圈外閑人
Amazon專欄作家 http://www.amazon.com/Jennifer-Fu/e/B004Y218FQ
《薑餅博物館之糖果、煎蛋、菠菜、冰塊和餅幹》是女兒寫的第四本小說，我今天有些空閑，將第十章的上半段翻譯了出來。
第十章：致人以命的漩渦
人物介紹：埃弗雷特是小主人公，彩虹糖是公主，巧克力是貴族，軟糖是仆人，大頭糖是軟糖的父親。
彩虹糖閃到一邊，舉著火炬凝視著黑暗中。她發布了最新消息：“半英裏遠處有一個漩渦，我可以從前麵水的轉速分析出來。好了，沒什麽關係，漩渦似乎相當的薄弱，用力劃槳就能過了，隻要我們小心不掉下去就行了。”
埃弗雷特放心了，半一英裏路還長著哪。從另一方麵來講，他們遲早會遇到漩渦的。
但是，等等，漩渦似乎離得很近。他說：“漩渦看起來沒有半英裏遠，也許隻有四分之一英裏遠。而且看起來一點也不弱。”
“你敢不信任上司的判斷嗎？”彩虹糖叫嘯著。
埃弗雷特思考著大頭糖跳水的方式。大頭糖的離開困擾著他，但是也許危險不大，大頭糖隻打起了小小的水花，隻有真正遊泳健將才能那樣，也許他正在水底下偷偷地潛伏著呢。
一小時之後，埃弗雷特盯著前麵的水流。是他的想象嗎？還是水中有一個大漏鬥？
每次洗澡的時候，埃弗雷特喜歡拔掉浴缸的排水塞頭，看著流水從管道裏旋轉著消失，前麵的渦流就像浴缸的排水係統一樣。他拿出照相機，抓拍了幾個鏡頭。埃弗雷特知道，這是一個糟糕的拍照機會，但是他必須記錄冒死尋寶的過程。至少，他可以向媽媽顯示這些照片，要麽她會相信他，或者更可能的是，認為他終於學會了如何進行圖片處理。
軟糖看著前麵的漩渦，以最快的速度劃著雙槳。埃弗雷特從這個菠菜男孩手中接過一把槳，一起劃了起來。不久，巧克力和彩虹糖也加入了與漩渦的抗爭。巧克力與埃弗雷特分享一把槳，但是卻減緩了劃船的速度。彩虹糖坐在埃弗雷特的前麵，她開始唱歌，然後按著節拍劃槳。這聽起來像是一首國歌，埃弗雷特也跟上了節拍，一起同步劃著船。這些努力是徒勞的，因為他們手中的槳隻是些木棍子。
在漩渦中劃槳耗盡了埃弗雷特的力氣，他實在太累了，遊泳已經不再是一種選擇了。
彩虹糖放下手中的槳，幾乎把它扔了，然後開始來回走動。彩虹糖用繩子將大家捆綁在一起，包括船和船上的物品。埃弗雷特非常失望，他們即將被漩渦吞沒，彩虹糖卻在玩捆綁探寶者的遊戲！埃弗雷特掙紮著，不想加入一堆被捆綁的廢物，但他還是被綁了。
船突然被拖入一個險惡的循環，漩渦像獅子般的凶猛，船是它不幸的獵物。船像一個倒下的汽水罐頭，將大家都傾倒出來。一個接著一個，每個探寶者被拋來拋去，猶如困於一個巨大的洗衣機。唯一連接他們的是一根繩子，他們被船拖進了漩渦，越卷越深。彩虹糖為什麽將他們捆綁起來？
“你稱這是薄弱的漩渦？”巧克力對著彩虹糖大叫：“我絕不這麽認為！”
埃弗雷特知道下一步會發生什麽，有一次，出於好奇，他研究過，知道一個人進入漩渦後的命運。最常見的答案是：“你死定了”。他猜測，這是由於缺乏空氣和食物，以及低溫度水的關係，他現在一點也沒有欲望驗證答案。
埃弗裏特覺得有人在拉扯繩子，慢慢地，他被拖出了漩渦。他看見大頭糖拉著軟糖出來，因此其他人也被拉了出來。太聰明了！拉一個人，拉了全部的人。捆綁大家是一個好辦法，它可以減少救人的努力，讓大家一起被拖出來。大頭糖在水中自由地踢水，象蜂鳥那般快地拍打著翅膀！也許更快！
。。。。。。
Skittles stepped to the side and looked out into the darkness with a torch. She delivered the news. “There’s a whirlpool half-a-mile away. I can tell by the swirling of the water up ahead. Well, never mind about that, as the whirlpool seems quite weak. Paddling should get us out, as long as nobody falls in.”
