Elsa stands in the hall in The Monster’s flat and watches them through the spyhole. Technically, her feet aren’t touching the floor, though, because the wurse has sat down on the hall mat so that she’s wedged between the rear end of the enormous animal and the inside of the door. The wurse looks extremely irritated. Not threatening, just irritated. As if there’s a wasp in its bottle of lemonade.
爱莎站在怪物房间的玄关中，从猫眼里瞄着警察。准确地说，她的脚没有“站”在地上，因为呜嘶坐在门垫上，而她就嵌在这只巨大动物的背部和门之间。呜嘶看上去非常不爽。不带威胁性，只是不爽，仿佛它的柠檬汽水里有只黄蜂。
The sound of splintering wood fills the stairwell as the police drive the crowbar into the doorframe.
楼道里充斥着木头碎裂的声音，警察正将铁锹塞进门框。
It occurs to Elsa that she’s more panicked by the police on the other side of the door than the by two creatures in the hall with her. Maybe it doesn’t seem so very rational, but she’s decided to trust more in Granny’s friends than Britt-Marie’s. She rotates carefully by the door until she’s facing the wurse, then whispers in the secret language: “You mustn’t bark now, please be good. Or they’ll kill you!”
爱莎意识到，让自己更加惊慌的是门外的警察，而不是跟她一起待在这个玄关里的生物。也许这不太理智，但她决定信任外婆的朋友，而不是布里特—玛丽的朋友。她小心翼翼地转过身靠着门，面对呜嘶，然后用秘密语言小声说：“你现在不能叫，拜托老实一点儿。不然他们会杀死你。”
The wurse doesn’t look entirely convinced that it would come off worse if she opened the door and let it out among the police, and turns away dismissively. It stays silent, though seemingly more for Elsa’s sake than its own.
呜嘶并没有被彻底说服，它似乎觉得如果爱莎打开门，它就能成功冲进警察中，然后不屑一顾地离开。它保持安静，看起来是为了爱莎，而不是为了它自己。
The Monster disappears into the bathroom. The tap runs in there for a long time before he comes out again. He dries his hands elaborately on a small white towel, which he then folds neatly and goes to put in a laundry basket. He has to stoop to fit through the doorway. Elsa feels as Odysseus must have felt when he was with that giant, Polyphemus, because Elsa recently read about Odysseus. Apart from the fact that Polyphemus probably didn’t wash his hands as carefully as The Monster. And apart from Elsa thinking she’s not as high-and-mighty and self-righteous as Odysseus seems to be in the book. Obviously. But apart from that, sort of like Odysseus.
怪物走进了卫生间。水龙头响了好长时间，他才出来。他考究地在一条白色毛巾上擦干手，然后将它整齐地叠起来，放进了脏衣篮。他走出门时，必须低头。爱莎感觉自己就像是和巨人波吕斐摩斯在一起的奥德修斯，她最近刚读了奥德修斯的故事。不过波吕斐摩斯大概不会像怪物那么认真洗手。还有，爱莎也不觉得自己像书里的奥德修斯那么高大和自以为是。这是当然的。除了这两点，其他跟奥德修斯很像。
Outside on the landing, the police have almost forced the door open. Elsa hears them yelling command words at each other, about being “ready.”
在外面的楼道里，警察几乎已经强行打开了门。爱莎听见他们冲着彼此喊了什么命令的话，比如“准备”之类的。
She looks around the hall and into the living room. It’s a very small flat but the tidiest one of any description she has ever set foot in. There is hardly any furniture, and the few items that there are have been arranged face-to-face, looking as if they’ll commit furniture hara-kiri if a single speck of dust lands on them. (Elsa knows that because she had a samurai phase about a year ago.)
她四下看了看玄关，走进客厅。这是一间非常小的公寓，但是她待过的最整洁的公寓。几乎没有家具，仅有的几件相对摆放，如果有一粒灰尘掉在它们身上，这些家具好像就会立即切腹。（爱莎之所以知道“切腹”，是因为她一年前有过一段“武士迷恋期”。）
The Monster looks at her. He doesn’t look angry. More confused, actually. Almost startled. Maybe that’s what gives Elsa the courage to blurt right out: “Why did my granny send you a letter?”
