這個，老人說著合上蓋子，這個不賣。

然後我不知道為什麼，不得不背過身去，裝做我不是那麼在意那個盒子，免得蕾妮看到我有多傻。可是蕾妮更傻，已經在問價錢，我看到她的手指伸到褲袋裡摸錢去了。

There is a junk store. An old man owns it. We bought a used refrigerator from him once, and Carlos sold a box of magazines for a dollar. The store is small with just a dirty window for light. He doesn't turn the lights on unless you got money to buy things with, so in the dark we look and see all k九-九-藏-書inds of things, me and Nenny. Tables with their feet upside-down and rows and rows of refrigerators with round corners and couches that spin dust in the air when you punch them and a hundred T. V.'s that don't work probably. Everything is on top of everything so the whole store has skinny aisles to walk through. You can get lost easy.

店主是個黑人，他不太說話。如果你不太熟悉的話，可能在裏面過好長時間，才會注意到有一副金色眼鏡在黑暗中遊動。自以為聰明的蕾妮會和所有的老人交談，她問他許多問題。我呢，從來沒和他說過什麼，除去那次花一角錢買了一個自由女神像。

那裡有家舊貨店。一個老人開九_九_藏_書的。我們有次從他那裡買過一台舊冰箱。卡洛斯的一箱子雜誌賣了一塊錢。那鋪面很小，只有一格髒兮兮的窗戶透光。他從來不開燈，除非你帶了買東西的錢。於是我們，我和蕾妮，在昏暗中張望，看見各種各樣的物什。幾張腳朝天的桌子、一排排的圓角冰箱、你一捶它就會向空中噴吐灰塵的沙發和一百台看不大起來的電視。一樣東西摞在另一樣上面，形成了店裡一條條細長的甬道。你很容易就迷失了方向。

The owner, he is a black man who doesn't talk much and sometimes if you didn't know better you could be in there a long time before your eyes notice a pair of gold glasses floating in the dark. Nenny who thinks she is smart and ta九*九*藏*書lks to any old man, asks lots of questions. Me, I never said nothing to him except once when I bought the Statue of Liberty for a dime.

可是蕾妮，我有次聽到她問，這裏這個是什麼，老人說，這個，是音樂盒。我飛快地轉身，以為他在說一個漂亮的盒子，上面印著花朵，裏面有個芭蕾舞小人的那種。但老人指的地方沒有那樣的東西。那只是一箇舊木盒，裏面有一張大的黃銅錄音片，上面有些小洞洞。接著他啟動了它，忽然間響起來千百樣的聲音。好像被他這一弄，有一百萬隻飛蛾從蒙灰的傢具上，從天鵝頸狀的陰影中，從我們的骨頭裡翻飛出來。又好像是一骨碌兒水滴。或是木琴，輕輕地一撥弦，發出如同手指滑過金屬梳齒的聲音。

But Nenny, I hear her asking one ｒｅａｄ•9９csｗ•cｏｍtime how's this here and the man says, This, this is a music box, and I turn around quick thinking he means a pretty box with flowers painted on it, with a ballerina inside. Only there's nothing like that where this old man is pointing, just a wood box that's old and got a big brass record in it with holes. Then he starts it up and all sorts of things start happening. It's like all of a sudden he let go a million moths all over the dusty furniture and swan-neck shadows and ihttps://read.99csw.comn our bones. It's like drops of water. Or like marimbas only with a funny little plucked sound to it like if you were running your fingers across the teeth of a metal comb.

This, the old man says shutting the lid, this ain't for sale.

And then I don't know why, but I have to turn around and pretend I don't care about the box so Nenny won't see how stupid I am. But Nenny, who is stupider, already is asking how much and I can see her fingers going for the quarters in her pants pocket.