. Grandma shook her head but didn't say anything. Her breathing was louder now, and she was grunting a little with the effort of climbing uphill. It was a pretty big hill, and the snow

房子可能会倒塌。Evan认为这就像在玩叠叠游戏——在游戏中你需要建造一座积木塔，然后在不让塔楼倒塌的情况下抽出每个积木。 奶奶没说什么。在压实的雪地上行走要费些力气，还得小心树枝和岩石。 即使是埃文也能感觉到他的心跳得很快，每吸一口冰冷的空气都让他的呼吸变得更重了。 他整个下午都在想屋顶上的皮特，不知道他是怎么做到的。 “奶奶，你现在想回去吗？”天色渐渐暗了下来，他们已经走了15分钟了。 埃文甚至不太确定他们在哪里，但奶奶对她的财产了如指掌。 奶奶摇了摇头，什么也没说。 她的呼吸声现在更大了，而且由于吃力地往上爬，她发出了一些咕哝声。 那是一座相当大的山，还有雪