2 When the Going Gets Tough

CHAPTER 2 When the Going Gets Tough... The rule in our house is we have to take baths every other night, and that night was bath night. Penny always takes hers first, because she's the youngest—at least until the baby comes, and anyway she'll always be younger than I am. Then when I was taking my bath, Dad started reading to Penny. As soon as I was done, Mom and I went into Penny's room to hear the end of her books. Penny asked

第二章 日子不好过的时候…… 我们家的规矩是每隔一天晚上必须洗澡，那天正好是洗澡夜。 佩妮总是第一个洗，因为她最小——至少小宝宝出生前是这样，而且不管怎么样她永远都比我小嘛。 后来我正洗澡的时候，爸爸开始给佩妮读故事了。 我刚洗完，妈妈就和我一起去佩妮的房间，听她那几本故事的结尾部分。 佩妮请求

Mom to braid her hair so it would be curly in the morning, and Mom made two French braids. She said she would do my hair too, but I don't like to sleep in braids because it feels too bumpy. "All right, Penny," Dad said. "Good night, sleep tight, don't let the gummy bears bite." Really you're supposed to say, "Don't let the bed bugs bite," but Dad changed it to be about candy. After that, I went into my room to read. It used to be that one of my parents would read with me, but now I'm too old for that. I am reading a book that used to be Mom's. It's called Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, by Judy Blume. The pages are kind of crinkly because the book is so old. Mom says Judy Blume is her favorite writer—besides me, of course! Mom and Dad came in to say good night

妈妈给她编辫子，这样早上起来头发就会卷卷的，妈妈给她编了两条法式辫子。 她说也可以给我编头发，但我不喜欢扎着辫子睡觉，因为硌得慌，太不舒服了。 “好啦，佩妮，”爸爸说。 “晚安，睡个饱，别让软糖熊咬到哦。” 其实本来应该说“别让床虱咬到哦”，但爸爸把它改成和糖果有关的版本了。 那之后，我就回自己房间看书去了。 以前爸爸妈妈总会有一个人陪我一起读，但现在我长大了，不用这样了。 我现在读的这本书以前是妈妈的。 书名是《四年级的无聊事》，作者是朱迪·布鲁姆。 书页有点皱巴巴的，因为这本书实在是太旧了。 妈妈说朱迪·布鲁姆是她最喜欢的作家——当然啦，除了我之外！ 爸爸妈妈进来和我说晚安

after a half hour. When they left, they turned out the lights and shut the door almost the whole way, but left it open just a little crack, because that's the way I like it. I don't close my eyes right away. I wait until they're used to the dark and I can see everything around my room. So I waited for a little while, and then my stuff came into focus: my desk with the mug from Disneyland that I use as a pencil holder, the desk chair that

是在半小时之后。 他们离开的时候，关了灯，把门几乎完全合上，但留了一条小小的缝，因为我就喜欢这样。 我没有马上闭上眼睛。 我会等眼睛适应了黑暗，能看清房间里所有东西的时候再睡。 所以我等了一小会儿，接着我的东西就都能看清了：我的书桌上放着我用来当笔筒的迪士尼马克杯，还有那把书桌椅子，

I picked out because it swivels around, the beanbag pillow in the corner that's shaped like a Tootsie Roll, my bookcase with all my books in order from favorite to least favorite, and my dresser with all my clothes inside of it. My princess mirror and crown were lying on top of my dresser. They came with my princess kit that I got when I was little. Next to the crown was a little rectangle. I knew it wasn't from the princess kit. It was more like a deck of cards, except it was a little too skinny and too long to be a deck of cards. Besides I only have one deck of cards and I knew they were in my desk drawer. Willa had come over on Tuesday, and we played Spit. When we finished, Willa put the cards back in the box

是我亲自挑的，因为它能转来转去，墙角还有个造型像乳脂糖的豆袋枕，我的书架上所有书都按我最喜欢到最不喜欢的顺序摆着，还有我的衣柜，里面放着我所有的衣服。 我的公主镜子和皇冠放在衣柜顶上。 它们是我小时候买的公主套装里的东西。 皇冠旁边有个小小的长方形东西。 我知道它不是公主套装里的。 它更像一副扑克牌，但比普通扑克牌要瘦一点、长一点。 而且我只有一副扑克牌，我清楚地记得它们放在我的书桌抽屉里。 薇拉周二来过我家，我们一起玩了“吐拍”纸牌游戏。 我们玩完之后，薇拉把牌放回了牌盒里

and put the box back in my drawer. What could that rectangle thing be? Then I remembered that Dad had brought the pack of gum into my room so we could chew it in front of my big mirror. Penny and I had each had two pieces, but I bet there were way more than four pieces in the pack. I wanted to make a wish so bad— that I could do everything Penny could do and even more, because I was older. Probably I'd be able to blow a bubble even bigger and better than Penny's. I just needed to chew a piece of magic gum. And that's when I decided to do it, right then and there. I knew I'd already brushed my teeth, but I thought it would be okay. Chewing gum isn't like eating, since you don't swallow anything. Also it's minty, like toothpaste, so it's almost

还把盒子放回了我的抽屉里。 那个长方形的东西会是什么呢？ 然后我想起来，之前爸爸把那包口香糖拿到我房间里，我们当时对着我的大镜子嚼口香糖来着。 我和佩妮每人吃了两片，但我敢肯定那包里肯定不止四片。 我特别想许个愿——希望我能做到佩妮会的所有事，甚至比她做得更好，毕竟我是姐姐嘛。 说不定我能吹出比佩妮的更大、更棒的泡泡呢。 我只要嚼一片魔法口香糖就好了。 就在那个时候，我打定了主意，当场就要这么做。 我知道我已经刷过牙了，但我觉得没关系。 嚼口香糖又不是吃东西，你又不会把它咽下去。 而且它是薄荷味的，和牙膏一样，所以这几乎就