Freaky Friday 怪誕星期五

You are not going to believe me； nobody in their right minds could possib ly believe me. but it's true. really it is ！

When I woke up this morning. I found l'd turned into my mother. There l was. in my mother's bed. with my feet reaching a llthe way to the bottom . and my father sleeping in the other bed. I had on my mother's night-gown. and a ring on my left hand. Im ean her left hand. and lUm ps and pins all over my head.

“I think that must be the rollers.”I said to myself.“and if thave my mother's hair. lprobab ly have her face too.”

ldec ided to take a bok at myself in the bathroom mirror. A fter all you don't tum into your mother every day of the week； maybe l was im agining it-ordream ing it.

Well lwasn't. What lsaw in that m irror was abso lutely my mother from top to toe. complete with no braces on the teeth. Now ord harily. I don't bother to brush too often-it's a big nuisance With alI tho se wires-but my mothe r's teeth boked lke a fun job. and besides. if she was wilang to do a terrif ic thing like tuming her body over to me like that. the bast I could do was take care of her teeth for her. R ight？ R ight.

You see. I had reason to believe that she was respons ible for this who le happening. Because last night. we had a sort of an argum ent about som ething and I to ld her one or two thngs that had been on my mind lately...

That's the thing. lcan't stand how strict she is. Take food. for instance. Do you know what she makes me eat for breakfast？ cereal， orange juice. toast. an egg. mik. and two V itam in c's. She's going to tum me into a blimp. Then for Unch at schoo I you have one of two choices. You can bring your own bag lunch， with a jelly sandw ich or a TV dinner （They're quite good cold.） and a Coke. or if you're me. you have to eat the hot meal the school gives you. which is not hot and l wouldn't give it to a dog. A bo is better. I know because our dog eats A bo and I tried some once.

She's ako very fussy about the w ay I keep my room. Her idea of neat isn't the sam e as mine， and besides， it's my room and ldon't see why l can't keep it any way l want.she says it's so messy nobody can clean in therer but if that's true. how come it Iooks all right when I come home from school？ When I asked her that last night. she just sigheel. A few other things we fight about a re my hair——she wants me to have it trim med but lm not falling for that again（The last time it was“trimmed”they hacked six inche off it！）——and my nails which I bite. But the biggest thng we fight about is freedom. because Im old enough to be given more than l'm getting. l'm not albwed to wak home through the park even with a friend. because“N ew York is a very dangerous place and especially the park.”Everybody else's mother lets them ， “but l'm not ev erybody else's mother.”You're telling me ！

Tom orrow one of my best friends in schoo l who lives in the Village is hav ing a boy-girlparty and she won't let me go because the bst time that friend had a party they played kissing games. I told her the mother was there the whole time. staying out of the way in the bedroom， of courser and she said.“That's exactly what Im ean.”

What kind of an answer is that？ l don't get it. l don't get any of it. AlI I know is I can't eat what l want， wear what l want. keep my hair and my naik the way l want， keep room the way l want or go where l want. So last night we really had it out.

All of which should explain why I wasn't as surprised as most people would be if they woke up in their mother's body.

l was a little surprised of course. but mostly I felt it was fantastica lly cons iderate of her. And im aginative. lnstead of punishing me for rudeness. or crying phony tears like some mothers lknow. she was just going to let me find out for myself. I could hardly wait. The whole day stretched out ahead of me. l was going to tellm yself to do a whole bunch of fabubus things-as soon as the kids got off to school where-oh hey！ Oh wow！-l wasn't going to have to go！

在與父母相處的過程中，我們得到了無私的關愛與呵護，但同時也常常感到他們對我們并不了解，甚至會因為某件小事而產生爭執或矛盾。的確，一代人與一代人之間會因為成長環境不同而產生代溝：但是也許我們并沒有冷靜地站在彼此的角度去認識和體諒對方。《怪誕星期五》所講的故事就發生在這樣的一對母女之間：一個詭異的早晨，在一塊神奇餅干的作用下，女兒與媽媽互換身體。原本整日斗嘴的母女開始真正了解對方所遇到的麻煩，了解那些原本在自己看來美好的外衣下所掩蓋的真實。她們慢慢認識到母女之間的愛是如何傳遞的，并互相理解，互相體諒，直到后來互相包容。美國兒童文學家瑪麗·羅杰斯的這部小說曾被多次搬上熒屏，在美國可謂家喻戶曉。

