The Talented Clementine

최근에 읽었던 Rosco Riley rule's 보다는 난이도가 있었다. CD로만 따라가기는 조금 벅차서 한번은 CD로 듣고 이후에는 혼자 천천히 다시 읽었다. 이해가 안되는 문장은 두 세번 읽었는데도 여전히 이해가 안되는 부분도 있었다. 그럼에도 Mr. Clutz is Crazy 시리즈보다는 재미있게 읽었다. Mr. Clutz is Crazy 시리즈가 남자 아이들을 대상으로 쓰인 책이라면 Clementine 책은 여자 아이들을 대상으로 쓰인 책이라고 느꼈다. Mr. Clutz is Crazy가 반항적이고 장난기 많은 외향적인 소년의 입장에서 쓰인 책이라면 Clementine은 내성적이면서 반항아적인 기질을 가진 소녀의 입장에서 쓰인 책인것 같다. 그만큼 Clementine이 독백도 많고, 감정 표현도 섬세한 것 같았다.

예를 들면: And I was mostly happy, even though a little part of me was sad. Someday I’d like to know what it feels like to have ppl clapping for me too.

내가 내성적이여서 그런지 Clementine이 어려움에도 Mr. Clutz is Crazy보다 더 재미있었던 것 같다. 

The talented Clementine

I have noticed that teachers get exciting confused with boring a lot. But when my teacher said, “Class, we have an exciting project to talk about,” I listened anyway.

 

But he ignored me, which is called Getting on with the Day when a teacher does it, and Being Inconsiderate when a kid does it.

* Inconsiderate 배려심이 없는, = selfish

 

Class, one of the fourth graders has come up with a name for our show! Talent Palooza, Night of the Stars!

 

And that’s when the worried feeling-as if somebody were scribbling with a big black crayon-started up in my brains.

 

* refreshments 약간의 음식과 음료, 다과

 

But they were wearing their “Thank goodness it’s not me” faces, which made me know that I was.

 

I walked down the hall on worried legs and knocked on the door with worried knuckles.

 

When she saw it was me, she held out her hand for the note from my teacher that would tell her what kind of a little chat we should have.

 

That’s an interesting question, Clementine. Maybe you could ask the science teacher after you’ve told me what you’re doing here.

 

Then I told her I was all done being there and I left.

 

I leaned over-but not too close in case he thought I was trying to be his girlfriend, which I am not-and whispered the problem to him.

 

“See? I can’t even do sitting. It’s hopeless.” 절망적이야.

“Maybe not. Cheer up. Maybe you have a really great talent you just haven’t figured out yet.”

I gave Mitchell a “See? I’m cheered up already!” smile. But it was just my mouth pretending.

 

2.

Which reminded me to crawl under the seat to get all mine bf we got to the school.

 

They are named Willy and Lilly.

 

But they weren’t interested, so I just keep calling him vegetable names, which are the only ones worse than a fruit name, like I got stuck with.

 

She flapped her hands around her head as if her talents were flies she had to shoo away.

 

This is true. Margaret was always taking lessons: clarinet, baton twirling, ballet, swimming… you name it, she took lessons for it.

* you name it 무엇이든지

* Pledge of Allegiance

 

I made quick secret-eyes all around behind there to look for the pizza and doughnuts everyone knows teachers eat when kids aren’t looking, but I didn’t find any.

 

But what if one kid got left out? What if whoever’s in charge forgot to give one kid a talent? Wouldn’t that person who is not me be embarrassed at a talent show?

Why, that’s very thoughtful of you. But…

 

Class, let’s have a show of hands. How many of you have an act to perform at the talent show?

손들어 보자.

 

At journal writing I did my idea. When I was done writing, I curled my hand over my sentence, as if it were too private to share. Which is how you get a teacher to come and look at it.

Sure enough, my teacher came over and took a look.

 

I quick squeezed the word might in between I and have to move this week. Might is a helpful word when you are not exactly telling the truth.

 

If I had made it, it would have had the right number of sides. But I was stuck drawing the Sphinx b/c whenever anyone else tried it looked like a grasshopper.

 

* condominium = an apartment building. 공용으로 쓰는 부분이랑 개인 소유 부분이랑 나누어진 아파트형 집

 

You are one in a million, Clementine, one in a million.

 

3.

You’re eight now, Sport. I think u’re old enough to handle these.

 

And we might not be in the play-offs, or the World Series?

*playoff 동점일 때 하는 연장전, 누가 승자인지를 구별하기 위해 함.

