5 THE UNDERSHIRT OF FREEDOM

THE UNDERSHIRT OF FREEDOM

自由的外衣

Bean needed some rope, and she needed something to tie it to. But the first thing she needed was Ivy. Bean looked out the window again. Ivy was dropping another rock into mud. Splat. Her lips were still moving. How was Bean going to get her attention? If she screamed out the window, Nancy would hear. Smoke signals would be perfect, but Bean's mother always said that if Bean used matches, she would live to regret it. Then Bean remembered a movie she'd seen when she was little. In it, a bunch of raggedy people on an island had waved a flag printed with the letters SOS. Then an airplane had come to rescue them. Bean's mother explained that SOS stood for "Save Our Souls." People write it on flags when they want to be saved— after a shipwreck, for example. Bean didn't see why they didn't write SM, for "Save Me," but she wrote SOS anyway. She wrote it on an old undershirt. Then she taped the undershirt to her flagpole. Okay, it wasn't really a flagpole. It was a long silver pole with a hooked end

比恩需要一些绳子，她需要一些东西把它绑起来。 但她首先需要的是艾薇。 比恩又看了看窗外。 艾薇又把一块石头扔进了泥里。 长条木板。她的嘴唇还在动。 比恩要怎么引起她的注意？ 如果她向窗外尖叫，南希会听到的。 烟雾信号是完美的，但比恩的母亲总是说，如果比恩使用火柴，她会后悔的。 这时，比恩想起了她小时候看过的一部电影。 在视频中，一群衣衫褴褛的人在一个岛上挥舞着印有“SOS”字样的旗帜。 然后一架飞机来救他们。 比恩的妈妈解释说，SOS代表“拯救我们的灵魂”。 当人们想要获救时，就会把它写在旗帜上——比如在海难之后。 比恩不明白为什么他们不写SM，即“拯救我”，但她还是写了SOS。 她把它写在一件旧汗衫上。 然后她把汗衫粘在旗杆上。 好吧，那不是旗杆。 那是一根长长的银杆，一头钩着

that opened the window in the bathroom ceiling. It was much taller than Bean, and she wasn't supposed to play with it. "But this is an emergency," Bean said to herself. Bean rattled the screen on her window until it fell off. Unfortunately, it fell out the window into the front yard, but there was nothing Bean could do about that. Being extra careful not to smack the pole against the glass, Bean edged her flag over the windowsill. Her SOS undershirt fluttered in the breeze. You'd have to be blind not to notice it. Hey! There was Ivy, walking along the sidewalk! She was going home! She was about to walk right in front of Bean's house! Bean could have called out,

打开了浴室天花板的窗户。 它比豆子高得多，她不应该和它玩。 “但这是紧急情况，”比恩自言自语道。 比恩把她窗户上的纱窗弄得嘎嘎作响，直到它掉下来。 不幸的是，它从窗户掉到了前院，但比恩对此无能为力。 比恩格外小心，不让旗杆撞到玻璃上，她把旗子在窗台上移开。 她的SOS汗衫在微风中飘动。 只有瞎了眼才不会注意到。 嘿!艾薇在人行道上走着！她要回家了！她正要走到比恩家门前！比恩本可以大声说，

but she had gone to all that trouble, making an SOS flag. She didn't want to waste it. She waved the flag gently back and forth. Ivy didn't notice. Bean waved the flag up and down. Ivy just walked along. Bean jerked the flag in and out. Ivy didn't look up. So Bean threw the pole at her. It landed with a terrible crash at Ivy's feet. Ivy squeaked and jumped backward. Then she looked up at the sky. "Wow," she said. She bent down to touch the pole. "An alien." "It's not an alien! It's an SOS!" Bean said. Now Ivy saw her. "Oh. Hi. Did you throw that at me? Are you mad at me?"

但她费了那么大的力气，做了一个求救旗。 她不想浪费时间。 她轻轻地前后挥动着旗子。 艾薇没有注意到。比恩上下挥动着旗帜。 艾薇只是走过去。比恩把旗子插进插出。 艾薇没有抬头。所以比恩把杆子扔向了她。 它砰的一声落在艾薇脚下。 艾薇尖叫着向后跳了跳。 然后她抬头看了看天空。 “哇，”她说。她弯下腰去摸电线杆。 “外星人”。“这不是外星人！”这是SOS!”豆说。 现在艾薇看见她了。“哦。嗨。是你朝我扔的吗？ 你生我的气了吗？”