你不會相信我所說的，任何一個思維正常的人都不會相信我所說的，但這是真的，千真萬確！

當我一大早醒來的時候，發現自己變成了我媽媽。我躺在媽媽的床上，腳丫子都能夠到床的那頭了，而爸爸正睡在另一張床上。我正穿著媽媽的睡袍，左手戴著戒指，我的意思是她的左手，還有滿腦袋的腫塊和發卡。

“那一定是定型發卷，”我喃喃自語，“要是我有媽媽的頭發，那很可能我的臉也變成她的了。”

我決定到浴室里的鏡子前照一照。畢竟，這一周你不可能每天都變成你媽媽。也許這只是我的幻覺，或者是在做夢。

好吧，我沒做夢。鏡子里站著的那個人從頭到腳都是我媽媽。徹頭徹尾地連我的牙套也不見了蹤影。通常，我是不會費盡周折老去刷牙的，那上面的鐵絲可是個大麻煩，而媽媽的牙齒看起來利索多了。另外，要是她真愿意做這樣一件了不起的事，將身體轉交給我，那我至少可以幫她照顧好她的這口牙齒。不是嗎？是的！

你知道，我有理由確信她要為整件事負責。因為昨晚，我們為了一些事吵得不可開交，我告訴了她最近我自己腦子里的一些想法。

事情就是這樣。我無法容忍她對我的苛刻。就拿吃飯來說吧，你知道她讓我早飯吃什么嗎？麥片粥、橙汁、烤面包、雞蛋、牛奶，還有兩片維C。她都要把我撐成一個大胖子了。再來說說學校里的午飯，有兩種選擇：你可以自帶午飯，一般來說就是一個果凍三明治或一份電視便餐（這種快餐從里到外都是冷冰冰的），還有一杯可樂；要么你也可以像我一樣吃學校里所謂的“熱飯”。其實一點兒也不熱。但我還是不愿意把它喂狗。還是“愛寶”狗糧更美味一些。我知道這個是因為我家的狗就吃“愛寶”，有一次我曾嘗過一些。

媽媽還喜歡對我怎么收拾房間說三道四。她對于整潔的觀念似乎與我蜘念大相徑庭。話說回來，這可是我的房間，.為什么就不能按我自己的想法來收拾呢？她老是說我的房間亂得沒人能收拾干凈，可要真是這樣，每當我從學校回來房間又為何如此整潔呢？昨晚我為此質問她時，她只是嘆氣。

還有一些事也讓我倆吵個沒完，比如說，我的頭發，她總想讓我把頭發剪得整整齊齊，但我絕對不會再上當了。（上次所謂的“修剪”就是他們把我的頭發足足削短了6英寸！）還有，我常咬的指甲也在劫難逃。

但讓我倆吵得最不可開交的一件事就是：自由。我已經不小了，我需要更多的空間。而媽媽居然不讓我獨自穿過公園回家，就連跟朋友一起時也不讓。她的理由是：“紐約是個很危險的地方，尤其是在公園里。”別人的媽媽卻從來不干涉，可她非得說：“但我不是別人的媽媽。”這還用你說啊！

明天，我學校里最好的一位朋友，家住格林尼治村的那個，要舉辦一場男孩與女孩的聚會。而媽媽不讓我去，因為在那個朋友上次舉辦的聚會中，他們玩“郵差親吻游戲”。我告訴她，那位朋友的媽媽都會待在家里，當然她會躲進臥室避開我們的。可我媽媽說：“我正是這個意思。”

這個答案到底算什么呢？我沒弄明白。我真的完全沒搞明白。我所知道的就是，我不能吃想吃的東西，不能穿想穿的衣服，不能剪想剪的發型，不能留想留的指甲。不能按自己喜歡的方式來整理房間，不能去想去的地方。所以昨晚我們真的大吵了一場。

所有這一切都足以解釋為什么我沒感到多驚訝。而大部分人要是哪天在自己母親的身體里醒來，估計他們早就變得大驚失色了。

當然，我還是有些驚訝的，但我主要覺得，她的體諒讓人難以置信，而且想象力真豐富啊。她并沒有像我認識的一些母親那樣因為我的粗野無禮而懲罰我，或是哭著擠出假惺惺的眼淚，她只是讓我自己去親身體會。我簡直是迫不及待了。整個全新的一天都呈現在我面前。我要讓自己去做一大堆特棒的事情，等孩子們一去學校……是哪兒？噢哈哈！哇噢！我自己不用必須去學校啦！