The other mother was waiting for her, standing on the grass with her arms folded. Her black-button eyes were expressionless, but her lips were pressed tightly together in a cold fury.
另一个妈妈等着她，站在草地上，抱着胳膊。黑纽扣眼睛里没有表情，嘴唇却冷冰冰地紧紧闭着。她在发火。
When she saw Coraline she reached out one long white hand, and she crooked a finger. Coraline walked towards her. The other mother said nothing.
看见卡萝兰以后，她伸出一只又长又白的手，钩起一根手指头。卡萝兰朝她走去。另一个妈妈什么都没说。
“Well, I just thought you’d want to know,” said Coraline.
“嗯，我以为你想知道。”卡萝兰说。
Outside, the world had become a formless, swirling mist with no shapes or shadows behind it, while the house itself seemed to have twisted and stretched. It appeared to Coraline that it was crouching and staring down at her, as if it were not really a house but only the idea of a house — and the person who had had the idea, she was certain, was not a good person. There was sticky web-stuff clinging to her arm, and she wiped it off as best she could. The grey windows of the house slanted at strange angles.
外面，世界成了一片没有形状的迷雾。雾里什么都没有，没有东西，连影子都没有。回头一看，连宅子本身都拧歪了，拉长了。卡萝兰觉得，这幢宅子好像低低蹲伏下来，瞪着她。宅子已经不是宅子了，只是宅子的概念。卡萝兰看得出来，脑袋里装着这么吓人的概念的人，准不是个好人。一扇扇灰色窗户斜着，角度很怪。她的胳膊上还沾着蜘蛛网似的东西，她尽量擦擦干净。
“I’ve found two,” said Coraline. “One soul still to go.”
“我找到两个，”卡萝兰说，“只剩下一个灵魂了。”
The expression on the other mother’s face did not change. She might not have heard what Coraline said.
另一个妈妈脸上的表情没有一点变化，好像压根儿没听见她的话似的。
“Thank you, Coraline,” said the other mother coldly, and her voice did not just come from her mouth. It came from the mist, and the fog, and the house, and the sky. She said, “You know that I love you.”
“谢谢你，卡萝兰。”另一个妈妈冷冷地说。声音不是从她嘴里发出的，声音来自那片雾，来自那幢宅子，来自天空。她说，“你知道，我是很爱你的。”
And, despite herself, Coraline nodded. It was true: the other mother loved her. But she loved Coraline as a miser loves money, or a dragon loves its gold. In the other mother’s button eyes, Coraline knew that she was a possession, nothing more. A tolerated pet, whose behaviour was no longer amusing.
卡萝兰虽然不情愿，还是点了点头。这是真的：另一个妈妈确实爱她。可那种爱不是妈妈对女儿的爱。是守财奴爱钱那种爱，或者龙爱金子那种爱。看着那双纽扣眼睛，卡萝兰知道，另一个妈妈只把她当成自个儿的一件东西。一只宠物。但现在，这只宠物有点不招人喜欢了。
“I don’t want your love,” said Coraline. “I don’t want anything from you.”
“我不想要你的爱。”卡萝兰说，“你的什么东西我都不想要。”
“I’m doing fine on my own,” said Coraline.
“我自己做得挺好。”卡萝兰说。
“Not even a helping hand?” asked the other mother. “You have been doing so well, after all. I thought you might want a little hint, to help you with the rest of your treasure hunt.”
“连找我帮你一把都不想？”另一个妈妈问，“不过，你干得挺不坏。我还以为你会找我要点提示，在下面的探险里帮你一把呢。”
“Oh.” Coraline pondered this for a moment. Then she said, “Is there a key?”
“哦。”卡萝兰想了想，说，“有钥匙吗？”
“Yes,” said the other mother. “But if you wanted to get into the flat in the front — the empty one — to look around, you would find the door locked, and then where would you be?”
“对。”另一个妈妈说，“可是，如果你想进前面那个套间找东西，就是那套空房间。你会发现门锁着。你该怎么办？”
The other mother reached up her hand and removed a small, brass, front-door key from her tongue.
另一个妈妈伸出手，从舌头上取下一枚很小的铜钥匙。
“Here,” she said. “You’ll need this to get in.”
“这儿，”她说，“有这把钥匙才进得去。”
A chill wind blew about them, and Coraline shivered and looked away. When she looked back she was alone.
