She waits until late at night, when it’s dark enough for a child and a wurse to pass unseen under Britt-Marie’s balcony, before she goes down to the cellar. George is out jogging; Mum is still out preparing everything for tomorrow. Since the meeting with the accountant this morning she’s been talking endlessly on the telephone with the whale-woman from the undertaker’s and the florist and the vicar and then with the hospital and the vicar again. Elsa has been sitting in her room reading Spider-Man, doing her best not to think of tomorrow. It hasn’t gone very well.
她等到深夜才去地下室，直到天黑得能让一个孩子和一只呜嘶在不被人看见的情况下溜过布里特—玛丽的阳台下方。乔治出去慢跑了，妈妈还在为明天做准备。早晨和会计师开完会后，她就没放下过电话，和殡仪馆的鲸鱼女、花商、牧师通话，然后是医院，然后又是牧师。爱莎一直坐在房间里读《蜘蛛侠》，尽力不去想明天。但没什么用。
So this must have been what Granny meant by “protect your castle, protect your friends.” Elsa only wishes that Granny had given her an army to do it with.
外婆说的“保护你的城堡，保护你的朋友”一定就是指这个。爱莎只希望外婆给她一支军队来做这件事。
Elsa doesn’t know anything about the shadow. Only that she has seen it twice, the first time at the undertaker’s and then from the bus that day on her way to school. And that she’s dreamed of it, and now it’s come to the house looking for her. And there’s no coincidence in Miamas. In fairy tales everything is always exactly as it’s meant to be.
爱莎一点儿也不了解那个“暗影”。她只见过他两次，第一次在殡仪馆，还有一次是在去学校的公交车上。然后她就梦见了他，而现在他来这里找她了。密阿玛斯没有巧合，在童话故事里，所有一切都事出有因。
Fairy tales from Miamas tell of an infinite number of ways to defeat a dragon. But if this dragon is a shadow, the most evil kind of being one can possibly imagine, and yet it looks like a human, then what? Elsa doubts that even Wolfheart could defeat something like that, even when he was the most renowned warrior in the Land-of-Almost-Awake. And now? When he’s afraid of snot and can’t wash away the thought of blood from his own fingers?
密阿玛斯的童话故事里讲述过无穷多种打败龙的方法。但如果这头龙是世界上最邪恶的生物——暗影，而且看上去像个人，那该怎么办？爱莎怀疑即使是狼心——在他还是不眠大陆第一勇士的时代里——也战胜不了这样的东西。现在呢？他害怕鼻涕，也洗不掉自己手指上想象出来的血渍。这样的他又怎能战胜一头龙呢？
She brings the wurse some cookies she got from Maud and, once the contents have been mopped up, she has to snatch back the tin so quickly that she almost gets an incisor manicure. Granny always said that wurse saliva was bloody hard to get off in the washing-up, and Elsa is planning to give the tin back to Maud. But the wurse, who in all ways is a typical wurse, rummages quite ravenously in her backpack, apparently having considerable difficulty understanding how she could have come down with just one paltry tin for it.
她带给呜嘶一些莫德给她的饼干。刚把饼干全倒完，她就不得不迅速抢回罐子，呜嘶的门牙差点儿给她修了个指甲。外婆总说，呜嘶的口水超难洗的，而爱莎还得把铁罐还给莫德呢。但呜嘶可是只典型的呜嘶，它急不可耐地在她的背包里翻找，显然不相信她只带了这么小一罐饼干给它。
“I’ll try to get you some more cookies, but for now you’re going to have to eat this.” She opens a thermos. “This is sponge cake mix. I don’t know how to mix it properly though,” she mumbles apologetically. “I found it in the cupboard in the kitchen and it said ‘ready sponge cake mix’ on the packet, but it was only powder. So I added water. It’s more like gunk than proper mix.”
“我会弄更多饼干给你的，但现在你只能吃这个了。”她打开一只保温杯。“这是海绵蛋糕粉，可我不知道该怎么弄。”她满怀歉意地说，“我在厨房柜子里找到的，包装上写着‘海绵蛋糕预调粉’，里面只有粉末。我加了点儿水。它变成了黏糊糊的一坨。”
The wurse looks skeptical, but its towel-sized tongue immediately licks all the gunk out of the thermos anyway. Just to be on the safe side. An insanely flexible tongue is one of the most prominent superpowers of wurses.
