Elsa pulls the Gryffindor scarf tighter around her face, pushes her hands into her pockets, and leads them through the snow. The wurse is so delighted about escaping the bus that it skips in circles around Elsa and The Monster like an overexcited puppy. The Monster looks disgusted. He doesn’t seem used to being outdoors by daylight, Elsa notices. Maybe it’s because Wolfheart is used to living in the dark forests outside Miamas where the daylight doesn’t dare penetrate. At least, that is where he lives in Granny’s fairy tales, so if there is any sort of order to this story, this must surely be the logical explanation.
爱莎用格兰芬多围巾把自己的脸裹得更紧了，双手插进口袋，带着他们穿过雪地。呜嘶很高兴摆脱了公交车，它绕着爱莎和怪物跳跃打转，像只兴奋过头的狗崽。怪物看上去很心烦。爱莎注意到他不习惯在白天出门。也许是因为狼心习惯于住在密阿玛斯外的幽暗森林中，那是连日光都不敢照射进的地方。至少在外婆的童话故事里，他住在那里，所以如果这故事有一点儿逻辑性的话，这一定就是合理的解释。
It turns into an epic adventure. A monstrous fairy tale.
结果，那项任务成了一场史诗般的冒险，一个传奇的童话故事。
Elsa decides they should begin by taking the bus, like normal knights on normal quests in more or less normal fairy tales when there aren’t any horses or cloud animals available. But when all the other people at the bus stop start eyeing The Monster and the wurse and nervously shuffling as far away from them as it’s possible to be without ending up at the next bus stop, she realizes it’s not going to be quite so straightforward.
爱莎决定他们应该从乘坐公交车开始，就像不能骑马或云兽的普通骑士在普通童话故事里的一场普通冒险。但是当公交车站的其他人都盯着怪物和呜嘶，紧张地挪到离他们尽可能远的地方时，她才意识到这事没那么容易。
On boarding the bus it becomes immediately clear that wurses are not all that partial to traveling by public transport. After it has snuffled about and stepped on people’s toes and overturned bags with its tail and accidentally dribbled a bit on a seat a little too close to The Monster for The Monster to feel entirely comfortable, Elsa decides to forget the whole thing, and then all three of them get off. Exactly one stop later.
上车后，呜嘶立刻表现出它不怎么喜欢乘坐公共交通工具旅行。它四处嗅，踩人脚趾，撞翻袋子，又不小心滴了点儿口水在离怪物很近的椅子上，这让怪物感到浑身不舒服。最后，爱莎决定放弃坐车这件事，然后他们三个就下了车。只坐了一站。
People who see them on the pavement react as people generally do when they catch sight of a girl, a wurse, and a monster strolling along side by side: they cross the street. Some of them try to pretend that it has nothing to do with the fact that they are scared of monsters and wurses and girls, by demonstratively pretending to be having loud telephone conversations with someone who suddenly gives them different directions and tells them to go the opposite way. That is also what Elsa’s dad does sometimes when he’s gone the wrong way and he doesn’t want strangers to realize he’s one of those types who go the wrong way. Elsa’s mum never has that problem, because if she goes the wrong way she just keeps going until whoever she was supposed to be meeting has to follow her. Granny used to solve the problem by shouting at the road signs. It varies, how people deal with it.
路上的行人看到一个女孩、一只呜嘶和一个怪物肩并肩闲逛时的反应，不出所料，他们都跑去了街对面。有些人不愿表现出是因为害怕才这么做的，他们假装大声打电话，然后突然被指去了不同方向，于是走到了街对面。爱莎的爸爸有时也这么做，他走错路却不想让陌生人觉得他是那种会走错路的人。爱莎的妈妈从没有这种困扰，如果她走错了，她就继续走下去，直到她要见的人不得不跟在她后头。外婆解决这问题的方式是冲路牌大声嚷嚷。人们处理事情的方式多种多样。
But others who run into the adventuring trio are not as discreet, and they watch Elsa from the other side of the road as if she’s being abducted. Elsa feels that The Monster would probably be good at many things, but a kidnapper who can be put out of action by sneezing at him would probably not be a particularly effective kidnapper. It’s a curious sort of Achilles’ heel for a superhero, she feels. Snot.
