How to Fight the Sandman1

By John DeVore

对孩子们来说，长大的过程就是发现世界的过程。那些我们从小就耳熟能详的童话传说，充满着魔法咒语和奇人异兽，都意在向孩子们传播美好和善良。但言者无心，听者有意。不断长大的孩子也会渐渐发现这些故事背后有着很不一样的“谎言”与“真相”。

Adults don’t remember childhood correctly. To be a child is to be constantly deceived2. deceive: 欺骗。.

Here is a short list of lies my parents told me, and why they disturbed me:

1. It was the Easter Bunny who would leave giant baskets of candy at the foot of my bed.3. the Easter Bunny: 复活节兔子，复活节象征之一，会在复活节（或春分）的时候给孩子们送出礼物；giant: 巨大的。I eventually figured out that the Easter Bunny was, in fact, my mother. But before that discovery,it was never properly explained to me how a talking bunny rabbit was able to get into the house. The chimney was Santa’s route.4. chimney: 烟囱；route: 通道。I eventually decided that the Easter Bunny must live in the walls. With the exception of Easter Sunday, the Easter Bunny would haunt our house all year long, wiggling its nose behind my bedroom wall.5. haunt: 常出没于，萦绕于；wiggle: 摆动。This unnerved6. unnerve: 使恐惧，使紧张不安。me.

牙仙

复活节免子

2. The Tooth Fairy7. The Tooth Fairy: 牙仙，是欧美等西方国家传说中的妖精。传说中，小孩子脱掉乳齿后，将乳齿放在枕头底，夜晚时牙仙就会取走放在枕头底的牙齿，换成一个金币，象征小孩将来要换上恒齿，成为一个大人。. My body parts are worth more than a quarter8. quarter: 25美分。.

3. Professional wrestling was real. It wasn’t until I was eight years old or so that my dad sat me down and told me that the colorful warriors of the World Wrestling Federation were play fighting.9. warrior: 勇士；World Wrestling Federation:世界摔跤协会，一种更具娱乐性质的比赛。比赛中有很多不同的角色，胜败都是提前安排好的，摔跤是表演，而不是真正的格斗。My dad had spent time as a wrestling announcer in El Paso, Texas, and loved the violent man ballet.10. wrestling announcer: 摔跤解说员；El Paso: 厄尔巴索（美国得克萨斯州一城市名）；man ballet: 男性芭蕾（这里是比喻摔跤）。But he felt that I should know the truth, and even showed me some of the choreographed11. choreographed: 精心设计的，刻意安排的。moves wrestlers used on television. Up until that point, I worshiped these gladiators in face-paint much the way I imagine a Roman prince might have venerated the gore-splattered heroes of the Coliseum.12. 直到那刻前，我都很崇拜那些脸上涂着油彩的角斗士，就像我想象中的罗马王子崇敬血溅竞技场的英雄们一样。gladiator: 角斗士；venerate: 崇敬，尊敬；gore-splattered:鲜血四溅的；the Coliseum: 意大利古罗马竞技场。

But the greatest lie I was ever told was the story of the Sandman.

I hated bedtime, of course. To me, sleep was a waste of time. I had plenty of it in the womb13. womb: 子宫。. Every minute spent snoozing14. snooze: 打盹，小睡。was a minute taken away from the operas I was acting out in the basement with my action figures.

So one night, my mother told me about the Sandman. He was an invisible man who flies around and throws magic sand in your eyes so you’ll fall asleep. There was so much wrong with this concept. I imagined that the Sandman as a fat head with wild eyes and a mustache and bat wings sprouting out where his ears should be.15. mustache: 上唇上的小胡子；sprout out: 发芽，此处引申为生长着。Under his chin were two long, spindly arms connected to spidery fingers.16. spindly: 细长的；spidery: 细长的，蜘蛛腿一般的。In one fist was a beach pale full of sand, in the other, a plastic shovel.17. pale: 范围；shovel: 铲子。His grin was like the Cheshire Cat in the Disney animated version of Alice in Wonderland.18. grin: 露齿笑，咧嘴笑；Cheshire Cat:柴郡猫，是下文提到的刘易斯·卡罗尔的名著《爱丽丝梦游奇境记》（Alice in Wonderland）里的著名角色，是一只会隐身的咧嘴大笑的猫。文中说的是1951年迪斯尼公司制作的动画版本。My mother told me about the Sandman, turned off the light,and left me in a room alone with this dripping, giggling,fluttering head.19. dripping: 湿淋淋的；giggling: 咯咯笑的； fluttering: 飘动的。

That first night, I shuddered with fear20. shudder with fear: 不寒而栗，因恐惧而战栗。until, apparently,the Sandman threw sand in my face and forced me to sleep.The next night, however, I would fight.