呜嘶怀疑地打量着，但保险起见，它还是立刻伸出毛巾那么长的舌头把保温杯里的糊糊全舔光了。极其灵活的舌头是呜嘶最著名的超能力之一。
“There’s been a man here looking for me,” whispers Elsa into its ear, trying to sound brave. “I think he’s one of the shadows. We have to be on our guard.”
“有个男人在找我。”爱莎对它耳语，试着让自己听起来勇敢一点儿，“我觉得他是一只暗影。我们必须小心戒备。”
The wurse buffets its nose against her throat. She throws her arms around it, and feels the taut muscles under its fur. It tries to seem playful, but she understands that it’s doing what wurses do best: preparing for battle. She loves it for that.
呜嘶用鼻子轻轻推了推她的脖子。她张开手臂抱住它，感受着皮毛下紧绷的肌肉。它看上去在闹着玩，但她知道它是在做呜嘶们最擅长的事：准备战斗。她因此而爱它。
“I don’t know where it comes from, Granny never told me about those kinds of dragons.”
“我不知道它从哪里来的，外婆从来没跟我说过那种龙的事情。”
The wurse buffets her throat again and looks at her with large, empathic eyes. It seems to be wishing it could tell her everything. Elsa wishes Wolfheart were here. She rang his bell just now but there was no answer. She didn’t want to call out, in case Britt-Marie smelled a rat, but she made a loud sniffing sound through the mail slot to clearly signal she was about to sneeze the kind of sticky sneeze that instantly covers everything in camouflage paint. It had no effect.
呜嘶蹭了蹭她的脖子，用充满同情的大眼睛看着她，像是希望自己能告诉她所有答案。而爱莎则希望狼心在这儿。她刚刚按过他家的门铃，但没人应答。她不想大声叫唤，以防布里特—玛丽觉察出什么猫腻。爱莎冲着投信口重重地哼了一声，明确表示她马上要打个喷嚏，把黏稠的鼻涕喷得到处都是。然而连这个也不奏效。
“Wolfheart has disappeared,” she finally admits to the wurse.
“狼心不见了。”她最终对呜嘶坦白说。
She tells herself she’s just imagining it, but it doesn’t help. The wurse stands patiently next to her, but her shoes won’t budge.
她告诉自己，那气味只是想象，然而并不管用。呜嘶耐心地蹲在她身旁，但她没有迈出步子。
It’s strange how quickly the significance of a certain smell can change, depending on what path it decides to take through the brain. It’s strange how close love and fear live to each other.
出乎意料的是，同一种气味会带给人截然不同的感受，取决于它唤醒了大脑中哪一部分的记忆。更想不到的是，爱的记忆与恐惧的记忆，竟然只有一线之隔。
Elsa tries to be brave. It goes quite well while they are walking through the cellar. And it’s quite okay while they go up the cellar stairs. But when they’re standing in the vestibule inside the main door, she senses the smell of tobacco smoke, the same kind of tobacco that Granny used to smoke, and a lingering fear from her nightmare paralyzes her. Her shoes weigh a thousand tons. Her head thumps as if something has worked itself loose and is rattling around in there.
爱莎努力鼓起勇气。穿过地下室时，这很成功。走上地下室台阶时，还算成功。但是当他们站在大门内侧的前厅时，爱莎闻到了一股烟草气味，而那烟草又跟外婆抽的一样，噩梦中那挥之不去的恐惧让她浑身麻痹。她的鞋子有千吨重。她的脑袋里“砰砰”直响，就好像有什么东西在里面跑来跑去。
A newspaper blows past outside the window. It’s the kind of newspaper you get through the mail slot even if you have a “No junk mail, please!” sticker on the door. It reminds Elsa of Granny. She stands there, still frozen, and the newspaper makes her angry, because it’s Granny who put her in this situation. It’s all Granny’s fault.
窗外，一张报纸被风吹着飞过，是那种你在门上贴了“请不要投递垃圾信件”之后，还是会出现在你信箱里的报纸。它让爱莎想起了外婆。她仍然一动不动地站在原地，报纸让她生气，因为是外婆将她置于这种境地的。都是外婆的错。
Of course, they shouldn’t have said that, because there were actually an awful lot of things that Granny didn’t “surely understand” at all. Also, unlike the man who owned the company that produced the free newspaper, she had a lot of spare time. “Never mess with someone who has more spare time than you do,” Granny used to say. Elsa used to translate that as, “Never mess with someone who’s perky for her age.”
