18 The Door

18 The Door Peanut wrote the letters down again, this time leaving spaces exactly as they appeared on the pencil. LORE She tried for an hour, testing every combination of letters she could think of, but she couldn't find a single word that would fit. She started to think about the research that she'd done with Rockwell in the library. "Collective knowledge or wisdom'. "Teachings'.

18 门 皮纳特把字母重新抄了一遍，这次完全按照铅笔上的样子留出了空格。 洛尔 她试了一个小时，把能想到的所有字母组合都试了一遍，却找不到一个合适的单词。 她开始想起之前和罗克韦尔一起在图书馆做的调研。 “集体知识或者集体智慧”。 “教导”。

"OK. If I had invented this magic pencil, what would I write on it?" she said to nobody in particular. Suddenly, something in that sentence triggered a brainwave. "If I had invented the pencil," she muttered. She hadn't invented this pencil, or any other pencil, but as they'd discovered earlier, Nicolas-Jacques Conté had, and he was... FRENCH! It's a French word!!" she shouted. She looked back down at the puzzle and suddenly saw things more clearly. Well, it's bound to start with a "le" or a "la', she thought. As far as Peanut could remember, nearly all French words did. So she started to fill in the gaps. L (E or A SPACE OR SPACE E Then she had one of those rare moments of clarity that only come along once in a blue moon. Remembering a particularly fun French vocab lesson from last year at Melody High, she picked up the pencil and wrote... LAPORTE

“好的。 如果我发明了这支魔法铅笔，我会在上面写什么呢？” 她自言自语地说道。 突然，这句话里的某个点让她灵光一闪。 “如果这支铅笔是我发明的”，她小声嘀咕着。 这支铅笔不是她发明的，也不是别的什么人发明的，但她们之前查到了，是尼古拉-雅克·孔泰发明的，而且他是……法国人！ 这是个法语单词！！” 她大声喊道。 她重新低头看着这个谜题，突然一下子想明白了。 唔，它肯定是以“le”或者“la”开头的，她想。 在皮纳特的印象里，几乎所有法语单词都是这样的。 于是她开始填空。 L（E或者A）空格或者空格E 接着，她迎来了一个千载难逢的清醒时刻，一下子想通了。 她想起去年在旋律高中上的一堂特别有趣的法语词汇课，于是拿起铅笔写下……拉波特（LAPORTE）

"La Porte," she whispered. "French for "The Door". Maybe this pencil is actually a key... Then, yet another idea popped into her head. "Surely that wouldn't work. Would it?" Peanut jumped from the chair, ran over to her wardrobe and pulled out a big roll of paper. She unfurled it on the floor, picked up the yellow pencil and started to draw. When she had finished, she picked the piece of paper up, grabbed some Blu Tack and stuck it to the wardrobe door. She stepped back and looked at her drawing. It was pretty good, even if she did say so herself. Quickly she pulled on a dressing gown and her school shoes, checked the time (8.01p.m.), tucked the pencil behind her ear and focused on the sketch of the doorknob. Taking a deep breath, she held out her hand, reached into the picture and grabbed the knob. It felt cold, as if it were made of brass rather than graphite. Peanut rotated it a quarter turn anti-clockwise. Something clicked. And then the door opened

“拉波特（La Porte）”，她轻声念道。 “它就是法语里的‘门’。 说不定这支铅笔其实是一把钥匙…… 接着，她又冒出了一个新念头。 “这肯定没用的。 对不对？” 皮纳特从椅子上跳起来，跑到衣柜边，拿出一大卷纸。 她把纸在地板上铺开，拿起那支黄铅笔就开始画。 画完之后，她拿起这张纸，拿了一些蓝丁胶把它贴在了衣柜门上。 她往后退了一步，看着自己的画。 不得不说，她画得还真不错。 她飞快地穿上睡袍和校鞋，看了看时间（晚上8点01分），把铅笔别在耳后，盯着画上的门把手。 她深吸一口气，伸出手，伸进画里抓住了门把手。 门把手凉凉的，好像是黄铜做的，不是铅笔画出来的。 皮纳特把它逆时针转了四分之一圈。 咔嗒一声响。 紧接着，门开了