12 The Broken Window

The Broken Window Ebenezer slammed the book shut. When he opened it again, the beast's snarl was replaced with another "happy" image of Ebenezer and the beast hosting a well-mannered Peruvian

破窗埃比尼泽砰地一声把书合上。 当他再次打开它时，野兽的咆哮被另一个“快乐”的形象所取代，埃比尼泽和野兽招待一个彬彬有礼的秘鲁人

bear in the attic. In the memory, Ebenezer and the bear were conducting a heated debate on the topic of winter footwear whilst the beast was keeping the party going by vomiting out party games aplenty. Ebenezer closed and opened the book again and again, but the snarl never returned to the pages. There was nothing but the supposedly "happy" times that Ebenezer had spent with the beast, and he began to wonder whether there had ever been a snarl there at all. As Ebenezer looked closer at the portraits, he noticed that all the memories were incomplete. For instance, the portraits didn't show how the beast had fireballed the Frost Fair when it had gotten jealous of Ebenezer talking with other people, and the portraits

熊在阁楼上。在记忆中，埃比尼泽和熊就冬季鞋类的话题进行了激烈的辩论，而这头野兽则通过呕吐出大量的派对游戏来维持派对的进行。 埃比尼泽一次又一次地把书合上，打开，但那咆哮再也没有回到书页上。 除了埃比尼泽和野兽一起度过的所谓的“快乐”时光之外，什么也没有，他开始怀疑那里是否曾经有过咆哮。 当埃比尼泽仔细观察这些肖像时，他注意到所有的记忆都是不完整的。 比如，这些画像并没有展示野兽是如何因为埃比尼泽和别人说话而嫉妒，而把冰霜集市烧成火球的

revealed absolutely nothing about what had happened to the poor bear after they finished that last game of Twister. This was most unlike the memory book. Whenever it had previously shown Ebenezer images of the person he missed most in the world, the memories were always bad ones. When Ebenezer had used it to look up Nicholas Nickle (the First), he saw all the times the Nickles had bullied him, and when he'd used it for the late Lord Tibbles, the book showed him the cat scratching the sofa or bringing half-dead birds into the house. At the time, it felt like the beast had vomited out the book just to show Ebenezer that he was better off without other people in his life. But now he wasn't sure, because the

丝毫没有透露出在他们玩完最后一个扭扭游戏后可怜的熊身上发生了什么。 这和记忆本很不一样。 每当它以前向埃比尼泽展示他在这个世界上最想念的人的图像时，他的记忆总是不好的。 当埃比尼泽用它来查找尼古拉斯·尼克尔（尼古拉斯·尼克尔一世）时，他看到了尼克尔一家欺负他的所有时间，当他用它来查找已故的蒂布尔斯勋爵时，这本书给他展示了猫抓沙发或把半死不活的鸟带进房子的画面。 当时，感觉就像那只野兽把书吐出来，只是为了告诉埃比尼泽，他的生活中没有别人会更好。 但现在他不确定了，因为

book was rewriting the beast as a charming, generous, and rather gorgeous creature. "Where are the rest of the memories?" said Ebenezer. "The real ones." In response, the book showed him another pleasing memory involving a hook-handed penguin, a tap-dancing giraffe, and an oddly nimble statue of Winston Churchill. Ebenezer threw the book across the room. The book flew back across the room and struck him on the head. "OWW!" said Ebenezer. The book bounced onto the floor. Ebenezer swore he saw another image of the beast snarling, but when he looked again, there was just another "happy" beastly memory. Ebenezer chased after the book and flicked through it.

这本书把这只野兽重写成了一个迷人的、慷慨的、相当华丽的生物。 “剩下的记忆在哪里？”埃比尼泽说。 “真的。”作为回应，这本书向他展示了另一段令人愉快的记忆，包括一只手握钩子的企鹅，一只跳踢脚舞的长颈鹿，以及一尊敏捷得出奇的温斯顿·丘吉尔雕像。 埃比尼泽把书扔到房间的另一边。 那本书飞回房间，砸在他的头上。 “哇！”埃比尼泽说。书弹到了地板上。 埃比尼泽发誓他看到了另一个野兽咆哮的形象，但当他再看一遍时，只有另一个“快乐”的野兽记忆。 埃比尼泽追着书飞快地翻了一遍。

Whilst he was flicking, the front door opened. He yelped and quickly threw the book under the chair. He straightened his outfit and stood, trying to look as normal as possible. Bethany burst in, carrying Quantum Mechanics for Morons under her arm. She searched the room before settling her eyes on Ebenezer. "Claudette?" she said. "Ebenezer, actually," he replied nonchalantly. He fervently hoped that the memory book wasn't peeking out from under the sofa. "You won't find a parrot wearing this sort of cravat." "Don't be a twit," said Bethany. "We need to find her. She flew away from me, and I can't find her anywhere. I've been looking for flipping ages."

正当他弹的时候，前门开了。 他大叫一声，迅速把书扔到椅子底下。 他整理了一下衣服，站了起来，尽量让自己看起来像个正常人。 宝芬妮夹着《傻瓜量子力学》冲了进来。 她在房间里找了一遍，才把目光落在埃比尼泽身上。 “克劳德特？”她说。“实际上是埃比尼泽，”他若无其事地回答。 他热切地希望那本记忆书没有从沙发底下偷看出来。 “你不会发现一只鹦鹉戴着这种领带。” “别傻了，”宝芬妮说。 “我们需要找到她。她从我身边飞走了，我到处都找不到她。 我一直在寻找。”

"Maybe you should just take the hint. Sounds like she's wanting a little Claudette time," said Ebenezer. Bethany walked over and kicked Ebenezer in the shins repeatedly. The kicking was only stopped when they were interrupted by a scream and an almighty smashing of glass, which came from the front room. They both ran to see what was happening and found Claudette lying facedown in a pool of window shards, with a small plastic bag lying next to her.

“也许你应该接受这个暗示。 听起来她想要一点克劳德特的时间，”埃比尼泽说。 宝芬妮走过去，不停地踢埃比尼泽的小腿。 他们的踢腿停止了，直到前厅传来一声尖叫和一阵猛烈的玻璃砸碎声。 他们俩都跑过去看发生了什么事，发现克劳德特脸朝下躺在一滩窗户碎片里，旁边放着一个小塑料袋。