很显然，他们不该那么说的，因为实际上有一大堆事情，外婆根本就不会“理解”。另外，跟免费报纸公司的老板不一样，外婆有很多空闲时间。“永远别惹比你闲的人。”外婆常说。爱莎会把这句话翻译成：“永远别惹以她的年纪来说太活泼的人。”
Elsa remembers the time Granny called the newspaper office and gave them a roasting for putting the paper in her mail slot even though she had a “No junk mail, ever. Thanks!” message in surprisingly clear letters on the door. Elsa had thought a lot about why it said “Thanks!” because Elsa’s mum always said that if one can’t say thanks as if one means it, one may as well not bother. And it didn’t sound like the note on Granny’s door meant it at all.
爱莎想起那次外婆打电话给报社，狠狠骂了他们一顿，因为她已经在门上用特别清晰的字迹写了“别再投垃圾信件了。谢谢！”但他们还是在她的信箱里放了报纸。爱莎当时想了很久，为什么要写上“谢谢”，因为爱莎的妈妈总说，如果不能真心实意地说“谢谢”，那还不如不要说。外婆门上的字条怎么看都不像是出自真心。
But the people answering the telephone at the office of the newspaper told Granny their newspaper wasn’t in the business of advertising but in fact “social information,” which can be put in people’s mailboxes irrespective of whether people thank them not to do so. Granny had demanded to know who owned the company that produced the newspaper, and after that she demanded a word with him. The people at the other end of the telephone line said that surely Granny could understand that the owner did not have time for this sort of nonsense.
但报社接电话的人对外婆说，他们的报纸并不做广告，而是传达“社交信息”，所以不管人们谢没谢他们，他们都可以在人们的信箱里投报纸。外婆问谁是报社老板，然后要求跟他说话。电话那头的人说，外婆应该能理解老板才没有空来管这档子无聊的事。
Whatever the case, you’re actually not supposed to take those yellow carrier bags out of the store. Of course, Granny had just shrugged it off. “I never stole the bags, I just haven’t given them back yet,” she muttered, and gave Elsa a thick felt-tip pen to write with. And then Elsa said she wanted at least four tubs of Ben & Jerry’s New York Super Fudge Chunk for this. And then Granny said, “One!” and then Elsa said, “Three!” and then Granny said, “Two!” and then Elsa said, “Three, or I’m telling Mum!” and then Granny yelled, “I’m not negotiating with terrorists!” And then Elsa pointed out that if one looked up “terrorist” on Wikipedia there were quite a lot of things in the definition of the word that applied to Granny but not a single one that applied to Elsa. “The goal of terrorists is to create chaos, and Mum says that’s exactly what you’re busy doing all day long,” said Elsa. And then Granny had agreed to give Elsa four tubs if she just took the felt-tip pen and promised to keep her mouth shut. And so that’s what Elsa did. Late into the night she’d sat in the dark in Renault on the other side of town, on guard duty, while Granny ran in and out of houses’ entrances with her yellow IKEA carrier bags. The next morning the man who owned the company that produced the free newspaper was woken by the neighbors ringing his doorbell, very upset because someone had apparently filled the lift with hundreds of copies of the free newspaper. Every mailbox was stuffed full of them, and every square inch of the large glass entrance door had been covered in taped-up copies, and outside every flat great tottering piles had been left that collapsed and fell down the stairs when the doors were opened. On every copy of the newspaper, the man’s name had been written in large, neat felt-tip letters, and just below, “Complimentry social information, for yor reading plesure!!!”
