Chapter 14

Chapter 14 Tip tip (n) information passed to a reporter "Maxwell, I've got a problem," Jessie said. She was lying on her bed, with the phone pressed close to her ear. There was no response from the other end of the line. Jessie knew Maxwell was there, because she could hear him breathing. "Why aren't you saying anything?" Jessie asked. "You didn't ask me a question," said Maxwell in his usual flat voice. "So? When someone says 'I've got a problem,' you're supposed to say something like 'Really?' or 'What is it?' or 'Tell me about it.' "Jessie sometimes found it exasperating that she had to

“麦克斯韦尔，我遇到麻烦了，”杰西说。 她躺在床上，电话贴在耳边。 电话那头没有回应。 杰西知道麦克斯韦在那里，因为她能听到他的呼吸声。 “你为什么什么也不说？”杰西问。 “你没有问我问题。”麦克斯韦用他惯常的平淡的声音说。 “所以呢?当有人说“我有问题”时，你应该这样说“真的吗？”或“什么事？”或“告诉我吧。”’”杰西有时觉得不得不这么做很恼火

explain these simple things to Maxwell. But that's just the way Maxwell was. She waited a minute to see what he would say, but then she just gave up. "Oh, for Pete's sake! Here's my problem." She told Maxwell about the survey and the mysterious candy hearts and how no one knew who had drawn the heart on the door in the bathroom. "I was going to write an article called 'The Candy Heart Mystery,' but I haven't solved that one yet. And I haven't figured out the secret on the bathroom wall, either!" Jessie had been reading an Encyclopedia Brown mystery before calling Maxwell. She loved the way each chapter contained clues to solve a mystery, and the way the answer to each mystery was revealed in the "Answers" section at the back of the book. If she knew the answers to the two mysteries in 4-O, then she'd have a blockbuster frontpage story. "I don't know," she continued. "Maybe I should

向麦克斯韦解释这些简单的事情。 但麦克斯韦就是这样。 她等了一会儿，看他会说什么，但后来她就放弃了。 “啊，看在上帝的份上！”这就是我的问题。” 她告诉麦克斯韦关于调查和神秘的心形糖果，以及没有人知道谁在浴室的门上画了心形。 “我本来打算写一篇叫做《糖果心之谜》的文章，但我还没有解决这个问题。 我也没发现浴室墙上的秘密！”在给麦克斯韦打电话之前，杰西一直在读一本布朗推理百科全书。 她喜欢书中每一章都包含解决谜题的线索，以及每个谜题的答案都在书末的“答案”部分。 如果她知道4-O区两个谜题的答案，她就会登上头版头条。 “我不知道，”她接着说。 “也许我应该

just use the survey as my front-page story. Everyone seems pretty interested in that. Which story do you think I should put on the front page?" "I don't know." "I know you don't know. I'm asking for your opinion." "I don't have an opinion." Jessie tugged on a thread that was hanging off her jeans. "If I only knew who was sending the candy hearts. Or who wrote the heart on the bathroom door." "Maybe it's the same person," said Maxwell. "That would be the story of the century!" Jessie's head practically exploded thinking about what a success her newspaper would be if she revealed the answer to both mysteries. Kids would be fighting over The 4-O Forum. Maybe she'd even get an award, like the Pulitzer Prize. "I bet I could figure out who wrote the heart on the bathroom door," said Maxwell. Maxwell

就用这个调查做我的头版新闻。 每个人似乎都对此很感兴趣。 你认为我应该把哪条新闻放在头版？”“我不知道。” “我知道你不知道。我在征求你的意见。” “我没有意见。” 杰西拽了拽挂在牛仔裤上的一根线。 “要是我知道是谁送的心形糖果就好了。 或者是谁在浴室门上写了心。” “也许是同一个人，”麦克斯韦说。 “那将是一个世纪的故事！”杰西想到，如果她能揭开这两个谜团的谜底，她的报纸将会多么成功，她的脑袋几乎要炸开了。 孩子们会为4- 0论坛而争吵。 也许她还能得个奖，比如普利策奖。 麦克斯韦尔说：“我敢打赌我能找出是谁在浴室门上写了心形图案。” 麦克斯韦

had a gift for seeing details and patterns that other people missed, but Jessie was sure that even Maxwell couldn't match the handwriting with anyone else's in the class. "No, I tried," she said. "I've been looking at everyone's writing, and no one makes their Ms and Es and Ts like that." "Then match the heart," said Maxwell. "What do you mean?" "Figure out who draws a heart that looks like the one in the bathroom and you'll catch the thief." "We're not looking for a thief!" said Jessie. "It's just someone who wrote something dumb on a bathroom wall. Probably a fifth-grader!" "Follow the heart," Maxwell said in a voice that sounded deep and spooky. "Follow the heart." Jessie sat quietly for a minute thinking to herself. This was an idea that hadn't occurred to her, and she thought it was the best tip she'd

麦克斯韦有一种天赋，能看到别人看不到的细节和图案，但杰西确信，即使是麦克斯韦也无法将字迹与班上其他人的笔迹相匹配。 “不，我试过了，”她说。“我一直在看每个人的写作，没有人会写出这样的m、e和t。” “那就配上那颗心，”麦克斯韦尔说。 “你是什么意思？”“找出谁画了一颗看起来像浴室里的心，你就能抓住小偷。” “我们不是在找小偷！”杰西说。 “只是有人在浴室的墙上写了一些愚蠢的东西。 可能是个五年级的学生！”“跟着心走。”麦克斯韦用一种深沉而诡异的声音说。 “跟着心走。”杰西静静地坐了一会儿，心里想着。 她从来没有想到过这个主意，她认为这是她得到的最好的建议

received all week. Then she said, "Maxwell, you are a genius." "Yep," said Maxwell. Jessie could hear the quiet music of his favorite computer game starting up on his end of the line. "I'm Maxwell. And I'm smart." After she got off the phone with Maxwell, Jessie wandered down to the basement and started digging through some stuff that was piled in one corner. She had to push her way past a box of kindling, a folding card table, and a big cardboard cutout of Darth Vader, but she finally got to what she was looking for: the signs from last summer during the Lemonade War. One of them she stared at long and hard. It had a picture of a cat sipping a tall glass of lemonade—and sprinkled in the corner were a few cutout paper hearts. She hadn't made those hearts.

一周收到。然后她说：“麦克斯韦，你真是个天才。” “是的，”麦克斯韦尔说。杰西可以听到电话线那头响起了他最喜欢的电脑游戏的安静的音乐。 “我是麦克斯韦。而且我很聪明。” 杰西挂了麦克斯韦的电话后，她走到地下室，开始翻找堆在一个角落里的东西。 她不得不挤过一盒柴火、一张折叠的牌桌和一个大的达斯·维德（Darth Vader）纸板，但她终于找到了她要找的东西：去年夏天柠檬水战争期间的标志。 她久久地盯着其中的一个。 上面画着一只猫啜着一大杯柠檬水，角落里还撒着一些剪纸心形图案。 那些心不是她做的。

Then she walked over to the craft table and rummaged through the messy pile of scrap paper. When she found a certain sheet of pink construction paper, she held it up and stared at the leftover hole. "Aha," said Jessie in a whisper.

然后她走到工艺桌前，在那堆乱七八糟的废纸中翻找着。 当她找到一张粉红色的建筑纸时，她把它举起来，盯着剩下的洞。 “啊哈，”杰西低声说。