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Pet Samatary, Part One: The Pet Sematary - Chapter 8 (1)

Part One: The Pet Sematary - Chapter 8 (1)

CHAPTER EIGHT

That Saturday, after Ellie had completed her first week of school and just before the college kids came back to campus, Jud Crandall came across the road and walked over to where the Creed family sat on their lawn. Ellie had gotten off her bike and was drinking a glass of iced tea. Gage was crawling in the grass, examining bugs, perhaps even eating a few; Gage was not particular where his protein came from.

‘Jud,' Louis said, getting up. ‘Let me get you a chair.'

‘No need.' Jud was wearing jeans, an open-throated work-shirt, and a pair of green boots. He looked at Ellie. ‘You still want to see where yon path goes, Ellie?'

‘Yes!' Ellie said, getting up immediately. Her eyes sparkled. ‘George Buck at school told me it was the pet cemetery, and I told Mommy, but she said to wait for you because you knew where it was.'

‘I do, too,' Jud said. ‘If it's okay with your folks, we'll take us a stroll up there. You'll want a pair of boots, though. Ground's a bit squishy in places.'

Ellie rushed into the house.

Jud looked after her with amused affection. ‘Maybe you'd like to come, too, Louis.'

‘I would,' Louis said. He looked at Rachel. ‘You want to come, honey?'

‘What about Gage? I thought it was a mile.'

‘I'll put him in the Gerrypack.'

Rachel laughed. ‘Okay … but it's your back, mister.'

They started off ten minutes later, all of them but Gage wearing boots. Gage sitting up in the Gerrypack and looking at everything over Louis's shoulder, goggle-eyed. Ellie ranged ahead constantly, chasing butterflies and picking flowers.

The grass in the back field was almost waist-high and now there was golden-rod, that late-summer gossip that comes to tattle on autumn every year. But there was no autumn in the air today; today the sun was still all August, although calendar August was almost two weeks gone. By the time they had reached the top of the first hill, walking strung-out along the mown path, there were big patches of sweat under Louis's arms.

Jud paused. At first Louis thought it might be because the old man was winded – then he saw the view that had opened out behind them.

‘Pretty up here,' Jud said, putting a piece of timothy grass between his teeth. Louis thought he had just heard the quintes-sential Yankee understatement.

‘It's gorgeous,' Rachel breathed, and then turned to Louis, almost accusingly. ‘How come you didn't tell me about this?'

‘Because I didn't know it was here,' Louis said, and was a little ashamed. They were still on their own property; he had just never found time to climb the hill at the back of the house until today.

Ellie had been a good way ahead. Now she came back, also gazing with frank wonder. Church padded at her heels.

The hill was not a high one, but it did not need to be. To the east, heavy woods blocked any view, but looking this way, west, the land fell away in a golden and dozy late summer dream. Everything was still, hazed, silent. There was not even an Orinco tanker on the highway to break the quiet.

It was the river-valley they were looking into, of course; the Penobscot where loggers had once floated their timber from the north-east down to Bangor and Derry. But they were south of Bangor and a bit north of Derry here. The river flowed wide and peacefully, as if in its own deep dream. Louis could make out Hampden and Winterport on the far side, and over here he fancied he could trace the black, river-paralleling snake of Route 15 nearly all the way to Bucksport. They looked over the river, its lush hem of trees, the roads, the fields. The spire of the North Ludlow Baptist Church poked through one canopy of old elms, and to the right he could see the square brick sturdiness of Ellie's school.

Overhead, white clouds hung suspended, moving toward a horizon the color of faded denim. And everywhere were the late summer fields, used up at the end of the cycle, dormant but not dead, an incredible tawny color.

‘Gorgeous is the right word,' Louis said finally.

‘They used to call it Prospect Hill back in the old days,' Jud said. He put a cigarette in the corner of his mouth but did not light it. ‘There's a few that still do, but now that younger people have moved into town, it's mostly been forgot. I don't think there's very many people that even come up here. It don't look like you could see much because the hill's not very high. But you can see—' He gestured with one hand and fell silent.

