And maybe in the end that’s what everything, all of this, is about.
也许到了最后，这就是一切的意义。
“And my mum?” Green-eyes nods again. Elsa squints at her. “Alf says you were best friends.” She nods again. Elsa wonders how that would feel. To have a best friend who’s your own age. Then she stands in silence beside the policewoman and watches the sun come up. It’s going to be a beautiful Christmas Eve, despite everything that’s happened. She clears her throat and heads back to the front entrance, stopping with her hand on the door handle.
“还有我妈妈？”绿眼睛又点了点头。爱莎瞥了她一眼。“阿尔夫说你们以前是最好的朋友。”她又点点头。爱莎想知道那是什么感觉——有一个同龄的最好的朋友。她安静地站在女警察的身旁，看着太阳升起。虽然发生了这一切，但今晚仍将是个很美的圣诞夜。爱莎清了清嗓子，向前门走去，手握上门把时停下了脚步。
The policewoman scans along the house wall and over the little street.
女警扫视着楼房的墙壁和周围的街道。
“Everyone knew your grandmother.”
“每个人都认识你的外祖母。”
“Hello,” offers Elsa.
“你好。”爱莎说。
You have to believe. Granny always said that. You have to believe in something in order to understand the tales. “It’s not important what exactly you believe in, but there’s got to be something, or you may as well forget the whole damned thing.”
人必须有信仰，外婆总是那么说。“相信什么并不重要，但你得愿意去相信，才能明白那些故事。”
Green-eyes smiles. Elsa wraps the scarf around herself.
绿眼睛笑了。爱莎把围巾围在自己脖子上。
“You’re not much of a talker, are you?”
“你不太爱讲话，是吧？”
“Did you know my granny?”
“你认识我外婆吗？”
Green-eyes nods, silently.
绿眼睛沉默地点点头。
Elsa finds her Gryffindor scarf in the snow outside the house, where she dropped it when she charged at Sam the night before. The green-eyed policewoman is standing a few yards away. The sun has hardly risen. The snow sounds like popcorn popping as she walks over it.
爱莎在屋外的雪地里找到了她的格兰芬多围巾，是前一晚冲向山姆的时候掉的。绿眼睛女警站在几米外。太阳还没完全升起。走在雪地上的声音就像爆米花爆开。
“Why not?”
“为什么？”
Green-eyes smiles without looking happy.
绿眼睛微笑，但看上去并不愉快。
“Him or us?” Elsa asks reproachfully.
“他还是我们？”爱莎用谴责的语气问。
“I hope not.”
“希望不会。”
“Both.”
“都是。”
“It was you and Mum, wasn’t it — the golden knights who saved the Telling Mountain from the Noween and the fears. And built Miaudacas. It was you and Mum.”
“你和妈妈就是金色骑士，对吧——从诺温和恐惧的手中拯救了讲述山，建造了密奥达卡斯。”
“Have you been on guard here all night?”
“你整晚都在这里执勤吗？”
She nods again.
她又点了点头。
“When I was small your grandmother used to say that if you become a police officer, you can’t choose who to protect. You have to try to protect everyone.”
“我小的时候，你外祖母说过，如果你成为一名警官，就不能选择自己保护的对象。你必须努力保护所有人。”
“What is your job, then?”
“那你的工作是什么？”
“Will you kill Sam if he comes back?”
“如果山姆回来，你会杀了他吗？”
“Because I was afraid of everything when I was small. And she told me I should do what I was most afraid of. I should laugh at my fears.”
“因为小时候，我什么都怕。她告诉我，应该去做我最害怕的事情。我应该嘲笑恐惧。”
“Because it’s not my job to kill.”
“因为我的工作不是杀人。”
Elsa nods, as if this confirms what she already knew.
爱莎点点头，这证实了她早已知道的事实。
“Why?”
“为什么？”
The policewoman raises her eyebrows imperceptibly.
女警察不自觉地扬起眉毛。
“She’s the one who made me want to become one.”
“是因为她，我才想当警察的。”
“Did she know you wanted to become a policewoman?” asks Elsa.
“她知道你想当警察吗？”爱莎问。
“He’s the one who’s dangerous. Not us.”
“他是危险的人。我们不是。”
“To protect.”
“是保护。”
Green-eyes starts smiling. Genuinely, this time.
绿眼睛笑了，这次是发自真心。
Green-eyes looks directly at her. She smiles again in the real way.