不管怎么说，人们都不应该把那些黄色袋子从店里拿走。外婆对此自然只是耸了耸肩。“我又没偷这些袋子，我只是还没把它们还回去罢了。”她喃喃说着，给了爱莎一支粗记号笔。爱莎说叫她干这事，起码要给她四桶BEN&JERRY’S纽约超级软糖块冰激凌。外婆说：“一桶！”爱莎说：“三桶！”外婆说：“两桶！”爱莎说：“三桶！不然我就告诉妈妈！”外婆喊道：“我不跟恐怖分子谈判！”爱莎指出如果去维基百科上查“恐怖分子”，这个词的定义里会出现不少事情跟外婆有关，但绝没有一件是和爱莎有关系的。“恐怖分子的目标是要制造混乱，妈妈说你整天就专干这种事。”爱莎说。然后外婆就同意，如果爱莎拿好记号笔，保证不说出去，就给爱莎四桶冰激凌。所以爱莎就这么干了。那天晚上，在镇子另一头，她在黑暗中坐在雷诺里望风，而外婆则带着黄色宜家袋子在数栋公寓楼的大门口跑进跑出。第二天早上，免费报纸公司的老板被邻居们按他家门铃的声音吵醒，很不高兴。原来有人用几百份免费报纸塞满了电梯。每个信箱都被塞爆了，而大楼入口玻璃门一寸不落地都用胶带贴上了报纸，所有公寓外都堆着摇摇晃晃的报纸堆，门一开全倒在了楼梯上。在每一份报纸上，都用巨大清晰的字迹写着那老板的名字，名字下还写着：“免费社交信息，祝您阅读愉快！！！”
In the following days Granny had picked up Elsa as usual from school, and then they’d patrolled the block with yellow IKEA carrier bags, ringing all the doorbells. People seemed to find it a bit weird, especially since everyone knows you’re actually not allowed to take those yellow IKEA bags from the store. If anyone started asking too many questions, Granny just said they were from an environmental organization collecting recyclable paper. And then people didn’t dare make any more fuss. “People are afraid of environmental organizations, they think we’ll storm the flat and accuse them of not handling their waste properly. They watch too many films,” Granny had explained as she and Elsa loaded the stuffed carrier bags into Renault. Elsa never quite understood what kinds of films Granny had seen, and where that sort of thing would ever happen. She did know that Granny hated environmental organizations, which she called “panda fascists.”
在接下去的几天里，外婆还是照常接爱莎下课，然后她们会带着黄色宜家袋子在社区里巡逻，按响每户门铃。人们觉得这有点儿奇怪，尤其是每个人都知道这些黄色宜家袋子事实上是不能带离店铺的。如果有人开始问太多问题，外婆就说她们是环保组织的，在回收废纸。之后，人们就不敢再大惊小怪了。“人人都害怕环保组织，他们觉得我们会冲进屋子，指责他们没有处理好垃圾分类。他们电影看多了。”外婆和爱莎一起把装满的袋子搬上雷诺时，她这么解释道。爱莎一直不太明白外婆看的是哪种电影，那种事情会在哪里发生。她只知道外婆讨厌环保组织，并称之为“熊猫法西斯”。
On the way back home, Granny and Elsa had stopped at a gas station to buy ice cream. A few days later Granny called the newspaper once again, and after that she never received a single free copy.
回家路上，外婆和爱莎在加油站停下车买了冰激凌。过了几天，外婆又给报社打电话，此后她再也没有收到过一份免费报纸。
“In or out? There are others apart from you who fancy a bloody walk, you know.”
“进还是出？快点儿决定，又不是只有你想去散个步。”
Alf’s voice cuts through the gloom of the stairwell like laughter. Elsa turns around and instinctively wants to throw herself into his arms, but she stops herself because she realizes he would probably dislike that almost as much as Wolfheart would. He shoves his hands in his pockets with a creak of his leather jacket and nods sharply at the door.
阿尔夫的声音穿过楼梯间的阴暗，犹如一阵大笑。爱莎转身，本能地想扑进他的怀里，但没那么做。她意识到他也许跟狼心一样不喜欢拥抱。他把手插进口袋，皮夹克发出一阵响声，他朝大门快速点了点头。
“Coming in or going?”
“进来还是出去？”
Elsa and the wurse give him blank looks. He mutters something and goes past them and opens the door. Immediately they fall into step just behind him, though he never asked for their company. When they’ve gone around the corner of the house, out of sight from Britt-Marie’s balcony, the wurse backs into a bush and growls at them as politely as can be expected of a wurse in need of a bit of concentration. They turn away. Alf looks unamused in every possible way by his uninvited company. Elsa clears her throat and tries to think of something to make small talk about, to keep him there.
