8 Gimmick

Chapter 8 Gimmick gimmick (n) a specially prepared object or device that makes an illusion work; one example is a rabbit box Evan checked the clock on the wall in the basement: quarter to three. His mother had said she would call at four. They'd missed her phone call yesterday because of the difference in the time zones. But now they had the time difference figured out, and Evan wanted to hear her voice. He wanted to know for sure that she was "safe and sound," as she would say, and he wanted to tell her that they were putting on a magic show. But he didn't want to tell her what he was doing in the basement at that very moment, so he was hurrying to finish up. Evan was sawing wood using the hacksaw that his mother kept on the tool shelf. It was not going well.

（名词）特别准备的使错觉产生作用的物体或装置；艾凡看了看地下室墙上的钟：差一刻三点。 他妈妈说过她会在四点钟来访。 由于时区不同，他们昨天没接到她的电话。 但现在他们算出了时差，埃文想听听她的声音。 他想确定她是否“安然无恙”，就像她常说的那样，他还想告诉她，他们正在上演一场魔术表演。 但他不想告诉她此刻他在地下室做什么，所以他赶紧把事情做完。 埃文正在用他母亲放在工具架上的钢锯锯木头。 事情进展得并不顺利。

He'd already snapped the thin blade on the coping saw—the scrap wood he was trying to cut was too thick for that—and now the bigger hacksaw was making a messy, jagged cut in the wood. Plus, his arm felt as if it was about to fall off, and he hadn't finished even one side of the rabbit box. He figured it would take him about three days just to cut the six pieces he needed. But he was going to stick with it. If you wanted to be a real magician, you had to know how to build your gimmicks. In addition to listening for the phone, Evan had his ears open for the garage door. His dad was out, and Evan wanted to be sure to stop sawing and run upstairs as soon as his dad pulled into the garage. He could just imagine the lecture he would get about how he was too young to be using a saw and how dangerous tools could be and did he want to end up losing a finger? Or two? Which is why Evan was particularly surprised when he heard his father's voice. "Hey, what's up?" Evan jumped, the saw in his hand buckled, and the

他已经折断了顶部锯上的薄刀片——他想要锯的废木头太厚了——现在更大的钢锯在木头上划出了一个杂乱的、参差不齐的切口。 此外，他的手臂感觉好像要掉下来了，而他甚至还没有完成兔盒的一面。 他估计，仅仅是切出他需要的六块，就需要大约三天的时间。 但他打算坚持下去。 如果你想成为一名真正的魔术师，你必须知道如何打造你的噱头。 除了听电话，埃文还竖起耳朵听车库门的声音。 他爸爸出去了，埃文想确保他爸爸一把车开进车库，他就停止锯木头，跑上楼去。 他可以想象他会被训斥，说他太小了，不能用锯子，工具有多危险，他想失去一根手指吗？ 还是两个?这就是为什么当埃文听到他父亲的声音时特别惊讶的原因。 “嘿，怎么了？”埃文跳了起来，手里的锯子弯了，然后

piece of wood he'd been holding skittered forward and fell off the edge of the chopping block he'd been using as a tabletop. "Hey, Dad," Evan said, as he retrieved the piece of wood and then casually put it aside. His heart was thudding in his chest. What kind of punishment would he get? "Whatcha makin'?" asked his dad. "Just that thing I showed you yesterday. That drawing. Of the rabbit box." Evan had made a careful scale drawing of the box and all the pieces of wood and hardware he would need to build it.

他手里拿着的一块木头嗖地向前一跳，从他用作桌面的砧板边缘掉了下来。 “嘿，爸爸，”埃文说，他捡起那块木头，然后随意地把它放在一边。 他的心怦怦直跳。 他会受到什么样的惩罚？ “你在做什么？”爸爸问。 “就是我昨天给你看的那个东西。 这图。兔子箱的。” 埃文仔细地画了一张盒子的比例图，以及建造它所需的所有木材和硬件。

His dad hadn't seemed particularly interested yesterday, but today he said, "Hmm. I don't think you have the right tools to cut this kind of wood. It's too thick. You're going to end up with some pretty rough edges." Evan couldn't believe his dad wasn't yelling at him for using the saw without adult supervision. In fact, he was acting as if it was the most normal thing