但另一些遭遇冒险三人组的人想得就没那么周到了，他们从马路另一边关注着爱莎，怀疑她被诱拐了。爱莎觉得怪物可能擅长许多事情，但是没有诱拐这一项，打个喷嚏就能放倒的诱拐犯应该不是个太成功的诱拐犯。她觉得这大概是超级英雄非常少见的弱点——鼻涕。
It’s almost lunchtime by the time they find the right address. Elsa’s feet hurt and she’s hungry and in a bad mood. She knows that a knight of Miamas would never whine or be afraid of a grand adventure when sent out on a treasure hunt, but whoever said a knight can’t be hungry or ill-tempered?
他们找到正确地址时，已经快到午饭时间了。爱莎脚痛肚子饿，心情很不好。她知道密阿玛斯的骑士被派去寻宝时，绝不会对伟大的冒险抱怨或害怕，但谁说一位骑士不能饥肠辘辘、脾气暴躁呢？
There’s a high-rise at the address, but also a hamburger restaurant across the street. Elsa tells the wurse and The Monster to wait, and she goes across even though she has firm moral objections to hamburger chains, as every almost-eight-year-old should. But even almost-eight-year-olds can’t eat their principles, so she grudgingly buys ice cream for the wurse, a hamburger for The Monster, and a veggie burger for herself. And as she leaves she sneaks out her red felt-tip pen and crosses out the dash between “Lunch” and “menu” on the sign outside.
那个地址上有一栋高楼，街对面是一家汉堡店。爱莎叫呜嘶和怪物等在原地，她自己过了马路。虽然她对汉堡连锁店有着坚定的道德异议，但原则不能当饭吃，所以她不情愿地给呜嘶买了冰激凌，给怪物买了一个汉堡，给自己买了一个素食汉堡。然后她偷偷掏出她的红笔，把“菜”和“单”之间的空格给划掉了。
The walk takes more than two hours. Elsa wishes it were Halloween, because then they could take the bus without scaring normal people, everyone would just assume they were dressed up. That’s why Elsa likes Halloween: on Halloween it’s normal to be different.
这段路要走两个多小时。爱莎希望今天是万圣节，那样他们就能乘坐公交车，而不至于吓到普通人，别人只会觉得他们是故意装扮成这样的。这也是爱莎喜欢万圣节的原因：在万圣节，与众不同是一件很正常的事。
Despite the below-freezing temperature clawing at their faces, they sit on a bench opposite the high-rise building. Or rather, Elsa and the wurse sit, because The Monster looks at the bench as if it’s also about to lick him. He refuses to even touch the greaseproof paper around his hamburger, so the wurse eats that as well. At one point the wurse drops a bit of ice cream on the bench and licks it up without concern, and The Monster looks close to asphyxiation. After the wurse takes a bite of Elsa’s burger and she carries on eating it regardless, she has to help him breathe from a paper bag.
尽管低于零度的气温刺痛着他们的脸，他们还是坐在了高楼对面的室外长椅上。或者说，爱莎和呜嘶坐着，而怪物看着那张长椅的样子就好像它也想舔他。他连汉堡外的防油纸都不肯碰，所以呜嘶吃了他的汉堡。吃冰激凌的时候，呜嘶滴了一滴在长椅上，然后毫不犹豫地舔掉了。呜嘶又咬了一口爱莎的汉堡，而爱莎不假思索地把剩下的吃完。看到这一幕，怪物已经呼吸过度到快要窒息了。
When they’re finally done, Elsa leans her head back and looks up the façade of the building. It must be fifteen floors high. She takes the envelope from her pocket, slides off the bench, and marches inside. The Monster and the wurse follow her in silence, surrounded by a strong smell of alcogel. Elsa quickly scans the board of residents on the wall and finds the name as written on the envelope, though preceded by the words “Reg. Psychotherapist.” Elsa doesn’t know what that means, but she’s heard a good deal about terropists setting off bombs and causing all sorts of trouble, so a psychoterropist must be even worse.
