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The House on Mango Street (Excerpt 2)
芒果街上的小屋 （节选2）

    But the house on Mango Street is not the way they told it at all. It's small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you'd think they were holding their breath. Bricks are crumbling in places, and the front door is so swollen you have to push hard to get in. There is no front yard, only four little elms the city planted by the curb. Out back is a small garage for the car we don't own yet and a small yard that looks smaller between the two buildings on either side. There are stairs in our house, but they're ordinary hallway stairs, and the house has only one washroom. Everybody has to share a bedroom－Mama and Papa, Carlos and Kiki, me and Nenny.
    Once when we were living on Loomis, a nun from my school passed by and saw me playing out front. The laundromat downstairs had been boarded up because it had been robbed two days before and the owner had painted on the wood YES WE'RE OPEN so as not to lose business.
    "Where do you live?" She asked.
    "There," I said pointing up to the third floor.
    "You live there?"
    There. I had to look to where she pointed－the third floor, the paint peeling, wooden bars Papa had nailed on the windows so we wouldn't fall out. "You live there?" The way she said it made me feel like nothing. "There, I lived there." I nodded.
    I knew then I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to. This isn't it. The house on Mango street isn't it. "For the time being," Mama says. "Temporary," Says Papa. But I know how those things go.

    可是芒果街上的小屋全然不是他们讲的那样。它很小，是红色的，门前一方窄台阶，窗户小得让你觉得它们像是在屏住呼吸。几处墙砖蚀成了粉。（受潮的）前门那么鼓，你要用力推才进得来。这里没有前院，只有四棵市政栽在路边的小榆树。屋后有个小车库，是用来停我们还没买下的那辆小汽车的，还有个小院子，夹在两边的楼中间，越发显得小了。我们的房子里有楼梯，可那只是普通的门厅台阶，而且房子里只有一个卫生间。每个人都要和别人合用一间卧房－－妈妈和爸爸，卡洛斯和奇奇，我和内妮。
    我们住在鲁米斯时，有一回学校的修女经过那里，看到我在屋前玩。楼下的自助洗衣店被木板封了起来，因为两天前刚被洗劫过。为了不走掉生意，店主在木板上涂写了几个字：“是的，我们在营业”。
    “你住在哪里呀？”她问。
    “那里。”我说，指了指三楼。
    “你住在哪里？”
    那里。我不得不朝她指的地方看去－－三楼，那里墙皮斑驳，窗上横着几根木条，是爸爸钉上去的，那样我们就不会掉下来。“你住在那里？”她说话的样子让我觉得自己什么都不是。“那里。我住在那里”我点头。
    于是我明白，我得有一所房子。一所真正的大屋。一所可以指给别人看的房子。可这里不是。芒果街上的小屋不是。“眼下先这样，”妈妈说。“这是暂时的，”爸爸说。可是我知道事情是怎样的。