11 Heckling

Chapter 11 Heckling heckling (v) calling out insults or rude comments from the audience in order to disrupt a performance By noon on Thursday, Jessie had already counted thirty-six kids who said they were coming to the magic show on Monday. She'd handed out The 4-O Forum in the morning, and right away students— some of them even fifth-graders!—had asked about tickets. Maybe we should have charged more, thought Jessie. She was excited about the money— thirty-six dollars—but she was also starting to get that hard-to-breathe, thumping-heart feeling that sometimes ran through her like a freight train. Here it was—Thursday afternoon—and they still hadn't practiced the disappearing trick even once. They'd spent all yesterday afternoon cutting the hole

到星期四中午，杰西已经数到了36个孩子，他们说他们星期一会来看魔术表演。 她在早上分发了“4- 0论坛”，学生们马上就来了，其中一些甚至是五年级的学生！我问过票的事。 也许我们应该多收点钱，杰西想。 她对这笔钱——36美元——感到很兴奋，但她也开始有一种难以呼吸、心跳加速的感觉，这种感觉有时会像货运列车一样贯穿她的全身。 现在是星期四下午，他们一次也没有练习消失魔术。 他们花了一下午的时间来挖洞

in the porch. It was a big deal; they had to avoid the thick boards that ran underneath the floorboards, because that's what held the whole porch up. If they accidentally cut through one of those, the porch might collapse. "That would be a showstopper!" their dad had joked, but Jessie didn't laugh. First they'd cut in one spot, but then they decided to put the trapdoor in a different spot, and by the time it got dark and they had to stop, they hadn't finished even one hole. When Jessie got home from school, the hole still wasn't finished, even though their dad had promised he would work on it while they were at school. Instead, Evan was sawing away at the floorboards using the old hacksaw. His hair stuck to his forehead in big, sweaty clumps, and his hands were bright red from gripping the saw so hard. "It's not done yet?" asked Jessie. "What does it look like?" snapped Evan. "You think it's so easy, you try it."

在门廊里。这是一件大事；他们必须避开地板下面的厚木板，因为那是支撑整个门廊的东西。 如果他们不小心穿过其中一个，门廊可能会倒塌。 “那将是一场精彩的表演！”他们的父亲开玩笑说，但杰西没有笑。 他们先是在一个地方挖了个洞，后来又决定在另一个地方挖个活板门。等天黑了，他们不得不停下来的时候，他们连一个洞都没挖完。 当杰西从学校回到家时，那个洞还没有完工，尽管他们的爸爸答应在他们上学的时候他会把它修好。 相反，埃文正在用那把旧钢锯锯地板。 他的头发大簇大簇地贴在额头上，汗流浃背，他的手因为用力抓锯子而变得鲜红。 “还没做完？”杰西问。 “它看起来像什么？”埃文厉声问道。 “你觉得很简单，那就试试吧。”

"I'm not allowed to," said Jessie. "Neither are you. Where's Dad?" "In there." Evan waved at the house. "On the phone. Again." "Maybe he's getting you another basket. Or another rabbit," said Jessie. She didn't like it when Evan seemed angry. "No. It's all work stuff. Very important work stuff." What did it mean when Evan talked like that? Jessie couldn't remember. Her mom had explained it to her, but now she wasn't sure. It was one of those confusing things where people said one thing but meant another. She wished her mom were here to explain it to her. "I get to talk to Mom first today, remember?" "She's not calling. She texted Dad and said she was trapped in a meeting and couldn't get away. She'll call tomorrow." "But I want to talk to her today! I want to tell her about the newspaper and how many kids are coming to the show." Jessie knew she was whining, and she

“我不被允许，”杰西说。 “你也不是。爸爸在哪里?”“在那里。” 埃文向房子挥了挥手。“在电话里。 了。”“也许他在给你拿另一个篮子。 或者另一只兔子，”杰西说。 她不喜欢埃文生气的样子。 “没有。都是工作上的事。非常重要的工作内容。” 埃文那样说话是什么意思？ 杰西不记得了。她妈妈给她解释过，但现在她不确定了。 这是一件令人困惑的事情，人们说的是一回事，意思却是另一回事。 她真希望妈妈能在这里给她解释一下。 “今天我得先和妈妈谈谈，记得吗？”“她没打电话来。 她给爸爸发短信说她被会议困住了，无法脱身。 她明天会来的。”“但我今天想和她谈谈！”我想告诉她报纸的事，还有有多少孩子会来看演出。” 杰西知道她在抱怨，她

knew she should stop. People really do not like whining. This had been explained to her many times by both her mom and Evan, though Jessie could never really understand why. What made whining worse than regular talking? Evan stopped sawing and looked off into the woods behind their house. "Yeah, me too," he said in a soft voice. He tapped the blade of the saw against the wooden floor. Then he tossed the saw onto the porch and said, "C'mon, let's go inside and have a snack. Dad bought ice cream. Three flavors!" Jessie was still trying to decide between chocolate chip and peppermint stick when their dad wandered into the kitchen, talking on his cell phone. He leaned against the jamb of the sliding glass door and stared out into the backyard. "So you're saying there's movement? And you're sure?" There was a long pause while the person on the other end of the line talked. Jessie could hear the murmuring of a voice, but she couldn't make out any of the words. She decided to take a scoop of both kinds of ice cream.