‘You can see everything,' Rachel said in a low, awed voice. She turned to Louis. ‘Honey, do we own this?'

And before Louis could answer, Jud said: ‘It's part of the property, oh yes.'

Which wasn't, Louis thought, quite the same thing.

It was cooler in the woods, perhaps by as much as eight or ten degrees. The path, still wide and occasionally marked with flowers in pots or in coffee cans (most of them wilted), was now floored with dry pine needles. They had gone about a quarter of a mile, moving downhill now, when Jud called Ellie back.

‘This is a good walk for a little girl,' Jud said kindly, ‘but I want you to promise your mom and dad that if you come up here, you'll always stay on the path.'

‘I promise,' Ellie said promptly. ‘Why?'

He glanced at Louis, who had stopped to rest. Toting Gage, even in the shade of these old pines and spruces, was heavy work. ‘Do you know where you are?' Jud asked Louis.

Louis considered and rejected answers: Ludlow, North Ludlow, behind my house, between Route 15 and Middle Drive. He shook his head.

Jud jerked a thumb back over his shoulder. ‘Plenty of stuff that way,' he said. ‘That's town. This way, nothing but woods for fifty miles or more. The North Ludlow Woods they call it here, but it hits a little corner of Orrington, then goes over to Rockford. Ends up going on to those state lands I told you about, the ones the Indians want back. I know it sounds funny to say your nice little house there on the main road, with its phone and electric lights and cable TV and all, is on the edge of a wilderness, but it is.' He looked back at Ellie. ‘All I'm saying is that you don't want to get messing around in these woods, Ellie. You might lose the path and God knows where you might end up then.'

‘I won't, Mr Crandall.' Ellie was suitably impressed, even awed, but not afraid, Louis saw. Rachel, however, was looking at Jud uneasily, and Louis felt a little uneasy himself. It was, he supposed, the city-bred's almost instinctive fear of the woods. Louis hadn't held a compass in his hands since Boy Scouts, twenty years before, and his memories of how to find your way by things like the North Star or which side of the trees moss grew on were as vague as his memories of how to tie a sheepshank or a half-hitch.

Jud looked them over and smiled a little. ‘Now, we ain't lost nobody in these woods since 1934,' he said. ‘At least, nobody local. The last one was Will Jeppson. No great loss; except for Stanny Bouchard, I guess Will was the biggest tosspot this side of Bucksport.'

‘You said nobody local,' Rachel remarked in a voice that was not quite casual, and Louis could read her mind: We're not local. At least, not yet.

Jud paused and then nodded. ‘We do lose one of the tourists every two or three years, because they think you can't get lost right off the main road. But we never lost even one of them for good, Missus. Don't you fret.'

‘Are there moose?' Rachel asked apprehensively, and Louis smiled. If Rachel wanted to fret, she would jolly well fret.

‘Well, you might see a moose,' Jud said, ‘but he wouldn't give you any trouble, Rachel. During mating season they get a little irritated, but otherwise they do no more than look. Only people they take after out of their rutting time are people from Massachusetts. I don't know why that's so, but it is.' Louis thought the man was joking, but could not be sure; Jud looked utterly serious. ‘I've seen it time and time again. Some fella from Saugus or Milton or Weston up a tree, yelling about a herd of moose, every damn one of 'em as big as a motor-home. Seems like moose can smell Massachusetts on a man or a woman. Or maybe it's just all those new clothes from L. L. Bean's they smell, I dunno. I'd like to see one of those animal husbandry students from the college do a paper on it, but I s'pose none ever will.'

‘What's rutting time?' Ellie asked.

‘Never mind,' Rachel said. ‘I don't want you up here unless you're with a grown-up, Ellie.' Rachel moved a step closer to Louis.

Jud looked pained. ‘I didn't want to scare you, Rachel. You or your daughter. No need to be scared in these woods. This is a good path; it gets a little buggy in the spring and it's a little sloppy all the time – except for '55, which was the driest summer I can remember – but hell, there isn't even any poison ivy or poison oak, which there is at the back of the schoolyard, and you want to stay away from it, Ellie, if you don't want to spend three weeks of your life takin' starch baths.'

