14 The De-Jumbling

The De-Jumbling Ebenezer calmed Eduardo down by giving him the money to get a new fancy shirt that wouldn't prove anywhere near as tricky or murderous. His efforts to calm himself down, however, weren't quite as successful. Ebenezer clutched the shirt, and the shirt clutched at him—as if thrilled to be reunited. He stumbled back into the fifteen-story house and found Bethany in the grand sitting room, busily folding napkins into sat-on seagulls. "Bethany, I—" began Ebenezer.

清理混乱的埃比尼泽让爱德华多平静下来，给他钱去买一件新的漂亮的衬衫，这件衬衫不会被证明是那么狡猾或凶残。 然而，他试图让自己平静下来的努力并没有那么成功。 埃比尼泽紧紧抓住衬衫，衬衫也紧紧抓住他——似乎为重逢而激动不已。 他踉踉跄跄地回到那幢十五层楼的房子里，发现宝芬妮在大客厅里，正忙着把餐巾叠成坐着的海鸥。 “伯大尼，我——”埃比尼泽开始说。

"Thought I told you to bog off," said Bethany. "I'm too busy to chitchat." "Yes, I know. It's something important, though." "More important than getting the rest of the neighborhood to trust me?" "Well, I think it might be. Please, just give me a minute." Bethany stopped seagulling and looked at him. She tapped her foot impatiently to make it clear that Ebenezer better be saying something good. "Well, you see—it's about this shirt…," began Ebenezer. He didn't have time to finish his thought because Bethany picked up one of the forks and threw it at him. "A shirt?! You wanna stop me from preparing the most important party that's ever

“我不是叫你滚开吗？”宝芬妮说。 “我太忙了，没时间聊天。” “是的，我知道。但这很重要。” “比让其他邻居信任我更重要吗？”“嗯，我想可能是吧。 请给我一分钟。” 宝芬妮停止了咆哮，看着他。 她不耐烦地敲着脚，想让埃比尼泽说点好话。 “嗯，你看——是关于这件衬衫的……”埃比尼泽开始说。 他还没来得及说完他的想法，贝瑟妮就拿起一把叉子朝他扔去。 “一件衬衫? !你想阻止我准备史上最重要的派对

been held anywhere to ask me about an outfit?" she said, angrily throwing another fork. "Get out of here, you selfish git!" "It's not just the shirt," said Ebenezer as another fork sailed above his head. "It's also about all those things that came back from the beastly sale, and there's this book I've found that—" "Now is NOT the time!" said Bethany. "We can chat about how strange the world is aer my party. If you don't leave right now, then I'm gonna have to start throwing the knives." Ebenezer yelped, dropped the gold- buttoned shirt, and ran back out of the house. He jumped into his car and started driving to the retirement home—not knowing what else to do.

被关在什么地方问我一件衣服的事？”她说，愤怒地又扔了一把叉子。 “滚出去，你这个自私的家伙！”“不只是衬衫的问题，”埃比尼泽说，另一只叉子从他头顶飞过。 “这也是关于所有那些从该死的拍卖中回来的东西，还有一本书我找到了——”“现在不是时候！”宝芬妮说。 “我们可以在我的派对上谈论这个世界有多奇怪。 如果你不马上离开，那我就要开始扔刀了。” 埃比尼泽大叫一声，扔下金纽扣衬衫，跑出了房子。 他跳进车里，开始向养老院开去——他不知道还能做些什么。

As he drove, he saw that Claudette had plastered posters across the whole neighborhood. There wasn't a street corner, bus stop, mailbox, or public lavatory that didn't have Claudette beaming beakily from it. Ebenezer was so distracted that he took his eyes off the road and almost ran over the kindly old lady again. The lady didn't make a fuss, but a fellow pedestrian shook his fists angrily. "Open your eyes, you hooligan!" said the pedestrian. As Ebenezer drove on, he wondered whether he should follow the man's advice—and not just in regard to his driving. If Bethany wasn't going to talk to him until after the party, then maybe he needed to open his

开车的时候，他看到克劳德特在整个街区贴满了海报。 每个街角、公交车站、信箱、公共厕所都有克劳德特灿烂的笑容。 埃比尼泽心烦意乱，把目光从路上移开，几乎又一次碾过了这位慈祥的老太太。 这位女士并没有大惊小怪，但另一位行人却愤怒地挥舞着拳头。 “睁开眼睛，你这个流氓！”行人说。 当埃比尼泽继续开车时，他不知道自己是否应该听从那个人的建议——不仅仅是在驾驶方面。 如果宝芬妮要在派对结束后才会跟他说话，那也许他需要打开他的

eyes and have a proper think about all the peculiar things that were going on. The shirt, the book, the returned items—they had all been vomited out by the beast, and they were all behaving strangely. This seemed significant to Ebenezer, and he wondered whether the things might be playing up because of the death of their creator. It was a fine enough theory, but it didn't explain how the items were still able to move about the place. Moreover, it offered absolutely no insight into why the shirt had tried to stop him from doing do-gooding. Ebenezer honked his horn, thoroughly frustrated by his own confusion. He glanced out the window and saw that he was already outside the retirement home, and that his

眼睛和有一个适当的思考所有奇怪的事情正在发生。 衬衫，书，退回来的东西——它们都被野兽吐了出来，它们的行为都很奇怪。 这对埃比尼泽来说似乎很重要，他想知道，这些东西之所以会被放大，是不是因为它们的创造者去世了。 这是一个很好的理论，但它并没有解释这些东西是如何在这个地方移动的。 此外，它也完全无法解释为什么这件衬衫试图阻止他做善事。 埃比尼泽按了按喇叭，对自己的困惑感到十分沮丧。 他瞥了一眼窗外，发现自己已经在养老院外面了，那是他的

frustrated honk had caused Nurse Mindy to emerge from the building. "Thank goodness you're here. Mr. Clinke has been asking after you all day," said Mindy. "He's proving to be one of the trickiest residents we've ever had." Mindy explained that the old man was not taking to the slow-paced atmosphere of a retirement home existence. He kept breaking out of the place, and whenever he was in his room, he wouldn't stop mumbling about how Dorris should have let him stay in a hotel instead. "We've tried putting dead bolts on his doors and sealing his windows, but he still keeps getting out," said Mindy. "Could you have a word with him and see if you can calm him down?"

沮丧的喇叭声使明迪护士从大楼里走了出来。 “谢天谢地，你来了。 “克林克先生整天都在问候你，”明迪说。 “事实证明，他是我们见过的最棘手的住院医生之一。” 明迪解释说，老人不喜欢养老院那种慢节奏的生活。 他不断地从那里逃出来，每当他在自己的房间里，他就不停地喃喃自语道，多丽丝应该让他住在旅馆里。 明迪说：“我们试过给他的门装上死栓，把他的窗户封上，但他还是不断地跑出去。” “你能跟他说句话，看看能不能让他平静下来吗？”