[Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls #1] Moving Day 1부

책 한권에 해당하는 CD가 총 네 개이다. 아직 내가 이렇게 두꺼운 책을 읽을 수준이 아니라고 생각하지만 문장이나 어휘가 그리 어려운 것 같지 않아서 선택했다. 9살 여자 아이의 시점에서 쓰인 친구와 일상 생활에 대한 이야기다. 주인공은 일상생활에서 마주하는 여러 일을 Rule로 명시한다. 나는 이부분이 참 재미이었다. 사람 간의 관계 그리고 삶을 규정지을 수는 없지만 이를 분석하는 어린 아이의 깊고 단순 명료한 시각이 좋았다. 아직 1/15정도 밖에 못 읽었다. 거르지 않고 꾸준히 읽어야 겠다.

Rule 1~ 4의 내용 요약: 주인공은 과거의 단짝 친구에게 싫증을 느낀다. 그 친구는 너무 자주 울고 자신이 하고 싶은 대로 하기를 원하기 때문이다. 주인공은 참지만 더 나은 best friend가 있기를 바란다. 그리고 다행히도 이사를 가게 된다. 하지만 주인공은 새로 이사한 집이 너무 낡아서 마음에 들지 않는다. 새로 이사한 집에서 마치 귀신이 나올 것만 같기 때문이다. 

Don’t stick a spatula down your best friend’s throat.

* spatula 뒤집개

* stick sth down ~을 밑에 놓다. 탕 내려놓다.

 

Mary Kay’s babysitter Carol, was helping us, and Mary Kay wouldn’t stop crying, on account of Carol letting me lick the spatula.

* on account of = because of

 

Did anyone hear me complain that all I got was the lousy spatula, even though truthfully I did most of the work, opening the box and all of that?

* lousy = very bad

* truthfully 솔직히 (말해서)

 

…because if a car bits you, your brain will splat open and kids like me will spend their time waiting for the cars to go by so they can cross the street looking for bits of your brain the ambulance might have left behind in the bushes.

 

Anyway, while I was licking the spatula, Mary Kay was all, “She’s getting more than me!” and “I want a taste!” ~은 ~하는게 고작이었다.

 

I just so sick of Mary Kay’s whining. ~의 칭얼댐

 

I mean, half the time I don’t think Mary Kay knows how lucky she is,

* half the time 종종

 

Maybe it touched her tonsils.

* tonsils 편도선

 

Finally, I had no choice but to go home and sit in the wheelbarrow in the garage and tell myself it was all my fault, I’d broken the only rule of friendship that there is.

* wheelbarrow 손수레

 

Although a part of me couldn’t help thinking that Mary Kay had broken an important rule, my own rule, Never eat anything red – but especially don’t choose that color for your cupcake frosting if your best friend can’t stand strawberry, even though I have to admit that the frosting was pretty good.

비록 내 일부는 ~라는 생각을 떨칠 수 없었다.

 

So I found a spiral notebook in a box near the Christmas ornaments that Mom had marked SCHOOL SUPPLIES.

* spiral 나선형의

 

Then I wrote KEEP OUT IF YOU ARE NOT A GIRL (I wrote that because I have little brothers who are always butting into my business. I don’t need them knowing my rules.)

….항상 나의 일어 간섭하는 어린 남동생들..

 

Also, she said that I probably hadn’t done any permanent damage to Mary Kay’s uvula or tonsils.

* uvula 목젖

 

…because Mary Kay is an only child and used to getting her way. And if she doesn’t get her own way, like if we’re playing lions and I say she should be the male lion for a change because I have rug burns from crawling around, doing all the hunting and I want to lie around with the cute cubs.

*get one’s (own) way: 제멋대로 하다.

 

I explained to her that I was going to hide the notebook in a special place under the slats beneath my bed so my brothers wouldn’t find it. I thought this actually might make her interested in reading it.

*slat: a thin, narrow piece of wood, plastic, or metal used to make floors, furniture, window coverings, etc.

 

Which is too bad, because if anyone could use some help with the rules of friendship, it’s Mary Kay.

그건 진짜 안 좋았어. 왜냐면 누군가 우정의 규칙들에 대해 도와줄 수 있다면, 그건 Mary Kay이거든.