爱莎和呜嘶茫然地看着他。他嘟哝了几句，走过他们身旁，打开了门。他们立即紧紧跟在他身后，即使他并没要他们陪同。他们绕到房子的角落，布里特—玛丽阳台的视线死角，呜嘶退进树丛，冲他们低吼，礼貌程度是一头需要专心“办事”的呜嘶所能做到的极限。他们转过身。阿尔夫看起来对这些不请自来的同伴不太乐意。爱莎清清嗓子，想找些闲话聊聊，好让他留在原地等呜嘶“完事”。
Alf nods. Nothing more. Elsa breathes loudly.
阿尔夫点点头，没其他反应。爱莎大口呼吸。
“The car’s going well, is it?” she bursts out, because that’s what she’s heard her dad say when he’s at a loss.
“你的车还好好的，是吧？”爱莎听爸爸在不知所措时说过这话。
“What did the accountant say at the meeting?” she asks instead, in the hope that this might make Alf as upset and talkative as he gets at the residents’ meetings. It’s easier to get people talking about things they dislike than things they like, Elsa has noticed. And it’s easier not to get frightened of shadows in the dark when someone is talking, whatever they’re talking about.
“会计在会上说了什么？”她转而问，希望这会让阿尔夫跟他去居民会议时一样心烦和健谈。爱莎注意到，让人们去谈论他们不喜欢的事情比谈喜欢的事情要容易。而只要有人说话——无论他们说什么，就比较不容易害怕黑暗中的东西。
“That accountant bastard said the owners had decided to sell the bloody flats to the residents’ association bastards, if everyone in the house agrees.”
“那个混蛋会计说房东已经决定把公寓卖给租户协会的混蛋们，前提是房子里的每个人都同意。”
Elsa observes the corners of his mouth. He almost seems to be smiling.
爱莎观察着他的嘴角，他几乎是在微笑。
“Are you living in the same house as me? They’ll solve the Israel-Palestine conflict before people in this house agree about anything.”
“你跟我住在同一栋楼里还不清楚吗？巴以冲突解决了，这楼里的人也不可能达成任何一致。”
“Is that funny?”
“好笑吗？”
“Will anyone want to sell their flat if the house is converted to leaseholds?” she asks.
“如果房子转成租赁所有权，会有人想把他们的公寓卖掉吗？”
The corners of Alf’s mouth flatten into a more Alf-like shape.
阿尔夫的嘴角拉平了，变成了阿尔夫通常的样子。
“I don’t know about wanting, most will bloody well have to.”
“我不知道是不是‘想’，大多数人估计‘不得不’。”
Alf glares at her and shoves his hands in his pockets.
阿尔夫盯着她，手插在口袋里。
“It’s just insane how much you swear, did anyone ever tell you that? My dad says it’s a sign of a bad vocabulary.”
“你老是骂人，简直疯了，有人跟你说过这话吗？我爸爸说，这是词汇量少的表现。”
“Probably.”
“大概吧。”
“That… lady. She probably has a… heck of a lot of money, that… woman,” he self-corrects.
“那位…女士。她可能有…很多钱。那…女人。”他自我纠正道。
“Maud and Lennart will have to move. And the girl and her kid on the first bloody floor as well, most likely. The psychologist wench you went to yesterday, I don’t know, she probably has a hell of a lot of money –“
“莫德和莱纳特肯定得搬出去。还有那个住二楼的女孩和她的孩子，估计也一样。你昨天去找的那个心理学混蛋，我就不知道了，她说不定他妈的有钱得不得了…”
“Why?”
“为什么？”
Alf’s jacket creaks towards the wurse in the bush.
阿尔夫的皮夹克冲着树丛里的呜嘶嘎吱作响。
“Well, what are you doing out here if you don’t want to talk?”
“既然你不想聊天，那干吗出来啊？”
“I don’t bloody know, do I?”
“我他妈怎么知道。”
“Mum and George and me, then?”
“妈妈、乔治和我呢？”
“Good area. Expensive bloody flats. Most people in the house won’t be able to afford that kind of bastard bank loan.”
“好地段。贵得要死的公寓。楼里大多数人都负担不起那么多该死的银行贷款。”
“I was only going for a bloody walk. No one bloody invited you and that thing.”
“我只是想散个步而已。没人他妈的邀请你和那个玩意儿。”
“What about Maud and Lennart?”
“莫德和莱纳特呢？”
“Will you have to move?”
“你也得搬？”
Elsa thinks.
爱莎想了想。
“You’ve got a bloody lot of questions.”
