圈外闲人
Amazon专栏作家 http://www.amazon.com/Jennifer-Fu/e/B004Y218FQ
《姜饼博物馆之糖果、煎蛋、菠菜、冰块和饼干》是女儿写的第四本小说，我今天有些空闲，将第十章的上半段翻译了出来。
第十章：致人以命的漩涡
人物介绍：埃弗雷特是小主人公，彩虹糖是公主，巧克力是贵族，软糖是仆人，大头糖是软糖的父亲。
彩虹糖闪到一边，举着火炬凝视着黑暗中。她发布了最新消息：“半英里远处有一个漩涡，我可以从前面水的转速分析出来。好了，没什么关系，漩涡似乎相当的薄弱，用力划桨就能过了，只要我们小心不掉下去就行了。”
埃弗雷特放心了，半一英里路还长着哪。从另一方面来讲，他们迟早会遇到漩涡的。
但是，等等，漩涡似乎离得很近。他说：“漩涡看起来没有半英里远，也许只有四分之一英里远。而且看起来一点也不弱。”
“你敢不信任上司的判断吗？”彩虹糖叫啸着。
埃弗雷特思考着大头糖跳水的方式。大头糖的离开困扰着他，但是也许危险不大，大头糖只打起了小小的水花，只有真正游泳健将才能那样，也许他正在水底下偷偷地潜伏着呢。
一小时之后，埃弗雷特盯着前面的水流。是他的想象吗？还是水中有一个大漏斗？
每次洗澡的时候，埃弗雷特喜欢拔掉浴缸的排水塞头，看着流水从管道里旋转着消失，前面的涡流就像浴缸的排水系统一样。他拿出照相机，抓拍了几个镜头。埃弗雷特知道，这是一个糟糕的拍照机会，但是他必须记录冒死寻宝的过程。至少，他可以向妈妈显示这些照片，要么她会相信他，或者更可能的是，认为他终于学会了如何进行图片处理。
软糖看着前面的漩涡，以最快的速度划着双桨。埃弗雷特从这个菠菜男孩手中接过一把桨，一起划了起来。不久，巧克力和彩虹糖也加入了与漩涡的抗争。巧克力与埃弗雷特分享一把桨，但是却减缓了划船的速度。彩虹糖坐在埃弗雷特的前面，她开始唱歌，然后按着节拍划桨。这听起来像是一首国歌，埃弗雷特也跟上了节拍，一起同步划着船。这些努力是徒劳的，因为他们手中的桨只是些木棍子。
在漩涡中划桨耗尽了埃弗雷特的力气，他实在太累了，游泳已经不再是一种选择了。
彩虹糖放下手中的桨，几乎把它扔了，然后开始来回走动。彩虹糖用绳子将大家捆绑在一起，包括船和船上的物品。埃弗雷特非常失望，他们即将被漩涡吞没，彩虹糖却在玩捆绑探宝者的游戏！埃弗雷特挣扎着，不想加入一堆被捆绑的废物，但他还是被绑了。
船突然被拖入一个险恶的循环，漩涡像狮子般的凶猛，船是它不幸的猎物。船像一个倒下的汽水罐头，将大家都倾倒出来。一个接着一个，每个探宝者被抛来抛去，犹如困于一个巨大的洗衣机。唯一连接他们的是一根绳子，他们被船拖进了漩涡，越卷越深。彩虹糖为什么将他们捆绑起来？
“你称这是薄弱的漩涡？”巧克力对着彩虹糖大叫：“我绝不这么认为！”
埃弗雷特知道下一步会发生什么，有一次，出于好奇，他研究过，知道一个人进入漩涡后的命运。最常见的答案是：“你死定了”。他猜测，这是由于缺乏空气和食物，以及低温度水的关系，他现在一点也没有欲望验证答案。
埃弗里特觉得有人在拉扯绳子，慢慢地，他被拖出了漩涡。他看见大头糖拉着软糖出来，因此其他人也被拉了出来。太聪明了！拉一个人，拉了全部的人。捆绑大家是一个好办法，它可以减少救人的努力，让大家一起被拖出来。大头糖在水中自由地踢水，象蜂鸟那般快地拍打着翅膀！也许更快！
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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!
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谢！节日快乐！
谢谢鼓励！感恩节快乐！