【E02】Chapter 1-1：海怪少年卢卡登场

CHAPTER 1 第1章-1

“Aaaaaaaahhhh!”

The scream didn’t come from a couple of frightened fishermen. It came from theocean
depths. Specifically, from the mouth of twelve year-old sea monster LucaPaguro.

Luca floated in front of an undersea barn, its doors wide open.Nothing was inside.
His family’s goatfish, which were supposed to be in there, were swimming all over theplace, eating everything in sight.

“啊—”

这个尖叫声并不来自那两个受惊吓的渔夫，而是来自海洋深处。确切地说，是从12岁的海怪卢卡·帕古螺嘴里发出来的。

卢卡在一个海底的牲口棚前晃来晃去，牲口棚的门敞开着，里面空落落的。他家里的山羊鱼本来应待在牲口棚里的，这时正在外面到处游来游去，看到什么就吃什么。

“Fish out of the barn!” Luca exclaimed. “Fishout of the barn!”

One of the goatfish bleated.

Luca shouted, “Caterina! Wait!”

But Caterina was already off. Luca followed her, swimming rightpast another farmer feeding some crabs.

“Good morning, Mr. Branzino—” Luca said hurriedly.

“Ah!” Mr. Branzino shouted, startled by the interruption. “Hi,Luca.”

“— and also, I’m sorry,” Luca said, struggling with thegoatfish. “How’s Mrs. Branzino?”

The goatfish kept swimming and Luca left without waiting for ananswer. He passed another farmer, Mrs. Gamberetto.

“鱼跑出牲口棚啦！”卢卡喊道，“鱼跑出牡口棚啦！”

一条山羊鱼咩咩地叫着。

卢卡喊道：“卡特琳娜！等等我！”

但是卡特琳娜已经出发了。卢卡追赶着她，经过了一位正在喂螃蟹的农夫身边。

“早上好，布朗兹鲈先生—”卢卡连忙说。

“啊！”布朗兹鲈先生被他的声音惊扰，叫了一声，“嗨，卢卡。”

“—还有，我很抱歉。”卢卡一边说，一边追着那条山羊鱼，

“布朗兹鲈太太还好吗？

山羊鱼继续游着，卢卡没等布朗兹鲈先生应答就离开了。他经过另一位农民甘贝雷托夫人身边。

“Excuse me, ah, ma’am?” Luca asked politely.

“Have you, by—”

“Yes,” Mrs.Gamberetto replied sternly. Then she turned her head, giving Luca an excellent look at thegoatfish nibbling on the back of it.

Luca let out anervous laugh as he quickly collected his goatfish.

But another one hadgotten away—it was Giuseppe. Luca saw the fish moving along a hill, headingtoward the ocean surface.

“Giuseppe! Get backhere!” Luca cried.

“对不起，夫人？”卢卡礼貌地问，“你—”

“怎么了？”甘贝雷托太太严厉地回答。然后她转过头来，狠狠地看了卢卡一眼，山羊鱼正在啃她的后脑勺。

卢卡一边飞快地抓住他的山羊鱼，一边紧张地笑了一下。

但是另一条山羊鱼跑掉了—是朱塞佩。卢卡看见它沿着一座小山，正朝海面游去。

“朱塞佩！回这里来！”卢卡喊道。

He threw himself atthe goatfish, but Giuseppe wriggled free. Luca wasn’t going to give up that easily. He keptgrabbing, and at last, he got a solid grip.

“You wanna run offlike your buddy Enrico?” Luca asked. “Because I’ve got news for you. He’seither dead, or he’s . . . out there somewhere. Seeing the world . . . ”

Luca’s voice trailedoff, as he imagined what it would be like to go out there somewhere and see theworld.

Snapping out of hisreverie, Luca said, “But he’s probably dead!”

Rejoining the flock, Luca looked at all the goatfish before him and tooka quick head count.

他扑向那条山羊鱼，但朱塞佩奋力扭动身子挣脱了。卢卡不打算轻易放弃。他不停地抓，终于牢牢抓住了朱塞佩。

“你想像你的朋友恩里科那样逃跑吗？”卢卡问道，“那我现在就告诉你，他要么死了，要么……在某处看世界……”

卢卡的声音越来越低，因为他想象着到外面某个地方去看看这个世界会是什么样子。

卢卡突然从幻想中清醒过来，说：“但他很可能已经死了！”

卢卡又回到那群山羊鱼身边，看了看面前的山羊鱼，迅速数了数人头。

 “Whew,” he said. “Okay.That’s everyone.”

Then he noticed one of them had a slight grin on its face.

“Monalisa? Why are you smiling?” he asked.

Monalisa just stared as a smaller fish swam out of her mouth.

“Anyone else in there?” Luca asked.

And then a few more fish escaped.

Luca was so distracted by Monalisa that it took him a moment torealize that Giuseppe was breaking from the herd once again.

“Giuseppe,” Luca said, exasperated. “What did we just talkabout, Giuseppe?”

But the goatfish kept going.

“All right,” Luca said, mustering some enthusiasm.

“Let’s head out!”

“噢，”他欣慰地说，“好的，都在。”

接着，他注意到其中一条鱼的脸上露出了一丝微笑。

“蒙娜丽莎？你笑什么？”他问。

蒙娜丽莎只是盯着一条小鱼从她嘴里游出来。

“还有人在那里吗？”卢卡问道。

紧接着又有几条鱼逃了出来。

卢卡被蒙娜丽莎分散了注意力，过了一会儿才意识到朱塞佩又在试图逃离鱼群。

“朱塞佩，”卢卡生气地说，“我们刚才说什么来着，朱塞佩？”

可是山羊鱼还是继续往前游。

“好吧，”卢卡有些动容地说，“我们出海去！”