Ellie covered her mouth and giggled.

‘It's a safe path,' Jud said earnestly to Rachel, who still didn't look convinced. ‘Why, I bet even Gage could follow it, and the town kids come up here a lot, I already told you that. They keep it nice. Nobody tells them to; they just do it. I wouldn't want to spoil that for Ellie.' He bent over her and winked. ‘It's like many other things in life, Ellie. You keep on the path and all's well. You get off it and the next thing you know you're lost if you're not lucky. And then someone has to send out a searchin' party.'

Part One: The Pet Sematary - Chapter 8 (1) 第一部：『ペット・セマタリー』第8章（1） Часть первая: "Зверинец" - Глава 8 (1)

CHAPTER EIGHT

That Saturday, after Ellie had completed her first week of school and just before the college kids came back to campus, Jud Crandall came across the road and walked over to where the Creed family sat on their lawn. Ese sábado, después de que Ellie había completado su primera semana de clases y justo antes de que los universitarios regresaran al campus, Jud Crandall cruzó la calle y caminó hacia donde la familia Creed estaba sentada en su césped. Ellie had gotten off her bike and was drinking a glass of iced tea. Ellie se había bajado de su bicicleta y estaba bebiendo un vaso de té helado. Gage was crawling in the grass, examining bugs, perhaps even eating a few; Gage was not particular where his protein came from. Gage se arrastraba por la hierba, examinando bichos, tal vez incluso comiéndose algunos; Gage no especificó de dónde provenía su proteína.

‘Jud,' Louis said, getting up. —Jud —dijo Louis, levantándose—. ‘Let me get you a chair.' Deja que te traiga una silla.

‘No need.' 'No hay necesidad.' Jud was wearing jeans, an open-throated work-shirt, and a pair of green boots. Jud vestía vaqueros, una camisa de trabajo con la garganta abierta y un par de botas verdes. He looked at Ellie. Miró a Ellie. ‘You still want to see where yon path goes, Ellie?' —¿Todavía quieres ver adónde va tu camino, Ellie?

‘Yes!' '¡Sí!' Ellie said, getting up immediately. Ellie dijo, levantándose de inmediato. Her eyes sparkled. Sus ojos brillaron. ‘George Buck at school told me it was the pet cemetery, and I told Mommy, but she said to wait for you because you knew where it was.' 'George Buck en la escuela me dijo que era el cementerio de mascotas, y le dije a mami, pero ella dijo que te esperara porque sabías dónde estaba'.

‘I do, too,' Jud said. —Yo también —dijo Jud. ‘If it's okay with your folks, we'll take us a stroll up there. Si a tus padres les parece bien, daremos un paseo hasta allí. You'll want a pair of boots, though. Sin embargo, querrás un par de botas. Ground's a bit squishy in places.' El suelo está un poco blando en algunos lugares.

Ellie rushed into the house. Ellie entró corriendo a la casa.

Jud looked after her with amused affection. Jud la miró con divertido afecto. ‘Maybe you'd like to come, too, Louis.' —Tal vez a ti también te gustaría venir, Louis.

‘I would,' Louis said. —Yo lo haría —dijo Louis. He looked at Rachel. Miró a Raquel. ‘You want to come, honey?' ¿Quieres venir, cariño?

‘What about Gage? '¿Qué pasa con Gage? I thought it was a mile.' Pensé que era una milla.

‘I'll put him in the Gerrypack.' Lo meteré en el Gerrypack.

Rachel laughed. Raquel se rió. ‘Okay … but it's your back, mister.' 'Está bien... pero es su espalda, señor.'

They started off ten minutes later, all of them but Gage wearing boots. Partieron diez minutos más tarde, todos menos Gage con botas. Gage sitting up in the Gerrypack and looking at everything over Louis's shoulder, goggle-eyed. Gage sentado en el Gerrypack y mirando todo por encima del hombro de Louis, con ojos saltones. Ellie ranged ahead constantly, chasing butterflies and picking flowers. Ellie se adelantaba constantemente, persiguiendo mariposas y recogiendo flores.

