The wurse sleeps in the storage unit in the cellar. In the midst of all this it’s good to know that the wurse is close at hand. It makes Elsa feel a little bit less lonely.
呜嘶睡在地下室的储藏室里。知道呜嘶近在咫尺是件好事，这让爱莎稍稍觉得不那么孤独了。
Elsa stands alone on the balcony of Granny’s flat. They used to stand here often. It was here that Granny first pointed at the cloud animals and talked about the Land-of-Almost-Awake, just after Mum and Dad had got divorced. That night Elsa got to see Miamas for the first time. She stares out blindly into the darkness and misses her more than ever. She has been lying on Granny’s bed, looking up at the photos on the ceiling and trying to figure out what Granny was talking about at the hospital when she said Elsa mustn’t hate her. And also, “it’s a grandmother’s privilege never to have to show her grandchild who she was before she became a grandmother.” Elsa has spent hours trying to work out what this treasure hunt is for, or where the next clue can be found. If there even is one.
爱莎独自站在外婆的阳台上。她们以前常站在这里。正是在这里，外婆第一次指着云兽，谈起了不眠大陆，就在妈妈和爸爸刚离婚的时候。那天晚上，爱莎第一次看到了密阿玛斯。她呆呆地凝视着黑暗，比以往更想念外婆。她之前一直躺在外婆的床上，抬头看天花板上的照片，想知道外婆在医院里叫爱莎不要恨她到底是什么意思，以及“外婆的特权就是永远不用告诉她的外孙或外孙女，在变成一位外婆之前，她是怎样的人”到底是什么意思。爱莎花了几个小时试图想出这场寻宝究竟是为了什么，或者哪里可以找到下一条线索。如果有下一条线索的话。
She peers over the balcony railing. Has a sense of something moving down there on the ground, in the darkness. She can’t see anything, obviously, but she knows The Monster is there. Granny has planned the fairy tale in this way. The Monster is guarding the castle. Guarding Elsa.
她将身子探出阳台栏杆，盯着外面的景色，感觉黑暗中地面似乎有什么东西在动。当然，她什么也没看见，但她知道怪物在那里。外婆已经计划好了这一切。怪物正在守卫城堡，守护爱莎。
It’s the woman in the black skirt, talking into the white cord. She’s heaving four heavy plastic bags along, and they knock into each other and then against her shins at every step. The woman swears and fumbles with her keys by the door.
那是穿黑裙的女人，对着白色耳机线说话。她拎着四个大塑料袋，每走一步它们就互相碰撞，还会撞到她的小腿。女人一边骂着脏话，一边在门边摸索钥匙。
She’s just angry with Granny for never explaining what he’s guarding it from.
她只是气外婆从来没有解释，怪物究竟在防着什么。
“Oh there’ll be at least twenty of us — and you know how well the guys in the office hold their drink. Not that they had any time to help, mind… Yeah, isn’t it? I know! As if I didn’t have a full-time job as well?” is the last thing Elsa hears before the woman marches into the house.
“哦，会有至少二十几个人，你知道，办公室那群人有多能喝。他们倒是没空来帮忙，真是…就是说呀！好像我整天不用上班一样？”这是女人走进大门之前，爱莎听到的最后一句话。
Elsa doesn’t know much at all about the woman in the black skirt, except that everything smells of mint and she always has very well-ironed clothes and always seems to be stressed out. Granny used to say it was “because of her boys.” Elsa doesn’t know what that’s supposed to mean.
爱莎不太了解穿黑裙的女人，除了她所有的东西闻上去都有薄荷味。她总是穿着笔挺的衣服，总是压力很大。外婆常说那是因为“她的男孩们”。爱莎不知道那是什么意思。
“… Yeah, yeah, I’ve got all the booze for the party, I’m only just getting back home now!” the voice declares irritably as it draws closer.
“好的，好的，我已经买好聚会用的酒了，现在正要回家！”渐近的声音暴躁地说着。
A voice farther off saws through the silence.
一个声音在寂静中响起。
Of course, Granny thought efficiency was rubbish, and she couldn’t give a crap about the negative effect of conflict. Elsa heard one of the doctors at Mum’s hospital saying that Granny “could start a fight in an empty room,” but when Elsa told Granny she just looked miffed and said, “What if it was the room that started it?” And then she told the fairy tale about the girl who said no. Even though Elsa had already heard it at least an eternity of times.
