司氏姐妹 第六章 ：幼稚计划

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第六章  幼稚计划

司家住宅内，灯火通明。从外面看，整栋房子似乎漆黑一团，在黑夜中静静地沉睡着，但里面，法妈和其他司氏姐妹们异常清醒，没有一丝睡意。

就像前一天晚上一样， 她们聚集在法妈的卧室。也像前一天晚上一样，玛拉不在其中。但这一次没有人问为什么。

米娜蜷缩在母亲的床上，大滴的泪水流在她的脸上。玛丽握着她的手，坐在她的身旁，眼睛默默地看着摩根，而摩根在房间里踱着步，偶尔狠狠地一把揪住自己的头发，让那无奈和挫折得以从中发泄。法妈站在角落里沉默不语，她那长外套的衣摆纹丝不动。她深深地陷在思考中。

最后，她说，“摩根。”

摩根停止走动，看着她的母亲。

“摩根，” 法妈又说了一遍。她说：“我需要你告诉我真相。昨晚招待会时是你搞灭了灯？“

“什么？”摩根走到床边，一屁股坐在上面。 “当然不是！天哪，为什么你会认为是我。“

“你是在和托尼小伙子跳舞，”玛丽说。 “他说的东西可能让你难过。而你知道在你难过时你会变得怎样。“

摩根看着她的孪生姐妹，愤忿不平。 “你是当真的吗？蓝托尼才不会让我难过的做这么愚蠢的事情！“

“你不记得，你曾喜欢约翰尼，在化学实验课里当你发现他和埃莱娜约会时你干了什么？”玛丽的声音沉稳而理性。当时，摩根因为约翰尼而对她的实验搭档愤怒地咆哮，对面一盏酒精灯的火焰似乎也追随着她的愤怒去舔向埃莱娜的头发。要不是附近一个烧杯里的水偶然打翻，可怜的小女孩肯定要去医院治疗她烫伤的头皮了。 “你有时会失去控制你的法力，摩根。特别是当它涉及到男孩。你知道的。“

摩根说：“哦，帮帮忙！”。 “我那时是太不小心了！难道你真的认为我会这么坏？而且，我也没有足够大的法力一次性灭掉所有的灯。如果真的是我，我也会自己感觉到，但是我真的像其他人一样感到很惊讶。“

米娜坐起来。 “我相信你，摩根，”她说，伸手也抓住摩根的手。 “玛拉没有做错任何事，摩根也没有。难道你们没听见玛拉怎么说？还有另外一个人的阴影。一定是他。“

玛丽看着她的母亲，她在问了那个问题后就没再说话，似乎仍然陷在自己的思想中。法妈开始一边走，一边望着窗外，突然转身对着她的女儿们。 “姑娘们，”她说。 “够了。我也不认为是摩根。那杀害了格雷厄姆的人也必然是灭灯的人。不管怎样，我们现在已无法补救了。这是漫长的一天。现在是睡觉的时候了。“

摩根跳了起来，她已从她姐妹的指责中恢复过来。 “但是，玛拉怎么办？难道我们不去把她救出来吗？天哪，她是无辜的！“玛丽点点头。 “我们不能就让她这样去，难道我们没有其他办法了吗？”米娜又开始哭了起来。

“够了！”法妈说，朝床边走去。她的声音很轻，但很严厉。 “玛拉选择了去。正如她选择嫁给那个男人。我们现在做任何事情，只会使事情变得更糟。“

“但是，”摩根说。

“你不明白！”法妈提高了她的声音，姐妹们能感觉到墙壁由于缓冲了外面一股强大的压力而变得更加僵硬。 “有一个非常危险的东西在那里，我们不知道它要什么。我们都处于危险之中，除了等待，让事情变得更加清晰， 我们没其他办法。睡觉！马上！“

法妈把姑娘们拉下床，把她们赶到自己的房间。她站在那里，看着她的女儿们爬进床，并关掉了灯。

在她们的母亲走后，摩根和玛丽翻身转向对方。 “我不能让玛拉今晚留在监狱，”摩根说。 “如果妈妈是正确的，确实有危险的东西在那里，难道她不应该在这里，在我们这个安全的地方吗？ 她在那里，谁知道会发生什么事 ？“

“我知道，”玛丽说，“但是，我们能做什么呢？”

“帮帮忙！”摩根说。 “你不会忘记我们是谁，我们能做什么吧？打开监狱救人出狱有什么了不起？“

“是的，但像妈妈说的，我们不知道在什么地方有一样很危险的东西”

“去妈妈的！她还在为玛拉给我们家带来如此多的关注而生气! 你看，我不知道你如何想，但作为玛拉的妹妹，如果真有什么危险的东西，我不希望她呆在那里。“

”她也不是那样完全无助，”玛丽说。

“你知道她不会使用她的法力！”摩根说。 “而且，她伤心欲绝。她刚刚失去了她的丈夫，天哪！“

玛丽转过身，想了一会儿。摩根是正确的：玛拉不会在这种情况下，使用她的法力。在所有的姐妹中，她是最想做一个正常人的。她对法妈有关要周全考虑的警告铭刻在心，而且，尤其是现在，她不会做任何进一步危及家庭秘密的事。即使没有如何责任，她对格雷厄姆的死有负罪感，她肯定不会做任何事情来添加更多关注。她现在一定是心灰意冷，愿意为任何事牺牲自己的一切。

“好吧，”她说：“我们必须迅速采取行动。让我们先计划一下。“

摩根坐起来，她把手伸向床边的蜡烛，蜡烛立即被点燃。当她正开始穿衣服时，门吱的一声打开了。

这对孪生姐妹立即转身，心中砰砰作跳。她们看着门，但没有一个人影。突然，米娜的头偷偷地冒出来。

“米娜，你几乎吓死我们！”玛丽说。 “你在这里干什么？回去睡觉。“

“我无法入睡，”米娜说。 “我听到你们在说什么。我想一起去。“

摩根和玛丽互相看了一眼，一起转向她们的小妹妹。

“绝对不能，”她们说。

Chapter 6 – A Hatching Plan

At the Switch residence, lights blazed. From the outside the house looked dark and quiet, but inside Fa and the remaining Switch sisters were all awake, with not a drop of sleepiness in their bodies.