绿眼睛直直地看着她，又真诚地笑了。
“We were many things in your grandmother’s fairy tales, I think.”
“我们在你外祖母的童话故事里是许多东西，我觉得。”
Elsa opens the door, puts her foot in the opening, and stops there.
爱莎打开门，跨进去，回过头。
“You’re smart. She always said you were the smartest girl she ever met.”
“你很聪明。她总说你是她认识的最聪明的女孩。”
“Your grandmother.”
“你外祖母。”
“You’re one of the children on her bedroom ceiling, aren’t you?”
“你是她卧室天花板上的那些孩子之一，对吗？”
Elsa nods. The door closes behind her. And it ends up being a beautiful Christmas Eve. Despite everything.
爱莎点点头。门在她身后关上。这的确是一个美丽的圣诞夜，尽管发生了那一切。
She looks for the wurse in the cellar storage unit and in Renault, but they are both empty. She knows the wardrobe in Granny’s flat is also empty, and the wurse is definitely not in Mum and George’s flat because no healthy being can stand being there on a Christmas morning. Mum is even more efficient than usual at Christmas.
她在地下储藏室和雷诺里找了个遍，但没有找到呜嘶。她知道外婆家的衣橱也是空的，而呜嘶肯定不在妈妈和乔治的公寓里，因为没有正常生物能忍受在一个圣诞的早晨待在那儿。妈妈在圣诞期间会变得比平时更加有效率。
“Did you know my mum first or my granny?”
“你先认识我妈妈还是外婆的？”
She normally starts her Christmas shopping in May each year. She says it’s because she’s “organized,” but Granny used to disagree and say it was actually because she was “anal,” and then Elsa used to have to wear her headphones for quite a long time. But this year Mum decided to be a bit free-spirited and crazy, so she waited until the first of August before asking what Elsa wanted for Christmas. She was very angry when Elsa refused to tell her, even though Elsa expressly asked if she understood how much someone changes as a person in half a year when they’re almost eight. So Mum did what Mum always does: she went and bought a present on her own initiative. And it went as it usually went: to hell. Elsa knew that because she knew where Mum hid her presents. What do you expect when you buy an almost-eight-year-old her present five months early?
她通常每年五月份就开始圣诞大采购了，她说这是因为她“有计划”。外婆通常会反驳，那其实是因为她“闲得蛋疼”，然后爱莎就得戴上耳机好一会儿。但今年，妈妈决定更随意和疯狂一些，所以她等到八月初才问爱莎圣诞节想要什么。爱莎拒绝告诉她时她很生气，即使爱莎解释，在长达半年的时间里，一个快八岁的孩子的兴趣可能会变化很大。然后妈妈做了她一贯会做的：买了她自己选的礼物。而那礼物通常会很糟糕，因为爱莎知道妈妈藏礼物的地方。提早五个月给一个快八岁的孩子买圣诞礼物还能指望什么结果呢？
“Merry Christmas!” says Elsa without answering the question.
“圣诞快乐！”爱莎没有回答问题。
Elsa has become very attached to this tradition.
爱莎非常喜欢现在的这个传统。
“I’m sleeping,” he grunts.
“我在睡觉。”他低吼。
So this year, Elsa is getting three books that are about different themes in some way or other touched upon by various characters in the Harry Potter books. They’re wrapped in a paper that Elsa likes very much. Elsa knows that because Mum’s first present was utterly useless and when Elsa informed her of that in October they argued for about a month and then Elsa’s mum gave up and gave Elsa money instead, so she could go and buy “what you want, then!” And then she wrapped them in a paper she liked very much. And put the parcel in Mum’s not-so-secret place and praised Mum for again being so considerate and sensitive that she knew exactly what Elsa wanted this year. And then Mum called Elsa a “Grinch.”
今年圣诞，爱莎会得到三本不同主题的书，这些书或多或少都和“哈利·波特系列”里的角色相关，外面会包上爱莎非常喜欢的包装纸。早在十月，爱莎就知道了妈妈第一次买的礼物完全是骗小孩的垃圾，并且直接向她指出了这一点。两人为此争吵了将近一个月，然后妈妈放弃了，直接给爱莎钱，让她“去买自己想要的吧”。买好后，爱莎用自己很喜欢的包装纸包好，放在妈妈“不那么秘密”的藏礼物的地方，然后表扬了她的通情达理和细致敏感。而妈妈说爱莎是“格林奇”[1]。【注：[1]《圣诞怪杰》中的角色，想要偷走整个圣诞节的绿妖怪。】
She rings Alf’s bell half a dozen times before he opens. He’s got his dressing gown on, his irritated expression, and his Juventus coffee cup.