终于吃完午饭，爱莎向后靠着，抬头仰望那栋建筑的外观。它一定有十五层楼那么高。她从口袋里拿出信封，滑下长椅，大步走了进去。怪物和呜嘶默默地跟着她，身边围绕着一股强烈的酒精气味。爱莎快速地浏览了一下墙上的入驻名牌，找到了信封上的名字，名字旁边写着“注册心理治疗师”。爱莎不知道那是什么意思，但她听说过许多放置炸弹、制造各种各样麻烦的恐怖分子，所以一名“心理恐怖分子”[1]一定更糟糕。【注：[1]心理治疗师的英文是psychotherapist，恐怖分子是terrorist，爱莎把恐怖分子记成了“terropist”，所以她以为心理治疗师是“psycho—terropist”，字面上直译就是“心理恐怖分子”。】
Elsa evaluates The Monster as they’re going up. His beard sticks out of the hood like a large, curious squirrel, which makes him seem less and less dangerous the longer she knows him. The Monster clearly takes note of her examination of him, and he twists his hands uncomfortably. To her own surprise, Elsa realizes that his attitude hurts her feelings.
上楼时，爱莎对怪物进行了一番评估。他的胡子从兜帽里伸出来，让他看着像只奇怪的巨大松鼠，但也让他显得不那么危险了。怪物显然注意到了她的检视，不自在地扭着自己的双手。没料到的是，他的态度居然让爱莎感觉受了伤害。
She talks in normal language, because she refuses to speak in the secret language with him. Her jealousy about Granny’s language not even being Granny’s from the very beginning hasn’t gone away.
这句话她是用正常语言说的，她拒绝跟他讲秘密语言。她对外婆的语言竟然不属于外婆这件事依然心怀嫉妒。
“If it bothers you so much you could just stay on guard downstairs with the wurse, you know. It’s not like something’s going to happen to me while I’m handing over a letter to the terropist.”
“你知道，如果你这么困扰，可以跟呜嘶一起守在楼下。送封信给心理恐怖分子嘛，不会有事的。”
She heads over to the lift at the other end of the corridor. The wurse stops when they get there, and refuses to take another step. Elsa shrugs and goes in. The Monster follows her, after a certain amount of hesitation, though he is careful not to touch any of the walls.
她向着走廊另一头的电梯走去。到达电梯门前，呜嘶停下了，不肯再往前走一步。爱莎耸耸肩，进了电梯。怪物犹豫了好一会儿也跟着她进去了，小心翼翼地不去碰任何一面电梯壁。
“Anyway, you don’t have to be right beside me the whole time to be able to guard me,” she says, sounding more resentful than she means to. She’d started thinking of The Monster as a friend, but remembers now that he’s only here because Granny told him. The Monster just stands there in silence.
“总之，你不用一直待在我身边看着我。”她的口气比她自己以为的更暴躁。她刚开始觉得怪物是她的朋友，但又想起他之所以在这里只是因为外婆叫他这么做。怪物站在那儿，一言不发。
When the elevator doors glide open Elsa marches out ahead of him. They pass rows of doors until they find the terropist’s door. Elsa knocks so hard she actually hurts her knuckles. The Monster backs off towards the wall on the other side of the narrow corridor, as if he realizes that the person on the other side of the door may peer through the spyhole. He seems to be trying to make himself as small and unfrightening as possible. It’s hard not to find this endearing, thinks Elsa — even if “unfrightening” is not a proper word.
