儿童英语读物 The Basketball Mystery CHAPTER 10 Lost and Found

（单词翻译）

That afternoon, there were two trophies¹ on the Aldens’ mantel. Mr. Alden took pictures of Henry, Jessie, and Violet standing² with the twins in front of the fireplace. No one wanted to spoil the moment by mentioning that there were supposed to be three trophies in the picture.

“My lips ache,” Tipper said after everyone had finished posing. “I’ve never smiled so much in one day as I did today.”

“Same here,” said Buzz. “But save a few smiles for Great-Aunt Nora. We promised to be at her house in fifteen minutes. Let’s go.”

The Aldens followed the twins out to their car. The twins were going to visit some relatives for a couple of nights.

“So long, everyone,” Tipper said. “See you on Opening Day, trophy³ or no trophy.”

“Wait a moment,” Mr. Alden called out when he noticed a letter for Tipper in the mailbox. “Here’s a letter for you.”

“What an odd envelope.” Tipper tore it open. “It’s written in big block letters without a return address.” She unfolded the sheet of notebook paper inside. “Goodness!” she cried. “Listen:

“ ‘Your trophy is safe. You will find it at the sports center on Opening Day.’”

Tipper’s face grew pale. “Do you know anything about this?” she asked Buzz.

“Why are you asking me?” Buzz wanted to know. He started the car up. “Let’s not talk about this now. I don’t want to ruin our visit with Great-Aunt Nora.”

“Leave the note with us,” Jessie whispered. “Maybe we can figure it out.”

Tipper gave Jessie the note. After the twins drove off, Soo Lee and Benny held the piece of paper up to the sunlight.

“No fingerprints,” Benny said. “But know what? If we find out who writes like this, maybe we can find Tipper’s missing trophy.”

Soo Lee didn’t mean to giggle⁴, but she couldn’t help it. “I write in big letters! But I don’t know all my letters yet.”

The Aldens laughed over this, though Tipper’s missing trophy was no laughing matter.

The Aldens spent the next day decorating the sports center with balloons and streamers. They made signs showing where the celebrations were going to be. They set up the tables and chairs for refreshments⁵. And the whole time they worked, they kept their eyes open for Tipper’s trophy.

“I just went into Mr. Fowler’s office to ask about the folding chairs,” Henry told Jessie and Violet when he saw them putting up posters on a bulletin board.

“While Henry was talking, Soo Lee and I peeked⁶ on his desk,” Benny whispered. “But we didn’t see any pieces of paper like Tipper’s letter.”

“He writes with eensy-weensy letters,” Soo Lee added. “Not big, giant letters. We peeked in the closet, too, but there were only old paint cans in there.”

Jessie smiled. “Good work, you two. I just hope whoever wrote that note is right — that the trophy will be here tomorrow. But I sure would like to find it ahead of time.”

“Hey, Aldens,” the children heard Tom Hooper call out when he saw them. He set a messy stack of papers on the floor. “Here, use some double-sided tape, Jessie. That works better than plain tape for putting up signs.”

While Tom helped Jessie, Soo Lee and Benny pretended to pick up something from the floor.

“Thanks,” Tom said when he saw Benny and Soo Lee gathering⁷ up his papers. “So long, now. Just throw the tape in my tool-box when you’re done, Jessie. It’s in the office closet with my painting gear.”

“Tom didn’t have any paper like that note,” Benny whispered after Tom left. “And he has little bitsy handwriting, too.”

When the Aldens went to the office, Courtney was talking on the phone.

Jessie held up the roll of tape. “Don’t hang up. We’re just putting this back in Tom’s toolbox.”

By this time Courtney had hung up the phone. “Fine, just shut the office door when you leave. And don’t touch anything on this desk.”

So they didn’t. Instead, Benny and Soo Lee tried to see if any paper on Courtney’s desk matched the paper the mystery writer had used.

“Nope,” Benny said, looking over but not touching⁸ anything.

Outside, a cleaning person was pushing a cart down the hall.

“Look what fell off.” Henry picked up a sheet of paper with red marker letters on top. “It’s an old practice schedule for the Blazers. It says, ‘Give to Buzz.’ ”

Jessie looked over Henry’s shoulder. “It’s the schedule Buzz was supposed to get for the first practice. I guess Mr. Fowler forgot to give it to Buzz. Maybe the mix-up wasn’t on —”

“On purpose!” the Aldens heard Mr. Fowler say. “So that’s what everybody thinks? That I made things hard for Buzz Nettleton?”

The Aldens didn’t speak. They did believe Mr. Fowler made things hard for Buzz on purpose.

“Everybody’s wrong thinking I’m out to get Buzz. I had the record for ten years before he broke it. I knew somebody was going to break my record someday.”

By this time Courtney had come out to see what the commotion⁹ was all about. She overheard Frank getting upset. “You know what’s hard?” she asked, looking at the Aldens. “That everything Frank and I did was pushed aside just because the Nettleton twins came back. Frank and I worked with the neighborhood teams for months. Then the twins showed up. Pretty soon all we were good for was making up schedules and such.”

“The twins are leaving in a couple of days,” Mr. Fowler said. “But we’ll still be here. Only there aren’t any newspapers and television people looking to talk to us.”

The Aldens felt awful. Frank Fowler and Courtney Post had worked hard with the teams.

“What about our game?” Henry asked. “It seemed like you wanted the Blazers to lose just because Buzz was coaching us.”

Mr. Fowler was quiet now. “I’ll admit I made a lot of bad calls during the game. I should have let Tom referee¹⁰ the game, but he can get so distracted. He even forgot to give Buzz this schedule change. Not to mention the mix-up with the television people I found out about. Tom took the message from them but forgot to tell the twins about it. So the crew showed up at the sports center and no one was there.”