她按了好几次阿尔夫的门铃，直到他开门。他穿着睡袍，拿着他的尤文图斯咖啡杯，一脸烦躁的表情。
“What’s the matter?” he barks.
“什么事？”他怒道。
Alf takes a sip of his coffee.
阿尔夫喝了一口咖啡。
“It’s Christmas Eve morning,” Elsa informs him.
“现在是圣诞的早晨。”爱莎告诉他。
“Because it’s here.”
“因为它在这儿。”
“It’s not the middle of the night. And it’s Christmas!”
“现在不是半夜，而且今天是圣诞！”
“I asked first,” Elsa insists.
“我先问的。”
“Why didn’t you say so?”
“你干吗不说？”
“How?”
“怎么知道的？”
“I know that as well.” Alf nods casually.
“我知道。”阿尔夫随意地点点头。
“I do know that,” he says.
“我知道啊。”他说。
He drinks some more coffee. She kicks his doormat irritably.
他又喝了几口咖啡。她暴躁地踢着他家门垫。
Elsa peers into Alf’s flat. The wurse is sitting on the floor, lapping at something in a big metal bowl in front of it. It says Juventus on it. The metal bowl, that is.
爱莎朝阿尔夫的公寓里探头探脑。呜嘶坐在地上，舔着面前一个金属大碗里的东西，上面印着“尤文图斯”。
“I was up late last night.”
“我昨晚熬夜了。”
“Yes.”
“对。”
“I just bloody did.”
“我刚不是说了吗？”
Elsa’s eyebrows shoot up as if they just sat down in wet paint.
爱莎瞪大眼睛，就像一不留神坐在了还没干的油漆上。
“I’m not the one standing at your door in the middle of the night!”
“我可不是那个半夜站在你家门口的人！”
“Why is it here?”
“为什么它在这里？”
“Why are you sleeping, then?”
“那你干吗还在睡觉？”
“What are you doing here?”
“你来干吗？”
“The wurse is here?”
“呜嘶在这儿？”
“Because Kent came home at five this morning, and it couldn’t sit on the stairs. Kent would have bloody called the police if he’d found out it was still in the house.”
“因为肯特今早五点回到家，而它不能就那么坐在楼梯上。如果肯特发现它还在房子里，会报警的。”
“Doing what?”
“做什么？”
“I can’t find the wurse.”
“我找不到呜嘶了。”
“Because I was in the garage when he arrived in his bastard BMW,” says Alf impatiently.
“因为他开着他那辆白痴宝马回来的时候，我也在车库里。”阿尔夫不耐烦地说。
“Alf, did you give the wurse… coffee?”
“阿尔夫，你给呜嘶喝…咖啡？”
“Until five o’clock, I bloody said,” he grunts.
“等到五点，我刚说过了。”他抱怨道。
Alf scratches his scalp, which, for him, is the same thing as scratching his hair. Then he adjusts his dressing gown. Elsa notices that he has a thick scar running across his chest. He sees her noticing and looks grumpy about it.
阿尔夫挠挠头皮，对他来说，这跟挠头发是一回事。然后他整了整睡袍。爱莎注意到有一道醒目的伤疤横贯他的胸口。他注意到她的目光，露出不爽的表情。
“How long did you wait?”
“你等了多久？”
Alf goes into his bedroom and closes the door, and when he comes out again he is wearing his leather jacket with the taxi badge. Even though it’s Christmas Eve. They have to let the wurse pee in the garage, because there are even more police outside the building now, and not even a wurse can hold out for very long after drinking a bowl of coffee.
阿尔夫走进卧室，关上门，重新出来时已穿上了有出租车标志的皮夹克，即使今天是圣诞夜。现在屋子外面的警察更多了，他们不得不让呜嘶在车库里撒尿，而就算是呜嘶，在喝了一大碗咖啡后也忍不了多久。
“Yes,” says Alf, and looks as if he can’t understand what could reasonably be wrong about that.