另一方面，外婆认为效率是垃圾，她完全不在乎冲突的负面影响。爱莎听到妈妈医院的一个医生说，外婆“可以一个人在一个空房间里吵起架来”。当爱莎把这句话告诉外婆时，她看起来很生气：“如果是房间先找碴儿呢？”然后她就讲起了“说‘不’的女孩”的故事。尽管爱莎已经听了至少有“一个永恒”那么多次。
Inside, Mum is sitting on a high stool in the kitchen, talking on the telephone and fiddling restlessly with one of Granny’s tea towels. She never seems to have to listen very much to what the person at the other end of the line is saying. No one ever disagrees with Mum. Not that she raises her voice or interrupts; she’s just not the sort of person anyone wants to get on the wrong side of. Mum likes to keep it like this, because conflict is bad for efficiency and efficiency is very important to her. George sometimes jokes that Mum will give birth to Halfie during her lunch break, to avoid any negative effect on the hospital’s general efficiency. Elsa hates George for making all those stupid jokes. Hates him because he thinks he knows Mum well enough to make jokes about her.
房间里，妈妈正坐在厨房的高脚凳上讲电话，同时不安地折腾着外婆的一块茶巾。她似乎并没有听电话另一头的人在说些什么。从来没有人不同意妈妈的话，并不是因为她会用大嗓门打断别人的话，她就是那种你不希望跟她意见相左的人。妈妈喜欢保持这样，因为冲突会影响效率，而效率对她很重要。乔治有时开玩笑说，妈妈会在她午休时把“小半”生出来，以避免对医院的效率造成任何负面影响。爱莎讨厌乔治说那些愚蠢的笑话。她恨他，因为他是那么了解妈妈，都可以以此来开玩笑了。
And then the queen simply forbade all conflict in Miaudacas. Everyone had to get along all the time. And because nearly all conflicts start with someone saying “no,” the queen also made this word illegal. Anyone breaking this law was immediately cast into a huge Naysayers’ Prison, and hundreds of soldiers in black armor who were known as Yea-Sayers patrolled the streets to make sure there were no disagreements anywhere. Dissatisfied with this, the queen had soon outlawed not only the word “no’ but also other words including “not” and “maybe” and “well.” Any of these were enough to get you sent straight to prison, where you’d never again see the light of day.
后来，女王下令禁止密奥达卡斯发生任何冲突。每个人都得与他人相处和睦。因为几乎所有的冲突都始于某人说了“不”这个字，所以女王规定，说出这个字是违法的。任何人违反这条法律，都将立即被扔进一座巨大的“唱反调监狱”，上百名穿着黑色盔甲的士兵在街道上巡逻，以确保任何地方都没有分歧，他们被称为“遵命者”。对此仍不满意的女王很快又取缔了“不”之外的其他一些词，包括“不是”
“The Girl Who Said No’ was one of the first stories Elsa ever heard from the Land-of-Almost-Awake. It was about the Queen of Miaudacas, one of the six kingdoms. In the beginning the queen had been a courageous and fair-minded princess very much liked by all, but unfortunately she grew up and became a frightened adult, as adults tend to be. She started loving efficiency and avoiding conflict. As adults do.
“说‘不’的女孩”是爱莎最早听过的不眠大陆故事之一，讲的是六大王国之一的密奥达卡斯的女王的故事。起初，女王是一个勇敢而公正的公主，人人都喜欢她，但不幸的是，她长大了，变成了一个胆小的成年人，就像大多数普通的成年人那样。她开始讲求效率，避免冲突。成年人就是这样。
After a couple of years, words like “possibly” and “if” and “wait and see” had also been made illegal. In the end no one dared say anything at all. And then the queen felt that she might as well make all talking illegal, because almost every conflict tended to start with someone saying something. And after that there was silence in the kingdom for several years.