The grass in the back field was almost waist-high and now there was golden-rod, that late-summer gossip that comes to tattle on autumn every year. La hierba en el campo trasero estaba casi a la altura de la cintura y ahora había vara de oro, ese chisme de finales de verano que viene a chismear en otoño todos los años. But there was no autumn in the air today; today the sun was still all August, although calendar August was almost two weeks gone. Pero hoy no había otoño en el aire; hoy el sol seguía haciendo todo agosto, aunque el mes de agosto calendario se había ido casi dos semanas. By the time they had reached the top of the first hill, walking strung-out along the mown path, there were big patches of sweat under Louis's arms. Para cuando llegaron a la cima de la primera colina, caminando estirados por el sendero segado, Louis tenía grandes manchas de sudor debajo de los brazos.

Jud paused. Jud hizo una pausa. At first Louis thought it might be because the old man was winded – then he saw the view that had opened out behind them. Al principio, Louis pensó que podría deberse a que el anciano estaba sin aliento, luego vio la vista que se había abierto detrás de ellos.

‘Pretty up here,' Jud said, putting a piece of timothy grass between his teeth. —Bonito aquí arriba —dijo Jud, poniendo un trozo de hierba timotea entre sus dientes—. Louis thought he had just heard the quintes-sential Yankee understatement. Louis pensó que acababa de escuchar el eufemismo yanqui por excelencia.

‘It's gorgeous,' Rachel breathed, and then turned to Louis, almost accusingly. "Es hermoso", susurró Rachel, y luego se volvió hacia Louis, casi acusadoramente. ‘How come you didn't tell me about this?' '¿Cómo es que no me dijiste sobre esto?'

‘Because I didn't know it was here,' Louis said, and was a little ashamed. 'Porque no sabía que estaba aquí', dijo Louis, y estaba un poco avergonzado. They were still on their own property; he had just never found time to climb the hill at the back of the house until today. Todavía estaban en su propiedad; simplemente nunca había encontrado tiempo para subir la colina en la parte trasera de la casa hasta hoy.

Ellie had been a good way ahead. Ellie había estado muy por delante. Now she came back, also gazing with frank wonder. Ahora ella volvió, también mirando con franco asombro. Church padded at her heels. Church le pisó los talones.

The hill was not a high one, but it did not need to be. La colina no era alta, pero no necesitaba serlo. To the east, heavy woods blocked any view, but looking this way, west, the land fell away in a golden and dozy late summer dream. Al este, los espesos bosques bloqueaban cualquier vista, pero mirando en esta dirección, al oeste, la tierra se desvanecía en un sueño dorado y adormecido de finales de verano. Everything was still, hazed, silent. Todo estaba quieto, borroso, silencioso. There was not even an Orinco tanker on the highway to break the quiet. Ni siquiera había un camión cisterna de Orinco en la carretera para romper el silencio.

It was the river-valley they were looking into, of course; the Penobscot where loggers had once floated their timber from the north-east down to Bangor and Derry. Era el valle del río lo que estaban mirando, por supuesto; el Penobscot donde los madereros una vez habían flotado su madera desde el noreste hasta Bangor y Derry. But they were south of Bangor and a bit north of Derry here. Pero estaban al sur de Bangor y un poco al norte de Derry aquí. The river flowed wide and peacefully, as if in its own deep dream. El río fluía ancho y apaciblemente, como en su propio sueño profundo. Louis could make out Hampden and Winterport on the far side, and over here he fancied he could trace the black, river-paralleling snake of Route 15 nearly all the way to Bucksport. Louis distinguió Hampden y Winterport al otro lado, y allí le pareció que podía seguir el rastro de la serpiente negra paralela al río de la ruta 15 casi hasta Bucksport. They looked over the river, its lush hem of trees, the roads, the fields. Miraron sobre el río, su frondoso borde de árboles, los caminos, los campos. The spire of the North Ludlow Baptist Church poked through one canopy of old elms, and to the right he could see the square brick sturdiness of Ellie's school. La aguja de la iglesia baptista de North Ludlow asomaba a través de un dosel de viejos olmos, ya la derecha podía ver la robustez de ladrillos cuadrados de la escuela de Ellie.

