I live in rural Virginia, and my high school, believe it or not, was in between two pastures in a very agrarian area. Although I was never much into sports, I had a few friends who were, and several were on the cross-country running team.
我家住在弗吉尼亞州郊外。信不信由你，我上高中的學校正好位于兩個牧場之間的一塊地地道道的莊稼地上。我是不大喜歡體育運動，但是有幾個朋友在田徑隊練越野跑。

The course lay out for the cross-country track took a meandering path around the school, then out into the pastures around the school (with the permission of the farmers, of course). One part of the course took the runners past an immense old farmhouse, abandoned and dilapidated on the crest of a hill overlooking the school. There were, of course, rumors that it was haunted, but to my knowledge no one ever saw or heard anything there. It was just a big, old, spooky, abandoned house.
越野跑的路線是一段圍繞著學校彎彎曲曲的路，還要穿過附近的牧場(當然，事先已經取得了主人的許可)。路線的一部分還要穿過一座非常大的農舍，已經廢棄了很久，坐落在一座小山頂上，從那里可以俯瞰我們的學校。因為很久沒有人住了，所以很自然地一直傳說那里鬧鬼，但是據我所知沒人在那看見過什么，也沒聽到過什么特別的聲音。那只不過是一座很大、很古老、有些神秘的遺棄了的房子。

At times, the CC runners did see someone poking around there, but it was obviously the owner of the property as they would see his truck parked in front of the place, and they could see that he was using the downstairs rooms to store equipment and surplus hay.
有時，跑步的人見到有人在里面走來走去，但是誰都知道那就是房子的主人，因為他的卡車就停在大門口。大家也都知道他是用樓下的房間儲存一些機器和剩下的干草。

That being said, I shall relate the story of my friend on the CC run, and the subsequent discovery made by myself and some intrepid companions one day...
講到這里讀者應該明白了，我的這個故事是與練越野跑的朋友有關的，下面我要說的是我和幾個膽大的朋友某一天的發現…

Her name was Candy, and she was on the CC team. She was hardly the star member, and would, unfortunately, often find herself running alone. That never dampened her spirits, however, and she remained on the team doing her part. One day, when as usual the pack had left her far behind, she found herself alone as she trudged up the hill towards the old house. Glancing up, she saw someone walk past an upstairs window. She thought nothing of it, of course, assuming it was the farmer. It didn’t dawn on her until later that his truck was not in its usual place in front of the house.
她叫做坎迪，也是田徑隊的成員。但是她永遠也成不了隊里的明星，而且還總是被其他隊員遠遠的落在后面。然而，她的積極性卻從來沒有減弱，一直留在隊里訓練、比賽。一天，像往常一樣她又被大部隊甩到后面很遠，這時她一個人朝著山上的老房子艱難的跑過去。不經意間向上瞥了一眼，她看見有個人影透過樓上的窗戶閃了一下。當時她沒在意，以為又是房子主人在那了。直到沒在以往的地方看見他的卡車，坎迪才覺得有點不對勁。

She told this to her circle of friends, and some of us decided to check the place out the following day (which was, fortunately, a Saturday). So, we met in the field at noon and tromped off to explore. What we found there was the typical old falling-apart farmhouse. Empty rooms (except for the equipment and such), creaky floorboards, and piles of wet shattered plaster, beer bottles, graffiti, and cigarette butts. Then we rounded the corner from the old living room to go upstairs, and each of us stopped dead in our tracks....
她就把這件事告訴了我們這些朋友，有些人就決定轉天去看看究竟是怎么回事(正好第二天是星期六)。于是，星期六中午我們就在牧場集合去探險了。進去之后，我們發現其實這就是一所廢棄了的農舍，空空的屋子(除了那些機器和甘草)，踩上去咯吱咯吱的地板，一堆一堆潮濕的墻皮脫落下來，滿地的啤酒瓶、煙蒂，還有墻上的涂鴉。隨后我們走過起居室來到拐角處準備上樓，這時所有人都被眼前的景象驚呆了…
　　
There were no stairs. Apparently, the stairwell had collapsed into the cellar long ago, leaving only a yawning opening 10 feet above a tangled pile of old timbers on the cellar floor below. And yet, Candy had sworn she had seen someone walk by an upstairs window. We explored the house more completely, now being VERY careful since we knew just how bad off the place really was. We didn’t find any second staircase, and there was no way to reach the second floor. Its a mystery that has remained unsolved, as in the middle of our exploration we heard the truck door slam outside, and we all beat a hasty retreat out the back so we wouldn’t get caught trespassing.
根本就沒有樓梯!明顯可以看出，很久以前樓梯就塌了，樓梯井足足有十英尺高，底下地窖的地板上摞著一堆不知道多少年了的老木頭纏在一起。可是，坎迪發誓說她看見了有人從樓上的窗戶走過。于是我們更仔細地繼續搜索，每個人都很小心，因為大家都知道房子已經年久失修了。我們并沒發現其他的樓梯，而且絕對不可能有辦法到樓上去。肯定有秘密我們還沒發現。我們正在搜尋的時候，聽到外面卡車門砰的一聲關上了，因為是擅自闖進來的，于是我們趕忙從后門出去了。

I don’t know if it was a ghost she saw, or if it were someone who could climb like an orangutan, but it’s all a moot point now. That house was demolished only one year later, and a nice shiny new modern split-level was erected in its place. I wonder if the owners of that house have any late night visitors...
我不知道坎迪是不是看見了鬼，或者有人能像猩猩那樣爬上樓去，總之一切都沒有定論。一年后人們拆了老房子，隨后一座漂亮的現代建筑矗立在那里。我就在想，新房子的主人會不會有夜半來客呢…

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