I. Would. Fight.

As I nestled into bed, I made sure I was as sweet as a Hoho.21. nestle into bed: 躺进被窝；Ho-ho:是种圆柱形的，外面有糖霜、里面有奶油的巧克力小点心，类似瑞士卷。这里用于比喻这位小朋友故作乖巧。I didn’t want to let my mom on22. let sb. on: 向……泄露。. I had a plan. Once the lights were turned off, I rolled out of bed and collected my weapons: a flyswatter, my brother’s Aviator sunglasses, and a pair of swimming goggles.23. flyswatter: 苍蝇拍；Aviator sunglasses:飞行员太阳镜，由博士伦公司于1936年首次发明；swimming goggles: 泳镜。The plan was simple. I was going to thwart the invisible intruder and stay up all night long.24. thwart: 挫败；intruder: 入侵者；stay up all night long: 彻夜不眠。I devised three levels of defense.

Level one: I would fan myself with the flyswatter. Right in front of my nose. Continuously flap the swatter back and forth until I felt wind on my face.25. flap: 摇动；back and forth: 来回，反复。

Level two: My brother’s Aviator sunglasses, which were huge and mirrored26. mirrored: 装有镜片的。. Perhaps they would offer enough of a barrier that the Sandman would give up. But if not, there was…

Level three: My swimming goggles, which fit snugly27. snugly: 紧密地。over my eyes, and under the Aviator glasses. I had them from that previous summer. That was the summer I had worked up enough courage to dunk28. dunk: 泡，浸。my entire head under the water. I figured there was no way any magic sand could penetrate29. penetrate: 穿透，渗入。them.

So there I sat. In bed. Wearing swimming goggles,sunglasses, waving a flyswatter in my face as fast as I could. This was life-or-death work. I was determined.I figured it was a hopeless battle, but that the battle must be met.

When I woke up the next morning, I had a major realization. There was no way the Sandman could have penetrated my defenses. Therefore… the Sandman couldn’t exist. And if the Sandman didn’t exist… then what else didn’t exist?

My dad once told me that in Mexican border towns in the fifties, lottery balls30. lottery ball: 彩票球。with the winning numbers were picked by children no older than seven. He told me that the Catholic church believed that seven is the age that children begin to learn the difference between right and wrong, and that as a result, that was the age that children learn how to deceive.31. 他告诉我天主教会相信七岁是孩子开始学会分辨对错的年纪，因此，也是孩子们学会欺骗的年纪。I still don’t know if that is true. But months away from turning seven, I learned that the whole world lies.

The next Christmas is when I discovered that my Dad was Santa. Up until then, I just assumed he was the willing puppet32. willing: 自愿的，心甘情愿的；puppet: 木偶，受他人操纵的人。of a strange fat man who was always watching me, even when I sat on the toilet.

I managed to stay up all night long with the help of a flashlight and Wolverine33. Wolverine: 金刚狼，是漫威漫画出版物中的超级英雄。. I heard my old man cursing some GI Joe playsetthat he was trying to put together, so that when I ran downstairs that morning,I would be shell-shocked with joy.34. GI Joe playset: 是美国玩具厂商“孩之宝（Hasbro）”在1982—1994年间生产的玩具系列；shell-shocked: 极度震惊的。I didn’t let on that I knew he had built it. I pretended to be thrilled that the cookies had been eaten by Santa. I lied right back.

That had also been the first time I had stayed up all night long. The Sandman, that deathly jack-olantern with bat wings, was bullshit.35. deathly: 要命的；jack-o-lantern: 杰克灯，也叫南瓜灯，是万圣节的标志性象征，传说是一个名叫杰克的人发明的；bullshit:胡扯。