 

Just for a change. 기분전환으로, 변화를 위해서.

 

Rule #2

It’s a contemporary split-level in Walnut Knolls, which is a subdivision.

* split-level: 바닥의 높이가 약간씩 다른

 

My dad teaches college.

 

She advises college kids on what classes they should be taking.

* college kids: 대학생들

 

But I don’t particularly care if they have their own rooms.

 

But what about my canopy bed?

 

Also, I am more used to hardship, not being an only child.

 

Each one of my rocks is, in its own way, extraordinary.

* extraordinary: 보통이 아닌, 엄청난, /ɪkˈstrɔːr.dən.er.i/

 

I found most of my geodes while scavenging in the many home construction sites in and around Walnut Knolls.

* scavenge: 다른 사람들의 쓰레기 더미에서 이용할 수 있는 것을 찾다 look for.

 

You can find many amazing things in the dirt piles bulldozers have made.

* bulldozer: /ˈbʊlˌdoʊ.zɚ/

 

They just sit in those sacks, cluttering up the floor of your closet.

*clutter 어질러 놓다. 물건이 장소에 어질러지다.

 

I couldn’t have letting out a really disappointed cry at this.

 

Well, you’ll be going to a new school, because we’ll be living in a different school district.

I don’t want to go to a new school.

 

*Fish fingers 음식 종류

 

Only I didn’t remember the part about how I’d just been sort of wishing for a different, non-crying best friends.

나는 ~에 대한 부분을 기억하지 못했다. 내가 얼마나 다른 종류의 울지 않는 best friends를 원했는지.

 

“You can still go visit her,” my little brother Kevin said helpfully. 도움을 주기 위해서

 

I am the only person in my family who brushes him, checks him for ticks, and walks him.

*check A for B: ~에게서 ~여부를 점검하다.

*tick 진드기

 

I want to be a veterinarian when I grow up, so I am also practicing for when this happens.

 

But it had never even occurred to me to ask for a kitten. Until they said I could have one.

하지만 새끼 고양이를 요청하는 건 생각지도 못했다.

 

Hitching Marvin up to the sled and trying to make him pull you down the dirt piles in the new development does not count as walking him.

* Hitch 밧줄 등을 걸다, 감다. 동물을 말뚝에 매다

 

Look at the gingerbread trim around the front porch!

* gingerbread trim: 물결무늬 장식

 

And see that bay window on the third floor in the front?

* bay window: 밖으로 내민 창

 

Only that turns out to be one of the hardest rules to learn of all: You can’t go back.

 

 

Rule #3

“You make it sound like you want to move,” Mary Kay said, all accusingly.

*accusingly 책망하며

* accusing 책망하는, 당신이 그 사람이 어떤 것을 잘 못했다고 생각한다고 암시하는

* the crossing guard 횡당보도 교통 정리원

 

, Mark decided he was a killer lion from a rival pride and pounced on Mary Kay from the coffee table.

* pounce 갑자기 덤벼들다.

 

“It will be okay,” I said, to reassure her. “괜찮을 거야” 내가 그녀를 안심시키기 위해 말했다.

 

You should only say nice things to your friends, even if they’re not true.

Being liked is important.

 

 

.. that’s the name of the horse who grazes in the last field that’s left in Walnut Knolls, and …

*graze 풀을 뜯어 먹다

*nip 자르다. 없애다.

 

And it wasn’t as if I weren’t already freaking out about maybe having to move into a haunted house and start at a whole new school.

*freak: 어떤 사람이 굉장히 감정적이 되다. 감정적이 되게 하다.

 

Also because he does things like burp loudly in class when Ms. Myers isn’t paying attention, which Brittany Hauser says is disgusting.

* burp 트림하다

 

Since this is just the way Scott is, I didn’t take offense. Also because I know if you gasp and flounce away when boys act like this, like Brittany Hauser does, you are really just giving them what they want.

* take offense 성내다. 화내다

* flounce away 몸부림치며 떨어지다. (특히 당신이 화가 났음을 보여주기 위해) 큰 발걸음으로 재빨리 걷다.

 

Look at this bruise I got falling off my bike.

 

“Why don’t you just ask Scott?” she said, and flounced away.

