16 TnR

Chapter 16 TnR TnR (n) abbreviation for Torn and Restored, a special kind of trick in which the magician cuts, rips, or breaks something into pieces (a string, a card, a stick) and then makes it whole again "I'm drowning! Evan, I'm drowning!" Evan splashed down into the dirty water and grabbed hold of Jessie. "You're not drowning! Just stand up!" One of Jessie's flailing arms smacked him across the face, and Evan fell back, dunking himself in the sludgy water. He came up sputtering, not sure where Jessie was. The basement was as dark as night, with just a dribble of daylight coming from the open door at the top of the stairs. Evan could hear Jessie splashing and gasping for air, but he couldn't see her. Then he felt a sharp kick underwater. He

TnR (n)是Torn and restore的缩写，是一种特殊的魔术，魔术师把某物（绳子、卡片、棍子）剪断、撕裂或折断，然后再把它变成完整的。埃文，我快淹死了！”埃文扑通一声跳进脏水里，抓住杰西。 “你没有淹死！”站起来！”杰西挥舞着的一只胳膊打在他脸上，埃文向后倒了下去，把自己浸在泥泞的水里。 他气喘吁吁地走了上来，不知道杰西在哪里。 地下室漆黑如夜，只有从楼梯顶上开着的门里射进来的一缕阳光。 埃文能听到杰西泼水和喘气的声音，但他看不见她。 接着，他感到水下有一脚猛踢。 他

reached in that direction and grabbed something, pulling it up to the surface. "Jessie!" he shouted. "Stop it! The water isn't that deep. Just stand up!" Jessie wrapped both arms around his body, as if letting go of him would mean the end of the world, but he could feel that she had set her feet on the basement floor and was standing on her own. She was coughing hard, but it sounded to Evan as if she was breathing okay. "C'mon," he said. "This water is gross." He half dragged her to the stairs and helped her walk up and out of the water. "Why did you yell 'Look'?" asked Jessie, still coughing. "Because! The water's lower. It's gone down two whole steps." It was good news, but nothing sounded like good news now that he was soaking wet. When they reached the top of the stairs, Jessie stopped and sat down. "My socks are squishy wet." Evan knew that Jessie didn't like to have wet clothes on, especially wet shoes and socks. She'd been this

朝那个方向伸手抓住了什么东西，把它拉到水面上。 “杰西！”他喊道。“住手!水没那么深。 站起来！”杰西用双臂搂住他的身体，仿佛放开他就意味着世界末日，但他能感觉到她已经把脚放在地下室的地板上，独自站着。 她咳嗽得很厉害，但埃文听起来好像呼吸正常。 “来吧，”他说。“这水真恶心。” 他半拖半拽地把她拖到楼梯上，扶着她爬上楼梯，从水里出来。 “你为什么喊‘看’？”杰西问，还在咳嗽。 “因为!水位低了。 整整下了两级台阶。” 这是个好消息，但现在他浑身湿透了，听起来什么都不像好消息。 当他们到达楼梯顶端时，杰西停下来坐了下来。 “我的袜子又湿又软。” 埃文知道杰西不喜欢穿湿衣服，尤其是湿鞋和湿袜子。 她是这样的

way ever since she was little. He sat down on the step below her and helped her untie the soggy shoelaces and then pull off each shoe and peel the soaking-wet socks off her feet. Jessie carefully tucked each sock inside her shoe and then tied the wet laces together so that they made an easy-to-carry shoe bundle. She looked at Evan. "Professor Hoffmann is dead." Evan nodded. "I know. And the Climbing Tree is gone." Jessie looked at the water below them. "And Dad left us." Evan nodded again. He pushed the bottoms of his pajama pants up past his knees. The wet fabric was sticking to his legs like octopus tentacles. He'd lost both slippers when he'd plunged into the water, and it was too dark to see if they were floating or if they'd sunk. And that's when Evan realized the worst thing of all: they'd lost all the flashlights. Every single last one of them. They were all underwater, and there

从她很小的时候开始。 他坐在她下面的台阶上，帮她解开湿透的鞋带，然后脱下每只鞋，脱掉她脚上湿透的袜子。 杰西小心地把每只袜子塞进鞋子里，然后把湿鞋带系在一起，这样就做成了一个便于携带的鞋包。 她看着埃文。“霍夫曼教授死了。” 艾凡点点头。“我知道。爬树也不见了。” 杰西看着他们下面的水。 “爸爸离开了我们。”埃文又点了点头。 他把睡裤的下摆推到膝盖以上。 湿布料像章鱼的触须一样粘在他的腿上。 他跳进水里的时候把两只拖鞋都弄丢了，天太黑了，看不清它们是浮在水面上还是沉下去了。 就在这时，埃文意识到最糟糕的事情：他们丢了所有的手电筒。 每一个都是。 他们都在水下，就在那里

were no more in the whole house. How would they make it through another night without flashlights? "This is the worst day ever," said Jessie. "And that is not hyperbole." Evan nodded. There was nothing else to say. "Do you think it's over?" asked Jessie. Evan pointed to the steps below. "The water's going down." "But it's not over yet," said Jessie. "It's mostly over," said Evan. "But not completely. The rain hasn't stopped." "Yeah, but the worst is over," said Evan, starting to feel a little annoyed that Jessie wouldn't just let it go. "The wind is still blowing. Another tree could fall." "But it probably won't." "I'm just saying..." said Jessie. "Stop!" said Evan, exasperated. "We survived a Category 1 hurricane all by ourselves, and that makes it one of the best days of our whole lives!"