怪物看着她，表情不是生气，更像是感到迷茫，甚至有点儿被吓到。也许正是这点给了爱莎开口的勇气：“为什么外婆写信给你？”
She says it in normal language. Because, for reasons not yet entirely clear to her, she doesn’t want to talk to him in the secret language. The Monster’s eyebrows sink under his black hair so that it’s difficult to make out any facial expressions at all behind it, and the beard and the scar. He’s barefoot, but wears those blue plastic shoe covers you get at a hospital. His boots are neatly placed just inside the door, very precisely in line with the edge of the doormat. He hands Elsa another two blue plastic bags, but jerks back his hand once she touches them, as if worried that Elsa might also touch him. Elsa bends down and puts the plastic bags over her muddy shoes. She notices that she has slightly stepped off the mat and left two halves of her footprints in melted snow on the parquet floor.
她用正常语言说出了这句话。出于一些她自己也不清楚的原因，她不想和他用秘密语言说话。怪物的眉毛藏在他黑色的头发后，所以很难辨认他的表情，还有胡子和伤疤。他光着脚，穿着医院里才会用到的那种蓝色塑料鞋套。他的靴子整整齐齐地放在门边，跟门垫的边缘完美对齐。他递给爱莎另外两只蓝色塑料鞋套，但她一碰到鞋套，他就急忙收回了手，好像害怕爱莎碰到他。爱莎弯腰在自己粘着泥巴的鞋子外套上鞋套。她注意到自己的鞋略微超出了门垫的边缘，在木地板上留下了半对带着融雪的脚印。
The Monster bends down with impressive fluidity and starts wiping the floor with a fresh white towel. When he has finished, he sprays the area with a small bottle of a cleaning agent that makes Elsa’s eyes smart, and wipes it with another small white towel. Then he stands up and neatly puts the towels in the laundry basket, and places the spray bottle very exactly on a shelf.
怪物非常快地弯下身，用一条崭新的白毛巾擦地。擦完后，他拿出一小瓶清洁剂，喷在了那个区域，这让爱莎的眼睛刺痛。随后，他又用另一条白毛巾擦了地。他站起身，将两块毛巾都整齐地放进脏衣篮，将喷雾瓶精准地放回架子上的原位。
Then he stands for a very long time and stares uncomfortably at the wurse. It lies splayed across the hall, covering the floor almost in its entirety. The Monster looks like he’s about to hyperventilate. He disappears into the bathroom and comes back and starts carefully arranging towels in a tight ring around the wurse while taking extreme care not to touch any part of it. Then he goes back to the bathroom and scrubs his hands so hard under the tap that the basin vibrates.
做完这一切，他继续站了很久，不自在地盯着呜嘶。它伸着腿，躺在玄关，整个身体都摊在地板上。怪物看上去焦虑到要犯过度呼吸症了。他去了卫生间，拿出一堆毛巾回来，开始在呜嘶的周围围出一个整齐的毛巾圈，同时小心翼翼地不碰到它的任何部位。随后，他又回到卫生间，拼命在水下搓手，搓得洗手池都一震一震的。
The Monster looks infinitely vexed. He puts down the bottle and smears his fingers with alcogel, as if they were covered in a layer of extra skin that he had to try to rub off. Then he demonstratively holds up his two palms, each the size of a flatbed dolly, and nods firmly at Elsa.
怪物脸上露出无尽的惆怅。他放下瓶子，用洗手液涂抹手指，就好像他的手指外蒙上了一层额外的皮肤，他必须努力擦掉。然后他示范性地伸出他那两只像平板车那么大的手掌，冲爱莎坚决地点点头。
When he comes back he’s got a little bottle of antibacterial alcogel. Elsa recognizes it, because she had to rub that sort of stuff into her hands every time she was visiting Granny at the hospital. She peers into the bathroom through the gap under The Monster’s armpit when he reaches out. There are more bottles of alcogel in there than she could imagine there would be in Mum’s entire hospital.
他拿着一小瓶免洗洗手液回来。爱莎认得出来，因为她去医院看过外婆之后，也必须弄点儿那个来搓搓手。怪物伸手时，她从他手臂下偷瞄了一眼卫生间。那里排列着一瓶瓶免洗洗手液，感觉上比她想象中妈妈整家医院里的还多。
“Do you have compulsive thoughts?” says Elsa.