Overhead, white clouds hung suspended, moving toward a horizon the color of faded denim. Arriba, nubes blancas colgaban suspendidas, moviéndose hacia un horizonte del color de la mezclilla desteñida. And everywhere were the late summer fields, used up at the end of the cycle, dormant but not dead, an incredible tawny color. Y por todas partes estaban los campos de finales de verano, agotados al final del ciclo, dormidos pero no muertos, de un increíble color rojizo.

‘Gorgeous is the right word,' Louis said finally. —Maravilloso es la palabra correcta —dijo Louis finalmente—.

‘They used to call it Prospect Hill back in the old days,' Jud said. "Solían llamarlo Prospect Hill en los viejos tiempos", dijo Jud. He put a cigarette in the corner of his mouth but did not light it. Se puso un cigarrillo en la comisura de los labios pero no lo encendió. ‘There's a few that still do, but now that younger people have moved into town, it's mostly been forgot. 'Hay algunos que todavía lo hacen, pero ahora que la gente más joven se ha mudado a la ciudad, en su mayoría se ha olvidado. I don't think there's very many people that even come up here. No creo que haya mucha gente que venga aquí. It don't look like you could see much because the hill's not very high. No parece que puedas ver mucho porque la colina no es muy alta. But you can see—' He gestured with one hand and fell silent. Pero puedes ver… Hizo un gesto con una mano y se quedó en silencio.

‘You can see everything,' Rachel said in a low, awed voice. —Puedes verlo todo —dijo Rachel en voz baja y asombrada—. She turned to Louis. Se volvió hacia Luis. ‘Honey, do we own this?' 'Cariño, ¿somos dueños de esto?'

And before Louis could answer, Jud said: ‘It's part of the property, oh yes.' Y antes de que Louis pudiera responder, Jud dijo: 'Es parte de la propiedad, oh sí'.

Which wasn't, Louis thought, quite the same thing. Lo cual no era, pensó Louis, exactamente lo mismo.

It was cooler in the woods, perhaps by as much as eight or ten degrees. Hacía más fresco en el bosque, quizás hasta ocho o diez grados. The path, still wide and occasionally marked with flowers in pots or in coffee cans (most of them wilted), was now floored with dry pine needles. El camino, todavía ancho y ocasionalmente marcado con flores en macetas o en latas de café (la mayoría marchitas), ahora estaba pavimentado con agujas de pino secas. They had gone about a quarter of a mile, moving downhill now, when Jud called Ellie back. Habían recorrido alrededor de un cuarto de milla, ahora cuesta abajo, cuando Jud llamó a Ellie.

‘This is a good walk for a little girl,' Jud said kindly, ‘but I want you to promise your mom and dad that if you come up here, you'll always stay on the path.' "Este es un buen paseo para una niña pequeña", dijo Jud amablemente, "pero quiero que le prometas a tu mamá ya tu papá que si subes aquí, siempre te mantendrás en el camino".

‘I promise,' Ellie said promptly. —Te lo prometo —dijo Ellie rápidamente—. ‘Why?' '¿Por qué?'

He glanced at Louis, who had stopped to rest. Miró a Louis, que se había detenido a descansar. Toting Gage, even in the shade of these old pines and spruces, was heavy work. Transportar a Gage, incluso a la sombra de estos viejos pinos y abetos, era un trabajo pesado. ‘Do you know where you are?' '¿Sabes dónde estás?' Jud asked Louis. Jud le preguntó a Louis.

Louis considered and rejected answers: Ludlow, North Ludlow, behind my house, between Route 15 and Middle Drive. Louis consideró y rechazó las respuestas: Ludlow, North Ludlow, detrás de mi casa, entre la ruta 15 y Middle Drive. He shook his head. Sacudió la cabeza.