“是啊。”阿尔夫看起来并不明白这有什么错。
Elsa thinks about giving him a hug, but leaves it. The wurse peers up from the metal bowl, looking enormously pleased. Something black is dripping from its nose. Elsa turns to Alf.
爱莎想了想是不是要拥抱他一下，但还是算了。呜嘶从大碗里抬起脑袋，表情非常满意。它的鼻子上有些黑色的东西正往下滴。爱莎转向阿尔夫。
“How do you know what time Kent came home?”
“你怎么知道肯特什么时候回家？”
“I was waiting for him.”
“我在等他。”
“What were you doing in the garage?” asks Elsa patiently.
“你在车库里干吗？”爱莎耐心地问。
“It’s an ANIMAL! Why did you give it COFFEE?”
“它是动物！你为什么给它喝咖啡？”
Alf looks as if that is an incredibly stupid question.
阿尔夫像是觉得她提了个特别愚蠢的问题。
When they come up, Mum and George’s flat smells of Swiss meringues and pasta gratin with béarnaise sauce, because Mum has decided that everyone in the house is having Christmas together this year. No one disagreed with her, partly because it was a good idea, and partly because no one ever disagrees with Mum. And then George suggested that everyone should make their own favorite dish for a Christmas buffet. He’s good like that, George, which infuriates Elsa.
他们上楼时，从妈妈和乔治的公寓里飘来一股瑞士蛋白酥和烤意面配法式伯纳西酱汁的气味。妈妈决定今年楼房里所有人要在一起过圣诞。没人反对，主要是因为这主意很棒，其次因为从来没有人会反对妈妈。乔治建议每个人可以做他们最爱吃的菜，来个圣诞自助餐。乔治就是这么好的一个人，这点让爱莎特别愤怒。
And then Maud and Lennart thought it was important that the woman in the black skirt also felt involved, because they’re good like that, so they asked if she wanted to prepare anything in particular. She just sat glued to her chair at the far end of the flat and looked very embarrassed and mumbled that she hadn’t cooked any food for several years. “You don’t cook very much when you live alone,” she explained. And then Maud looked very upset and apologized for being so insensitive. And then the woman in the black skirt felt so sorry for Maud that she made a pasta gratin with béarnaise sauce. Because that was her boys’ favorite dish. So they all have Swiss meringue and pasta gratin with béarnaise sauce, because that’s the sort of Christmas it is. In spite of it all.
莫德和莱纳特觉得，应该让黑裙女人也有参与感。他们就是这么善良的人。所以他们问她，是否也想准备一些拿手菜。但她只是稳稳坐在角落的椅子上，羞愧地说自己已经很多年没有烧过菜了。“一个人住的话，不会经常做饭。”她解释道。莫德听后显得很难过，道歉说自己太迟钝了。而黑裙女人又开始对莫德抱歉，最后她做了一盘烤意面配法式伯纳西酱汁，那是她儿子们最喜欢的菜。所以大家就一块儿吃着这些菜肴。虽然发生了很多事，但这一天仍然是圣诞节。
Granny would have loved that one. Peeing in the garage. It will drive Britt-Marie to distraction.
外婆估计会很喜欢这个主意，在车库里尿尿。这会让布里特—玛丽气疯的。
The boy with a syndrome’s favorite food is Swiss meringue, so his mum made it for him. Well, his mum got out all the ingredients and Lennart picked all the meringues up off the floor and Maud made the actual Swiss meringue while the boy and his mother were dancing.
生病男孩最喜欢的食物是瑞士蛋白酥，所以他妈妈就为他做了这道甜点。好吧，实际上是，他妈妈拿出了所有的食材，然后莱纳特从地上捡起那些还能用的，让莫德做了真正的瑞士蛋白酥，而与此同时，男孩和他的妈妈在跳舞。
The woman in the black skirt sits in silence at the table, in the far corner. After they’ve eaten, while George is washing up and Maud wiping down the tables and Lennart sitting on a stool with a standby cup of coffee, waiting for the percolator and making sure it’s not going to get up to any tricks, the boy with a syndrome goes through the flat and crosses the landing and goes into Granny’s flat. When he comes back he has cinnamon bun crumbs all around his mouth and so many wurse hairs on his sweater that he looks like someone invited him to a fancy dress party and he decided to dress up as a carpet. He gets a blanket from Elsa’s room and walks up to the woman in the black skirt, looks at her for a long time, then reaches up, standing on his tiptoes, and pinches her nose. Startled, she jumps, and the boy’s mother makes the sort of scream that mothers make when their children pinch complete strangers’ noses and rushes towards him. But Maud gently catches hold of her arm and stops her, and when the boy holds up his thumb, poking out between his index finger and his middle finger, while looking at the woman in the black skirt, Maud explains pleasantly: “It’s a game. He’s pretending he stole your nose.”
