9 A KNOTTY PROBLEM

A KNOTTY PROBLEM For a while, Ivy and Bean sat in Bean's driveway. Then Bean said, "Let's go show our arm to Dino." Maybe it would strike fear in his heart. But it didn't, because Dino wasn't home. Dino's mom answered the doorbell. She had one pair of glasses on her head and one on her eyes. "What happened to you two?" she asked, squinting at their tied-up arm. Bean always thought it was better not to tell grown-ups exactly what was going on, but Ivy answered right away. "We're making ourselves into twins by growing our skin together." Dino's mom took the pair of glasses on her head and put them over the glasses on her eyes to take a closer look. "What a good idea. Whose house are you going to live in once you're done?"

一个棘手的问题有一会儿，艾薇和比恩坐在比恩家的车道上。 然后比恩说：“我们去给迪诺看看我们的手臂吧。” 也许这会引起他内心的恐惧。 但没有，因为迪诺不在家。 迪诺的妈妈去应门。 她头上戴着一副眼镜，眼睛上戴着一副。 “你们俩怎么了？”她眯着眼睛看着他们被绑着的胳膊问道。 比恩一直认为最好不要告诉大人到底发生了什么，但艾薇马上回答了。 “我们一起长皮肤，把自己变成了双胞胎。” 迪诺的妈妈把她头上的一副眼镜戴在她眼睛上的眼镜上，仔细看了看。 “好主意。你毕业后要住在谁的房子里呢？”

"Mine," said Bean. "We're going to switch off," said Ivy. Bean wished Ivy would stop saying that. She liked her own house. That's where her mom and dad were. Unfortunately, Nancy was there, too. But still. All her stuff was there. She decided to change the subject. "Where's Dino?" she asked.

“我的，”比恩说。“我们要关机了，”艾薇说。 比恩希望艾薇不要再说这些了。 她喜欢她自己的房子。那是她爸妈去的地方。 不幸的是，南希也在那里。 但仍然。她所有的东西都在那里。 她决定改变话题。 “迪诺在哪儿？”她问。

"He's over at Sophie W.'s, playing bannis," said Dino's mom. Bannis! Bannis was a famous Pancake Court game. It was baseball played with a tennis ball. Dino and Bean and Liana had thought it up after Liana broke a window with a softball. You almost never broke a window in bannis, partly because tennis balls were soft and partly because in bannis, the bat was a bamboo stick. You hardly ever hit the ball, and if you did, the stick usually broke. Bean loved bannis. She loved whacking the tennis ball as hard as she

“他在苏菲大学。迪诺的妈妈说。 Bannis !班尼斯是一种著名的煎饼法庭游戏。 那是用网球打棒球。 迪诺、比恩和莉安娜是在莉安娜用垒球打破窗户后想出这个主意的。 在班尼斯，你几乎不会打破窗户，部分原因是网球很软，部分原因是在班尼斯，球拍是一根竹棒。 你几乎从不击球，即使你击球了，球杆通常也会断。 比恩喜欢班尼斯。她喜欢像她一样使劲地打网球

could and then throwing the broken stick on the ground. Sometimes she spit in the dirt, too, just for good measure. But now she was a twin. You couldn't play bannis with one arm tied to another person. Especially if that person was Ivy. Ivy couldn't hit things with sticks. Ivy didn't even like hitting things with sticks. Ivy liked reading books. Bean imagined herself, sitting in a chair with Ivy while she read a book, for an hour. She imagined Ivy's mom kissing her goodnight. She imagined never, ever playing bannis again.

然后把断了的棍子扔在地上。 有时她也会往土里吐口水，只是为了更好地测量。 但现在她是双胞胎中的一个。一只手绑在另一个人身上是玩不了班尼斯的。 尤其是如果那个人是艾薇。 艾薇不会用棍子打东西。 艾薇甚至不喜欢用棍子打东西。 艾薇喜欢读书。比恩想象着自己和艾薇一起坐在椅子上看书，整整一个小时。 她想象着艾薇的妈妈亲吻她道晚安。 她想象着再也不会扮演班尼斯了。

Yikes! Her life wasn't getting better. It was getting worse. Bean and Ivy said goodbye to Dino's mom and went to sit on the grass. "So this is being a twin," said Bean. They were both quiet for a long time.

呵!她的生活并没有好转。 情况越来越糟。比恩和艾薇告别了迪诺的妈妈，去草地上坐了下来。 “所以这就是双胞胎，”比恩说。 他们都沉默了很长一段时间。