Jud jerked a thumb back over his shoulder. Jud señaló con el pulgar hacia atrás por encima del hombro. ‘Plenty of stuff that way,' he said. —Un montón de cosas de esa manera —dijo—. ‘That's town. Así es la ciudad. This way, nothing but woods for fifty miles or more. De esta manera, nada más que bosques por cincuenta millas o más. The North Ludlow Woods they call it here, but it hits a little corner of Orrington, then goes over to Rockford. Aquí lo llaman North Ludlow Woods, pero llega a un pequeño rincón de Orrington y luego va a Rockford. Ends up going on to those state lands I told you about, the ones the Indians want back. Termina yendo a esas tierras estatales de las que te hablé, las que los indios quieren recuperar. I know it sounds funny to say your nice little house there on the main road, with its phone and electric lights and cable TV and all, is on the edge of a wilderness, but it is.' Sé que suena divertido decir que tu linda casita en la carretera principal, con su teléfono, luces eléctricas, televisión por cable y todo, está al borde de un desierto, pero lo está. He looked back at Ellie. Volvió a mirar a Ellie. ‘All I'm saying is that you don't want to get messing around in these woods, Ellie. Todo lo que digo es que no quieres perder el tiempo en este bosque, Ellie. You might lose the path and God knows where you might end up then.' Podrías perder el camino y Dios sabe dónde podrías terminar entonces.'

‘I won't, Mr Crandall.' —No lo haré, señor Crandall. Ellie was suitably impressed, even awed, but not afraid, Louis saw. Ellie estaba convenientemente impresionada, incluso asombrada, pero Louis vio que no tenía miedo. Rachel, however, was looking at Jud uneasily, and Louis felt a little uneasy himself. Rachel, sin embargo, miraba a Jud con inquietud, y Louis también se sintió un poco incómodo. It was, he supposed, the city-bred's almost instinctive fear of the woods. Era, supuso, el miedo casi instintivo al bosque de los criados en la ciudad. Louis hadn't held a compass in his hands since Boy Scouts, twenty years before, and his memories of how to find your way by things like the North Star or which side of the trees moss grew on were as vague as his memories of how to tie a sheepshank or a half-hitch. Louis no había tenido una brújula en sus manos desde los Boy Scouts, veinte años antes, y sus recuerdos de cómo orientarse por cosas como la estrella polar o en qué lado de los árboles crecía el musgo eran tan vagos como sus recuerdos de cómo para atar un cordero o un medio nudo.

Jud looked them over and smiled a little. Jud los miró y sonrió un poco. ‘Now, we ain't lost nobody in these woods since 1934,' he said. "Ahora, no hemos perdido a nadie en estos bosques desde 1934", dijo. ‘At least, nobody local. 'Al menos, nadie local. The last one was Will Jeppson. El último fue Will Jeppson. No great loss; except for Stanny Bouchard, I guess Will was the biggest tosspot this side of Bucksport.' No es una gran pérdida; Salvo Stanny Bouchard, supongo que Will era el más tacaño de este lado de Bucksport.

‘You said nobody local,' Rachel remarked in a voice that was not quite casual, and Louis could read her mind: We're not local. —Dijiste que nadie local —observó Rachel con una voz que no era del todo casual, y Louis pudo leer su mente: No somos locales. At least, not yet. Al menos no todavía.

Jud paused and then nodded. Jud hizo una pausa y luego asintió. ‘We do lose one of the tourists every two or three years, because they think you can't get lost right off the main road. “Perdemos a uno de los turistas cada dos o tres años, porque creen que uno no puede perderse en la carretera principal. But we never lost even one of them for good, Missus. Pero nunca perdimos ni uno de ellos para siempre, señora. Don't you fret.' No te preocupes.

‘Are there moose?' ¿Hay alces? Rachel asked apprehensively, and Louis smiled. preguntó Rachel con aprensión, y Louis sonrió. If Rachel wanted to fret, she would jolly well fret. Si Rachel quería inquietarse, lo haría muy bien.