身边刮起一阵寒风。卡萝兰打了个哆嗦，转过脸去避风。脸再转过来时，这里只剩下她一个人。
She tossed the key, casually, towards Coraline, who caught it, one-handed, before she could think about whether she wanted it or not. The key was still slightly damp.
她随随便便把钥匙朝卡萝兰一抛。卡萝兰手一伸，单手接住，连想想自己究竟愿不愿要这把钥匙都没来得及。钥匙还有点湿嗒嗒的。
Uncertainly, she walked round to the front of the house and stood in front of the door to the empty flat. Like all the doors, it was painted bright green.
她犹豫地走到屋前，站在空房子的门前。像所有的门一样，它被漆成了鲜绿色。
The other mother stood there in the paper-grey fog of the flattening world. Her black hair drifted about her head, as if it had a mind and a purpose all of its own. She coughed, suddenly, in the back of her throat, and then she opened her mouth.
在这个变扁了的世界里，另一个妈妈站在一片灰白色的大雾中。她脑后的黑头发摆来摆去，好像有自己的想法、自己的打算似的。忽然，她喉咙里咳了一声，张开嘴。
“She does not mean you well,” whispered a ghost-voice in her ear. “We do not believe that she would help you. It must be a trick.”
“此事绝非善意。”一个幽灵的声音在她耳边说，“我们不相信她会帮助你。这一定是个骗局。”
Coraline said, “Yes, you’re right, I expect.” Then she put the key in the lock, and turned it. Silently the door swung open, and silently Coraline walked inside.
卡萝兰说：“你说得对，我也是这么想的。”说完，她把钥匙插进锁里，一转。门悄没声儿地开了，卡萝兰悄没声儿地走进去。
There was no furniture in there, only places where furniture had once been. Nothing decorated the walls; there were discoloured rectangles on the walls to show where paintings or photographs had once hung. It was so silent that Coraline imagined that she could hear the motes of dust drifting through the air.
没有家具，只有从前家具留下的印子。墙上也没有装饰，只有一块块长方形的印迹，说明以前挂过画或者照片。房间里安静极了，卡萝兰觉得自己能听到灰尘在空中飘动的声音。
The flat had walls the colour of old milk. The wooden boards of the floor were uncarpeted and dusty with the marks and patterns of old carpets and rugs on them.
房间墙壁的颜色像放馊了的牛奶，木头地板上没铺地毯，净是灰。地板上还留着几块印子，说明以前铺过地毯。
She found herself to be quite worried that something would jump out at her, so she began to whistle. She thought it might make it harder for things to jump out at her, if she was whistling.
她很怕会有吓人的东西从什么地方跳出来，扑向她。卡萝兰开始吹口哨。她觉得，只要自己在吹口哨，想跳出来的东西就会被吓回去。
First she walked through the empty kitchen. Then she walked through an empty bathroom, containing only a cast-iron bath, and, in the bath, a dead spider the size of a small cat. The last room she looked at had, she supposed, once been a bedroom; she could imagine that the rectangular dust-shadow on the floorboards had once been a bed. Then she saw something, and smiled, grimly. Set into the floorboards was a large metal ring. Coraline knelt and took the cold ring in her hands, and she tugged upward, as hard as she could.
她先是穿过空荡荡的厨房，然后走进空空的浴室，里面只有一个铸铁浴缸，浴缸里还有一只小猫那么大的死蜘蛛。她搜查的最后一个房间过去是卧室。这是她猜的，觉得地板上那一大片长方形从前肯定是一张床。最后，她发现了一件东西，笑了。地板上嵌着一个大铁环。卡萝兰跪下来，双手抓住铁环，使出吃奶的力气向上拉。
Terribly slowly, stiffly, heavily, a hinged square of floor lifted: it was a trapdoor. It lifted, and through the opening Coraline could see only darkness. She reached down, and her hand found a cold switch. She flicked it without much hope that it would work, but somewhere below her a bulb lit, and a thin yellow light came up from the hole in the floor. She could see steps, heading down, but nothing else.
一块沉甸甸的翻板慢慢抬起来，慢得让人恼火。这是个暗门。从打开的暗门望下去，下面黑洞洞的，什么都看不见。她伸手下去，摸到一个凉凉的开关。她轻轻一拨开关，心里并没有抱什么希望。可出乎她的意料，下面亮起一盏灯，洞口射出微弱的黄色灯光。她看见了一段向下的梯子，但除了梯子以外，其他还是什么都看不见。
Up through the hole in the floor came the smell of damp clay, and something else, an acrid tang like sour vinegar.