电梯门开了，爱莎抢在他前面走了出去。他们走过一排门，找到了“恐怖分子”的门。爱莎使出很大力气敲门，敲得指关节都疼了。怪物退到狭长走廊的另一面墙边，像是担心门后的人会从猫眼里偷窥。他大概想尽量让自己看起来又小又不令人恐惧。爱莎心想这样的举动很难不招人喜欢——哪怕“不令人恐惧”严格意义上来说不是个词语。
Elsa knocks on the door again. Puts her ear against the lock. Another knock. Another silence.
爱莎又敲了敲门，耳朵凑在门锁上。再敲，还是一片安静。
“Empty,” says The Monster slowly.
“没人。”怪物慢慢地说。
“They must be out for lunch, we’ll have to wait,” she says glumly, and drops despondently into one of the chairs.
“他们一定是出去吃午饭了，我们得等着。”她闷闷不乐地说，沮丧地坐在其中一把椅子上。
As far as Elsa is concerned, the silence goes from pleasant to hard work to unbearable in about one and a half eternities. And when she has occupied herself with everything she has been able to come up with — drumming her fingers against the tabletop, poking out all the stuffing from the chair cushion through a little hole in the fabric, and carving her name into the soft wood of the armrest with the nail of her index finger — she shatters the silence with one of those questions that sound much more accusing than she means it to be.
就爱莎而言，安静从令人愉快，到勉强还行，到无法忍受，大概是“一个半永恒”的时间。当她已经忙完所有她能想到的事情：在桌面上敲手指；从一个小洞里抠出椅子坐垫的填充物；在软木扶手上用食指指甲刻上她的名字。然后，她用一个比自己想象中听上去更像指责的问题打破了沉默。
“No shit, Sherlock.” She really doesn’t mean to be angry with him, because it’s Granny she’s angry with. She’s just tired. So very, very tired. She looks around and catches sight of two wooden chairs.
“要你说？”她并不是真想朝他撒气，她气的是外婆。她只是累了，非常、非常累。她环顾四周，看见两把木椅子。
“Why do you wear soldier’s trousers if you’re not a soldier?”
“如果你不是个士兵，为什么要穿士兵的裤子？”
The Monster breathes slowly under his hood. “Old trousers.”
兜帽下，怪物的呼吸放缓了。“旧裤子。”
“Have you been a soldier?”
“你以前是个士兵吗？”
“There’s only one sort of soldier!”
“只有一种士兵！”
“Not that sort of soldier,” The Monster intones.
“不是那种士兵。”怪物拖长了声音回答。
The hood moves up and down.
兜帽上下动了动。
She spits out the words. The hood doesn’t move, but she can see him breathing. She’s just about to repeat the question when she hears, from the inside of it: “Your granny. Showed. As a child.” He says it the way he says everything in the normal language. As if the words come bickering out of his mouth.
她吐出了这些词语。兜帽没有动，但她能听见他的喘气声。她正要重复这个问题时，听见兜帽里传出：“你外婆。带去的。孩子时。”他用正常语言说话时就是这个样子，词语是从他的嘴里一个一个蹦出来的。
“Was it you who showed my granny Miamas, or was it Granny who showed you?”
“是你带外婆去的密阿玛斯，还是外婆带你去的？”
“War is wrong and soldiers are wrong. Soldiers kill people!”
“战争是错误的，士兵们是错误的。士兵杀人！”
The Monster doesn’t answer. Elsa carves a swearword into the wood of the armrest, using her nail. In actual fact she doesn’t want to ask the question that’s burning inside of her, because she doesn’t want The Monster to know how wounded she is. But she can’t stop herself. It’s one of Elsa’s big problems, they say at school. That she can never control herself.
怪物没有回答。爱莎用她的指甲在木扶手上刻了个脏字。其实，她并不想问那个埋藏在心里的问题，因为她不想让怪物知道她被伤得有多深。但她停不下来。这是爱莎的一个大毛病，学校里的人这么说的。她从来不能控制自己。
There’s a long exhalation from the hood. “Lived in many places. Many homes.”