‘Well, you might see a moose,' Jud said, ‘but he wouldn't give you any trouble, Rachel. —Bueno, es posible que veas un alce —dijo Jud—, pero no te causaría ningún problema, Rachel. During mating season they get a little irritated, but otherwise they do no more than look. En época de apareamiento se irritan un poco, pero por lo demás no hacen más que mirar. Only people they take after out of their rutting time are people from Massachusetts. Solo las personas a las que siguen en su tiempo de celo son personas de Massachusetts. I don't know why that's so, but it is.' Louis thought the man was joking, but could not be sure; Jud looked utterly serious. ‘I've seen it time and time again. Some fella from Saugus or Milton or Weston up a tree, yelling about a herd of moose, every damn one of 'em as big as a motor-home. Un tipo de Saugus o Milton o Weston subido a un árbol, gritando sobre una manada de alces, cada uno de ellos tan grande como una casa rodante. Seems like moose can smell Massachusetts on a man or a woman. Parece que los alces pueden oler Massachusetts en un hombre o una mujer. Or maybe it's just all those new clothes from L. L. Bean's they smell, I dunno. O tal vez es toda esa ropa nueva de LL Bean lo que huelen, no sé. I'd like to see one of those animal husbandry students from the college do a paper on it, but I s'pose none ever will.' Me gustaría ver a uno de esos estudiantes de cría de animales de la universidad hacer un artículo sobre eso, pero supongo que ninguno lo hará.

‘What's rutting time?' ¿Qué es el tiempo de celo? Ellie asked. preguntó Ellie.

‘Never mind,' Rachel said. —No importa —dijo Rachel—. ‘I don't want you up here unless you're with a grown-up, Ellie.' No te quiero aquí arriba a menos que estés con un adulto, Ellie. Rachel moved a step closer to Louis. Rachel se acercó un paso más a Louis.

Jud looked pained. Jud parecía dolido. ‘I didn't want to scare you, Rachel. —No quería asustarte, Rachel. You or your daughter. Tú o tu hija. No need to be scared in these woods. No hay necesidad de tener miedo en estos bosques. This is a good path; it gets a little buggy in the spring and it's a little sloppy all the time – except for '55, which was the driest summer I can remember – but hell, there isn't even any poison ivy or poison oak, which there is at the back of the schoolyard, and you want to stay away from it, Ellie, if you don't want to spend three weeks of your life takin' starch baths.' Este es un buen camino; tiene un poco de errores en la primavera y está un poco descuidado todo el tiempo, excepto en el '55, que fue el verano más seco que puedo recordar, pero diablos, ni siquiera hay hiedra venenosa o roble venenoso, que hay en La parte de atrás del patio de la escuela, y quieres mantenerte alejada, Ellie, si no quieres pasar tres semanas de tu vida dándote baños de almidón.

Ellie covered her mouth and giggled. Ellie se tapó la boca y se rió.

‘It's a safe path,' Jud said earnestly to Rachel, who still didn't look convinced. —Es un camino seguro —dijo Jud con seriedad a Rachel, que todavía no parecía convencida—. ‘Why, I bet even Gage could follow it, and the town kids come up here a lot, I already told you that. Vaya, apuesto a que incluso Gage podría seguirlo, y los chicos del pueblo vienen mucho aquí, ya te lo dije. They keep it nice. Lo mantienen agradable. Nobody tells them to; they just do it. Nadie les dice que lo hagan; simplemente lo hacen. I wouldn't want to spoil that for Ellie.' No me gustaría estropearle eso a Ellie. He bent over her and winked. Se inclinó sobre ella y le guiñó un ojo. ‘It's like many other things in life, Ellie. Es como muchas otras cosas en la vida, Ellie. You keep on the path and all's well. Sigues en el camino y todo está bien. You get off it and the next thing you know you're lost if you're not lucky. Te bajas y lo siguiente que sabes es que estás perdido si no tienes suerte. And then someone has to send out a searchin' party.' Y entonces alguien tiene que enviar un grupo de búsqueda.