洞里一股湿泥巴味儿。还有点别的，酸酸的，像放坏的醋。
Coraline put her hand into her pocket and took out the stone with the hole in it. She looked through it at the cellar but saw nothing. She put the stone back into her pocket.
卡萝兰掏出那块带洞眼的石块，透过洞眼向下看。没什么发现。她把石头放回衣兜。
Coraline let herself down into the hole, looking nervously at the trapdoor. It was so heavy that if it fell she was sure she would be trapped down in the darkness for ever. She put up a hand and touched it, but it stayed in position. And then she turned towards the darkness below, and she walked down the steps. Set into the wall at the bottom of the steps was another light switch, metal and rusting. She pushed it until it clicked down, and a naked bulb hanging from a wire from the low ceiling came on. It did not give out enough light even for Coraline to make out the things that had been painted on to the flaking cellar walls. The paintings seemed crude. There were eyes, she could see that, and things that might have been grapes. And other things, below them. Coraline could not be sure that they were paintings of people.
卡萝兰开始向下走，又回过头，紧张地看了看那扇暗门。它太沉了，如果扣下来，她肯定会永远关在这下头。她伸手晃了晃门，门纹风不动。卡萝兰这才转过身，一级级踏着梯子，朝黑洞洞的下面走。梯子最下面旁边的墙上还有一个开关，是金属做的，已经生锈了。她用力拨下开关。亮了。原来，低矮的天花板上有～根电线，电线下面悬着一个没有灯罩的灯泡。灯光昏暗，卡萝兰辨不清这个地窖墙壁上的画，只觉得画得很粗糙。她看得出上面画着眼睛，还有一些像葡萄的东西。葡萄下面还有其他东西。卡萝兰心想，不知这些画是不是人画的。
There was a pile of rubbish in one corner of the room: cardboard boxes filled with mildewed papers, and decaying curtains in a heap beside them.
一个角落里堆着一堆垃圾：纸板箱里装满发霉的纸，旁边是一堆腐烂的帘子。
Coraline’s slippers crunched across the cement floor. The bad smell was worse now. She was ready to turn and leave, when she saw the foot sticking out from beneath the pile of curtains.
卡萝兰的拖鞋踏拉踏拉走过水泥地板。臭味越来越浓，熏得人受不了。她正想转身离开这儿，忽然瞧见那堆帘子底下伸出一只脚。
She took a deep breath (the smells of sour wine and mouldy bread filled her head) and pulled away the damp cloth to reveal something more or less the size and shape of a person.
她深深吸了一口气（吸了一鼻子放馊的酒味儿、发霉的面包味儿），然后拉开那堆潮乎乎的布，露出下面的东西。瞧外形，看个头儿，这东西多多少少有几分像人。
In that dim light, it took her several seconds to recognise it for what it was: the thing was pale and swollen, like a grub, with thin, stick-like arms and feet. It had almost no features on its face, which had puffed and swollen like risen bread dough. The thing had two large black buttons where its eyes should have been.
灯光太暗，她过了好一阵子才认出它：这东西全身惨白，肿得不成样子，像只肉虫，只有胳膊腿干瘦干瘦的，支棱出来。脸肿得像发面，瞧不出五官。这东西没有眼睛。长眼睛的地方只有两枚又大又黑的纽扣。
Coraline stood there, frozen.
卡萝兰吓得腿都软了，跑不动，只能僵在那儿。
Coraline made a noise, a sound of revulsion and horror, and, as if it had heard her and awakened, the thing began to sit up.
卡萝兰又害怕，又恶心，不由自主惊叫一声。那东西好像被她的叫声惊醒了，竟然慢慢坐了起来。
The thing turned its head until both its black-button eyes were pointed straight at her. A mouth opened in the mouthless face, strands of pale stuff sticking to the lips, and a voice that no longer even faintly resembled her father’s whispered, “Coraline.”
那东西转动脑袋，最后，两只黑黑的纽扣眼睛正正对着卡萝兰。没有嘴的脸上张开了一张嘴，上下嘴唇还牵牵连连粘着几缕灰白色的东西。它说话了，声音很轻很轻，再也不像她的爸爸了，一点也不像。“卡萝兰。”
“Well,” said Coraline to the thing that had once been her other father, “at least you didn’t jump out at me.”