“你的问题还真他妈多。”
He stops himself. Summons some kind of self-restraint.
他停了停，自我约束了一点儿。
There’s another brief twitch at the corners of Alf’s mouth.
阿尔夫的嘴角又稍稍抽动了一下。
“Usually the diametric opposite of what Britt-Marie thought.”
“通常跟布里特—玛丽的看法截然相反。”
“What did my granny think about the leasehold?”
“我外婆怎么看？”
Elsa draws miniature snow-angels with her shoe.
爱莎用鞋尖画出一只迷你版的雪天使。
“It’s good here. We’re doing fine here. This is our bloody home.”
“这里就很好。我们住这儿很好。这是我们的家。”
Elsa doesn’t protest. This is her home too.
爱莎没有反对。这里也是她的家。
Another free newspaper tumbles past in the wind. It gets caught on her foot for a moment, before it tears itself free and keeps rolling like an angry little starfish. It makes Elsa furious again. Gets her thinking about how much Granny was willing to fight to get them to stop putting newspapers in her letter box. It makes Elsa furious because it was a typical Granny thing to do, because Granny was only doing it for Elsa’s sake. Granny things were always like that. For Elsa’s sake.
又一份免费报纸在风中翻滚过去。它短暂地停留在她的脚下，然后又撕裂自己，获得自由，继续像只生气的小海星一样翻滚了起来。这让爱莎又开始生气，让她想起了外婆无论做出多大抗争，也要让他们不再往她信箱里塞报纸。爱莎为此感到愤怒，因为这是典型外婆会做的事，外婆都是为了爱莎做的。外婆做的事情总是那样。为了爱莎。
Because Granny actually liked those newspapers, she used to stuff them into her shoes when it had been raining. But one day when Elsa read on the Internet how many trees it took to make just one edition of a newspaper, she put up “No junk mail ever, thanks!” notices on both Mum’s and Granny’s doors, because Elsa is a big fan of the environment. The newspapers kept coming, and when Elsa called the company they just laughed at her. And they shouldn’t have done that. Because no one laughs at Granny’s grandchild.
其实外婆很喜欢免费报纸，下雨天她会用它们塞鞋子。但某一天，爱莎在网上读到，要用多少树才能制作一张报纸的一个版面时，她在妈妈和外婆的门上都贴上了“别再投垃圾信件了。谢谢！”的字条。爱莎热爱环境。报纸还是一直来，爱莎打电话去报社，他们只是嘲笑她。他们不应该这么做的，因为没人可以嘲笑外婆的外孙女。
“Maybe it’ll be good? If there are leaseholds, then maybe everyone can move somewhere… good?” she says tentatively.
“也许是好事？如果有租赁所有权，也许每个人都可以搬到…很好的地方去？”她试探性地说。
Granny hated the environment, but she was the kind of person you brought along when you were going to war. So she became a terrorist for Elsa’s sake. Elsa is furious at Granny for that, in fact, because Elsa wants to be furious at Granny. For everything else. For the lies and for abandoning Mum and for dying. But it’s impossible to stay angry at someone who’s prepared to turn terrorist for the sake of her grandchild. And it makes Elsa furious that she can’t be furious.
外婆讨厌环保，但她是爱莎的坚定同盟。所以，她为了爱莎成为一名“坏分子”。爱莎为此生外婆的气，事实上，这是因为爱莎想要对外婆生气，为所有事情。为谎言、抛下妈妈，以及死去。但面对一个随时准备着为外孙女变成“坏分子”的人，又很难一直生气。这让爱莎更加恼火，但她不能恼火。
She stands in silence next to Alf and blinks until her head hurts. Alf tries to look unconcerned, but Elsa notices that he’s scanning the darkness, as if looking for someone. He watches their surroundings much like Wolfheart and the wurse. As if he’s also on guard duty. She squints and tries to fit him into Granny’s life, like a piece of a puzzle. She can’t recall Granny ever talking very much about him, except that he never knew how to lift his feet, which was why the soles of his shoes were always so worn down.
一片寂静中，她站在阿尔夫的身旁，眨着眼睛直到开始头痛。阿尔夫想装作不在意的样子，但爱莎注意到他正扫视着黑暗，就像在找什么人。他观察周围的样子，很像狼心和呜嘶在放哨。她回忆不出外婆说过他什么，除了他从不知道怎么抬脚，所以他的鞋底总是破破烂烂的。
She can’t even be angry at Granny in a normal way. Not even that is normal about Granny.