“你有强迫症吗？”爱莎问。
Elsa holds up her own palms, which are more tennis ball-size. He pours alcogel on them and does his best not to look too disgusted. She quickly rubs the alcogel into her skin and wipes off the excess on her trouser legs. The Monster looks a little as if he’s about to roll himself up in a blanket and start yelling and crying. To compensate, he pours more alcogel on his own hands and rubs, rubs, rubs. Then he notices that Elsa has knocked one of his boots out of position in relation to the other. He bends down and adjusts the boot. Then more alcogel.
爱莎伸出自己网球大小的手掌。他把洗手液倒在上面，努力收敛起脸上的嫌弃。她很快将洗手液涂满自己的皮肤，并将多余的蹭在了裤腿上。怪物的样子看起来像是想把自己裹进毯子里大声尖叫和哭泣。为了补救，他倒了更多的洗手液在自己手上，然后揉、揉、揉。他注意到爱莎把他的一只靴子碰离了原位，立即弯腰调整靴子的位置，然后又倒出更多的洗手液。
Elsa tilts her head and looks at him.
爱莎歪着头看他。
“My dad is sort of slightly compulsive as well!” Elsa calls out behind him, adding quickly, “But, God, not like you. You’re properly barmy!”
“我爸爸也有点儿强迫症！”爱莎在他身后喊了一声，快速补充道，“但是，天啊，不像你。你好疯狂啊！”
The Monster doesn’t answer. Only rubs his hands together, as if trying to get a fire started.
怪物没有回答，只是搓着双手，像是想搓出一团火球。
“I’ve read about it on Wikipedia.”
“我在维基百科上读到过。”
The Monster’s chest heaves up and down, taking frustrated breaths. He disappears into the bathroom and she hears the sound of gushing water again.
怪物的胸部上下起伏，沮丧地大口喘着气。他消失在卫生间里，她听到水再次涌出的声音。
Only afterwards does she realize it sounded like an insult. That was not at all how she meant it. She just didn’t mean to compare Dad’s amateurish compulsive behavior with The Monster’s obviously professional obsessions.
说出口后，她才意识到这听起来像是一种侮辱。这根本不是她的意思。她只是不想把爸爸业余的强迫表现与怪物显然是专家级的强迫行为做对比。
The Monster returns to see the wurse nibbling at her backpack, where it clearly believes there are some Daim bars. The Monster looks as if he’s trying to go to a happier place inside his head. And there they stand, all three of them: a wurse, a child, and a monster with a need for cleanliness and order that clearly is not at all well suited to the company of wurses and children.
怪物回过头，看到呜嘶正啃她的背包，显然它猜里面有几块代姆巧克力。怪物好像已经灵魂出窍了。他们都在原地站着不动，三个人：一只呜嘶、一个孩子，以及一位需要清洁和秩序、显然不适合与呜嘶和孩子待在一块儿的怪物。
“You left letter. From Granny. In envelope,” he replies at long last, deep-throated.
“你把它放在信里了。外祖母的。在信封里。”他长叹了一口气，用低沉的声音回答。
On the other side of the door, the police and Animal Control have just broken into a flat where there’s a lethal hound, only to discover the telling absence of said hound.
在门的另一边，警方和动物管控中心的人已经闯进了据说有致命猎犬的公寓，却没有发现传说中的猎犬。
Elsa looks at the wurse. Looks at The Monster.
爱莎看看呜嘶，又看看怪物。
“Why do you have the key to… that… flat?” she asks The Monster.
“为什么你有…那间公寓…的钥匙？”她问怪物。
The Monster seems to start breathing more heavily.
怪物的呼吸更加沉重了。
“Has grief,” he says in a low voice towards the wurse, rubbing his hands together although there is nothing left to rub in.
“在悲伤。”他冲着呜嘶用低沉的声音说，揉着手，即使手上已经没有什么能揉进皮肤的东西。
“Wrote ‘protect the castle.’ ”
“写的是‘保护城堡’。”
Elsa tilts her head the other way.
爱莎的脑袋歪向另一边。
“Did Granny write that you should take care of it?”
“外婆在信里叫你照顾它吗？”
Elsa nods. Their eyes meet fleetingly. The Monster looks a great deal as one does when wishing that people would just go home and filthify their own halls. Elsa looks at the wurse.
爱莎点点头。他们飞快地对视了一眼。怪物一脸祈求所有人能回家去污染他们自己家玄关的表情。爱莎看着呜嘶。
Elsa looks at the wurse. The wurse looks at her with black, sad eyes. Later, when she thinks about it, Elsa assumes this is when she really, really starts liking it a lot. She looks at The Monster again.