Henry still wanted to know what happened at the Blazers game. “Were you upset with our team?”

“In a way I was,” Mr. Fowler said. “I let my own jealousy¹¹ get me in a bad mood. I guess I took it out on your team. For sure, I wasn’t thinking straight during that game. I’m sorry about that. But, hey, guess what?”

“The Blazers won the trophy anyway!” Henry said proudly. “Speaking of trophies . . .”

Courtney shrugged¹² her shoulders. “Hey don’t look at me. I’m sorry about what happened at our first practice. I found Tipper’s keys and kept them. I . . . well . . . I was afraid the team would like her better than they liked me. I tried to make her look disorganized in front of the girls. But I didn’t have anything to do with that missing trophy. I still have one more year of college. I’d rather win my own trophy than take it from Tipper. She’s taught me a lot about how to be a good team player. Maybe next year I’ll be the Most Valuable Player!”

The next day the Aldens dressed up in their basketball uniforms. Mr. Alden whistled while he put on his most colorful bow tie.

“Why such long faces?” he asked when he noticed no one else seemed very excited about Opening Day. “I know you’re wondering about that trophy. But we must trust the writer of that letter and hope for the best. Now let’s head out. We don’t want to be late!”

The parking lot was packed when Mr. Alden drove up to the sports center. People were streaming into the brand-new building. There were balloons inside the lobby. The Aldens could hear the Greenfield High School band playing inside the gym.

“Your decorations look very fine,” Mr. Alden told his grandchildren. “I see Nora Nettleton going in. The twins must be here already. I’ll meet you all in the front row of the gym. I’ll be with the twins and some of their Greenfield relatives and friends.”

Soo Lee tugged¹³ Jessie’s sleeve. “I forgot to brush my hair.”

“Me, too.” Benny tried to flatten¹⁴ a curl of hair that just wouldn’t stay down.

Jessie took the younger children by the hand. “I’ll bring you both to the locker¹⁵ room so you can get nice and spiffy. But first, Benny, take this envelope to the referee. Patsy wrote up the team’s names, numbers, and records for the game.”

Benny took the envelope from Jessie. He tried to read the words. “Fast Breakers Statis . . . What’s this hard word?” Before Jessie could answer, Benny noticed something else. “Hey! Look at the letters on this envelope! Where’s that note about the missing trophy? I think the letters are the same!”

Jessie reached into her gym bag. She pulled out the crumpled¹⁶ note and smoothed it out.

“Look. It’s the same printing as on this envelope!” Benny cried.

“I bet if we find Patsy, we’ll find Tipper’s trophy,” Jessie said.

“I saw Patsy go up that staircase about ten minutes ago,” Henry said when he overheard the children talking. “There’s another locker room on the second floor.”

Soo Lee and Benny raced up the stairs with Jessie and Henry following right behind.

The halls leading to the locker room were dark. But Jessie knew the way. She pushed open the door and searched for the light switch. But she couldn’t find it. The children followed her into the darkened room.

The Aldens were not alone. They stood still. There was just enough light to see someone standing in front of a large wall mirror — someone holding a tall, silver trophy!

“Patsy!” Jessie cried out.

Patsy jumped when she saw the Aldens’ reflection. She quickly put the trophy under one of the benches.

“Where did you find that?” Violet asked.

Patsy didn’t answer.

“We’ve been searching for that ever since it disappeared,” Henry said.

“I’m the one who took it from the trunk of the twins’ car after I saw Buzz put it there,” Patsy told Henry.

“Why?” Jessie asked, her voice shaking.

Patsy took a deep breath. “I just wanted to have it overnight — without anyone around. I tried to get it back to your room, Jessie. But you kept following me.”

Jessie picked up the trophy from under the bench.

“I saw Tipper on television when she won it last month,” Patsy continued. “I couldn’t believe she was actually in Greenfield coaching our team. I thought if I borrowed her trophy, some of her talent might rub off on me. I want to be a great player like her — and Courtney, too.”

“Why didn’t you tell her?” Soo Lee asked.

Patsy went on, “I tried to get it back to her, but it was never the right time. Then, when our team won the league trophy, I felt worse. Tipper helped us win it, and I had taken hers. So I sent her the note and planned to bring it back today without getting caught.”

“Well, here it is!” Jessie said. “We’d better bring it to the gym right away. Tipper would be pretty embarrassed if the mayor called her to the gym floor and she was empty-handed. You can tell her the whole story later.”

Soo Lee forgot all about brushing her hair. Benny forgot about the curl that wouldn’t behave. None of it mattered.

When the Aldens walked into the gym with Patsy they held up the trophy so Tipper could see it. The spotlights¹⁷ made the silver reflect all over the gym. Tipper gave Patsy and the Aldens a thumbs-up sign.

When Patsy and the Aldens entered the gym, the band was playing the Greenfield High School fight song. Cheerleaders were tumbling and doing somersaults in front of the crowd.

The mayor tapped the microphone, which made a horrible scratchy sound. “Ladies and gentlemen,” the mayor said, “may I present Tipper Nettleton, the Most Valuable Player in the country. She will now donate her trophy to our new sports center.”

Jessie handed Benny the trophy. “Go ahead. Take it down to her.”

Benny ran down to the gym floor. He held up the trophy. The mayor gave him the microphone. In a voice just like the mayor’s, Benny said, “May I present Tipper Nettleton with the most valuable trophy that was ever missing.”

All of the Aldens laughed, and the whole audience joined in. Benny laughed harder than anyone.