她甚至不能用寻常的方式对外婆生气。不过话说回来，谁都不能。
“What do you mean, ‘knew?’ We were bloody neighbors, that’s all,” Alf answers evasively.
“你说的‘熟’是什么意思？我们是邻居啊，不过如此。”阿尔夫含糊其词。
“Why are you here, then?” she asks teasingly.
“那你为什么在这里？”她故意逗他。
“What?”
“啊？”
“So what did you mean when you picked me up in the taxi, when you said Granny would never have forgiven you if you’d left me there?”
“那你开出租车来接我时说的，如果你留我一个人在那里，外婆‘永远不会原谅你’是什么意思？”
More creaking.
更多嘎吱声。
He looks as if he already regrets saying that.
他好像已经后悔说了那样的话。
He sounds frustrated. Elsa nods, pretending to understand in a way that Alf clearly doesn’t appreciate at all.
他听上去很沮丧。爱莎点点头，假装明白，阿尔夫显然不领情。
“Sure, sure.”
“是，是。”
“I can’t let you and the mutt run loose here at night on your own. Your granny would have blo –“
“我不能让你和那蠢狗单独在晚上出来乱跑。你祖母——”
“How well did you know Granny?” she asks.
“你跟外婆熟吗？”她问。
“You don’t have a blo — you don’t have exclusive rights to taking walks, you know.”
“又不是只有你——你一个人独家享有散步的权利，是吧。”
He interrupts himself. Grunts. Sighs.
他止住了自己的话。哼哼。叹气。
“Why did you follow me outside? Shouldn’t you be driving your taxi now or something?”
“你为什么跟着我出来？你现在不是应该在开出租或者干别的什么事情吗？”
The leather jacket creaks.
皮夹克嘎吱作响。
“Your granny would never have forgiven me if something happened to you.”
“如果你发生了什么事，你祖母永远不会原谅我的。”
“I didn’t mean anything, not a blo — nothing. I just happened to be in the area. Bloody…”
“没任何意思，没——没事。我只是凑巧在那附近。见鬼的…”
“Did you and Granny have an affair?” Elsa asks, after waiting for what seems a more than adequate length of time. Alf looks like she just threw a yellow snowball in his face.
“你和外婆有过感情吗？”在等了差不多适当长的时间后，爱莎问。阿尔夫的表情看上去像是爱莎刚刚把一个黄色雪球扔到他脸上。
“Is that mutt done now or what? Some of us have jobs to go to,” Alf mutters, which isn’t much of an answer. He turns towards the bushes.
“那蠢狗拉完没有啊？我们中的某个人还有工作要做呢。”阿尔夫嘟囔着，这并不是一个答案。他转向灌木丛。
Alf checks his watch.
阿尔夫看了看表。
“Aren’t you a bit young to know what that means?”
“你这么小，怎么知道这种事情的？”
“There are loads of things I’m too young to know about, but I know about them anyway.” She clears her throat and carries on: “Once when I was small, Mum was going to explain what her work was, because I’d asked Dad and he didn’t really seem to know. And then Mum said she worked as an economist. And then I said, ‘What?’ and then she said, ‘I work out how much money the hospital has, so we know what we can buy.’ And then I said, ‘What, like in a shop?’ And then she said that, yeah, sort of like in a shop, and it wasn’t hard to get it at all and so really Dad was being a bit thick about it.”
“有很多事情，我年纪太小不该知道，但不管怎样我还是知道了。”她清了清嗓子，继续说，“我还小的时候，妈妈有一次想解释她的工作到底是什么，因为我问了爸爸，但他似乎并不清楚。然后妈妈说她是一个经济学家。我说：‘什么？’她说：‘我弄清楚医院有多少钱，这样就知道我们能买什么。’然后她又说，有点儿像是在商店买东西。这一点儿都不难搞清楚，所以在这件事上爸爸真的有点儿笨。”
“But then, anyway, I saw a TV series where two people had a shop. And they had an affair, or at least I think they did. So now I get what it means, sort of thing. And I thought that was kind of how you and Granny knew each other! So… did you or didn’t you?”