爱莎看着呜嘶。呜嘶用它那双黑色、伤心的眼睛回望着她。日后再回忆起来时，爱莎觉得正是从这个时刻起，她开始非常、非常喜欢它。她又看向怪物。
“Why does it howl so much at night?”
“为什么它晚上会叫得这么厉害？”
The Monster nods reluctantly.
怪物不情愿地点头。
The Monster’s gaze is fixed on his palms.
怪物紧紧盯着自己的手掌。
“Grief about what?” asks Elsa.
“悲伤什么？”爱莎问。
“Grief about your grandmother.”
“为你的外祖母悲伤。”
The wurse doesn’t look as if it greatly appreciates being spoken of in the third person singular. That is, if it counts as a third person; the wurse seems unsure about the grammatical rules of the case. The Monster is getting tired of all the questions.
呜嘶看上去不太喜欢被别人用第三人称说起。如果它算是第三个人的话，呜嘶似乎也不太懂这其中的语法规则。怪物已经厌倦了任何新问题。
Elsa squints at The Monster, her tone stricter and more interrogative: “When I gave you the letter you spoke our secret language! You said ‘stupid girl!’ Was it Granny who taught you our secret language?”
爱莎斜眼看了看怪物，语气更为严厉和质疑：“我把信给你时，你说了我们的秘密语言！你说‘愚蠢的女孩’！是外婆教你秘密语言的吗？”
“Just said sorry. Just sorry…” he says, disappearing even deeper into his hair and beard.
“只说了‘对不起’。只是‘对不起’…”他更深地躲进头发和胡子之后，不看爱莎。
Elsa clenches her fists.
爱莎握紧拳头。
“Was my ‘sorry.’ ”
“是给我的‘对不起’。”
The Monster doesn’t look up. Just turns around and goes back into the bathroom. More running of water. More alcogel. More rubbing. The wurse has picked up Elsa’s backpack now with its teeth and has its whole snout inserted into it. It growls with great disappointment when it finds there is a palpable absence of chocolate-related materials in it.
怪物没有抬头，只是转身，回到卫生间。更多水流。更多洗手液。更多的揉搓。呜嘶已经用牙咬起了爱莎的背包，整个鼻子都伸了进去。它失望地咆哮起来，因为发现里面并没有巧克力。
He rubs his hand harder.
他更用力地揉着手。
“What did it say?”
“信上说了什么？”
“Not matter for you,” says The Monster quietly.
“不关你的事。”怪物小声地说。
She is starting to feel very much excluded from this story, and Elsa hates feeling excluded from stories.
她开始强烈感到自己被排斥在这个故事之外，爱莎讨厌被排除在故事之外。
“She was MY granny!” Elsa insists.
“她是我的外婆！”爱莎坚持说。
“Touché,” she admits at last.
“好吧。”她终于妥协。
“Why did my granny send you a letter?”
“为什么外婆给你写了封信？”
“Why is my granny saying sorry to you?”
“为什么我外婆要跟你说对不起？”
“Old friend,” he mutters from behind his mountain of black hair.
“老朋友。”他透过密密的黑发喃喃地说。
And then The Monster looks up properly for the first time. His eyes open wide, in surprise. And Elsa stares at him, her mouth agape.
怪物第一次摆正了视线。他惊讶地睁大双眼。爱莎则目瞪口呆地盯着他。
“Not she who taught me. I… taught her,” says The Monster in a low voice, in the secret language.
“不是她教我的。我…教的她。”怪物用秘密语言低声说。
And just at that moment as she hears the police closing up the remains of the door to the wurse’s flat and walking out, while Britt-Marie protests wildly, Elsa looks directly into The Monster’s eyes.
当警察关上呜嘶的房门准备离开，而布里特—玛丽强烈抗议的声音传来的时候，爱莎直勾勾地盯着怪物的眼睛。
“You are… the Werewolf Boy.”
“你是…狼孩。”
And, a breath later, she whispers in the secret language: “You’re Wolfheart.”
然后，她吸了口气，用秘密语言低声说：“你是狼心。”
Now Elsa sounds out of breath. “You are… you are…”
现在轮到爱莎喘不上气了。“你是…你是…”
And The Monster nods sadly.
怪物悲伤地点了点头。
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