兜帽里长长地呼出一口气。“住过很多地方。很多家。”
“A refugee camp. Did Granny bring you here with her? Was she the one who arranged it so you could live in the flat?”
“难民营。是外婆带你来这儿的吗？她安排你住在那间公寓里的？”
“Camp. Camp for the one who flees.”
“营地。逃出来的人的营地。”
The hood moves up and down.
兜帽上下动了动。
He nods.
他点头。
“Why did you become a soldier when you grew up? Was it so you could go to the same places as Granny?” He nods. “Did you also want to help people? Like she does?” Slowly, the hood moves up and down. “Why didn’t you become a doctor like Granny, then?” The Monster rubs his hands together.
“你为什么会去参军？是因为想和外婆去同样的地方吗？”他点头。“你也想帮助别人？像她一样？”兜帽又慢慢地上下动了动。“那你为什么不和外婆一样做名医生？”
The hood moves up and down.
兜帽上下动了动。
“Did you meet during a war? Is that why she called you Wolfheart?” She really doesn’t want to ask anymore, because she can feel her jealousy growing. But the hood continues to nod.
“你们是在战争中认识的吗？是不是因为这样她才叫你狼心？”她真的不想再问了，她能感觉到自己的妒意在飙升。但兜帽还是点了头。
“Foster homes?”
“寄养家庭？”
“Did she tell you fairy tales?” she asks quietly, and wishes he’d say no, even though she knows better.
“她跟你说过那些童话故事吗？”她轻声问，希望他会说不，然而她也明白不大可能。
“Why didn’t you stay there?”
“你干吗不待在那儿？”
“You were about my age,” Elsa says, thinking of the photos of the Werewolf Boy.
“你那时跟我现在一样大。”爱莎想起了狼孩的照片。
The hood moves from side to side, very slowly. “Bad homes. Dangerous. Your granny came to get me.”
兜帽慢慢地左右晃了晃。“坏家。危险。你外祖母来救我。”
“Is Miamas a word in the secret language?” she asks instead. “I mean, is it a word in your language? It doesn’t sound like other words in the secret language — I mean, your language.”
“密阿玛斯在秘密语言里是一个词语吗？”她转而问，“我的意思是，在你的语言里，这是一个词语吗？它跟秘密语言里别的词听上去不太一样——我是说，你的语言。”
The hood is still. The Monster is silent. But she notices that the beard withdraws even deeper into the darkness. Suddenly Elsa nods exuberantly to herself.
兜帽不动了。怪物沉默。但她注意到胡子往兜帽里缩得更深了。突然爱莎自己高兴地点起头来。
“Blood. Don’t like… blood.”
“血。不喜欢…血。”怪物搓着手。
“Smart idea to become a soldier. Are you an orphan?”
“哈，那士兵倒是个明智的选择。你是个孤儿吗？”
The hood doesn’t move. But the words come more softly now. Not like all the other words from The Monster, which all seem to be on their guard. These sound almost dreamy.
兜帽没有动，但语句轻柔地传出来，不像说其他词语时那么硬邦邦。这些句子听起来柔和悦耳。
“Like the X-Men!” she exclaims with more enthusiasm than she’s really willing to give away. Then she clears her throat, composes herself. “X-Men are… mutants. And many X-Men are sort of orphans. It’s quite cool.”
“就像X战警！”她表现得异常兴奋。她清清喉咙，让自己平静下来。“X战警是…变种人。很多X战警都是孤儿。这很酷。”
The hood doesn’t move. Elsa pulls out some more stuffing from the chair cushion and feels stupid. She was about to add that Harry Potter was also an orphan, and to be like Harry Potter in any way at all is actually the coolest thing there is, but she’s starting to realize that The Monster probably doesn’t read as much quality literature as one might hope.
兜帽没有动。爱莎从椅垫里扯出更多填充物，觉得自己很蠢。她正打算补充说哈利·波特也是孤儿，而且跟哈利·波特有任何相似的地方都是特别酷的事情，但她意识到也许怪物并没有读过很多好书。
“What does Miamas mean, then?”
