Day 15 回顾

从Bryce视角故事讲到他全家害怕Juli家院子脏乱，她家的鸡蛋可能会传染沙门氏菌。两年多来，Bryce偷偷摸摸将Juli送来的鸡蛋全部扔掉，Juli无意撞见真相，伤心欲绝。

究竟Juli家的鸡从何而来，还有她家的狗“Champion”又来自何处？为什么她两个哥哥将组建的乐队命名为“神秘尿尿--”“Mystery Pisser”？欲知详情，请认真阅读。

图片：网图，图文无关

Day 16  The Eggs     女生视角

After they cut down the sycamore tree, it seemed like everything else fell apart, too. Champ died. And then I found out about the eggs. It was Champ’s time to go, and even though I still miss him, I think it’s been easier for me to deal with his death than it has been for me to deal with the truth about the eggs. I still cannot believe it about the eggs.

在他们砍倒梧桐树后，似乎其他一切也崩溃瓦解了。“冠军”（狗名）去世了。然后我知道了鸡蛋（被Bryce扔掉）的真相。是该年迈的“冠军”离开世界了，尽管我仍然想念他，但我想我应对狗的死亡这件事比我面对鸡蛋的真相更容易。我依旧不敢相信那些鸡蛋都被Bryce扔掉了。

The eggs came before the chickens in our case, but the dog came before them both. One night when I was about six years old, Dad came home from work with a full-grown dog tied down in the back of his truck. Someone had hit it in the middle of an intersection, and Dad had stopped to see how badly it was hurt. Then he noticed that the poor thing was skinny as a rail and didn’t have any tags. “Starving and completely disoriented,” he told my mother. “Can you imagine someone abandoning their dog like that?”

在我们这种情形下，先有鸡蛋后有鸡，但狗在两者之前。我六岁的时候，一天晚上，爸爸下班回家，一只成年狗被绑在卡车车厢里带回了家。狗是在十字路口被人撞到了，爸爸停下来查看他伤势有多严重。然后他注意到这个可怜的东西骨瘦如柴，且没有任何表明身份的标签。“它饿坏了，完全迷路了，”他告诉母亲。“你能想象有人会像那样抛弃他们的狗吗？”

The whole family had converged on the front porch, and I could hardly contain myself. A dog! A wonderful, happy, panty dog! I realize now that Champ was never much of a looker, but when you’re six, any dog—no matter how mangy—is a glorious, huggable creature.

我们全家都聚集在前门廊上，我几乎控制不住自己的激动之情。一只狗！一只美妙的，快乐的，伸着舌头喘息的狗！我现在意识到“冠军”从来都算不上好看，但当你六岁的时候，任何一只狗——无论多么脏兮兮的——都是一个美好的、惹人喜爱的动物。

He looked pretty good to my brothers, too, but from the waymy mother’s face was pinched（捏）, I could tell she was thinking, Abandon this dog? Oh, I can see it. I can definitely see it. What she said, though, was simply, “There is no room for that animal in this house.”

看得出来我的哥哥们也喜欢这条狗，但从我母亲绷脸皱眉的神情来看，她在思考。丢掉这只狗吧？哦，我看出来了。她肯定这么想的。不过她只是简简单单地说，“房子里没有地方来养他。”

“Trina,”my dad said, “it’s not a matter of ownership. It’s a matter of compa-ssion"

“崔娜，”我爸爸说，“这不是养不养的问题。这是同情心的问题。"

“You’re not springing it on me as a… a pet, then?”

“你该不会突发奇想让我把他……当宠物养吧？”

“That is definitely not my intention.”

“这肯定不是我的意图。”

“Well, then what do you intend to do?”

“那么，那你打算怎么办？”

“Give him a decent meal, a bath… then maybe we’ll place an ad and find him a home.”

Sheeyed him from across the threshold. “There’ll be no ‘maybe’ about it.”

My brothers said, “We don’t get to keep him?”

“That’s right.”

“But Mo-om,” they moaned. 

“给他一顿像样的饭，洗个澡……然后可能我们会登个广告，给他找个家。”

她隔着门槛注视着他。“没有“可能”。”

我的哥哥们说：“我们不能把他留下来吗？”

“绝对不行。”

“可是妈妈，”他们抱怨道。

“It’s not open to discussion,” she said. “He gets a bath, he gets a meal, he gets an ad in the paper.” 

“没有讨论的余地，”她说。“给他洗个澡，吃点东西，然后到报纸上登广告。”

My father put one arm around Matt’s shoulder and the other around Mike’s. “Someday, boys, we’ll get a puppy.”

我父亲用一只胳膊搂着马特的肩膀，另一只胳膊搂着迈克的肩膀。“总有一天，孩子们，我们会养只小狗的。”

My mother was already heading back inside, but over her shoulder came, “Not until you learn to keep your room neat, boys!”

我妈妈已经朝屋里走去了，但她转过头说：“孩子们，除非你们学会保持房间整洁，否则不行！”

Bythe end of the week, the dog was named Champ. By the end of the next week, he’d made it from the backyard into the kitchen area. And not too long after that, he was all moved in. It seemed nobody wanted a full-grown dog with a happy bark. Nobody but four-fifths of the Baker family, anyway.