他爸爸昨天似乎不是特别感兴趣，但今天他说：“嗯。 我认为你没有合适的工具来切割这种木头。 太厚了。你最终会有一些相当粗糙的边缘。” 埃文不敢相信他爸爸没有因为他在没有大人监督的情况下使用电锯而对他大喊大叫。 事实上，他表现得好像这是最正常的事情

in the world for Evan to be sawing wood by himself. Evan wished his mom could be that cool and not treat him like he was a baby all the time. Evan looked at his dad. "Maybe you could cut it straight?" he asked. His dad shook his head. "Nobody can cut wood that thick with this kind of a saw. You need a power tool to do the job. Which is why... I went to the lumberyard and had them cut the pieces for us." Evan stared at his dad without saying a word. He couldn't figure out if this was a joke. "Are you kidding?" he finally asked. "Nope. I made a photocopy of your drawing and took it to Diehl's. The guy there said you'd done a great job with your measurements. Very accurate. He said he likes that in a builder. I told him, 'What do you expect? He's a Treski!'" Then he winked at Evan and headed for the car. The pieces of wood were cut perfectly, each one square and neat. Just like Pete would have done. No sloppy edges. No mis-cuts. No splinters. Evan and

让埃文一个人锯木头是件好事。 埃文希望他的妈妈也能那么酷，不要总是把他当婴儿看待。 埃文看着他的爸爸。“也许你可以把它剪直？”他问。 爸爸摇了摇头。“没有人能用这种锯子锯这么厚的木头。 你需要一个电动工具来做这项工作。 这就是为什么……我去了伐木场，让他们给我们切了几块。” 埃文盯着他爸爸，一句话也没说。 他不明白这是不是一个玩笑。 “你在开玩笑吗？”他最后问道。 “不。我把你的画复印了一份，拿到迪尔百货去了。 那里的人说你测量得很好。 非常准确。他说他喜欢建筑商那样。 我对他说，‘你还指望什么？ 他是特雷斯基人！’”然后他朝埃文眨了眨眼睛，朝汽车走去。 这些木片切割得很完美，每块都是方形的，很整齐。 皮特也会这么做的。 没有粗糙的边缘。没有mis-cuts。 没有碎片。埃文,

his dad set to work joining them, first using wood glue and then carefully hammering in a row of finishing nails. Evan explained that you needed to spread the wood glue on both sides of the wood to be joined; it made a better bond. Pete had taught him that, and his dad seemed impressed. "It needs to dry overnight before we can sand it," said Evan. "We'll use a coarse sandpaper to start, maybe ninety or a hundred grit, and then we'll finish up with a fine grit, like maybe one-eighty." "You really know your stuff, Evan. Where'd you learn all this?" His dad was running his fingers over the hinges that they'd attached to the top of the box. The hinges were shiny brass—the expensive kind, Evan knew. He had measured and chiseled out spaces in the wood so that the hinges would sit flush. It's the little things—the details—that make a project beautiful, Pete had said to him last New Year's when they were repairing Grandma's farmhouse. "I don't know. Guess I just sort of picked it up. You know, from people." Evan carefully put the

他的父亲开始把它们连接起来，先是用木胶，然后小心翼翼地钉上一排装饰钉子。 埃文解释说，你需要在木材的两面涂上木胶。它形成了更好的键。 皮特已经教过他了，他父亲似乎对此印象深刻。 埃文说：“在我们打磨它之前，它需要一夜晾干。” “我们会用粗砂纸开始，可能是90或100沙砾，然后我们会用细砂纸结束，比如180沙砾。” “你真的很懂你的东西，埃文。 你从哪儿学的这些？”他爸爸用手指摸着他们装在盒子顶部的铰链。 铰链是闪亮的黄铜——埃文知道是昂贵的那种。 他已经在木头上量好了尺寸，凿出了一些空间，使铰链能够平齐。 去年新年，当他们在修理奶奶的农舍时，皮特对他说，是小事情——细节——使一个项目变得美丽。 “我不知道。我想我只是随便学的。 你知道，从人们那里。”埃文小心地把