 

Rule #4

, or about buying her a going-away present,

 

But the bad part about having a fight with my best friend was that I didn’t have anyone to talk to about how upset I was about the actual moving thing. 내가 얼마나 기분이 안 좋은지

 

Well, maybe if they had picked the haunted house that Uncle Jay took me to at the county fair last summer.

* county fair = a large public event. 주로 가장 훌륭한 요리, 최고의 동물을 위한 competitions, games, rides로 이루어져 있다. 여름에 일어남.

 

But that might actually have been nicer than the house we were supposedly going to live in.

* that might have been nicer than 주어가 ~보다는 더 나았을지도 모르겠다

* supposedly /써포우짓리/ 어떤 사람이 말한 것에 따르면, 다른 사람들이 말하는 바에 따르면,

 

But our new house didn’t have any gross yet cool stuff like that.

 

And the house had these ceilings that swooped up forever that Mom kept going on all excitedly about.

* swoop 새가 휙 내려앉다, 갑자기 덮치다. 급습하다. 잡아채다

* swooped up 휙 들어올리다.

 

They just ended up in these cobwebby chandeliers that weren’t even a bit sparkly like my geodes.

* cobwebby chandeliers 거미줄을 친(오랫동안 쓰지 않은) 샹들리에

 

.. the truth was, the wall-to-wall carpeting back at our old house was nicer, if you ask me, than the nasty dark brown wood floors that we were walking on that went creeeaak when you stepped anywhere on them.

* wall-to-wall 마루 전체에 깔린,

* nasty 불쾌한,

 

And even though it had what Mom called a bay window that was like a turret in a castle that was round and almost all glass that she said Dad was going to build a window seat in that I’d be able to sit on and read my books,

* turret 작은 탑

* a window seat 창가의 좌석

 

As I stood there in the giant echoing cavern that was supposed to be my room, I couldn’t help remembering what had happened the night before.

* cavern 큰 동굴

* I couldn’t help remembering 나는 기억할 수 밖에 없었다.

* was supposed to be ~하기로 되어있는

 

Even Mark and Kevin didn’t agree with me about our new house stinking.

 

The reason Mark and Kevin loved their new rooms was because there was a heating grate in the wall that separated their two rooms, and they’d figured out that they could open the grate up and talk to each other through it.

 

Space shuttle 우주 왕복선

 

 You don’t come across a best friend – even not-so-great ones – every day. Best friends are actually hard to find.

당신은 매일 a best friend 찾아내는게 아니다.

 

Yes, really, a trapdoor. 치켜 올리는 뚜껑문

 

But when I accused them of it, I caught them smiling a little.

*accuse .. of 비난하다

 

..such as a disembodied zombie hand

* disembodied 육체에서 분리된

 

Mom could see that I wasn’t too happy about the situation and that no amount of kitten talk was going to change things.

엄마는 내가 이 상황을 기뻐하지 않고 아무리 새끼 고양이에 대해 말하더라도 그 것을 바꿀 수 없다는 걸 알고 있었다.

* no amount of ~ 아무리~해도 ~가 아닌

 

You know, you kids are going to get to be in charge of picking out our own paint color or wallpaper for you rooms.

*be in charge of ~을 담당하다

 

Where’s the fun in that? 그게 뭐가 좋니?

 

Brothers and parents aren’t very sensitive.

 

I would have done anything to get out of that crummy house, even stand in the cold and dark waiting for Mom and Dad to get done measuring.

*crummy 볼품없는

 

Mark called to me from the lower branches (which were sagging beneath his weight).

* sag 축 처지다. 늘어지다.

 

“You are so dumb” I said to him, in a spurt of disbelief over his insensitivity.

* a spurt of sth ~의 급등, a sudden and short period of increased activity, effort, or speed

* disbelief ~에 대한 불신, 의혹

* insensitive 둔감한, 무감각한 – insensitivity 무감각

 

 

Because in addition to having velvet wallpaper, it also serves turtle soup.

그 레스토랑은 거북이 soup도 제공한다

 

This is cruelty to animals, if you ask me.

* cruelty 잔인한 행동

 

And that was that there was a girl about my own age doing back handsprings in the front yard of her own house.

*Handsprings: 손을 땅에 집고 다리를 하늘을 향해 들어서 움직이는 것.