“嗯，”卡萝兰望着这个从前是她另一个爸爸的东西，“还好你没有跳出来吓唬我。”
“I’m looking for my parents,” said Coraline. “Or a stolen soul, from one of the other children. Are they down here?”
“我在找我真正的爸爸妈妈，”卡萝兰说，“还有一个小孩的灵魂。他们在这下面吗？”
“Poor thing,” she said. “I bet she made you come down here as a punishment for telling me too much.”
“真可怜，”她说，“我猜是她逼你下来的，因为你对我说了太多话，所以她要惩罚你。”
The creature’s twig-like hands moved to its face and pushed the pale clay about, making something like a nose. It said nothing.
那双像枯树枝的手伸到脸上，在那一团灰白黏土似的东西上东捏捏、西按按，总算弄出了个像鼻子的东西。
The thing hesitated, then it nodded.
那东西迟疑了一下，然后点点头。
“She’s not best pleased,” said the thing that was once the other father. “Not best pleased at all. You’ve put her quite out of sorts. And when she gets out of sorts, she takes it out on everybody else. It’s her way.”
“她不大高兴，”从前是她另一个爸爸的东西说，“一点儿也不高兴。你让她生气了。她生气的时候就会拿其他人撒气儿。她就是这种人。”
The thing was white, and huge, and swollen. Monstrous, thought Coraline, but also miserable. She raised the stone with the hole in it to her eye, and looked through it. Nothing. The pale thing was telling her the truth.
这东西一片惨白，肿得好大。大得真吓人，卡萝兰想，可是，它又挺可怜的。她举起石头，透过洞眼四下看。什么都没有。灰白色的东西说的是实话。
Coraline wondered how she could ever have imagined that this grub-like thing resembled her father.
卡萝兰心想：真奇怪，她从前怎么会觉得这个像大肉虫一样的东西像自个儿的爸爸。
“There is nothing down here,” said the pale thing, indistinctly. “Nothing but dust and damp and forgetting.”
“这下面什么都没有，”灰白色的东西声音很低，听不清，“只有灰尘、潮湿和遗忘。”
“I’m so sorry,” she said.
“我真替你难过。”她说。
The thing twisted bonelessly until its one eye was again facing her. It seemed to be getting bigger now, and more awake.
那东西脑袋一拧，像脖子上没有骨头似的，重新把它的独眼冲着她。这东西好像变得更大了，也更清醒了。
Coraline patted its hairless head. Its skin was tacky, like warm bread dough. “Poor thing,” she said. “You’re just a thing she made and then threw away.”
卡萝兰拍拍它没有头发的头。它的皮肤有点黏手，像热乎乎的发面团。“可怜，”她说，“原来你只是她造出来的一件东西，不喜欢了就扔到一边。”
“Alas,” it said. “I cannot.” And it lunged across the cellar towards her then, its toothless mouth opened wide.
“唉，”它说，“我做不到。”它向她猛扑过来，没牙的嘴张得老大。
“You can.” said Coraline. “Be brave.” She looked around: the thing that had once been the other father was between her and the steps up and out of the cellar. She started edging along the wall, heading towards the steps.
“你可以反抗的，”卡萝兰说，“勇敢点。”她四下一看：从前是她另一个爸爸的东西堵在她和梯子之间，她没办法逃出这个地窖。她开始沿着墙边，一点儿一点儿朝梯子蹭。
The thing nodded vigorously; as it nodded, the left button-eye fell off and clattered on to the concrete floor. The thing looked around vacantly with its one eye, as if it had lost her. Finally it saw her, and, as if making a great effort, it opened its mouth once more and said in a wet, urgent voice, “Run, child. Leave this place. She wants me to hurt you, to keep you here for ever, so that you can never finish the game, and she will win. She is pushing me so hard to hurt you. I cannot fight her.”
这东西用力点头，震得左边的纽扣眼睛掉了下来，在水泥地板上滚不见了。它用剩下的那只独眼努力张望，好像看不见她了似的。最后，它看见她了。它吃力地又一次张开嘴，用一种湿漉漉的声音紧张地说：“你走吧，孩子。离开这儿。她想让我害你，把你永远关在这下面。这样你就没法继续和她赌赛了，她就赢了。她逼我害你，我只能听她的。”
As the thing reached her, Coraline put out her hand and closed it around the thing’s remaining button-eye, and she tugged, as hard as she knew how.