黑裙女人沉默地坐在桌子最远的一角。吃完饭，乔治去洗碗；莫德擦桌子；莱纳特坐在小凳子上，手里端着一杯备用咖啡，耐心地等着咖啡机顺利地煮出更多的咖啡；生病男孩穿过房间和走道，进入外婆的公寓。出来时，他的嘴角都是肉桂卷屑，衣服上满是呜嘶的毛，像受邀请去参加一场化装舞会，而他决定穿成一块地毯。他从爱莎房间拿了块毯子，走到黑裙女人身前，盯着她看了许久，然后踮起脚，捏了捏她的鼻子。她吓得跳了起来，男孩的妈妈尖叫了一声朝他跑去。如果你的儿子刚刚捏了陌生人的鼻子，你也会这么做。但莫德温柔地拉住她的手臂，制止了她。男孩把大拇指从食指和中指间伸出来，然后看着黑裙女人。这时，莫德乐呵呵地解释道：“这是个游戏。他假装偷了你的鼻子。”
The wurse gets two buckets of cinnamon buns from Maud, and George goes to the cellar to fetch up the bathing tub Elsa had when she was a baby and fills it with mulled wine. With this as an incentive, the wurse agrees to hide for an hour in the wardrobe in Granny’s flat, and then Mum goes down and invites the police up from outside the house. Green-eyes sits next to Mum. They laugh. The summer intern is there too; he eats the most Swiss meringue of them all and falls asleep on the sofa.
呜嘶从莫德那儿得到了两桶肉桂卷，而乔治去地下室拿来了爱莎婴儿时用的小澡盆，往里面倒满了热红酒。得到这两样奖励后，呜嘶同意在外婆公寓的衣橱里躲一个小时，然后妈妈走下楼，邀请了屋外的警察。绿眼睛坐在妈妈旁边，两个人大笑着。“暑期工”警察也来了，他吃了最多的瑞士蛋白酥，之后在沙发上睡着了。
The woman stares at Maud. Stares at the boy. Stares at the nose. And then she steals his nose. And he laughs so loudly that the windows start rattling. He falls asleep in her lap, wrapped up in the blanket. When his mother, with an apologetic smile, tries to lift him off, observing as she does so that “it’s actually not at all like him to be so direct,” the woman in the black skirt touches her hand tremulously and whispers: “If… if it’s all right I… could I hold him a little longer…?”
女人盯着莫德，盯着男孩，盯着鼻子。然后她偷了男孩的鼻子，他哈哈大笑，声音大得连窗户都震动起来。他在她的膝上睡着，身上裹着毯子。他的妈妈带着歉意微笑，想小心翼翼地把他抱起来，“他通常不是这么直接的。”黑裙女人颤巍巍地碰了碰她的手，小声说：“如果…如果可以的话，我…我可以再抱他一会儿吗…”
George makes more mulled wine and everything feels almost normal and not at all frightening. After the police have thanked them for their hospitality and headed back down the stairs, Maud looks unhappily at Elsa and says she can understand it must have been frightening for a child to have police in the house on Christmas Eve. But Elsa takes her by the hand and says: “Don’t worry, Maud. This is a Christmas tale. They always have a happy ending.”
乔治做了更多的热红酒，一切都显得那么日常，完全没有可怕的感觉了。警察谢谢他们的招待，走下楼去。莫德遗憾地看着爱莎，说她能理解，对一个孩子来说，圣诞夜家里有警察一定是件很可怕的事情。但爱莎抓着她的手说：“别担心，莫德。这是个圣诞故事，总是会有圆满的结局。”
And it’s clear that Maud believes it.
莫德自然相信。
The boy’s mother puts both her hands around the woman’s hand and nods. The woman puts her forehead against the boy’s hair and whispers: “Thanks.”
男孩妈妈握住女人的手，点点头。女人用前额抵着男孩的手，小声说：“谢谢。”
Because you have to believe.
因为你不得不相信。
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