雙語讀電影 《飛屋環(huán)游記》第04章 :他們對面不到十英里的地方，就是天堂瀑布
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CHAPTER 4
Russell poked Carl in the face. Nothing happened. He poked him again—harder. This time, Carl’s eyes snapped open.“Whew.” Russell breathed a deep sigh of relief. “I thought you were dead.”
Carl got up. “Huh … wha … what happened?”
“I steered us,” Russell announced. “I did. I steered the house.”
Carl felt his head. He was too groggy to understand what Russell was saying. “Steered us?”
“After you tied your stuff down, you took a nap, so I went ahead and steered us down here.”
Carl went to the window and stuck his head out. For a moment, the light was too bright—he couldn’t see anything.When his eyes adjusted, he realized that the house was floating over a blanket of thick fog. “Can’t tell where we are,” he mumbled.
Russell held up a global positioning device. “Oh, we’re in South America, all right. It was a cinch with my Wilderness Explorer GPS.”
Carl pulled his head back in through the window and glared at the newfangled gadget. “GP—what?”
“My dad gave it to me,” Russell explained. “It shows exactly where we are on the planet.” Russell made a few robot-style beeps, waving his GPS proudly.“With this baby we’ll never be lost!” He threw open his hands, and the GPS sailed out the window. Russell and Carl watched as the GPS fell through the clouds.
“Oops,” said Russell.
Grumbling, Carl kneeled by the fireplace to cut a few balloon strings. “We’ll get you down, find a bus stop,” he said. “You just tell the man you want to go back to your mother.”
Russell shrugged. “Sure, but I don’t think they have buses in Paradise Falls.”
“There.” Carl finished cutting the strings. He could feel the house begin to descend like a slow elevator. “That ought to do it. Here, I’ll give you some change for bus fare.”
Russell put on his backpack and the house lowered through the fog. “Nah, I’ll just use my city bus pass. Whoa, that’s going to be like a billion transfers to get back to my house.” He and Carl headed out onto the porch. “Mr. Fredricksen, how much longer?”
“Well, we’re up pretty high. Could take hours to get down.” Carl caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye, but it disappeared back into the fog. “Uh … that thing was … a building or something.”
Suddenly, something came up through the clouds. It was headed straight for them! “What was that, Mr. Fredricksen?” Russell exclaimed. Carl didn’t know. “We can’t be close to the ground yet!”
But they were—there were rocks directly below them. Carl gasped as the landscape came into view. It was a tepui!
Bam!
The house slammed against the rocky ground. Carl and Russell were knocked off the porch. They struggled to hold on as the house bumped and dragged across the tepui. Carl and Russell both lost their grip.
But the house kept going.
Carl chased a stray garden hose that was trailing behind the house like a tail. “Wait. Wait!” he shouted at the house. “Don’t, don’t. Stop!” He grabbed the hose, and it pulled him into the air. “Wait! Wait! Wait! Whoa!”
With a leap, Russell grabbed on to Carl’s leg. The weight pulled the house closer to the ground.
“Russell, hang on!” Carl hollered.
“Whoa!”
The house dragged them along. They slid to the edge of the tepui and then stopped. Carl looked down. He was at the top of a steep cliff. It was thousands and thousands of feet to the bottom.
“Walk back!” Carl shouted. “Walk back!”
“Okay.” Russell nodded and dug in.
“Come on, come on!”
The wind tried to carry the house over the edge. Russell pulled Carl’s foot with all his strength, yanking him to safety.
Carl looked around, breathing hard. They were still surrounded by fog. All he could see was that the ground was rocky. “Where … where are we?”
“This doesn’t look like the city or the jungle, Mr. Fredricksen,” Russell said.
The wind picked up again. Russell and Carl struggled to keep hold of the house. “Don’t worry, Ellie,” Carl muttered. “I got it.”
As the fog began to clear, Carl could see where they were. He and Russell were standing at the top of a tall, flat-topped mountain. They were surrounded by more tepuis. And across from them, less than ten miles away, was Paradise Falls.