那东西刚靠近，卡萝兰伸出手，抓住那东西剩下的惟一一只纽扣眼睛。她使出全身力气，使劲一扯。
Coraline had a single heartbeat in which to react. She could only think of two things to do. Either she could scream, and try to run away, and be chased around a badly lit cellar by the huge grub-thing — be chased until it caught her. Or she could do something else. So she did something else.
卡萝兰只有一个心跳的时间决定应该怎么做。她只想到两个办法。她可以放声尖叫，在这个昏暗的地窖里被这只大肉虫撵得团团转，最后被逮住；或者，她可以用另一个办法。她用了另一个办法。
But Coraline was not standing there any longer. She was already tiptoeing, as quietly as she could, up the steps that would take her away from the dim cellar with the crude paintings on the walls. She could not take her eyes from the floor beneath her, though, across which a pale thing flopped and writhed, hunting for her. Then, as if it was being told what to do, the creature stopped moving, and its blind head tipped to one side. It’s listening for me, thought Coraline. I must be extra quiet. She took another step up and her foot slipped on the step, and the thing heard her.
可卡萝兰已经不在那儿了。她早就踮着脚尖，溜上梯子，慢慢向上爬，准备逃出这个四壁乱涂乱画的地窖。她的眼睛死死盯着下面那个乱扑乱打的灰白色东西。就在这时，好像有谁告诉它应该怎么做，那东西不动了，脑袋也朝一边侧过来。它在听我的声音，卡萝兰想，我一定得安静。她又上了一级梯子，脚下一打滑。那东西听见她了。
For a moment nothing happened. Then the button came away and flew from her hand, clicking against the brickwork before it fell to the cellar floor.
一开始，纽扣纹风不动。接着，它被扯了下来，从她手里飞出去，撞上墙壁，再掉到地下。
The thing froze in place. It threw its pale head back blindly, and opened its mouth horribly wide, and it roared its anger and frustration. Then, all in a rush, the thing swept towards the place where Coraline had been standing.
那东西呆了一会儿，灰白色的脑袋不知所措地转来转去。它张开大嘴，气愤地一声大吼。接着，它猛地一扑，冲向卡萝兰刚刚站着的地方。
Its head tipped towards her. For a moment it swayed and seemed to be gathering its wits. Then, fast as a serpent, it slithered for the steps, and began to flow up them, towards her.
它的脑袋朝她偏过来。它的身体轻轻摇晃着，好像在盘算应该怎么做。接着，快得像一条毒蛇，它哧溜一下爬上梯子，砰砰叭叭向上爬，朝她冲。
Coraline turned and ran wildly up the last half-dozen steps, and she pushed herself up and on to the floor of the dusty bedroom. Without pausing, she pulled the heavy trapdoor towards her, and let go of it. It crashed down with a thump just as something large banged against it. The trapdoor shook and rattled in the floor, but it stayed where it was.
卡萝兰转过身，撒腿就跑，以最快速度冲上最后几级梯子。她蹦进那间满是灰尘的卧室，没有半点停顿，翻下那扇沉甸甸的暗门。砰的一声，门重重砸下去。下面一阵猛撞，撞得暗门轰轰直响，摇摇晃晃，发出嘎嘎的响声。可它到底还是没被撞开。
Coraline had half-expected that the other mother would be standing there waiting for her to come out, but the world was silent and empty.
卡萝兰还以为另一个妈妈会等在那儿，可这个世界空空荡荡，连一丝声音都没有。
Coraline wanted to go home.
卡萝兰想回家。
Coraline took a deep breath. If there had been any furniture in that flat, even a chair, she would have pulled it on to the trapdoor, but there was nothing.
卡萝兰深吸了一口气。如果那间公寓里有家具，甚至是椅子，她会把它拉到活板门上，但什么也没有。
She walked out of that flat as fast as she could, without actually ever running, and she locked the front door behind her. She left the door-key under the mat. Then she walked down on to the drive.
她没有跑，但以最快速度走出这个套间，在身后锁上门。她把钥匙放在门垫下，走到外面的车道上。
She hugged herself, and told herself that she was brave, and she almost believed herself, and then she walked around to the side of the house, in the grey mist that wasn’t a mist, and she made for the stairs, to go up.
她紧紧抱着胳膊，不断提醒自己：她很勇敢。最后，她几乎相信自己的话了，这才走在不是雾气的雾气中，绕过宅子，走向楼梯，向上爬。
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