【E06】Chapter 2-2：第一次学会“走路”的卢卡

CHAPTER 2 第2章-2 

Try as he might, Luca couldn’t sleep. He just lay in his bed, thinking. He looked over at his grandma.

“Grandma,” he whispered. “Did you really go up to the—” Suddenly, Grandma snored loudly. She wasn’t awake. She was fast asleep with her eyes open! 

Luca sighed and turned away. 

The following morning, Luca was out in the fields bright and early. He had gathered a bunch of rocks and made what he thought was a pretty decent representation of himself. 

Turning to the goatfish, Luca said, “Okay, everyone. This is, uh . . . Smuca! Yeah. He’s in charge now. Got it?” 

The goatfish looked at Smuca, then at Luca, and went about their business.

尽管卢卡努力想要入睡，但他还是睡不着。他躺在床上，思绪万千，于是便看向了外婆。

“外婆，”他低声说，“你真的去了—”突然，外婆大声打起了呼噜。她睡着了。她睁着眼睛呼呼大睡！ 

卢卡叹了口气，转过身去。 

第二天一大早，卢卡就到田野里去了。他收集了一堆石头，照着自己的模样做了个自认为相当不错的石像。 

卢卡转向山羊鱼，说：“来，各位。这是，呃……斯穆卡！是的，现在他是负责人，明白了吗？”

山羊鱼看了看斯穆卡，又看了看卢卡，然后就去忙自己的事了。

Luca turned away and swam toward the surface of the water. A few moments later he was just about to break through, but he backed off. He was afraid, unsure of what might happen. After all, the first time he’d gone on land wasn’t his fault—it was an accident. This time it would be on purpose! 

Summoning his courage, Luca approached the surface again, then backed off again. 

“Wow.” 

The voice startled Luca, who turned around and saw the sea monster from the other day, arms full of stuff, staring at him. 

“That was hard to watch,” the boy said. Then he handed some of the stuff in his arms to Luca. “Here. C’mon.”

卢卡转身向水面游去。过了一会儿，他正要跃出水面时，却退缩了。卢卡有些害怕，不知道会发生什么。毕竟，第一次上岸不是他的错—那是个意外。但这一次他是故意的！ 

卢卡鼓起勇气，再次靠近水面，然后又再次退缩。

“哇。”

这个声音吓了卢卡一跳，他转过身，看见前几天碰到的那个海怪正抱着一堆东西盯着他看。 

“看不下去了。”那个男孩说，接着他把怀里的一些东西递给卢卡，“拿着。跟我来。”

The boy left the water. Luca took a deep breath, held it, and went right after him. 

At the surface, Luca watched in disbelief as the boy transformed from his sea monster form into a land monster! He looked so different. Now he had brown, curly stuff on top of his head. Hair, maybe? The boy flipped the hair, and water went all over. 

Luca took a step onto the beach and dropped everything he had been carrying. He tried to shake the water from himself like the boy had done. 

And then he transformed.

那个男孩离开了水。卢卡深吸一口气，屏住呼吸，紧随其后。 

卢卡看着这个男孩在陆地上从海怪的样子变成了陆怪的样子，他简直不敢相信自己的眼睛！他看上去与之前截然不同。现在的他头上有棕色的、卷曲的东西。或许这就是头发？男孩拨了拨头发，把水洒得到处都是。 

卢卡迈上海滩，把拿着的东西全部扔下。他试着像那个男孩那样把自己身上的水抖掉。 

接着，他变形了。

Luca was mystified. He was a land monster! The only sign of his previous form were his seaweed shorts! He turned around, looking for his tail, only to see that it, too, was gone. 

“Wait,” Luca said. “It feels like it’s . . . still there.” 

“Yeah, that’s called phantom tail,” the boy said. “You’ll get used to it.” 

Luca picked himself up off the beach, and fell right over. “Right,” the boy said. “Walking. Don’t worry—you’re in luck. I basically invented it.” With effort, Luca rose on his legs and managed to stand up without falling down. 

“To start, stack everything, one on top of the other. Like a pile of rocks,” the boy said, watching Luca adjust his body with a loud grunt. “Great. I mean, fine, whatever. Now, walking is just like swimming. But without fins. Or a tail. And also, there’s no water. Otherwise, it’s like the exact same thing. Give it a try.”

卢卡很困惑。他成了个陆怪！唯一能够表明他先前形态的标志就是海藻短裤！他转过身，寻找自己的尾巴，却发现它也不见了。 

“等等，”卢卡说，“感觉它……仍然存在。” 

“没错，这就是所谓的幻影尾巴，”男孩说，“你会习惯的。” 

卢卡从海滩上爬起来，却又立刻摔倒了。“对，”男孩说，“走着。别担心—你很幸运。走路这办法基本上可以说是我发明的。”卢卡费了好大劲，终于稳当地站起来了，没再摔倒。 

“首先，把所有东西都堆起来，一个放在另一个上面，就像堆石头那样。”那个男孩说，他看着卢卡大声嘟哝着调整自己的身体。“太棒了。我的意思是，还不错，随便吧。好了，走路就像游泳一样。区别是走路不用鱼鳍，也不用尾巴。而且，这里也没有水。不然，走路和游泳就是完全一样的了。试一试吧。”

Luca tried it again, and fell onto the sand again. Luca looked at the boy and took a step forward. He fell onto the sand. 

“That’s not it,” the boy said. “Try it again.” 

“Oh! Try to lead with your head,” the boy advised. “No. More belly.” 

Luca had no idea what that meant, but he kept on trying. 

“That’s . . . that’s lying on the ground,” the boy said. “How about this? Just take a step without even thinking about it.”

卢卡又试了一次，可再次摔倒在沙滩上。卢卡看了看男孩，向前迈了一步，接着又摔倒了。 

“不是这样的，”男孩说，“再试一次。” 

“哦！试着把重心放在脑袋上，”男孩建议道，“不，放在肚子上。” 

卢卡不知道这是什么意思，但他不断努力尝试。 

“那……那是躺在地上。”男孩说，“要不这样吧，你就向前走一步，什么都不要想。”

“I don’t know how to not think about something!” Luca said, completely out of his element. 

“Okay, okay,” the boy replied. “Watch.” 

The boy stood up and walked over to Luca. “Point your feet where you want to go. Okay? And then just catch yourself before you fall.” 

Luca gulped and pointed his feet forward. Then he got up and took a step. 

This time he didn’t fall over. 

Then he took another step. 

And another.

“我不知道怎么样才能什么都不想！”卢卡说，他完全不知所措。 

“行吧，行吧。”男孩回答，“看。” 

男孩站起来，走向卢卡。“把脚指向你想去的地方，好吗？然后在摔倒前稳住就可以了。” 

卢卡深吸了一口气，把脚指向前方，然后起身走了一步。 

这次他没有摔倒。 

然后他又走了一步。 

接着又是一步。