Everett relaxed. Half-a-mile was a long way to go. On the other hand, sooner or later they would encounter it.
But wait. It seemed much closer. He said, “It looks too close to be only half-a-mile away. Maybe it’s quarter-a-mile away. It doesn’t look weak at all.”
“You dare mistrust the judgment of your superior?” Skittles hissed.
Everett was thinking about the way Gumdrop had dived into the water. It troubled him that Gumdrop was gone, but he was probably fine. Only pro swimmers really dived. Plus, Everett had seen small ripples of water that seemed to indicate that Gumdrop was swimming stealthily nearby.
An hour later, Everett looked at the river ahead. Was it his imagination, or was there a funnel in the water?
Whenever Everett took a bath, he liked to unplug the bathtub drain and watch the water being consumed by the pipe works. The vortex ahead looked a bit like water going down the drain. He took out his camera and snapped a couple of pictures. Everett knew that it was a bad time to take pictures, but they were evidence of how his life was risked just to find a jewel. At least he could show his mom these pictures. Either she would believe him, or more likely, think that he finally had learned how to photoshop a picture.
Jellybean looked at the whirlpool. He started paddling as fast as he could. Everett took over one of the Spinach boy’s paddles. Soon Chocolate and Skittles had joined the fight against the swirling water. Chocolate came to share the paddle with Everett, but ended up slowing the rowing considerably. Skittles sat in front of Jellybean, trying to row to a song she started singing. It sounded like an anthem. Everett joined in rowing to the beat. Even with the synchronized rowing, the effort was futile. Skittles’ calculation didn’t seem to have considered the fact that their only oars were sticks.
Paddling against a whirlpool drained Everett’s energy. He was so tired that swimming was not an option anymore.
Skittles let go of the paddle, nearly throwing it out, and started walking around. Skittles was using a rope to tie everyone together, including the boat and its contents. Everett was upset. They were about to drown in a whirlpool, and Skittles was playing tie-the-questers-up! Everett struggled not to get joined to the pile of questers stuck to the boat by the rope, but he was tied up, too.
The boat was suddenly dragged into a vicious circle. The whirlpool was like a lion, and the boat was its unfortunate prey. The boat tipped over like a soda can, dumping everybody out. One by one, every quester was tossed around like they were inside a huge laundry machine. The only thing that kept them together was the rope. The boat, however, was thrown by the swirling water closer to the gap, dragging everybody tied to it into the gaping hole there. What had Skittles been thinking?
“You call this weak?” Chocolate yelled at Skittles. “I certainly don’t!”
Everett thought that he knew what would happen. Once, out of curiosity, he had researched to see what happens to people in a whirlpool. The most common answer was “you die”. He had guessed that it was caused by the lack of air and food, and the low temperature of the water, though he, for one, did not want to find out.
Everett felt a tug on the line. Slowly, he was hauled out of the whirlpool. He saw Gumdrop pulling Jellybean out, therefore pulling everyone else out, too. Smart! Pull one out, pull all out. The rope trick was a good one. It probably lessened the effort of getting everybody out. Gumdrop was doing a freestyle kick in the amount of time it took for a hummingbird to beat its wings! Maybe even faster!
......
謝！節日快樂！
謝謝鼓勵！感恩節快樂！