23 The Soured Sweetshop

The Soured Sweetshop As Ebenezer beeped and honked the car over to the sweetshop, Bethany's conscience grew noisier and noisier. The closer they got to the party, the more she felt that she didn't have any right to be there. "When are you going to stop being annoyed with me?" asked Ebenezer. "You what?" said Bethany.

当埃比尼泽按哔哔声、按喇叭把车开到糖果店时，贝瑟妮的良心越来越不安了。 他们离派对越近，她就越觉得自己无权待在那里。 “你什么时候才能不生我的气？”埃比尼泽问道。 “你说什么？”宝芬妮说。

"About the beast," said Ebenezer. "You keep calling me Ebenezer, instead of gitface—it doesn't feel right." "I thought you hated being called gitface," said Bethany. "I did. But now that you haven't said it for a few days, I kind of miss it," said Ebenezer. "And I want to know what I can do to earn my nickname back." Bethany's noisy conscience wasn't getting any quieter with Ebenezer being nice to her. Normally, she didn't like discussing her problems, because she felt that it made them more real, but on this occasion she decided that a conversation was preferable to being left alone with her guilty thoughts. "I hate the beast," she said bluntly. "I hate it more than anyone else in the world. And I

“关于那只野兽，”埃比尼泽说。 “你一直叫我埃比尼泽，而不是giitface——感觉不对。” “我还以为你讨厌别人叫你丑脸呢，”宝芬妮说。 “我所做的。但现在你已经好几天没说了，我有点想念了。”埃比尼泽说。 “我想知道我能做些什么来赢回我的绰号。” 虽然埃比尼泽对宝芬妮很好，但她吵闹的良心并没有安静下来。 通常情况下，她不喜欢讨论自己的问题，因为她觉得这样会让问题更真实，但在这种情况下，她决定与其独自面对自己的内疚想法，还不如进行一次对话。 “我讨厌这只野兽，”她直截了当地说。 “我比世界上任何人都讨厌它。 和我

hate you and everyone else who thinks the creature who ate me alive—TWICE!—could possibly be capable of change. So right now there's no flipping way I'm going to call you gitface ever again." Ebenezer parked the car on the next street—the last free space. It seemed as if pretty much the whole neighborhood was visiting the sweetshop. He didn't say anything until they were out of the car and walking on the street. "I know I did bad by taking the beast around the neighborhood without asking you first," said Ebenezer. "And I suppose… if I think about it… I've sort of been doing double bad by taking credit for all the beast's gifts, But I was inspired to do it, because of you." "You what?" said Bethany.

我恨你和所有认为我是活生生的怪物的人——两次！-可能有能力改变。 所以从现在起，我再也不会叫你傻脸了。” 埃比尼泽把车停在了旁边的街道上——这是最后一个空车位。 似乎几乎整个社区的人都在光顾这家糖果店。 他什么也没说，直到他们下了车走在街上。 埃比尼泽说：“我知道我没有事先征得你的同意就带着那头野兽在附近转悠，这是不对的。” “我想……如果我仔细想想……我把所有野兽的天赋都揽在自己身上，这是一种双重伤害，但我之所以这么做，是因为你。” “你说什么？”宝芬妮说。

"Let's face it, Bethany. You're much better than me at do-gooding—it just seems to come easier to you," said Ebenezer. "I suppose I might have been taking some credit for the beast's work because I was jealous… because I wanted to feel what it was like to be successful at do-gooding like you." Bethany opened her mouth to tell Ebenezer that she really wasn't as good at do-gooding as he thought, but he wasn't quite finished. "Before we met, I was a selfish git who cared about nothing and no one but myself, and my pretty clothes," said Ebenezer. "While you… well, your idea of a good afternoon was to shove worms up poor Geoffrey's nostrils. But since we've teamed up to try and be better sort of people, I think we've changed. And if you can inspire me to change five

“让我们面对现实吧，宝芬妮。埃比尼泽说：“你在做好事方面比我强得多——对你来说似乎更容易。” “我想我可能因为嫉妒而把这头野兽的功劳占为己有……因为我想感受一下像你这样成功地做好事是什么感觉。” 贝瑟妮张开嘴想告诉埃比尼泽，她真的不像他想的那样擅长行善，但他还没说完。 埃比尼泽说：“在我们相遇之前，我是个自私的笨蛋，除了我自己和我漂亮的衣服，什么都不关心，谁也不关心。” “而你……嗯，你所谓的美好下午就是把虫子塞进可怜的杰弗里的鼻孔里。 但自从我们联合起来努力成为更好的人以来，我认为我们已经改变了。 如果你能激励我改变五个

centuries' worth of bad habits, then there's no reason why the beast can't change as well." "The beast will never change," said Bethany. "I think it has," said Ebenezer. "Admittedly, that's mainly due to the whole memory loss thingy, but—" "Nah. Don't say that," said Bethany. "The beast doesn't deserve a second chance." "I don't think I really deserved much of a second chance either, but your friendship gave me one," said Ebenezer. "And I know it'll take a while. But when you see all the wonderful things we can do with a good beast in the world—I think you'll change your mind." They had made it to the sweetshop. Ebenezer stepped inside, but Bethany

几个世纪以来的坏习惯，那么野兽也没有理由不能改变。” “这只野兽永远不会变，”宝芬妮说。 “我想是的，”埃比尼泽说。 “无可否认，这主要是由于记忆丧失的原因，但是——”“不。 别这么说，”宝芬妮说。 “这头野兽不应该有第二次机会。” 埃比尼泽说：“我也不认为我真的值得有第二次机会，但你的友谊给了我一次机会。” “我知道这需要一段时间。 但是，当你看到我们在这个世界上用一头好野兽可以做那么多奇妙的事情时，我想你会改变主意的。” 他们来到了糖果店。 埃比尼泽走了进去，但宝芬妮

lingered for a moment by the doors. She looked back toward the fifteen-story house, thinking about what was probably going on in there at that exact moment. It wasn't a good feeling.

在门边逗留了一会儿。 她回头望向那座十五层楼的房子，想着此时此刻里面可能正在发生什么事。 这种感觉不太好。