“那密阿玛斯到底是什么意思？”
Elsa pulls out the last bit of stuffing and rolls it into a ball to distract herself from her churning jealousy. Typical bloody Granny thing, making up Miamas for you so you’d know your mother loved you, she thinks, abruptly silencing herself when she realizes she is mumbling it aloud.
爱莎扯出最后一点儿填充物，把它团成一个球，借此来分散自己翻腾的妒忌。“典型的外婆搞出来的鬼玩意儿，编造出密阿玛斯，让你知道你妈妈爱你。”她嘟囔着，在意识到自己将这些话大声说出来之后突然住口。
The Monster shifts his weight from foot to foot. Breathing more slowly. Rubbing his hands.
怪物两脚换着重心，呼吸得更加缓慢，搓着手。
The words come out like a sigh. “ ’I love.’ ”
“我爱。”话语几乎像是一阵叹息。
“Where did your mother come from?” asks Elsa.
“你妈妈是哪里人？”爱莎问。
Elsa looks up and gazes intently into the darkness inside the hood.
爱莎抬头，凝视着兜帽中的阴影。
And then, while Elsa closes her eyes to avoid showing her agreement, he goes on tentatively: “In letter. Grandmother’s apology. Was apology to mother,” he whispers from under his hood.
爱莎闭上眼睛，不想表现出自己的认同。他试着继续：“信里。外祖母的道歉。是向母亲道歉。”他在兜帽下低语。
The hood moves from side to side.
兜帽左右晃了晃。
“Did you not have the same language?”
“你们不说一样的语言吗？”
“Other place. Other war.”
“别的地方。另一场战争。”
“Mama’s language. ‘Miamas.’ My… mama’s language.”
“妈妈的语言。‘密阿玛斯’。我…妈妈的语言。”
“So it was your kingdom. That was why it was called Miamas. It wasn’t at all because I called pajamas ‘mjamas.’ ”
“所以那是你的王国。所以它叫密阿玛斯，竟然不是外婆瞎编的名字。”
“Miamas. Not made up. Not pretend. Not for… a little one. Miamas. For real for… children.”
“密阿玛斯。不是编的。不是假的。不是为了一个小孩。密阿玛斯。是真的。为了孩子们。”
“You asked. About Granny’s letter. What Granny wrote. Wrote apology to mother. We never found… mother.”
“你问过。外祖母的信。写了什么。写了对我妈妈的道歉。我们一直没有…找到我妈妈。”
The speed of The Monster’s hand-rubbing increases. His chest heaves. His hood moves down a fraction, then up again, infinitely slowly. And then everything is silent.
怪物搓手的速度更快了。他的胸膛起伏，兜帽先是微微下沉，然后往上，很慢很慢。然后一切陷入沉寂。
“So that’s why Granny was always going off on all these trips? Because you were looking for your mother?”
“所以外婆总是出去旅行？因为她在找你的妈妈？”
“For how long?”
“找了多久？”
Elsa’s chin drops slightly.
爱莎微微低头。
“Always. Since… the camp.”
“一直。自从…营地开始。”
Elsa’s eyes open and she frowns. “What?”
爱莎睁开眼睛，皱眉。“什么？”
The hood moves up and down.
兜帽上下动了动。
The Monster’s chest heaves up and down.
怪物的胸膛起起伏伏。
Their eyes meet halfway, on different terms. A tiny but mutual respect is created between them, there and then, as Miamasians. Elsa realizes that he is telling her what was in the letter because he understands what it’s like when people have secrets from you just because you’re a child. So she sounds considerably less angry when she asks: “Did you look for your mother?”
他们俩眼神交汇，毫无保留。此时此刻，作为两个密阿玛斯人，一点点自然而然的敬意在他们之间产生。爱莎意识到，怪物一定很理解人们因为你是孩子就对你保守秘密是怎样一种感受，所以他将信里所写的内容都告诉她。她再次开口提问时怒气减弱了不少：“你去找过你妈妈吗？”
Elsa nods and looks down at her lap and, once again, her anger wells up unreasonably inside her. “My granny was also someone’s mother! Did you ever think about that?”
