8 The Missing Cake

The Missing Cake The movie was a boring one, filled with various flying people who kept shouting at each other. Ebenezer was also irritated by the people in front of him who laughed loudly at every bad joke that the flying people made. He was feeling grumpy when he came back into the house, but his mood soon perked up when he noticed that there was no sign of Bethany. Clearly, she had put herself to bed.

那部电影很无聊，充满了各种各样的飞人，他们不停地互相大喊大叫。 埃比尼泽还被坐在他前面的人激怒了，他们对飞行的人开的每一个糟糕的玩笑都大声大笑。 当他回到家里时，他感到很生气，但当他注意到没有宝芬妮的迹象时，他的情绪很快就好了起来。 显然，她已经上床睡觉了。

Ebenezer's mood was further improved when he noticed that all the cake had disappeared from the kitchen. He was delighted by the thought that Bethany had eaten it all. Surely, if she had eaten two whole chocolate cakes, then she would be big enough for the beast to eat? Ebenezer couldn't contain his curiosity. He had to see Bethany and find out what she looked like. He jumped up the stairs, taking two at a time, and headed to the eighth floor—this was where the biggest bedroom in the house was, and it was almost certainly going to be the one that Bethany had chosen for herself. Ebenezer took a peek in the room and found Bethany lying like a starfish on the bed. She

当埃比尼泽注意到所有的蛋糕都从厨房里消失时，他的心情进一步好转了。 一想到伯大尼已经吃光了，他就很高兴。 当然，如果她吃了两个完整的巧克力蛋糕，那么她就足够大了，野兽可以吃掉她吗？ 埃比尼泽抑制不住自己的好奇心。 他得去看看宝芬妮，看看她长什么样。 他跳上楼梯，一次爬两层，向八楼走去——这是房子里最大的卧室，几乎可以肯定，这就是宝芬妮为自己选择的那间。 埃比尼泽朝房间里瞥了一眼，发现宝芬妮像海星一样躺在床上。 她

was snoring, and her fingers were covered in cake. Ebenezer crept into the room to take a closer look. He was disappointed by what he found. Bethany didn't look any bigger than she had been before he went to the movies. It was also very strange—there was lots of chocolate cake on her hands, but there were hardly any signs of it around her mouth. He wondered how this had happened. On the bedside table, Bethany had laid out the crumpled photograph from her box. It was a black-and-white, faded image of a man with a mustache and a woman without any mustache whatsoever. They were sat on a pebbled beach. The man was carrying a

她在打呼噜，手指上沾满了蛋糕。 埃比尼泽溜进房间仔细看了看。 他对自己的发现感到失望。 宝芬妮看起来并没有比他去看电影之前大多少。 这也很奇怪——她的手上有很多巧克力蛋糕，但她的嘴周围几乎没有任何迹象。 他不知道这是怎么发生的。 在床头柜上，宝芬妮从她的盒子里拿出那张揉皱的照片。 那是一张黑白的、褪色的照片，上面是一个留着胡子的男人和一个没有胡子的女人。 他们坐在鹅卵石铺成的海滩上。 这个人拿着一个

scowling baby in his arms, while the woman held a large newspaper in hers. Ebenezer returned the photograph to the table and crept back out of the room. His bedroom was located on the fourteenth floor, so he headed upstairs. As he was walking, he noticed that there was something strange about the pictures and antiques that lined the walls. He stopped to take a closer look at one and gasped in horror. "Oh no, no, no!" he said, as he realized why there was so much chocolate on Bethany's fingers, and yet none around her mouth. It was because Bethany hadn't eaten the second cake. She had used it to doodle over all of Ebenezer's paintings and antiques. Ebenezer ran up to the eleventh floor to see what she had done to his favorites.

他怀里抱着一个愁眉苦脸的孩子，而那个女人手里拿着一份大报纸。 埃比尼泽把照片放回桌子上，蹑手蹑脚地走出了房间。 他的卧室在14楼，所以他上楼去了。 当他走着的时候，他注意到墙上的画和古董有些奇怪。 他停下来仔细看了看其中一个，惊恐地倒吸了一口气。 “哦，不，不，不！”当他意识到为什么宝芬妮的手指上有那么多巧克力，而她的嘴巴上却没有巧克力时，他说。 那是因为宝芬妮没有吃第二个蛋糕。 她曾用它在埃比尼泽的所有画作和古董上涂鸦。 埃比尼泽跑到11楼，想看看她对他的宝贝们做了什么。

It was worse than he had expected. Bethany had smeared a pair of chocolate-icing spectacles onto the woman with the backward nose, and she had drawn ice-cream smiles onto the faces of the married couple so that they now looked quite happy to see each other. She had also given a crazy caramel-toffee-sauce hairdo to the cigarette-smoking skeleton. Ebenezer ran over to his precious picture of the golden boy. He fell to his knees. "No! What has she done to you?!" he sobbed. Bethany had turned the golden boy's hair black by smearing cake into the picture. She had also added a caramel-toffee-sauce mustache to his lips, so that he now looked ridiculous, instead of beautiful.

情况比他预料的还要糟。 贝瑟妮给那个后鼻梁的女人戴上了一副巧克力糖衣眼镜，还在这对夫妇的脸上画上了冰淇淋般的笑容，使他们现在看起来很高兴见到对方。 她还给这个抽烟的骷髅做了一个疯狂的焦糖太妃酱发型。 埃比尼泽跑到他那珍贵的金童画像前。 他跪倒在地。“不!她对你做了什么？”他抽泣着说。 宝芬妮把蛋糕涂在画上，把金童的头发染成了黑色。 她还在他的嘴唇上加上了焦糖太妃酱的胡子，所以他现在看起来很可笑，而不是漂亮。