【饥饿游戏】40

PART II
"THE GAMES"
 
 
For a moment, the cameras hold on Peeta’s downcast eyes
as what he says sinks in. Then I can see my face, mouth half
open in a mix of surprise and protest, magnified on every
screen as I realize, Me! He means me! I press my lips together
and stare at the floor, hoping this will conceal 1 the emotions
starting to boil up inside of me.
“Oh, that is a piece of bad luck,” says Caesar, and there’s a
real edge of pain in his voice. The crowd is murmuring in
agreement, a few have even given agonized 2 cries.
“It’s not good,” agrees Peeta.
“Well, I don’t think any of us can blame you. It’d be hard not
to fall for that young lady,” says Caesar. “She didn’t know?”
Peeta shakes his head. “Not until now.”
I allow my eyes to flicker 3 up to the screen long enough to
see that the blush on my cheeks is unmistakable.
“Wouldn’t you love to pull her back out here and get a response?”
Caesar asks the audience. The crowd screams assent 4.
“Sadly, rules are rules, and Katniss Everdeen’s time has been
spent. Well, best of luck to you, Peeta Mellark, and I think I
speak for all of Panem when I say our hearts go with yours.”
The roar of the crowd is deafening 5. Peeta has absolutely
wiped the rest of us off the map with his declaration of love
for me. (皮塔靠吐露爱的心声的方式，已经把其他所有人从
他前进道路上清除。)When the audience finally settles down, 
he chokes out a quiet “Thank you” and returns to his seat. We 
stand for the anthem 7. I have to raise my head out of the required 
respect and cannot avoid seeing that every screen is now 
dominated by a shot of Peeta and me, separated by a few feet 
that in the viewers’ heads can never be breached 8. Poor tragic 9 us.
(我们相隔几英尺站立着，可这个距离在每个观众的眼里是永
远无法逾越的距离。可怜的、悲情的我们啊！)
But I know better.
After the anthem, the tributes file back into the Training
Center lobby and onto the elevators. I make sure to veer 10 into a
car that does not contain Peeta. The crowd slows our entourages
of stylists and mentors 11 and chaperones, so we have only
each other for company. No one speaks. My elevator stops to
deposit four tributes before I am alone and then find the doors
opening on the twelfth floor. Peeta has only just stepped from
his car when I slam my palms into his chest. He loses his balance
and crashes into an ugly urn 6 filled with fake flowers. The
urn tips and shatters into hundreds of tiny pieces. Peeta lands
in the shards 13, and blood immediately flows from his hands.
“What was that for?” he says, aghast.
“You had no right! No right to go saying those things about
me!” I shout at him.
Now the elevators open and the whole crew is there, Effie,
Haymitch, Cinna, and Portia.
“What’s going on?” says Effie, a note of hysteria in her
voice. “Did you fall?”
“After she shoved me,” says Peeta as Effie and Cinna help
him up.
Haymitch turns on me. “Shoved him?”
“This was your idea, wasn’t it? Turning me into some kind
of fool in front of the entire country?” I answer.
“It was my idea,” says Peeta, wincing 14 as he pulls spikes 15 of
pottery 16 from his palms. “Haymitch just helped me with it.”
“Yes, Haymitch is very helpful. To you!” I say.
“You are a fool,” Haymitch says in disgust. “Do you think he
hurt you? That boy just gave you something you could never
achieve on your own.”
“He made me look weak!” I say.
“He made you look desirable! And let’s face it, you can use
all the help you can get in that department. You were about as
romantic as dirt until he said he wanted you. Now they all do.
You’re all they’re talking about. The star-crossed lovers from
District Twelve!” says Haymitch.
“But we’re not star-crossed lovers!” I say.
Haymitch grabs my shoulders and pins me against the wall.
“Who cares? It’s all a big show. It’s all how you’re perceived.
The most I could say about you after your interview was that
you were nice enough, although that in itself was a small miracle.
Now I can say you’re a heartbreaker. Oh, oh, oh, how the
boys back home fall longingly 17 at your feet. Which do you think
will get you more sponsors?”
The smell of wine on his breath makes me sick. I shove his
hands off my shoulders and step away, trying to clear my head.
Cinna comes over and puts his arm around me. “He’s right, Katniss.”
I don’t know what to think. “I should have been told, so I
didn’t look so stupid.”
“No, your reaction was perfect. If you’d known, it wouldn’t
have read as real,” says Portia.
“She’s just worried about her boyfriend,” says Peeta gruffly,
tossing away a bloody 18 piece of the urn.
My cheeks burn again at the thought of Gale 19. “I don’t have a
boyfriend.”
“Whatever,” says Peeta. “But I bet he’s smart enough to
know a bluff 20 when he sees it. Besides you didn’t say you loved
me. So what does it matter?”
The words are sinking in. My anger fading. I’m torn now between
thinking I’ve been used and thinking I’ve been given an edge. 
Haymitch is right. I survived my interview, but what was
I really? A silly girl spinning in a sparkling, dress. Giggling 21. The
only moment of any substance I hail was when I talked about
Prim 22. Compare that with Thresh, his silent, deadly power, and
I’m forgettable. Silly and sparkly and forgettable. No, not 
entirely 23 forgettable, I have my eleven in training.
entourage n. 随从；周围；环境
urn n. 瓮；缸；茶水壶；坟墓；骨灰瓮
shard 12 n. （甲虫的）[昆] 鞘翅；陶瓷碎片
aghast adj. 吓呆的，惊骇的；吃惊的
star-crossed adj. 不幸的；运气不好的；倒霉的