2 THE OATH OF LIQUIDS

THE OATH OF LIQUIDS "What?" said Emma. "What?" said Zuzu. "You don't see it?" said Ivy. "What are you talking about?" asked Emma. Bean didn't say anything. She was watching Ivy. What was going on? "I see a bathroom. I don't see emergency situation," said Zuzu. patted the little pink bow in her hair. any She Ivy stopped pointing and sighed. "Oh well. You probably wouldn't believe me, anyway." "I'd believe you," said Bean. "Anyway, you have to tell me because of the oath." Two Saturdays before, Ivy had told Bean about blood oaths. If you write down a

“什么？”艾玛说。 “什么？”祖祖说。“你没看到吗？”艾薇说。 “你在说什么？”艾玛问。 比恩什么也没说。她在看着艾薇。 发生了什么事？“我看到一间浴室。 我没有看到紧急情况。”祖祖说道。 拍了拍她头发上的粉色小蝴蝶结。 艾薇停止指指点点，叹了口气。 “哦,好。反正你可能不会相信我。” “我相信你，”比恩说。 “不管怎样，你必须告诉我，因为你发过誓。” 两个星期六之前，艾薇告诉比恩关于血誓的事。 如果你写下a

promise and sign it with your own blood, then you have to keep the promise always. If you didn't, the blood inside your body would curdle. Bean didn't know what curdling was, so Ivy explained that it was like cottage cheese. How disgusting was that? Bean was ready to give it a try right away, but first they had to think of an oath. Bean wanted the oath to be about turning her older sister Nancy to stone, maybe not forever, but for a month at least. Ivy said no. It had to be something they could do for sure. In the end, they promised to tell each

承诺，用你自己的血签名，然后你必须永远遵守诺言。 否则，你体内的血液就会凝固。 比恩不知道凝乳是什么，所以艾薇解释说它就像白干酪。 那有多恶心？比恩准备马上试一试，但首先他们得想一个誓言。 比恩希望这个誓言是关于把她的姐姐南希变成石头，也许不是永远，但至少一个月。 艾薇说不行。必须是他们肯定能做的事。 最后，他们答应告诉对方

other all their secrets for the rest of their lives. Ivy wrote the words down with a silver marker. It looked very fancy. The problem was that the oath had to be signed at midnight. They tried for three days. Ivy tried staying awake until midnight. Bean tried waking herself up at midnight. They both tried sleeping on the floor, so that they would be really uncomfortable and wake up. Nothing worked. Ivy said it would be almost the same if they did it at the stroke of noon. The two girls squished into Bean's old playhouse, and Ivy read the oath in a very serious voice. Then she got out a pin. She held it right above her finger, ready to stab herself. Almost ready to stab herself. "Blood attracts vampire bats," she said suddenly. "Vampire bats?" said Bean. "Yeah. Vampire bats. They drink blood.

其他所有他们余生的秘密。 艾薇用银色记号笔把这些话写了下来。 它看起来很别致。问题是誓言必须在午夜签署。 他们试了三天。 艾薇试着熬夜到半夜。 比恩试着在半夜把自己叫醒。 他们俩都试着睡在地板上，这样他们会很不舒服，然后醒来。 毫无效果。艾薇说，如果他们在正午钟声敲响的时候动手，那就差不多一样了。 两个女孩挤进比恩的旧游戏室，艾薇用非常严肃的声音宣读了誓词。 然后她拿出一枚别针。她把它举在手指上方，准备刺自己。 几乎要刺伤自己了。 “血吸引吸血蝙蝠。”她突然说。 “吸血蝙蝠？”比恩说。 “是的。吸血蝙蝠。他们喝血。

Mostly, they drink cow blood, but they might get attracted to us if we sign the oath with blood." She put the pin down. Bean understood. Poking your finger with a pin didn't seem like a big deal until you were about to do it. She didn't really want to poke her own finger, either. But they both felt disappointed. A blood oath had been such a great idea. "Why does it have to be blood?" asked Bean. "Why couldn't it be something else from inside us?" "Like what?" Ivy looked interested. "Boogers?" "Yuck", said Bean. "No. What about spit?" Ivy said, "Spit would be all right, I guess. I don't want my spit to curdle, either."

他们大多喝牛血，但如果我们用血签署誓言，他们可能会被我们吸引。” 她放下了别针。豆理解。 用大头针戳你的手指在你打算这么做之前似乎没什么大不了的。 她也不想戳自己的手指。 但他们都感到失望。 血誓真是个好主意。 “为什么一定是血？”比恩问。 “为什么不可能是我们体内的其他东西呢？”“像什么?”艾薇看起来很感兴趣。 “附?”“恶心”，比恩说。 “没有。那口水呢？”艾薇说：“我想吐唾沫也行。 我也不想我的口水凝结。”

Bean and Ivy never got much chance to spit because their mothers didn't like it. So they each made a big one and gooshed it around into letters. They had more spit than they knew what to do with. The paper tore in one place. And you couldn't really see their names when it dried. "That just makes it more mysterious," Bean said. "It's an oath of liquids," said Ivy. "A

比恩和艾薇从来没有机会吐痰，因为他们的妈妈不喜欢。 所以他们每个人都做了一个大的，然后把它揉成一个个字母。 他们的口水多得不知道该怎么处理。 这张纸有一处裂开了。 干了之后，你根本看不见他们的名字。 “这只会让事情变得更加神秘，”比恩说。 “这是液体誓言，”艾薇说。 “一个

powerful oath." So now Ivy had to tell her secret to Bean. "Excuse me," said Ivy politely to Emma and Zuzu. She pulled Bean a few steps away. "This morning," whispered Ivy, "when I went to the bathroom, I got a funny feeling, like I was walking through a cold mist. And even though it was warm, I began to shiver. My teeth were chattering, like this." Ivy smacked her teeth together. "And then I heard this strange whining noise, like this." Ivy squealed with her mouth closed. Bean didn't know what she was talking about. "Was it someone locked in a stall?" she guessed. "No! Don't you get it?" Ivy's eyes glowed. "Get what?" "It's a ghost! The bathroom is haunted!" Ivy whisper-shouted. Bean spun around to look at the school.

强大的誓言。”所以现在艾薇不得不把她的秘密告诉比恩。 “对不起，”艾薇礼貌地对艾玛和祖祖说。 她把比恩拉到几步远的地方。 “今天早上，”艾薇小声说，“当我去洗手间的时候，我有一种奇怪的感觉，就像我在一层冷雾中行走。 尽管天气很暖和，我还是开始发抖。 我的牙齿在打战，像这样。” 艾薇咬紧牙关。 “然后我听到一种奇怪的呜咽声，就像这样。” 艾薇闭着嘴尖叫着。 比恩不知道她在说什么。 “是不是有人被锁在隔间里了？”她猜想。 “不!你还不明白吗？”艾薇的眼睛闪闪发光。 “什么?”“是鬼！”浴室闹鬼！”艾薇whisper-shouted。 比恩转身看着学校。