“可能”“大概”，说出这些词都足以将你直接送进监狱，再也见不到光明的一天。几年后，像“也许”“如果”“等着瞧”之类的词也被禁止。最后，没有人敢说任何话。然后女王觉得她索性可以把说话也禁掉，因为几乎所有冲突都始于某人说了某些话。此后，整个王国沉默了好几年。
Until one day a little girl came riding in, singing as she went. And everyone stared at her, because singing was an extremely serious crime in Miaudacas, because there was a risk of one person liking the song and another disliking it. The Yea-Sayers sprang into action to stop the girl, but they couldn’t catch her because she was very good at running. So the Yea-Sayers rang all the bells and called for reinforcements. Upon which the queen’s very own elite force, known as the Paragraph Riders — because they rode a very special kind of animal that was a cross between a giraffe and a rule book — came out to stop the girl. But not even the Paragraph Riders could lay their hands on her, and in the end the queen in person came rushing out of her castle and roared at the girl to stop singing.
直到有一天，一个小女孩骑马进城，边走边唱。每个人都盯着她。唱歌也是密奥达卡斯一项极其严重的罪行，因为有引起冲突的风险：有人喜欢这首歌，而另一些人不喜欢。“遵命者”立即行动起来，想要阻止女孩，但他们抓不住她，因为她很擅长逃跑。于是，“遵命者”敲响了所有的警钟，呼叫增援。女王的精英部队——他们被称为“段落骑手”，因为他们骑着一种非常特殊的、介于长颈鹿和规章手册之间的动物，出来阻止女孩。但即使是“段落骑手”也抓不住她，最后女王亲自冲出城堡，对着女孩咆哮，叫她停止歌唱。
But then the girl turned to the queen, stared her right in the eye, and said “No.” And as soon as she had said it, a piece of masonry fell off the wall around the prison. And when the girl said “No’ one more time, another piece of masonry fell. And before long, not only the girl but all the other people in the kingdom, even the Yea-Sayers and the Paragraph Riders, were shouting “No! No! No!” and then the prison crumbled. And that was how the people of Miaudacas learned that a queen only stays in power for as long as her subjects are afraid of conflict.
女孩转向女王，盯着她的眼睛说：“不。”她一说出这个字，一块砖石就从监狱的墙上掉了下来。女孩又说了一次“不”，另一块砖石落下。没过多久，不仅是女孩，王国里其他所有人，甚至“遵命者”和“段落骑手”都高喊着：“不！不！不！”最后监狱颤抖着倒塌。密奥达卡斯的人们终于明白，一位女王能够掌握大权只因为她的臣民们都害怕冲突。
Or at least Elsa thinks that was the moral of the story. She knows this partly because she checked out “moral” on Wikipedia and partly because the very first word Elsa learned to say was “no.” Which led to a lot of arguing between Mum and Granny.
至少爱莎认为这是故事的寓意。她在维基百科上查过“寓意”这个词，而且爱莎学会说的第一个词就是“不”。这也引起了妈妈和外婆之间的争吵。
They fought about a lot of other things as well, of course. Once Granny said to Elsa’s mum that she only became a manager as a way of expressing teenage rebellion — because the very worst rebellion Elsa’s mum could dream up was to “become an economist.”
当然，她们也会因为很多其他的事情争吵。有一次，外婆说爱莎的妈妈之所以会成为一名经理人，只不过是表达青少年叛逆的一种方式——因为爱莎妈妈所能想到的最严重的叛逆就是“成为一名经济学家”。
Mum finishes her call and stands in the middle of the kitchen floor with the tea towel in her hand, looking as if she’s forgotten something. She looks at Elsa. Elsa looks back dubiously. Mum smiles sadly.
妈妈打完电话，拿着茶巾站在厨房正中间，好像忘记了什么东西。她看着爱莎。爱莎疑惑地回望着她。妈妈伤心地笑了。
Elsa nods. Even though she doesn’t want to. Mum insists on packing boxes every night despite being told by both the doctor and George that she should be taking it easy. Mum isn’t very good at either — taking it easy or being told.
爱莎点点头，即使她不想。尽管医生和乔治都告诉妈妈，她应该好好休息，但妈妈还是坚持每天晚上都要打包。妈妈也不是很擅长休息和被人指示该怎么做。
Elsa never really understood what was meant by that. But later that night, when they thought Elsa was sleeping, Elsa heard Mum rebuff Granny by saying, “What do you know about my teenage years? You were never here!” That was the only time Elsa ever heard Mum saying anything to Granny while holding back tears. And then Granny went very quiet and never repeated the comment about teenage rebellion to Elsa.