周末时，这只狗被取名为“冠军”。接下来的周末，他的活动范围已经从后院进入了厨房。没过多久，他就跑到屋子里活动了。似乎没有人想要一只快乐的叫个不停的成年狗。除了贝克家五个人中的四个。

Then my mother started noticing an odor. A mysterious odor of indeterminate origin. We all admitted we smelled it, too, but where my mother was convinced it was Eau de Champ, we disagreed. She had us bathing him so often that it couldn’t possibly be him. We each sniffed him out pretty good and he smelled perfectly rosy.

然后，我妈妈开始注意到一种气味。一种来源不明的神秘气味。我们都承认我们也闻到了，但我母亲确信那是“冠军”身上的味道，我们可不这么认为。她要求我们频繁地给他洗澡，所以根本不可能是他身上的气味。我们每个人都认真地嗅嗅他，他闻起来有很棒的玫瑰香味。

My personal suspicion was that Matt and Mike were the ones not bathing enough, but I didn’t want to get close enough to sniff them. And since our camp was divided on just who the culprit or culprits were, the odor was dubbed the Mystery Smell. Whole dinnertime discussions revolved around the Mystery Smell, which my brothers found amusing and my mother did not.

我个人怀疑是马特和迈克洗澡不勤导致的，但我不想凑得很近去闻他们。由于我们无法就气味来源达成共识，这种气味被称为“神秘气味”。整个晚餐时间的讨论都围绕着“神秘气味”，我的哥哥们觉得这很好玩，而我母亲可不这么认为。

Then one day my mother cracked the case. And she might have cracked Champ’s skull as well if my dad hadn’t come to the rescue and shooed him outside.

有一天，我妈妈破案了。如果不是我爸爸出手营救，并把“冠军”赶跑，她没准儿会打破了他的头。

Momwas fuming. “I told you it was him. The Mystery Smell comes from the Mystery Pisser! Did you see that? Did you see that? He just squirted on the end table!”

妈妈十分恼火。“我早说过，就是他。“神秘的气味”来自于“神秘尿尿”！你们看到了吗？你们看到没有？他刚才在茶几上喷尿！”

My father raced with a roll of paper towels to where Champ had been, and said, “Where? Where is it?”

我父亲拿着一卷纸巾冲到“冠军”曾经待过的地方，问：“在哪儿？在哪儿呢？”

All of three drops were dripping down the table leg. “There,” my mother said, pointing a shaky finger at the wetness. “There!”

三滴液体从桌腿上流下来。“那儿，那儿！” 母亲说，用颤抖的手指对准那块湿漉漉的地方。

Dad wiped it up, then checked the carpet and said, “It was barely a drop.”

爸爸把它擦了擦，然后检查了一下地毯，说：“这只不过是一滴。”

“Exactly!” my mother said with her hands on her hips. “Which is why I’ve never been able to find anything. That dog stays outside from now on. Do you hear me? He is no longer allowed in this house!”

“没错！”我母亲双手叉腰说。“这就是为什么我什么也找不到。那只狗从现在开始只能呆在外面。听见了吗？决不允许他再进屋了！”

“How about the garage?” I asked. “Can he sleep in there?” “And have him tag everything that’s out there? No!”

“那让他待在车库如何？”我问。“他能睡在那里吗？”“让他把外面的所有东西都尿上标记吗？不行！”

Mike and Matt were grinning at each other. “Mystery Pisser! That could be the name for our band!”

“Yeah! Cool!”

迈克和马特咧嘴相视而笑。“‘神秘尿尿’！这可以成为我们乐队的名字！”

“是啊！酷毙了！”

“Band?” my mother asked. “Wait a minute, what band?” But they were already flying down to their room, laughing about the possibilities for a logo.

“乐队？” 我妈妈问。“等一下，什么乐队？” 但他们已经飞冲下楼回到自己的房间，嬉笑着讨论给乐队一个可能性的标志。

My father and I spent the rest of the day sniffing out and destroying criminal evidence. My dad used a spray bottle of ammonia; I followed up with Lysol. We did try to recruit my brothers, but they wound up getting into a spray-bottle fight, which got them locked in their room, which, of course, was fine with them.

那天剩下的时间，我和父亲到处嗅探并销毁“冠军”的犯罪证据。我爸爸拿了一瓶氨喷雾；我拿着消毒剂紧跟其后。我们确实试图招募我的哥哥们帮忙，但他们最终使用喷雾瓶来打水仗，他们被惩罚关禁闭，当然，这对他们并没什么不好。

So Champ became an outside dog, and he might have been our only pet ever if it hadn’t been for my fifth-grade science fair.

所以“冠军”只能待在外边，如果不是因为我五年级的科学展，它可能是我们家唯一的宠物。

读后小记

“冠军”在电影里没有体现，他在小说中的出现体现了Juli一家仁心宅厚，富有爱心。非常能理解妈妈最初对狗的反应。毕竟，一大家子的打扫整理都是妈妈的苦差事，一开始对狗狗的到来非常抵触也是情有可原。

就像我一开始喂养“参鱼条”，妈妈也是极力反对的，主要也是担心它到处拉撒，不卫生，到现在妈妈每天各种好吃的投喂，一周不见，“参鱼条”长大了一圈，馒头，花生米，粥，鱼，肉，什么都吃，倒是不挑食，别看它瘦，食量可不小！现在它俨然成了家里的不可或缺的一个成员。

It is a pity that the cat is not allowed in the house, either.

图片：“参鱼条”