Carl gasped in disbelief. “There it is,” he whispered. “Ellie, it’s so beautiful.” He pulled out Ellie’s old drawing—the one with the house sitting beside the waterfall. “We made it. We made it!” Carl whooped. “Russell! We could float right over there. Climb up. Climb up!”
“You mean assist you?” Russell asked hopefully.
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever.”
“Okay. I’ll climb up!” Russell climbed over Carl, stepping on his arms and face to get to the house.
“Watch it,” Carl growled.
“Sorry.” Russell smiled apologetically. He’d been so eager to assist an elderly person that he’d forgotten he shouldn’t step on Carl to do it.
“Now, when you get up there,” Carl called, “go ahead and hoist me up! Got it? You on the porch yet?”
But Russell had barely climbed six inches. He slid down the hose, exhausted, and landed on Carl’s head.
“Oh, great,” Carl grumbled.
“Hey, if I could assist you over there, would you sign off on my badge?” Russell asked.
“What are you talking about?” Carl snapped.
“We could walk your house to the falls.”
“Walk it?” Carl snorted. The boy was talking nonsense again.
“Yeah,” Russell said. “After all, we weigh it down. We could walk it right over there. Like a parade balloon!”
Carl started to scowl, but then stopped. He looked up. A light breeze blew, and the house swayed slightly. He was still holding on to the hose. The house pulled him forward … toward the falls.
Walk to the falls. It was totally crazy … crazy enough to work.
Soon Carl and Russell were ready to go.They had made harnesses out of the garden hose, which they tied across their chests.
As they hiked, Carl tried to make Russell understand the seriousness of their situation. “Now, we’re going to walk to the falls quickly and quietly, with no rap music or flash dancing,” he explained.“We have three days, at best, before the helium leaks out of those balloons, and if we’re not at the falls when that happens, we’re not getting to the falls!”
But Russell was barely listening. There were so many new and interesting sights on the tepui, it was difficult to concentrate on Carl’s words.
Carl looked over at the falls, then up at his house. “Don’t you worry, Ellie,” he muttered. “We’ll get our house over there.”
Dragging the house behind them was difficult work. But Russell didn’t mind it. “This is fun already, isn’t it?” he asked happily. “By the time we get there, you’re gonna feel so assisted.”
Suddenly, he had an idea. “Oh, Mr. Fredricksen. If we happen to get separated, use the Wilderness Explorer call: Caw-caw! Rarr!”
Carl winced as the call set off his hearing aid once more.
“Wait,” Russell said. “Why are we going to Paradise Falls again?”
“Hey, let’s play a game,” Carl suggested. “It’s called See Who Can Be Quiet the Longest.”
Russell smiled—he knew how to play this one. “Cool! My mom loves that game!”