爱莎从未真正理解那是什么意思。但是那天晚上，她们以为爱莎睡着后，妈妈顶撞外婆道：“你怎么知道我青少年时是什么样子的？你都不在我身边！”那是爱莎唯一一次听到妈妈强忍泪水对外婆说话。然后外婆安静了下来，再也没有对爱莎说起过关于叛逆的事情。
“Do you want to help me pack some of your granny’s things into boxes?”
“想帮我把你外婆的东西打包进盒子吗？”
“Your dad is coming to pick you up from school tomorrow afternoon,” says Mum in passing as she ticks things off on her Excel packing spreadsheet.
“你爸爸明天下午去学校接你。”妈妈一边说一边在打包清单上打钩。
“That’s the quickest way for me to know that I should be mega-worrying,” answers Elsa.
“你这么说，会让我特别担心的。”爱莎回答。
Mum massages her temples and looks away.
妈妈按摩着自己的太阳穴，看向了别处。
“No it isn’t, no one has so many routine checkups in a pregnancy. I’m not that stupid.”
“不，不是的，没有人怀孕的时候会做这么多例行检查。我没笨到那份儿上。”
Elsa packs things haphazardly into the box, deliberately ignoring the spreadsheet.
爱莎把东西随意放进盒子里，故意不去理打包清单上的顺序。
“Is Halfie sick?”
“‘小半’病了吗？”
“I’ll be… staying on for a while at the hospital,” says Mum, because she doesn’t like lying to Elsa.
“我会…在医院待一会儿。”妈妈说，她不喜欢对爱莎撒谎。
“It’s just a routine checkup.
“这只是一次例行检查。”
Mum tries to smile again. It doesn’t go so very well. “Don’t worry, darling.”
妈妈试着再次微笑，可不怎么成功。“别担心，亲爱的。”
“Everything is complicated if no one explains it to you.”
“如果没有人向你解释，一切都很复杂。”
“Because you’re working late?” asks Elsa, as if she means nothing in particular by the question.
“因为你要加班？”爱莎随口问道。
“What do you mean, ‘as well?’ What ELSE have I been making trouble with you about?” Elsa hisses, as one does when one is almost eight and feels slightly put upon.
“你什么意思，‘也’？我还跟你闹过什么事吗？”爱莎不满地说，正如一个受骗的快八岁小孩会说的。
“George is coming with me to the hospital.”
“乔治要和我一起去医院。”
“Can’t George pick me up, then?”
“乔治不能来接我吗？”
“It’s complicated,” Mum sighs.
“事情很复杂。”妈妈叹了口气说。
“Please, Elsa, don’t you start making trouble about this as well.”
“拜托了，爱莎，不要也来添乱。”
“I’M NOT SHOUTING!” shouts Elsa.
“我！没！喊！”爱莎喊。
“Don’t shout,” says Mum in a composed voice.
“别喊。”妈妈用沉稳的声音说。
And then they both look down at the floor for a long time. Looking for their own ways of saying sorry. Neither of them knows where to begin. Elsa thumps down the lid of the packing crate, stomps off into Granny’s bedroom, and slams the door.
然后她们都低头看着地板，很久，想要找到合适的方式来道歉，但都不知道该从哪里开始。爱莎撞开打包箱，跺着脚，跑进外婆的卧室，重重地关上门。
You could hear a pin drop in the flat for about thirty minutes after that. Because that is how angry Elsa is, so angry that she has to start measuring time in minutes rather than eternities. She lies on Granny’s bed and stares at the black-and-white photos on the ceiling. The Werewolf Boy seems to be waving at her and laughing. Deep inside, she wonders how anyone who laughs like that can grow up into something as incredibly doleful as The Monster.
在之后的约三十分钟时间里，房间静得能听到针掉在地上的声音。爱莎就是气到了这份上，气得她开始用分钟，而不是“永恒”来计算时间。她躺在外婆的床上，盯着天花板上的黑白照片。狼孩似乎在笑着向她招手。她的内心深处很想知道，能笑成那样的人怎么会成长为阴郁的“怪物”。
She hears the doorbell go and then a second ring following incredibly fast, much faster than would be feasible for a normal person when ringing a doorbell. So it can only be Britt-Marie.