爱莎点点头，低头看着自己的大腿，然后她的愤怒又一次莫名地涌起。“我的外婆也是别人的妈妈！你想过这点吗？”
“Thanks,” she whispers grumpily. But she says it in the secret language now.
“谢谢。”她气呼呼地小声说。但现在她用的是秘密语言。
The Monster doesn’t say anything, but when he rubs his hands together it’s no longer as hard and frenetic.
怪物没有说话，但他搓手搓得不那么使劲了。
And that’s the first time Elsa believes he’s smiling. Or almost, anyway.
那是爱莎第一次确定他在微笑。不管怎样，差不多是在微笑。
He disappears back in under the hood. Elsa burrows her gaze into the floor and scrapes her heels against the wall-to-wall carpet, stirring up more dust.
爱莎盯着地板，用鞋后跟刮着地毯，搅起许多灰尘。
“You don’t have to guard me!” Elsa snaps and starts scratching more swearwords into the wooden armrest.
“你不用看守我！”爱莎猛地怒吼，开始在木扶手上刻下更多的脏话。
“No… but you do. All the time.”
“对…但你喜欢。一直。”
Elsa doesn’t know how long they wait, but they keep waiting long after Elsa has really decided to give up. They wait until the lift door opens with a little “pling” and the woman in the black skirt walks into the corridor. She approaches the office with big strides but freezes midair as she sees the enormous, bearded man and the small girl who looks as if she’d fit into the palm of one of his hands. The girl stares at her. The woman in the black skirt is holding a small plastic box of salad. It’s trembling. She looks as if she’s considering turning and running away, or maybe, like a child, believes that if she closes her eyes she’ll no longer be visible. Instead, she stands frozen to the spot a few yards away from them, her hands grasping the edge of the box as if it were the edge of a cliff.
他们不知道等了多久，一直等到爱莎真的快要放弃时，电梯门“叮”的一声打开，穿着黑裙的女人走进走廊。她大步走向办公室，但在看见大块头胡子男和一个能被他单手抓起的小女孩时突然停下。那女孩盯着她。黑裙女人拿着一个小塑料盒包装的色拉。色拉颤颤发抖。她好像在考虑转身逃跑，或者像孩子一样以为闭起眼睛别人就看不见自己了。她僵立在离他们几米远的地方，紧紧抓着盒子边，仿佛抓着悬崖边沿。
“Touché.” Elsa grins.
“也是。”爱莎咧嘴笑了。
“Not guard,” The Monster finally growls. His black eyes emerge from under the hood. “Not guard. Friend.”
“不是看守。”怪物终于在她身后低吼。他的黑色眼睛从兜帽下露出。“不是看守。朋友。”他又缩回兜帽里。
“You don’t like talking so much, do you?”
“你不怎么喜欢说话，是吧？”
The Monster doesn’t answer.
怪物没有回答。
“I think I have a letter for you,” Elsa eventually manages to say.
“我觉得我这儿有你的一封信。”爱莎最后开口道。
The woman stands still with her knuckles whitening around the plastic box. Elsa insistently reaches towards her with the envelope.
那女人站着一动不动，扣住塑料盒的指关节发白。爱莎立刻拿着信朝她走去。
Elsa rises from her chair. Wolfheart backs away from them both. If Elsa had been looking at him, she would have noticed, as he moved away, an expression on his face that she had never seen in him before. A sort of fear that no one in the Land-of-Almost-Awake would have believed Wolfheart capable of. But Elsa doesn’t look at him as she rises from the chair; she is only looking at the woman in the black skirt.