 

We live in Boston, and Mitchell is obsessed with the Red Sox.

 

If I ever get married, which I will not, I would like to marry a Red Sox player, but not Mitchell, b/c he’s not my boyfriend.

 

What’s a strike-out perfect game?

It’s when a pitcher throws only strikes for a whole game.

* strike = failure: the pitcher에 의해 던져진 공이 성공적으로 타격 못 되었을 때.

 

Well, not the normal ones, like singing or dancing or playing an instrument. Those are boring. I was just wondering if you’ve seen any pizazzy ones lately.

* pizazz: excitement, energy, or style 화려함, 죽여주는 것

 

Well, on the way home, I was walking behind a woman. She had a poodle, a pocketbook, and a cup of coffee and she was talking on her phone. I have no idea how she juggled all that.

* juggle = manage, 다양한 활동을 성공적으로 하다.

 

Take pruning ivy, for instance.

* pruning 가지치기

 

And you’re very empathetic.

It’s a wonderful thing to be. It means you’re good at figuring out how other ppl are feeling. You care about that.

 

I think if a bobby pin ever came shooting out of it, it would look like lightening.

*bobby pin: 머리에 꼽는 pin

 

I am going to be the director of our talent show. We’ll have a little trial run of a couple of acts.

* director = a manager of an organization, company, college …

* trial run = a practical test of sth new/unknown to discover its effectiveness 시연

 

We were all very surprised to learn that a chalkboard that big wouldn’t flatten a kid when it fell off the wall.

* flatten 때려눕히다. Make thinner

He jumped up and put his paws on the window ledge.

* window ledge = a windowsill 창틀

 

By the time the bus came, I was so tired from worrying that my neck felt too weak to hold up my head. I flopped over in the seat.

* flop = fall or drop heavily /

 

5

We’ll go through my talents alphabetically.

*go through sth 어려운 상황을 경험하다.

*accordion /əˈkɔːr.di.ən/

 

Baton twirling’s out.

*clarinet /클 뤠뤼net/

 

Dramatic acting’s out too.

 

Oh no, tap dancing is really hard. But maybe you could fake it. Maybe u could just kind of clomp around in tap shoes making a lot of noise.

*fake it 아는 체하다. 즉흥적으로 연주하다.

*fake 어떤 느낌을 가지고 있는 척하다. 위조하다.

*clomp 쿵쿵거리며 걷다

 

Margaret’s eyes grew so big I thought they were going to spring out on stalks, like cartoon eyes.

 

“Shhhh!” I hushed her, in case Mitchell was hanging around listening to us.

* hush 입 다물게 하다. 진정시키다

 

“Well, they’re as big as mine now. These aren’t going to fit,” she warned me.

* warn: 어떤 사람에게 미래에 일어날 수 있는 위험이나 문제를 알려주다.

 

If I nailed sth tappy into the bottoms of my sneakers, that would work, wouldn’t it? I just need to make the sound, don’t I?

* nail = fasten something with nails

 

I got a pair of pliers from the workbench.

* pliers 펜치

* workbench = 작업을 위한 튼튼한 table

 

I got out my dad’s building manager-strength superglue and glued all the bottle caps to the soles of my sneakers. All the while, I kept smiling whenever I thought about how happy everyone would be next week at the meeting b/c their bottles had already been opened.

* superglue 순간 접착제

* sole 밑창

* all the while 그러는 동안

 

Margaret and Mitchell think there should be a rule about grown-ups kissing in public if any of them are your parents. This is only thing they have ever agreed about in their entire lives.

 

She reached out and stabbed the STOP ELEVATOR button, then punched the button for my floor. “I think we need to pay a little visit to your parents, Clementine.”

* reached out 손을 뻗다

* stab 사람을 단도 등으로 찌르다, ~을 손가락으로 찌르다

* punch 세게 치다, 후려갈기다

* pay a visit to ~를 찾아가다, 들르다, 방문하다.

 

6

My parents always try to bribe each other into taking me shopping, which I do not think is funny.

* bribe sb into ~ 뇌물을 주어 ~를 ~하게 시키다

 

My parents think I have a hard time choosing things, but that’s not it. I can choose things just fine. The problem is, whenever you have to choose sth, that means you have to not-choose about a hundred other things. Which is not easy.

 

And no matter what u pick, as soon as u take the first bite, u suddenly know u wanted one of the other ones.

 

My mother slumped down in her chair and sighed.

* slump 털썩 주저앉다

 

Did u know that u smell like a brewery? /ˈbrʊr.i/

 

*clementine 귤

 

Margaret looked stumped for a minute.