我知道她应该停下来。人们真的不喜欢抱怨。 她的妈妈和埃文已经向她解释过很多次了，但杰西一直不明白为什么。 是什么让抱怨比正常交谈更糟糕？ 埃文停止了锯木，向屋后的树林望去。 “是啊，我也是。”他轻声说。 他把锯片轻敲在木地板上。 然后他把锯子扔到门廊上说：“来吧，我们进去吃点东西吧。” 爸爸买了冰淇淋。三种口味!”杰西还在纠结是要巧克力片还是薄荷棒，这时他们的爸爸正在打电话，走进厨房。 他靠在滑动玻璃门的门框上，凝视着外面的后院。 “所以你是说有运动？” 你确定吗？”电话那头的人说话时，沉默了很长时间。 杰西能听到一个声音的嘀咕声，但她一个字也听不清。 她决定两种冰淇淋都吃一勺。

Mom wasn't here to tell her not to. Her dad kept talking. "And you can't get anyone to talk? Anyone?" The voice on the other end of the phone made its humming noise, and then her dad said, "Okay. I'll figure something out." Then he hung up the phone and stuffed it into his back pocket. No one said anything for a minute. Jessie wanted to talk, but she had that sudden feeling of danger that she couldn't identify. Something inside said keep quiet, even though she couldn't figure out why. "What's going on out there?" asked her dad, pointing to the half-cut hole in the porch floor. Evan shrugged. "Nothing, I guess." "Well, that's not an attitude that will get you very far in life," said their dad. He went outside, and in a moment Jessie could hear the sound of the saw rasping against the rotten wood. "Why don't you go help him, Evan?" asked Jessie, noticing that Evan's bowl of ice cream was empty. "He doesn't need me," said Evan. "There's only one saw." Even so, he wandered outside a moment

妈妈不是来告诉她不要这么做的。 她爸爸一直在说。“你就不能让任何人开口吗？” 有人知道吗?”电话那头传来嗡嗡的声音，然后她爸爸说：“好吧。 我会想办法的。” 然后他挂了电话，把它塞进了后口袋。 一时间谁也没说话。 杰西想说话，但她突然有一种无法识别的危险感。 内心有个声音告诉她要保持安静，尽管她不明白为什么。 “外面发生了什么事？”她爸爸指着门廊地板上挖了一半的洞问。 埃文耸了耸肩。“没什么，我想。” “嗯，这种态度不会让你在生活中走得很远，”他们的父亲说。 他走了出去，过了一会儿，杰西听到了锯子摩擦烂木头的声音。 “你为什么不去帮他呢，埃文？”杰西注意到埃文的冰淇淋碗是空的，问道。 “他不需要我，”埃文说。 “只有一把锯子。”即便如此，他还是在外面徘徊了一会儿

later, and when Jessie finished eating her ice cream, she walked out to the porch and saw that the hole was complete. "Now we just have to cover it so no one can see it's there," said their dad. "Go grab that little area rug from your mom's office. It's the perfect size." Evan and Jessie looked at each other. There were a lot of rules in the Treski house, but the number one rule was: no taking anything from Mom's office. "Oh, c'mon," said their dad. "It's not like it's some Persian rug. I bought that thing from Home Depot about ten years ago. Go get it!" "Can we practice now?" Jessie asked on the stairs as they lugged the small rug down. She wanted to be sure she could do the disappearing trick perfectly. There was no way she was going to mess up in front of thirty-six kids from school. Including fifth-graders! "Yeah," said Evan. "But it's pretty easy. I mean, all you have to do is lie still in the basket and then jump through the hole when I say the magic words.

后来，当杰西吃完她的冰淇淋，她走到门廊，看到洞是完整的。 “现在我们只需要把它盖起来，这样就没有人能看到它了，”他们的父亲说。 “去把你妈妈办公室的小地毯拿来。 尺寸正合适。”埃文和杰西面面相觑。 特雷斯基家有很多规矩，但第一条规矩是：不许拿妈妈办公室里的东西。 “哦，来吧，”他们的爸爸说。 “这又不是什么波斯地毯。 那是我十年前从家得宝买的。 去拿吧！”“我们现在可以练习了吗？”当他们拖着小地毯下楼时，杰西在楼梯上问。 她想确保自己能完美地表演消失魔术。 她绝不可能在学校的36个孩子面前搞砸。 包括五年级!“是的，”埃文说。 “但这很容易。我是说，你只需要静静地躺在篮子里，然后在我念咒语的时候从洞里跳过去。