第 4 章
小羅戳了一下卡爾的臉，卡爾沒有任何反應(yīng)。小羅又用力戳了一下。這一次，卡爾突然睜開了眼睛。“喔——”小羅松了一口氣，“我還以為你死了呢。”
卡爾坐了起來：“嘿……啊……發(fā)生什么事了？”
“我會‘開’房子了，”小羅宣布道，“我做到了。我會‘開’房子了。”
卡爾撓了撓后腦勺，他還暈暈乎乎的，并不明白小羅在說些什么，于是問道：“‘開’房子？”
“你把自己的東西收拾好以后，就睡著了，然后我就接手，把房子‘開’到這里來了。”
卡爾奔向窗口，探出頭，向外望去。一瞬間，光線太刺眼了，他什么都看不清。過了一會兒，他的眼睛適應(yīng)了強(qiáng)光，他看到房子還在飄浮著，下面是厚厚的霧層。“搞不清我們到哪里了。”他咕噥著。
這時，小羅舉起一個全球定位裝置：“哦，我們到南美洲了。有了我這個野外探險(xiǎn)家GPS，這都不是事兒。”
卡爾把頭從窗外縮回來，盯著那個新奇的玩意兒問道：“GP——什么？”
“我爸爸給我的，”小羅解釋說，“它能顯示我們在地球上所處的確切位置。”然后，小羅模仿了幾聲機(jī)器人式的“嗶嗶”聲，自豪地?fù)]舞著他的GPS。“有了這個寶貝，我們再也不怕走丟了！”他張開雙手，卻不小心把這個GPS從窗戶中丟了出去，兩人眼睜睜地看著它穿過云層掉了下去。
“哎呀！”小羅遺憾地說。
卡爾不開心地咕噥著，跪在壁爐旁用鑰匙劃斷了一些連著氣球的繩線，說道：“我現(xiàn)在放你下去，然后你找個車站，跟司機(jī)說你要回家就行了。”
小羅聳聳肩說：“好吧，但是我覺得天堂瀑布里沒有公交車呢。”
“得啦。”卡爾把要截?cái)嗟睦K線都劃斷了，明顯地感覺到房子像電梯一樣在緩慢降落。“應(yīng)該會有的。待會兒我給你點(diǎn)零錢 坐公交車。”
小羅背上了背包，房子在云層中繼續(xù)降落。“不用，我有城市公交卡。哇，這估計(jì)得轉(zhuǎn)十億次車才能回到家吧。”他與卡爾走到門廊上。小羅問道：“費(fèi)迪遜先生，還要多久？”
“嗯，我們飛得很高，還要幾個小時才能降落呢。”正說著，卡爾用余光似乎瞥見了什么，但那東西很快被霧氣遮住了。“嗯……那是……高樓還是什么。”
突然，有什么東西出現(xiàn)在云層中。這東西正朝他們這邊過來！“那是什么，費(fèi)迪遜先生？”小羅驚呼道。卡爾也不知道，于是說：“我們還不能靠近地面！”
但他們已經(jīng)到了——大塊的巖石就在他們正下方?？柕刮艘豢跉?，看著映入眼簾的風(fēng)景——是特普伊山！
嘭！
房子猛地撞到了巖石地面上，卡爾和小羅從門廊上掉了下來。在房子繼續(xù)顛簸著橫穿特普伊山時，他們倆極盡全力地去抓住它。不一會兒，卡爾和小羅便抓不住了。
但房子仍在向前飄移。
卡爾追上了一根垂下來的花園軟管，它垂在房子后面就像一條尾巴。“等等，等等！”卡爾沖著房子喊道，“別，別，快停下！”他抓住了花園軟管，被拉到了空中。“等等！等等！等一等！哇哦！”
情急之下，小羅縱身一躍，抱住了卡爾的腿。他們兩人的重量把房子拉得離地面近了一些。
“小羅，抓緊了！” 卡爾大呼。
“哇哦！”
房子一直拖著他們向前走，直到他們滑到特普伊山的邊緣，才停了下來?？栂蛳聫埻l(fā)現(xiàn)自己正站在一座陡峭的懸崖頂部，腳下的深淵有數(shù)千英尺深。
“往回走！”卡爾喊道，“往回走！”
“好的。”小羅點(diǎn)了點(diǎn)頭，用力往后拽。
“加油，加油！”
風(fēng)把房子往懸崖邊上吹。小羅使出吃奶的勁兒才把卡爾的腳拉回來，卡爾暫時安全了。
卡爾氣喘吁吁地環(huán)顧著四周，發(fā)現(xiàn)他們兩人仍然被大霧包圍著，眼前只有巖石地面。“這……我們這是在哪兒??？”