她听到门铃响了，第二遍铃声很快接着响起，比正常人按门铃的速度快得多。所以，来者只能是布里特—玛丽。
“I’m coming,” Mum answers politely. Elsa can tell by her voice that she’s been crying.
“来了。”妈妈礼貌地回答。爱莎可以从她的声音听出来，她一直在哭。
“Your mother’s car is parked in the garage! And that hound is still loose on the property!” She’s talking so quickly it’s clear she can’t prioritize her various upsets.
“你母亲的车还停在车库！那只猎犬还在四处乱跑！”她说得太快，很明显，她不能把自己的各种烦恼分出个轻重缓急来。
“No. We’re not home. We’re here.”
“对，我们不在家。我们在这里。”
“The dog is probably far away by now, Britt-Marie. I wouldn’t worry about it –“
“狗可能已经跑远了，布里特—玛丽。我不担心它…”
Mum sighs.
妈妈叹了口气。
Elsa sits up in Granny’s bed, but it takes almost a minute before she manages to take in what Britt-Marie just said. Then she bounces out of bed and opens the door, and has to muster all her self-control to stop herself dashing off down the hall, because she doesn’t want to make the old busybody suspicious.
爱莎端坐在外婆的床上，几乎花了一分钟才听明白布里特—玛丽刚才在说什么。然后她跳下床，打开房门，用尽所有自制力来阻止自己冲下楼，因为她不想让那个爱管闲事的老家伙生疑。
Britt-Marie stands on the landing with one hand very firmly inserted into the other, smiling at Mum in a well-meaning way, nattering on about how in this leaseholders’ association they can’t have rabid dogs running around.
布里特—玛丽交叉双手，站在楼道里，朝妈妈露出一个“我是为了你好”的微笑，唠叨着租户协会不能允许有疯狗到处乱跑。
The words come flowing out of Britt-Marie, as if she’s fitted with a windup mechanism and someone has cranked it up using a key on her back. “I rang your bell! No one opened!”
布里特—玛丽突然开始大说特说，好像她背后装着发条，而有人刚刚用钥匙拧紧后松了手。“我按过你家门铃！没人开门！”
“A sanitary nuisance, a sanitary nuisance is what it is!”
“卫生公害，它就是个卫生公害！”
“No, no, of course you wouldn’t, Ulrika. Of course you wouldn’t. You’re not the type to worry yourself about other people’s safety, even your own child’s, are you? It’s something you’ve inherited, I see. Putting the career before the children. That is how it’s always been in your family.”
“不，不，你当然不会，乌尔莉卡。你当然不会。你不是那种会担心别人甚至你自己孩子安全的人，是吧？我看，这是遗传的吧。把事业看得比孩子们重要。你们家都这样。”
Elsa sticks out her head before Britt-Marie has time to turn around and leave.
在她有时间转身离开之前，爱莎探出了脑袋。
Britt-Marie turns to Mum and smiles well-meaningly.
布里特—玛丽继续对妈妈保持“为了你好”的微笑。
Mum’s face is utterly relaxed. Her arms hang down, apparently relaxed. The only thing that gives her away is that she’s slowly, slowly clenching her fists. Elsa has never seen her do that before.
妈妈面部表情放松，胳膊垂下来，显然也很放松。只有一个动作暴露了她的情绪，她慢慢地、慢慢地握紧拳头。爱莎以前从未见过她这样做。
“Was there anything else on your mind?” says Mum slowly, but something in her eyes has changed hue, which makes Britt-Marie take a small, small step back.
“你还有什么事吗？”妈妈慢慢地说，但眼神已经变了，这让布里特—玛丽稍稍后退了一小步。
Britt-Marie also notices. Again she switches the position of her hands on her stomach. Looks as if she’s sweating. Her smile stiffens. “Not that there’s anything wrong with that, Ulrika, obviously. Obviously not. You make your own choices and prioritizations, obviously!”
布里特—玛丽也注意到了。她又一次双手交叉放在肚子上。看起来她在流汗，笑容僵硬。“不是说你有什么错，乌尔莉卡，当然。当然不是。这是你自己的选择和考虑，当然！”
“No, no, nothing else. Nothing else at all!”
“不，不，没有别的事了。没其他事了！”
“She doesn’t think I should drink coffee when I’m pregnant,” Mum replies. Her phone starts ringing.