整个房子里都没有人了。 没有手电筒，他们怎么熬过另一个夜晚呢？ “这是有史以来最糟糕的一天，”杰西说。 “这不是夸张。” 艾凡点点头。没有别的话可说了。 “你觉得结束了吗？”杰西问。 埃文指着下面的台阶。 “水位在下降。”“但事情还没有结束，”杰西说。 “差不多结束了，”埃文说。 但并非完全如此。雨还没停呢。” “是啊，但最糟糕的已经过去了。”埃文说，开始对杰西不肯放手感到有点恼火。 “风还在刮。 又一棵树可能会倒下。”“但它可能不会。” “我只是说……”杰西说。 “住手！”埃文恼怒地说。 “我们独自度过了一场1级飓风，这是我们一生中最美好的日子之一！”

Jessie was silent for a split second; then she raised both hands over her head. "We're Treskis, and we're tough," she crowed. "Okay, it's a good day." She stood up. "But I swallowed dirty water, and I need to go brush my teeth and gargle." "Good idea," said Evan, who was eager to get out of his wet T-shirt and pajama pants. "And then, let's open the freezer and grab the ice cream, really quick. Even if it's soup, we can still eat it. All of it!" "Dibs on peppermint stick!" shouted Jessie as she raced up the stairs and into the kitchen. By the end of the afternoon, the storm was definitely winding down. The wind still gusted from time to time, like a child after a temper tantrum who lets out an occasional howl just to remind everyone of the fury that has passed. The rain, too, slowed down until it was nothing more than a steady drizzle. Evan couldn't believe there was any rain left to fall. When it started to grow dark, Evan and Jessie discussed the idea of lighting candles. Their mother

杰西沉默了一会儿；然后她把两只手举过头顶。 “我们是特雷斯基人，我们很坚强。”她得意地说。 “好吧，今天天气不错。”她站了起来。 “但是我吞下了脏水，我需要去刷牙和漱口。” “好主意，”埃文说，他急于脱下湿漉漉的t恤和睡裤。 “然后，让我们打开冰箱，拿起冰淇淋，非常快。 即使是汤，我们也可以吃。 全部！”“我要薄荷棒！”杰西喊道，一边跑上楼，一边跑进厨房。 到下午结束时，暴风雨明显减弱了。 风仍然不时地吹着，就像一个孩子发脾气后偶尔发出一声嚎叫，只是为了提醒大家愤怒已经过去了。 雨也慢了下来，最后只剩下绵绵细雨了。 埃文不敢相信还会下雨。 当天开始变黑时，埃文和杰西讨论了点蜡烛的想法。 他们的母亲

had several decorative candles for special occasions, and Evan knew how to strike a match, although he wasn't allowed to do it without a grownup present. In the end, though, they decided to just get through the night in the dark. "If we burned down the house, on top of everything else," said Jessie, "Mom would just kill us." Evan agreed. Besides, at this point, walking around the house in the pitch darkness seemed like no big deal. After what they'd been through, it was hardly worth thinking about. Even Jessie didn't seem to mind the dark as much. "It's like being backstage in a play, waiting for the curtain to go up," she said. Just before going to bed, they emptied the drip buckets into the bathroom sink one more time, and Evan felt confident that they would make it through the night without the buckets overflowing. The rain had slowed to a gentle patter, the perfect noise to listen to as they fell asleep.

家里有几支用于特殊场合的装饰蜡烛，埃文知道如何划火柴，尽管没有大人在场，他是不被允许划火柴的。 最后，他们决定在黑暗中度过这一夜。 “如果我们把房子烧了，”杰西说，“妈妈会杀了我们的。” 埃文同意了。此外，在这一点上，在漆黑的房子里走来走去似乎没什么大不了的。 在他们经历了这些之后，这几乎不值得去想。 就连杰西似乎也不那么介意黑暗了。 “这就像在戏剧的后台，等待幕布升起，”她说。 就在睡觉前，他们又一次把滴水桶倒进浴室的水槽里，埃文相信他们能熬过这个晚上，桶里的水不会溢出来。 雨声已经慢下来，变成了轻柔的淅淅沥沥的声音，这是他们入睡时最适合听的声音。