“看起來既不像城市，也不像叢林，費(fèi)迪遜先生。”小羅說。
風(fēng)變得越來越猛烈了。小羅和卡爾竭力扯住花園軟管，不讓房子被風(fēng)吹走。“艾莉，別擔(dān)心，”卡爾喃喃地說，“我會保住咱們的房子。”
隨著霧氣慢慢消散，卡爾可以清楚地看到他們周圍的環(huán)境了。他和小羅正站在一座高高的平頂山上。周圍還有許許多多的平頂山。而他們對面不到十英里的地方，就是天堂瀑布。
卡爾感到難以置信，倒吸一口氣：“就是這兒，”他低聲說，“艾莉，這里好漂亮啊。”他拿出艾莉以前畫的那幅畫——一條潔白美麗的瀑布旁，有一座房子。“我們做到了。我們做到了！”卡爾歡呼道，“小羅！我們可以飛到那兒去。爬上去?？炫郎先?！”
“你是說讓我協(xié)助你？”小羅滿懷希望地問道。
“是的，算是啦。無所謂啦。”
“好呀。我這就上去！”小羅爬到卡爾身上，踩著他的胳膊和臉朝房子爬去。
卡爾咆哮道：“你注意點(diǎn)兒啊。”
“對不起。”小羅滿懷歉意地笑了笑。他一直那么渴望著幫助一位老人，竟忘記了自己不應(yīng)該靠踩著卡爾來完成。
“聽好了，等你到房子里以后，”卡爾喊道，“繼續(xù)走，把我拉上去！明白了嗎？你到門廊了嗎？”
然而小羅才勉強(qiáng)爬了六英寸。他筋疲力盡，從軟管上滑了下來，一屁股坐在了卡爾的頭頂上。
“哦，天哪。”卡爾抱怨道。
“嘿，如果我有辦法讓你到那兒，你能在我的徽章上簽字嗎？”小羅問。
“你到底在說什么？”卡爾厲聲問道。
“我們可以拉著你的房子，走到瀑布那邊去。”
“拉著它走過去？”卡爾哼了一聲，心想這個小男孩又在胡說八道了。
“是啊，”小羅說，“畢竟，我們的重量可以把它拉下來。我們也可以像拖氣球一樣拖著房子走過去！”
卡爾生氣地看著他，然后停了下來。他抬起頭。微風(fēng)輕輕地吹拂，房子微微地?fù)u曳。他仍緊緊拉著軟管。房子把他拉向了前方……拉向瀑布。
走到瀑布去。這實(shí)在是太瘋狂了……太瘋狂了。
很快，卡爾和小羅都做好了出發(fā)的準(zhǔn)備。他們用花園軟管做成了背帶，繞在胸前。
兩人徒步行走著，卡爾努力讓小羅意識到當(dāng)前情況的嚴(yán)重性，他說：“現(xiàn)在，我們要快速而安靜地走向瀑布，沒有那些動感的音樂和舞蹈了，”他又解釋道，“在氣球里的氦氣完全漏掉之前，我們頂多有三天的時間。如果到那時我們還沒有到達(dá)瀑布，那么我們就永遠(yuǎn)也到不了了！”
但小羅幾乎沒有在聽。特普伊山上有太多新奇有趣的風(fēng)景，這讓他很難集中精力去聽卡爾在講什么。
卡爾望了望瀑布，然后又抬頭看了看自己的房子：“艾莉，你別擔(dān)心，”他喃喃地說，“我們這就把房子帶到瀑布那兒去。”
拖著身后的房子行走是一項(xiàng)異常艱苦的工作，但小羅并不介意。“太有趣了，不是嗎？”他高興地說著，“等我們到了瀑布，你就會知道我?guī)土四愣啻竺α恕?rdquo;
突然，他靈光一閃，計(jì)上心頭。“哦，費(fèi)迪遜先生，如果我們不巧分開了，就用野外探險(xiǎn)家的口號進(jìn)行呼叫：嘎—嘎！喔嗚！”
口號聲又一次傳到卡爾的助聽器里時，卡爾不由得畏縮成一團(tuán)。
“等等，”小羅說，“我們?yōu)槭裁催€要去天堂瀑布呢？”
“嘿，我們來玩?zhèn)€游戲吧，”卡爾建議道，“游戲叫作‘我們都是木頭人’。”
小羅笑了，他會玩這個游戲。“酷！我媽媽喜歡這個游戲！”
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