14 The Experiment

14 The Experiment Do I have to wear these?" Peanut pulled the school- issue plastic safety goggles over her head and let the elastic strap snap against the back of her skull. "Safety first so you last," replied Rockwell, pleased with himself for remembering one of Death Breath's many catchphrases. "Right, let's do this. Where's this pencil then?" Peanut pulled it out from her blazer pocket and handed it to Rockwell. He cradled it with both hands as if it were the Elder Wand, and slowly lifted it up towards the light. Peanut thought she could hear the Hallelujah Chorus playing somewhere. "It's beautiful, he said in a strange trance-like voice. Then he burst out laughing.

14 实验 我非要戴这些东西吗？ 花生把学校发的塑料安全护目镜套过头，松紧带啪地弹在了她的后脑勺上。 “安全第一名，才能活到底，”罗克韦尔答道，他正暗自得意，因为自己记住了“死亡呼吸”的众多口头禅之一。 “好了，我们开始吧。 那支铅笔在哪儿呀？” 花生从休闲外套口袋里掏出铅笔，递给了罗克韦尔。 他用双手捧着铅笔，就像捧着老魔杖似的，慢慢把它举起来对着光。 花生觉得自己好像听到哪里响起了哈利路亚大合唱。 “它太美了，”他神情恍惚地说道。 接着他突然放声大笑起来。

Peanut, who had thought he was being serious, immediately flushed with embarrassment. Rockwell realised that he'd misjudged the situation. Actually, I—er—think that maybe y-you should do this. It's your p-pencil after all," he stammered, handing it back to Peanut. Of course I should do this," harrumphed Peanut. She grabbed the pencil from him and pulled a sketchbook from her rucksack. She sat at the bench and started to draw. Again, she was struck by the pencil's weight and how easily the lead seemed to glide across the page. It was as smooth as silk. She was so caught up with how nice the pencil felt to hold that she'd almost finished the picture before she realised what it was she was drawing. It was an apple. Exactly like the one she had eaten on the way to school that morning. Peanut looked at her sketch and smiled. It was good. Better than usual. In fact, she thought, it might be the best drawing she'd ever done. She held the pencil up to her eye, studied the tip, then picked up the sketchbook, turned around and held it up to show Rockwell. "What do you think?" "Crikey!" he exclaimed. "It's brilliant!"

原本以为罗克韦尔是认真的花生，一下子尴尬得满脸通红。 罗克韦尔这才意识到自己看错了情况。 其实我——呃——我觉得还、还是你来做这个吧。 这毕、毕竟是你的铅笔呀，”他结结巴巴地说，把铅笔递回给花生。 本来就该我来做，”花生哼了一声说道。 她一把从他手里夺过铅笔，又从背包里掏出速写本。 她坐在长椅上，开始画画。 她再一次感受到了这支铅笔的重量，笔芯在纸上滑动得格外顺畅。 顺滑得就像丝绸一样。 她光顾着感受握笔的舒服手感，等反应过来自己画了什么的时候，画都差不多画完了。 画的是一个苹果。 和她那天早上上学路上吃掉的那个苹果一模一样。 花生看着自己的素描，笑了。 画得很好。 比她平时画得都要好。 她心想，这说不定是自己画过的最好的一幅画了。 她把铅笔举到眼前，端详了笔芯，接着拿起速写本，转身举起来给罗克韦尔看。 “你觉得怎么样？” “天呐！” 他惊呼道。 “太厉害了！”

She felt her cheeks redden. "Thanks." She ripped the page out of the sketchbook, grabbed a piece of tape and stuck the drawing to the whiteboard. "OK," she said. "Pick up the apple. Rockwell laughed. "Yeah, right," he said. But Peanut wasn't smiling. "Oh. You mean you actually want me to do this?" he said. "Come on, the joke's over now. If this is your way of trying to make me look like an idiot it's not going to work. "Look. You said yourself you have to conduct a controlled experiment to either prove or disprove a hypothesis. Well, my theory is that the stuff I draw with this pencil becomes real. If you're so smart, why don't you prove me wrong?" Rockwell looked at her. He could tell she was serious. "OK. You asked for it. he said nervously. He reached out towards the picture, extending his fingers as if to grab the apple. He glanced over at Peanut and smiled. He looked back at the drawing and took a deep breath. Then something very strange happened. At the point where Rockwell expected to feel the surface of the paper, he felt nothing. Not a sausage. Nada. In fact, his hand just kept moving. It kept moving into the drawing, straight towards the piece of fruit. Two seconds later, to his utter amazement, his fingertips touched the apple. Instinctively, his hand closed around it and then, miracle of miracles, Rockwell pulled Peanut's sketch out of the sheet of paper and held it in his hand.

她感觉自己的脸颊红了。 “谢谢。” 她把这页从速写本上撕下来，拿了一段胶带把画贴在了白板上。 “好了，”她说。 “把苹果拿起来。 罗克韦尔笑了。 “哈，得了吧，”他说。 可花生一点笑容都没有。 “哦。 你是说你真的要我去拿？”他说。 “行了啊，玩笑该结束了。 如果这是你想耍我出丑的招数，那是不会得逞的。 “你听我说。 你自己都说过，得做可控实验，才能证明或者推翻一个假设呀。 嗯，我的猜想就是，我用这支铅笔画出来的东西会变成真的。 你既然那么聪明，为什么不证明我错了呢？” 罗克韦尔看着她。 他看得出来她是认真的。 “行吧。 是你要求的。 他紧张地说道。 他朝画伸出手，张开手指，像是要去抓那个苹果。 他瞥了花生一眼，笑了笑。 他转回头看向画，深吸了一口气。 接着，一件非常奇怪的事情发生了。 罗克韦尔本来以为会碰到纸面，结果什么都没碰到。 什么都没有。 啥也没有。 事实上，他的手就这么一直往里伸了进去。 它一直伸进画里，直直朝着那个苹果伸过去。 两秒钟后，令他万分惊讶的是，他的指尖真的碰到了苹果。 他本能地攥住苹果，接下来，天大的奇迹发生了：罗克韦尔居然把苹果从画纸里拿了出来，握在了自己手里。