63 Old Friends

63 Old Friends Peanut lay on the concrete bench staring at the ceiling. She couldn't remember another time when she had felt this hopeless. Even the weeks immediately after her dad had left weren't this bad. Despite the fact that she had lived for twelve and a quarter years unaware that the yellow pencil even existed, she was now finding it hard to imagine life without it. Not least because it had always, throughout this entire adventure, been their ticket back home. Home. 80 Melody Road had been a pretty unhappy place for the past year. Dad wasn't there, Mum always seemed angry about something, and her brother didn't talk to her any more. Her

63 老朋友 皮娜躺在水泥长椅上，盯着天花板。 她记不起自己什么时候如此绝望过。 哪怕是爸爸刚离开的那几个星期，都没有这么糟糕。 尽管她活了十二年零三个月，从前根本不知道这支黄铅笔的存在，如今却很难想象没有它的生活。 尤其是因为，在整段冒险旅程中，它一直是她们回家的通行证。 家。 过去一年里，旋律路80号的日子一直过得不太开心。 爸爸不在家，妈妈似乎总在为琐事生气，哥哥也不再和她说话了。 她

only comfort had been her drawing and painting, and now Mum was doing her best to take that away from her. Lying there, alone in a prison cell several hundred metres above the Illustrated City, she whispered, "I need you, Dad. I need your help now more than ever. She sniffed, looked at the paint-splatter stars through the cell window, and listened to the rhythmic flutter of the leaves as the wind danced through the forest canopy. Her head was swimming. At that moment, she would have given anything for her mum to walk through the door, give her a cuddle and tell her that everything was going to be OK. Wait a second! She sat bolt upright, held her breath and listened again. "We're ninety-nine floors up. That fluttering noise can't be leaves. No tree is that tall," she said out loud. She scrambled to her feet, jumped on to the bench, stood on tiptoe and put her face to the small window. And what she saw made her heart leap. There, hovering on the other side of the bars of Peanut's cell window,

唯一的慰藉就是画画，可现在妈妈拼尽全力也要把这份爱好从她身边夺走。 她孤零零躺在插画城上空几百米的牢房里，轻声说道：“我需要你，爸爸。 我现在比任何时候都需要你的帮助。 她吸了吸鼻子，望着牢房窗外像颜料溅出的星星，听着风吹过林冠时树叶有节奏的沙沙声。 她脑袋昏昏沉沉的。 那一刻，她多想妈妈能推开这扇门，抱抱她，告诉她一切都会好起来。 等等！ 她猛地坐直身子，屏住呼吸，再听了一次。 “我们在九十九层楼高呢。 那沙沙声不可能是树叶。 哪有树能长这么高。”她出声说道。 她连忙站起身，跳上长椅，踮起脚尖把脸贴到小窗户上。 眼前的景象让她心头一跳。 就在皮娜牢房窗栏杆的另一边，

were three kaleidoscoppi. One had a red crest on his head, one green and one gold. Their rainbow wings, beating hard, were a multicoloured blur as the great birds hung in the air. "It's you!" said Peanut, smiling. "I set you free back in the North Draw!" They nodded. Then something very strange happened. The red-and- green-topped birds looked straight into Peanut's eyes and trilled several bars of a beautiful, mesmeric melody, causing a warm, tingly feeling to spread from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. In an instant, all of her feelings of despair vanished and were replaced by something new. Something she hadn't felt in a while. Hope. She couldn't explain how or why, but she felt sure that her dad was OK. Somehow, he'd managed to escape from the Spire and make his way to a safer place. If only she knew where. She smiled at the kaleidoscoppi. "You helped him, didn't you? You helped him to escape," she said. The birds didn't respond but their song continued to

是三只万花鸟。 一只头顶红冠，一只绿冠，还有一只是金冠。 这些巨鸟悬在空中，彩虹色的翅膀用力扑扇，扑成了一片五彩斑斓的虚影。 “是你们呀！”皮娜笑着说。 “我之前在北画境放了你们自由！” 它们点了点头。 接着，一件非常奇怪的事发生了。 顶红冠和绿冠的鸟儿直直望向皮娜的眼睛，鸣唱出几段美妙迷人的旋律，一股暖酥酥的感觉从她头顶蔓延到脚尖。 一瞬间，所有的绝望都烟消云散，取而代之的是一种全新的感觉。 一种她已经很久没感受过的感觉。 希望。 她说不清这是怎么回事，可她笃定爸爸没事。 不知怎的，他已经逃出尖塔，找到了更安全的地方。 要是她知道他在哪里就好了。 她对着万花鸟笑了笑。 “是你们帮了他，对不对？ “是你们帮他逃走的。”她说。 鸟儿没有回应，可它们的歌声仍在

swoop and soar. It filled Peanut's heart. Then she noticed that the gold-topped bird wasn't singing. He was holding something in his beak. Something eighteen centimetres long and bright yellow. Peanut could hardly believe her eyes. "Little Tail!" she gasped.

俯冲翱翔。 这歌声填满了皮娜的心房。 这时她发现，顶金冠的鸟儿没有唱歌。 它的喙里叼着什么东西。 那东西十八厘米长，通体亮黄。 皮娜几乎不敢相信自己的眼睛。 “小尾！” 她倒吸一口气。