“话说回来，我看过一部电视剧，里面有两个人开了间商店。他们也有过一段感情，我觉得他们有过。所以我大概知道这是什么意思。我想可能你跟外婆就是这么认识的！所以…有没有啊？”
Alf doesn’t look like he really gets it. And he looks like he’s got a bit of a migraine.
阿尔夫看上去不像是明白的样子，倒像是有点儿偏头痛。
Elsa scrutinizes him thoughtfully.
爱莎若有所思地审视着他。
The wurse finishes, and the three of them head back inside, Elsa in the middle. It’s not a big army, but it’s an army, thinks Elsa and feels a little less afraid of the dark. When they part ways in the cellar between the door to the garage and the door to the storage units, Elsa scrapes her shoe against the floor and asks Alf, “What was that music you were listening to in the car when you came to pick me up? Was it opera?”
呜嘶完事了，他们三个往回走，爱莎走在中间。这不是一支大军，但是一支军队，爱莎这么想着，对黑暗的恐惧减少了一些。他们在地下室里通往车库的门和通往储藏室的门之间分开，爱莎在地上蹭着鞋子，问阿尔夫：“你接我时，在车子上听的是什么音乐？歌剧吗？”
“I just thought you could be Granny’s type. Because you’re a bit younger than she is. And she always flirted with policemen who were about your age. They were sort of too old to be policemen but they were still policemen. Not that you’re a policeman, I mean. But you’re also old without being… really old. Get what I mean?”
“我只是觉得，你可能是外婆喜欢的类型。因为你比她稍微年轻一点儿。她总是跟你这个年纪的警察调情。他们的年纪对当警察而言有点儿大了，但他们还是警察。我不是说你是个警察。你也老了但又不是…特别老。你明白我的意思吗？”
“Holy Christ, enough questions!”
“天啊，还没问够！”
“Blo — yeah. It was a bastard opera.”
“他妈…是。是该死的歌剧。”
“What language was it in?”
“唱的是什么语言？”
“I was only asking!”
“问问而已！”
“Can you talk Italian?”
“你会说意大利语吗？”
“Italian.”
“意大利语。”
“Do you know Italian or not?”
“你到底会不会意大利语啊？”
“What other bloody way is there to know Italian?”
“还有‘不认真’地会意大利语的吗？”
“Yeah.”
“会。”
“I miss Wolfheart,” Elsa whispers into its fur.
“我想狼心。”爱莎对着它的毛皮轻语。
“What was that opera about in the car, then?” she persists.
“那车里放的歌剧是讲什么的？”她坚持问。
The wurse snuggles up against her.
呜嘶依偎着她。
“We’re going to need all the friends we can get. Because Granny didn’t tell me what happens in this fairy tale.”
“我们需要所有能找到的朋友。因为外婆没告诉过我这个童话故事里发生了什么。”
“But, like, fluently?”
“但，嗯，流利吗？”
The wurse looks like it agrees.
呜嘶看上去也同意。
“Love. They’re all about love, the whole lot.”
“爱。它们讲的都是爱，所有的。”
He pronounces the world “love” a little as one would say words like “refrigerator” or “two-inch screw.”
他说“爱”这个字的感觉十分别扭，像在念一个陌生的字。
“WERE YOU IN LOVE WITH MY GRANNY THEN?” Elsa yells after him, but he’s already slammed the door.
“那你爱过我外婆吗？”爱莎在他身后大喊，但他已经关上了门。
Alf pulls open the garage door.
阿尔夫拉开车库门。
She stays there, grinning. The wurse does too, she’s almost sure about that. And it’s much more difficult being afraid of shadows and the dark while grinning.
她待在那里，咧着嘴笑。呜嘶也一样。笑的时候就更不害怕黑暗了。
“I know enough to understand an opera. You got any other bast — questions?”
“我会的够听懂歌剧了。你还有其他问题吗？”
“I think Alf is our friend now,” she whispers.
“我觉得阿尔夫现在是我们的朋友了。”她小声说。
“For real?”
“认真的吗？”
Reluctantly, the wurse seems to agree with that too.
呜嘶看上去勉强也同意这点。
“You have to find another hiding place for that thing, I told you,” he says, gesturing at the wurse, clearly trying to change the subject. “People will find it sooner or later.”
“你必须得给那玩意儿另外找个藏身的地方，我跟你说。”他指着呜嘶，明显想改变话题，“迟早会有人发现它的。”
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