妈妈回答：“她认为我怀孕时不应该喝咖啡。”她的电话响了。
Mum closes the door in a slightly less self-controlled and composed way than usual, and heads into the kitchen.
妈妈用比平时少一点儿自制和沉着的方式关上门，然后走进了厨房。
“Maybe if you didn’t drink so much coffee you wouldn’t get headaches so often, Ulrika!” She turns and stomps down the stairs so quickly no one has time to answer her.
“如果你不喝那么多咖啡，就不会这样经常性头痛了，乌尔莉卡！”她转身下楼的速度太快，爱莎妈妈都来不及回应她。
“I don’t know where the car keys are, Britt-Marie. And if you don’t mind, I need to sit down — I seem to be getting a headache.”
“我不知道车钥匙在哪儿，布里特—玛丽。如果你不介意的话，我要坐下来了——我好像有点儿头疼。”
“It’s in the garage,” she says curtly, avoiding Mum’s eye. “It’s parked in my space. And if it isn’t moved at once, I’ll call the police!”
“在车库里，”她说得很简短，避开妈妈的视线，“它停在我的车位上。如果不马上移开，我就报警！”
“What was that you said about Granny’s car?”
“你刚才说外婆的车怎么了？”
“What did she mean by that?” asks Elsa.
“她说的是什么意思？”爱莎问。
“How did it get there?”
“它怎么会停到那里去的？”
“That’s not what I meant,” says Elsa. She hates it when Mum pretends to be stupid.
“我不是指这个。”爱莎说。她讨厌妈妈装傻。
Mum picks up her telephone from the kitchen counter. “I have to answer this, sweetheart.”
妈妈从橱柜上拿起电话。“我得接这个电话，亲爱的。”
“How am I supposed to know?!” Then she turns to Elsa’s mum again, with renewed courage. “The car has to be moved at once, otherwise I’m calling the police, Ulrika!”
“我怎么知道？”然后她又转向爱莎的妈妈，再次鼓起勇气，“车必须立刻移走，否则我要叫警察了，乌尔莉卡！”
“It’s from the hospital, I have to answer.”
“是医院打来的，我必须接。”
“What did Britt-Marie mean when she said in our family we ‘put the career before the children?’ She meant Granny, didn’t she?”
“布里特—玛丽说什么，我们家总是‘把事业看得比孩子们重要’，这是什么意思？她是指外婆，对吗？”
They stand in silence looking at each other while the telephone rings two more times. Now it’s Elsa’s turn to clench her fists.
她们沉默地看着对方，电话又响了两次。现在轮到爱莎握紧拳头了。
Mum’s fingers steal across the display. “I have to take this, Elsa.”
妈妈的手指滑过显示屏。“我必须接这个电话，爱莎。”
The telephone continues ringing.
电话继续响。
By the time Elsa gets up an hour after that, Mum is sleeping on the sofa in the living room. Elsa sneaks up and tucks her and Halfie in. Kisses Mum on the cheek. Turns out the lamp. Mum is still holding Granny’s tea towel in her hand.
爱莎一小时后起床时，妈妈睡在客厅的沙发上。爱莎偷偷帮她和“小半”盖好被子，吻了吻妈妈的脸颊，关上灯。妈妈手里还拿着外婆的茶巾。
Mum closes her eyes and answers the telephone. By the time she starts talking into it, Elsa has already slammed the door to Granny’s bedroom behind her.
妈妈闭上眼睛，接起电话。当她开始说话的时候，爱莎已经“砰”的一声关上了身后外婆卧室的门。
“No you don’t!”
“不，你不要接！”
Elsa fetches a flashlight from one of the boxes in the hall and puts on her shoes.
爱莎从玄关的一个盒子里取出了手电筒，穿上鞋。
When Mum gently opens the door half an hour later, Elsa pretends to be asleep. Mum sneaks up and tucks her in. Kisses her cheek. Turns off the lamp.
半小时后，妈妈轻轻地打开房门，爱莎假装睡着了。妈妈偷偷给她盖好被子，吻了吻她的脸颊。关掉灯。
“No you don’t!”
“不，你不要接！”
Because now she knows where to find the next clue in Granny’s treasure hunt.
因为现在她知道该去哪里找外婆寻宝游戏的下一条线索了。
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