When Lightning opened his eyes the next morning, he could hardly make out the blurry¹ shape in front of him.

 

"Oh, boy … ," Lightning said groggily². "Where am I? What—?"

 

Lightning squinted³. It took him a moment to figure out what he was looking at: a rusty⁴ old tow truck staring at him through a chain-link fence.

 

"Morning, Sleepin' Beauty!" the tow truck sang.

 

"Aha! Boy, I was wonderin' when you was gonna wake up!"

 

"Ahh!" Lightning cried, startled. "T-t-take whatever you want! Just don't hurt me!" He gunned his engine, but he didn't move. He looked down at his tire. "A parking boot?" he cried in horror at the metal clamp that pinned him in place. "Why do I have a parking boot on? What do you—What's going on here, please?"

 

The tow truck burst into a gap-toothed grin. "You're funny," he said. "I like you already! My name's Mater!"

 

Lightning was so surprised by the strange name that he stopped struggling against his parking boot. "Mater?"

 

"Yeah, like ‘tuh-mater,'" the tow truck explained, "but without the ‘tuh.' What's your name?"

 

"What?" Lightning asked. "Look, I need to get to California as fast as possible. Where am I?"

 

"Where are ya?" Mater asked. "Shoot. You're in Radiator⁵ Springs, the cutest little town in Carburetor County."

 

Lightning looked around. All he could see was a dreary⁶ row of boarded-up buildings. It didn't look so cute to him. "Oh, great," he said sarcastically⁷. "Just great!"

 

"Well, if you think that's great," Mater said proudly, "you should see the rest of the town!"

 

Lightning was starting to realize that Mater wasn't the fastest car on the racetrack, which gave him an idea. "You know," Lightning said craftily⁸, "I'd love to see the rest of the town, so if you could just open the gate, take this boot off, you and me— we go cruisin', check out the local scene, you know?"

 

"Dadgum!" Mater cried. "Cool!" He started to open the gate when a shout stopped him in his tracks.

 

"Mater!" bellowed⁹ the Sheriff as he rolled up. "What did I tell you about talking to the accused?"

 

Mater looked sheepish. "To not to."

 

"Well, quit your yappin'," the Sheriff snarled¹⁰, "and tow this delinquent¹¹ road hazard to traffic court."

 

第二天早上，当麦坤睁开眼时，眼前一片模糊。

 

“哦，伙计……”麦坤迷迷糊糊地说，“我这是在哪儿？发生什么事了？”

 

他眯着眼睛看了好一会儿才认出眼前的东西——一辆生锈的老拖车正透过铁丝网看着他。

 

“早上好啊，睡美人！”拖车哼唱着。

 

“啊哈！小伙儿，我刚刚还在想你什么时候才能醒过来！”

 

“啊！”麦坤大叫起来，惊恐万分。“你，你，你想要什么就拿去吧，只要别伤害我就行！”他发动引擎，但是根本动不了。麦坤低头看了一下自己的轮胎。“轮胎锁？”麦坤看到自己是被金属车轮锁扣在这里动弹不得时，害怕地大喊，“为什么我的轮胎被锁上了？告诉我，发生了什么？”

 

拖车露出龅牙大笑着说：“你真逗！我已经开始喜欢你了！我叫马特，大家都叫我板牙！”

 

麦坤对这个奇怪的名字感到好奇，他不再挣扎了。“马特？”

 

“是啊，读起来就像‘番茄’的发音去掉前面的音节，”板牙解释道，“你叫什么？”

 

“什么？”麦坤问道，“听着，我得去加利福尼亚，越快越好。我在哪儿？”

 

“你在哪儿？哈哈，你在水箱温泉镇，汽化器县最迷人的小镇。”板牙说。

 

麦坤环顾四周，映入他眼帘的只有一排老旧的木板房，这对他来说一点儿也不迷人。“哦，太棒了，真是太棒了！”他反讽道。

 

“如果你觉得这里就很好的话，你真应该再参观一下小镇的其他地方！”板牙自豪地说。

 

麦坤开始意识到，板牙肯定不是赛道上最快的车。于是他想出一个妙主意。“说真的，”麦坤耍起了花招，“我还真想去其他地方看看。不如你打开门，解开我的锁，你和我——我们两个一起去看看附近的美景吧？”

 

“好主意！”板牙兴奋地说。“太酷了！”正当他准备开门时，一声大喊把他镇住了。

 

“板牙！”警长走了过来，愤怒地说，“我不是让你不要和囚犯说话吗？”

 

板牙一脸胆怯地说：“好吧，我不说了。”

 

警长厉声说：“那你还不快闭嘴，把这破坏道路的危险分子拖到交通法庭！”

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