A Funny Memory
Oh God! I think I was about seven and half when my sisters and I pulled this stupid stunt. I remember watching television with them and the show on happened to be our favorite program to watch. All of a sudden we heard my brother, Chris, yelling from the backyard. So we all headed out there to see what happened. When we finally located him, he was in a tree hanging from the highest tree branch. Crying, he explained to us that he had climbed up the tree and couldn’t get down. We thought, okay, one of us should climb up and get him off, but we couldn’t manage to get him moving down.
It was then my youngest sister, Ka, who was five and a half at the time had seen a similar situation. She suggested we grab a sheet, hold it under the branch Chris was hanging off of, and tell him to drop so we can catch him. My other sister, Yams, who is one year younger than me, peered at me to confirm the idea and I said “Yeah, let’s try that”. So we grabbed a sheet from the closet and went to hold it beneath the tree. Now mind you, the ages holding this blanket were ranging from seven and a half to five and a half, thus the sheet was probably being held up to our waist and also close to touching the ground. But we were confident it could work.
We looked up to Chris and he looked down at us a bit hesitant. I don’t blame him the poor guy. It was then we told him to let go and to fall on his back. Chris looked at me and asked “Are you sure I’ll land on the blanket?” Now, my brother at the age of four, had a cute quaky voice. But because of a problem at birth with his tongue being a bit attached to the mouth, it came out more like this, “Ah you sho awill lan on da blanked?”, “Yup!”, I told him, “We’re sure!” and he let go.
Now when I think about Chris letting go of that branch, I think of his faith in me and my sisters and I also think how stupid he was to trust us, cause when that boy let go he was in for a big surprise. Chris fell right through that sheet and landed right on his stomach. And no matter how tight we held on to the sheet, he still managed to get through. We were shocked and a bit worried and we looked at the ground where he landed. This tiny seventy pound boy had made a hole right through the sheet and landed. He was positioned like one of those chalk drawings you find after a homicide, with one arm near the head another to the side and the knee bent a bit. We might as well have drawn an outline because he wasn’t moving. So we bent down to check if he was still alive and when we asked him if he was okay he uttered these five words… “Ah stee hi da flow” in other words, “I still hit the floor!” Poor little man! But before you condemn us, Chris is fourteen now and he still bugs us about it, any tree he climbs he gets down on his own and, strangely, he wants to be a fireman when he grows up. Now he can write that he had personal experience about jumping and catching. See, no harm done…
童真记趣
噢，天啊！我记得那时我差不多七岁半，我和我的妹妹们做了那件愚蠢的事情。我记得当时正在和她们一起看电视。电视上恰好播放我们最喜欢的节目之一。就在这时，从后院传来了弟弟克里斯的叫声。我们都跑出去看发生了什么事。当我们终于找到他时，发现他在树上，正抱着那最高的树枝哭。他跟我们解释说，他爬上了那棵树，却下不来了。我们想了想：我们中的一人应该爬上树并把他带下来，但我们没人做得到。
这时，我最小的妹妹，只有5岁半的卡想起曾经在一个电视节目看到过类似的情形。她提议我们拉一张床单，站在克里斯的正下方，让他跳下来，我们就可以把他接住了。另外一个比我小一岁的妹妹扬丝看了我一眼，问我觉得这个提议如何。我说：“行，我们就试一下。”于是我们就从衣橱里拿出一张床单，在树下面张开站好。值得提醒一句的是，拉床单的人的年龄从5岁半到7岁半不等。因此尽管我们把床单拉到了腰部的位置，离地还是很近的，但我们都很有信心，觉得是没有问题的。
我们抬头望着克里斯，他正望着我们，有点犹豫。我并不怪他胆小，这个可怜的家伙。我们让他松手背朝地往下跳。克里斯看着我问道：“你保证我是落在床单上吗？”那时我的弟弟只有4岁，说话声音细尖细尖的。但因为一些先天原因，他说话的时侯有些大舌头。听起来他更像在问：“你保‘真’‘窝’能掉在那，那张‘仓’单上吗？”“是啊！”我告诉他，“我们保证!”接着他就松开了双手。
现在想起来，当时克里斯松手落地时，他对我和我的妹妹们是相当信任的，但他的选择是多么的愚蠢啊！因为松手后等待他的可是个大大的意外：克里斯掉在了那张床单上，但却穿过那张床单，肚子着地，砸在地上！尽管我们用尽全身力气拉住床单，他还是穿去了。我们都吃了一惊，都盯着地板上的他，开始担心起来。这个70磅重的小家伙，在床单上撕开了一个洞后着地了。他着地后的样子就像是在凶案现场用粉笔画出的受害人一样：一只手在脑袋旁边，另一只在身体旁，膝盖有点弯曲。我们也可以沿着他的身体划线，因为他一动不动地躺着。我们都弯下腰去看他是否还活着。当我们问他怎么样时，他挤出了几个字：“窝掉到地上啦！”换句话来说就是“我掉到地上了！”可怜的小家伙！但你别责怪我们，克里丝现在已经14岁了，可他仍在这件上对我们喋喋不休。现在每次爬树他都是自己上，自己下，而且奇怪的是，他想着长大以后当一名消防员。现在他可以在个人经历那一栏里填上“有攀高与接物的经验”。看看没有，什么坏处都没有嘛……