* be stumped = no answer, 너무 어려워서 문제를 풀 수 없거나 대답을 할 수 없다.

 

So we’ll just stick to me being the boss of you.

 

I took one step onto it and skidded right into Margaret’s dressing table.

 

I guess you’re not meant for tap dancing.

내 생각에는 tap dancing은 너에게 적합하지 않은 것 같아.

 

Cabbage screwed up his face like we were in for a real wail, so I quickly stuck some ivy into my sleeves and down my neck and waved my arms at him.

* screwed up his face 표정을 일그러뜨리다. = contort

* stuck 끼워 넣었다. 찔러 넣었다. 꽂았다.

 

I went staggering around crying, “Help! Help! I swallowed some ivy seeds!”

*staggering: very shocking and surprising

*stagger 비틀거리다. 어떤 사람을 깜짝 놀라게 하다.

 

8

Squash went all historical, laughing so hard I thought he might spit up his Cheerios.

* Squash 호박

 

The next day, I did the act for Spinach and he cracked up.

 

If my parents try, he just stares at them as if he’s trying to remember who they are.

 

Carrot flopped onto my bed. He was laughing so hard tears squirted out of his eyes.

* squirt

 

He got up on his hands and knees. “Arf! I’m a dog!”

* get up on 일어서다

 

Trust me on this. It's out of the question, Sport.

이 점에 대해서는 걱정하지마. 그건 개소리야.

 

No buts. Now get in the car.

 

Then I made a big mistake: I got into the car. I was thinking so hard about how this was the unluckiest day of my life that I forgot to think about how much unluckier it could get if I went to the rehearsal.

 

Come sit beside me, Clementine. You can keep me company during the rehearsal.

 

Then I ran over and grabbed a handful of Saltines from one of the third graders just bf they went into his mouth.

*saltines 과자 이름

 

You’re up next. And you’re whistling ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy.’ No crackers!”

다음이 네 차례다.

 

I’m sorry. I’m a little antsy tonight.

*antsy 매우 초조하고 걱정되는, 또는 불안하게 흥분되는

 

I wanted to stick around to hear about why she was antsy, but just then I noticed that the Super-Duper Hula-Hoopers had been Hula-Hooping for a while.

*stick around

*hula-hoop

 

“Take your places, ppl. Five minutes to showtime!”

 

It’s all right. We can handle the show. Just go be with your daughter.

 

* I rest my case.

변호사가 법정에서 자신의 변론이 끝났다고 알리는 말. (익살) 자신의 말이 옳다는 게 증명되었을 때 사용.

 

9

Lilly had convinced Willy not to do the thing with his lunch, and to play a duet on the piano with her instead.

 

The jump-ropers must have figured that if the Hula-Hoopers didn’t have to stop at the end of the music, neither did they. So I had to close the curtains on them too.

 

Whenever anyone takes a picture of Margaret that she isn’t expecting, she freezes.

 

For one tiny second, a little part of me thought, Good! No showing off for you tonight!

But then my empathetic part took over.

 

She zoomed me a smile so huge all her teeth-bracelets sparkled like diamonds in the spotlight. I zoomed her one back – except with no teeth-bracelets b/c I don’t have them yet.

 

I have the answer for you now, Clementine. About why you can’t have a substitute. It’s b/c there is no substitute for you. You are one of a kind!

 

I felt a little jealous thinking about how great Spinach would have been up there with that fancy leash, and how much the audience would have loved my act, too.

 

Mrs. Rice and I closed the curtains and herded all the kids back onto the stage the way we had practiced.

 

Mrs. Rice and I stepped back into the wings and climbed up onto our chairs to watch.

*wings: 연극에서 무대 옆,

 

And I was mostly happy, even though a little part of me was sad. Someday I’d like to know what it feels like to have ppl clapping for me too.

 

w/o her, we would have had no show here tonight.

 

Ladies and gentlemen, plz give a big round of applause for Clementine!

 

The sound grew so loud it practically peeled the ears right off my head.

* practically = nearly 거의, ~나 다름없이, 좀 과장해서 말하면

 

10

I hurried back to our apartment, got one of my mom’s permanent markers, and wrote on my brother’s forehead, NO PEANUTS FOR ME! In big, blue capital letters.

 

My dad’s was crème brûlée, which is French for vanilla custard that’s been blasted on the top with a blowtorch.

* crème brûlée /크렘 bru:레/

* custard 계란, 우유, 설탕을 섞어 찌거나 얼린 과자