Thursday, October 24, 2013

Holes Radical Translation


Here is my radical translation of the book Holes by Louis Sachar

It starts like this, a skinny little white boy in a ghetto neighborhood, who is caught with LSD in his backpack. It wasn't his fault, of course, but having unlucky blood flowing through your veins never helps. He had the choice of jail, or a correctional summer camp. Upon arriving to Camp Green Lake, he finds a dry hell hole, but no lake. Unlucky blood. His moisture is already running for the hills... if there were any. Little Stanley Yelnats digs discipline holes all day, and believe me, it's true punishment. He meets the crew, who have other duties; like filtering through rocks, again, for discipline. The whole of the delinquents are obviously not there just to learn discipline. Those at Camp Green Lake are just free labor. 
 But what are they searching for? Gold? Alien bones? Lost Treasure? Stanley and his new buddy Zero search for the reason. They stumble upon a speck of green crystal lying outside a dark closet, they go in and see the Warden searching through bags and bags of green. The Warden orders them into a locked room, and they don’t hear from anyone in 3 days. When they are confronted again by the Warden, she orders them to run away from the camp, and to get lost in the sahara. They run for another 2 days, until the last of their energy runs dry, just like the dust around them. What were those green flecks? Why was the Warden so stern about them? Could they find some and show it to the world? Reveal to everyone the SHADE OF IT ALL?! Stanley and Zero accumulate a bag of lime green somethings and head towards the camp.

When they reach the camp, stadium lights force the two into any dark crevice they can find. The water truck is in its garage, keys under the pillow of the Driver. Stanley stays by the truck, and waits for Zero to return with the keys. He hears footsteps, too heavy to be Zero. Thump. Thump. Thump... clud. They stop. Stanley slinks behind the garage wall, and waits. Zero comes around the corner, buzzing with adrenaline. “I got ‘em!” Stanley hurriedly clasps his friend’s mouth. The footsteps start up again and they’re faster. The door opens. “You better get to bed!” It’s the warden. She hadn’t seen them, but was warning any delinquents out and about. Stanley and Zero creep further into the exterior corner where the plants are. They crouch against the plants, knowing they need to do something drastic to get in that truck. The warden steps into the night, The pair watches her gaze shift from left to right, onto the plant, and into the leaves. Stanley stops breathing, which doesn’t help because his heart is pounding for its life. Unlucky blood is all he thinks. Suddenly Zero kicks the plant and runs for the truck, the warden screaming after him! In his shock, Stanley forgot Zero’s silent instructions. He crept from behind the plant and met the warden in the eye. “You drop that bag right now!” Stanley obeys, and runs to the passenger side, jumping in as Zero pulls forward in acceleration. They roar forward at 80 miles per hour, speeding down the darkened road. Stanley hesitates to look back, but when he does, all he sees is the Warden lying on the ground, sobbing - all shrinking into the distance.

The mayor’s secretary is staying late tonight, filing the last of today’s papers. She hears the door swing open, and looks over her desk to see a bag of green dropped on her desk. Two sweaty, dirty, orange-suited boys stand in front. She stands up, holds down a button on her desk and looks them in the eye, “I hope you liked digging holes.”

1 comment:

  1. Haven't seen the book or watched the movie but I like your version.

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