They were gathered in Fa’s bedroom, just like the night before. And, just like the night before, Mara was not there. This time no one asked why.

Mina had curled up on her mother’s bed, fat tears running down her face. Marie sat next to her and held her hand. She looked at Morgan, who was pacing at the end of the room, occasionally grabbing fistfuls of her hair and letting out yells of frustration. Fa stood silent in the corner, the ends of her long jacket completely still. She was deep inside herself, thinking.

Finally, she said, “Morgan.”

Morgan stopped pacing and looked at her mother.

“Morgan,” Fa said again. “I need you to tell me the truth. Did you extinguish the lights at the party?”

“What?” Morgan walked to the bed and plopped down on it. “Of course not! Why in the world would you think that I had anything–”

“Well you were dancing with that Tony boy,” Marie said. “Something he said upset you. And you know how you can get when you’re upset.”

Morgan looked at her twin, indignant and angry. “Are you serious? Tony Lane could not upset me enough to make me do something so stupid!”

“Don’t you remember when you liked Johnny and found out that he was dating that Elena during Chemistry lab?” Marie’s voice was steady and analytical. That time, Morgan had flown into a rant about Johnny to her lab partner, and across the room the bunsen burner’s flame had seemed to reach up and lick Elena’s hair. It was only the fortuitous tipping of a nearby uncapped water bottle that prevented the poor girl from going to the hospital with a scalded scalp.  ”You can lose control of your powers sometimes, Morgan. Especially when it comes to boys. You know that.”

“Oh come on!” Morgan said. “I was so much more careless then! Do you actually think I would slip up so bad? Plus I’m not nearly powerful enough to take out all those lights at once. And I would have felt it, if it had been me, but I was just as surprised as everyone else.”

Mina sat up. “I believe you Morgan,” she said, reaching out her hand to grab Morgan’s hand too. “Mara didn’t do anything wrong, and neither did Morgan. Didn’t you hear Mara? There was a shadowed man. It must have been him.”

Marie looked at her mother, who hadn’t spoken since asking the question and seemed still to be lost in her own thoughts. Fa walked looked out the window and turned back to her daughters. “Girls,” she said. “That’s enough. I don’t think it was Morgan. Whatever killed Graham must have also extinguished the lights. In any case there is nothing we can do about it now. It has been a long day. It is time to go to bed.”

Morgan jumped up, recovering immediately from her sister’s accusations. “But what about Mara? Don’t we have to get her out? She’s innocent, for goodness sake!” Marie nodded. “We can’t just leave her–isn’t there something we can do?” Mina began to cry again.

“Enough!” Fa said, striding toward the bed. Her voice was soft but stern. “Mara chose to go. Just as she chose to marry that man. Anything we do now will only make things worse.”

“But–” Morgan began to say.

“Don’t you understand!” Fa raised her voice now, and the sisters could feel the walls stiffening to muffle it from the outside. “There is something very dangerous out there, and who knows what it is looking for. We are all in danger, and there is nothing we can do right now except wait for things to become clearer. Bed! Now!”

Fa swept the girls off her bed and marched them to their rooms. She stood and watched as her daughters crawled into bed and turned out the lights.

After their mother had gone, Morgan and Marie turned to each other. “There is no way I’m letting Mara stay in jail tonight,” Morgan said. “If Mom is right, and there really is something dangerous out there, shouldn’t she be here with us where it’s safe? Who knows what will happen to her out there?”

“I know,” Marie said, “But how are we supposed to do anything about it?”

“Come on,” Morgan said. “Aren’t you forgetting who we are–what we can do? How hard can it be to break someone out of jail?”

“Yeah, but like Mom said there’s something really dangerous out there–”

“Screw mom! She’s still peeved at Mara for bringing so much attention to our family. Look, I don’t know about you, but Mara’s my sister, and if there’s something dangerous out there I don’t want her out there.”

“It’s not like she’s completely helpless though,” Marie said.

“You know she’s not going to use her powers!” Morgan said. “Plus, she’s heartbroken. She just lost her husband, for goodness sake!”

Marie turned on her back and thought for a moment. Morgan was right: Mara would not use her powers under these circumstances. Out of all the sisters, she was the one who wanted most just to be normal. She had deeply absorbed Fa’s warnings about discretion, and, especially now, would not do anything to further jeopardize the family’s secrecy. Even though she was not responsible, she felt guilty for Graham’s death, and she would certainly not do anything to bring even more attention to the matter. She was most likely so devastated that she would willingly sacrifice herself up to whatever was out there.

“Alright,” she said. “We have to move fast. Let’s make a plan.”

Morgan sat up and moved her hand over the candle at her bedside, which lit up immediately. She was starting to get dressed when the door creaked open.

The twins turned immediately, their hearts jumping. They looked at the door but there was no one there. Then, Mina peeked her head in.

“Mina, You nearly scared us to death!” Marie said. “What are you doing here? Go back to bed.”

“I couldn’t sleep,” Mina said. “I heard what you were talking about. I want to come too.”

Morgan and Marie looked at each other and turned to their little sister.

“Absolutely not,” they said.