爱莎站起身。狼心后退，离她们俩远些。如果爱莎那一刻正好看着他，就会注意到他后退时脸上是她从未见过的表情。不眠大陆任何人都不相信狼心会露出这样恐惧的表情。但爱莎起身时并没有看，她只是看着黑裙女人。
The woman takes it. Elsa puts her hands in her pockets, because she doesn’t quite know what to do with them. It’s unclear what the woman in the black skirt is doing here, but Elsa is certain that Granny had some reason for making her bring the letter. Because there’s no coincidence in Miamas, or in fairy tales. Everything that’s there is meant to be there.
那女人接过信。爱莎双手插进口袋，有些手足无措。她不清楚黑裙女人在这儿干什么，但爱莎肯定外婆让她带来这封信是有原因的。因为密阿玛斯没有巧合，童话故事里也一样。一切都事出有因。
“It’s from my granny. I think she’s saying sorry about something.”
“这是我外婆给你的。我想她是要为某事道歉。”
The woman’s lips pinch inwards until they disappear.
那女人的嘴唇抿得都快看不见了。
“I… I planned to change the name on the office door as well. But… well, I don’t know. It never… never happened.”
“我…我本来打算把办公室门上的名字也改掉。但…好吧，我也不知道。反正…反正我没那么干。”
Elsa is just about to correct her and point at Wolfheart and say, “Sent us here!” But when she looks up he’s already gone. She didn’t hear the elevator or the ground-floor door closing. He’s just disappeared. “Like a fart through an open window,” as Granny used to say when things weren’t where they were supposed to be.
爱莎正想纠正她，指着狼心说：“派我们来这儿！”但抬头却发现他已经走了。她没听见电梯或一楼大门的声音。他就这么消失了。“就像对着窗外放的一个屁。”东西不见时，外婆常常这么说。
“I… used to have this name, a long time ago. I changed back to my maiden name when I moved into your house, but this was my name when… when I met your grandmother.”
“我…以前叫这个名字，很久以前。我搬进你们那栋楼时，改回了娘家的姓，但这是我的名字…在我遇见你祖母的时候。”
“Your grandmother writes ‘sorry,’ ” she says slowly.
“你外婆写了‘抱歉’。”她慢慢地说。
“It’s not your name on the envelope, I know that, but it has to be for you.”
“信封上不是你的名字，我知道，但这一定是给你的。”
The woman smells of mint today, not wine. Carefully she opens the letter. Her lips tighten; the letter trembles in her hands.
那女人今天闻上去一股薄荷味，不是酒味。她小心地打开信，紧紧抿着嘴唇，信在她的手中颤抖。
“What does it say?” asks Elsa, regretting that she didn’t have a quick peek before handing it over. The woman in the black skirt makes all the right movements to start crying, but seems to be out of tears.
“信上写了什么？”爱莎问，后悔自己没有在送出去前偷看一眼。黑裙女人开始哭泣，但并没有眼泪。
“After the wave,” ventures Elsa.
“海啸之后。”爱莎冒险说道。
“For what?” Elsa asks at once.
“为什么？”爱莎马上问。
The letter starts trembling even more violently.
信颤抖得更厉害了。
“Because she sent you here.”
“因为她派你来这里。”
The woman with the black skirt moves towards the door, emblazoned with the words Reg. Psychotherapist, followed by the name she once had. She puts the key in the lock and gestures quickly for Elsa to come in, although it’s quite obviously not what she wants at all.
黑裙女人朝写着“注册心理治疗师”和她以前名字的门走去。她将钥匙插进门锁，示意爱莎进来，然而很明显她并不想这么做。
When she notices that Elsa’s eyes are still searching for her large-hewn friend, the woman with the black skirt whispers morosely: “I had another office when your granny last came to see me with him. That’s why he didn’t know you were coming to me. He would never have come if he had known you were coming here. He is… is frightened of me.”
黑裙女人发现爱莎还在东张西望地找她那个大块头朋友，便苦着脸小声说：“你外婆上次和他一起来见我时，我还有另一间办公室。所以他不知道你们是来找我的。如果知道，他肯定不愿来。他…他怕我。”
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