33 The Bethany File

The Bethany File Three months later, Geoffrey was preparing for his first date-not-a-date-type thing with Bethany. He was wearing his best and only suit again—even though it was smaller on him now, owing to a misunderstanding with the washing machine—and clutching a bouquet of the wiggliest worms that he could find in the orphanage's barren gardens.

三个月后，杰弗里开始准备和宝芬妮的第一次非约会式约会。 他又穿上了他最好的也是唯一的一套衣服——尽管由于洗衣机的误会，他身上的衣服现在小了一些——手里抓着一束他能在孤儿院贫瘠的花园里找到的最会扭动的虫子。

"Stop sweating," said Timothy Skittle crossly. "You're going to get water marks all over my paperwork." "Oh, ah, sorry," said Geoffrey. He used the worms to wipe his forehead. "It's just, ah, well, I'm not sure how these date-not-a-date things are supposed to work." "I wasn't asking for your life story," said Timothy. "Stop fretting and start filing." Geoffrey had spent the day trying to distract himself from his pre-date-not-a-date nerves by being as helpful as possible around the orphanage. He had already vacuumed the loos, reorganized the spatulas, fed the stray rats, alphabetized the toothbrushes, and sung Amy Clue and her teddy bear, Miss Lillipie, a moving lullaby—and now, in desperation, he was helping Timothy with his paperwork.

“别流汗了，”蒂莫西·斯基特生气地说。 “你会在我的文件上弄得到处都是水印的。” “哦，啊，对不起，”杰弗里说。 他用虫子擦了擦额头。 “只是，嗯，我不确定这种不约会的约会是怎么回事。” “我没问你的人生故事，”蒂莫西说。 “别着急，开始归档吧。” 杰弗里花了一整天的时间，尽可能地在孤儿院帮忙，试图转移自己的注意力，让自己从“约会前而非约会前”的紧张情绪中解脱出来。 他已经用吸尘器打扫了厕所，整理了锅铲，喂了流浪老鼠，给牙刷按字母顺序排序，给艾米·Clue和她的泰迪熊利力比小姐唱了一首动人的摇篮曲——现在，他绝望地帮蒂莫西处理文书工作。

"I can't believe that beast refused to vomit me out a file sorter," grumbled Timothy. "Everyone else in the neighborhood said it was such a friendly creature, but by the time I got to the fifteen-story house, it was rude, slithery, and horrid." "Oh, ah, it'll be back to being really nice soon. Well, soonish. Bethany and Mr. Tweezer are trying to help the beast become something rather brilliant," said Geoffrey. "Fat lot of good that does me," said Timothy. He let out a self-pitying whimper as he looked at Geoffrey's handiwork. "Please be more careful with those papers, Geoffrey—look, you've put half of them in that file the wrong way round! There's no point in you being here if I'm going to have to redo all your work."

“我真不敢相信那畜生竟然不肯把我从档案分类器里吐出来，”蒂莫西嘟囔着。 “附近的每个人都说它很友好，但当我到达那幢十五层楼的房子时，它变得粗鲁、狡猾、可怕。” “哦，啊，很快就会恢复原样的。 嗯,臆测。宝芬妮和崔泽先生正试图帮助这只野兽变得相当聪明，”杰弗里说。 “这对我有很大的好处，”蒂莫西说。 他看着杰弗里的作品，发出一声自怜的呜咽。 “请更加小心那些文件，杰弗里——瞧，你把一半的文件放反了！”如果我不得不重做你所有的工作，你在这里也没有意义。”

"No, no—please let me help!" said Geoffrey. He looked up at the clock above Timothy's desk and saw that he had at least another two hours before he was due to meet Bethany—another two hours that he'd spend fretting and sweating, if he didn't have something else to distract him. "I promise I'll do better." "Fine," said Timothy. He lifted a wobbling pile of files and plopped them in front of Geoffrey. "You can get to work on those. If there are any sheets that Miss Fizzlewick didn't sign, hand them over to me." For the first ten files or so, the distraction sort of worked. But then Geoffrey's doubts and anxieties started creeping in. Geoffrey was a boy who spent his life in a perpetual state of nervousness, but this

“不，不，请让我帮忙！”杰弗里说。 他抬头看了看蒂莫西桌子上的时钟，发现离他和宝芬妮的会面至少还有两个小时——如果没有别的事情分散他的注意力，他会在这两个小时里焦虑不安、汗流浃背。 “我保证我会做得更好。” “很好，”蒂莫西说。他举起一堆摇摇晃晃的文件，扑通一声放在杰弗里面前。 “你可以着手解决这些问题。 如果还有费兹乐维克小姐没有签名的单子，把它们交给我。” 对于前10个左右的文件，分散注意力是有效的。 但杰弗里的疑虑和焦虑开始悄然袭来。 杰弗里是一个一生都在紧张中度过的男孩，但这

evening he was even more nervous than usual. There seemed to be so very many things that could go wrong. Bethany might call to cancel before the date-not-a-date even began. When they got there, the film could be sold out, or the popcorn could be poisoned, or the cinema ushers might be pompous and cruel. Maybe the film itself would be awful—a total betrayal of everything that the Sergeant Tortoise comics were about—or, even worse, he and Bethany might have a disagreement about it. And maybe the disagreement would cause their whole friendship to crumble. Not only would Bethany refuse to go on another date-not-a-date thing, but she might even refuse to see him ever— "You've got worms all over that file!" said Timothy. "I can't file worms, Geoffrey!"

晚上他比平时更紧张。 似乎有太多的事情可能出错。 宝芬妮可能还没开始就打电话取消约会。 当他们到达那里时，电影可能已经售罄，或者爆米花可能是有毒的，或者电影院的引座员可能是浮夸和残酷的。 也许电影本身会很糟糕——完全背叛了龟警长漫画的一切——或者，更糟糕的是，他和宝芬妮可能会对此产生分歧。 也许这种分歧会导致他们的友谊破裂。 伯大尼不仅会拒绝再去约会，甚至可能永远都不愿见他——“你的档案里满是虫子！”蒂莫西说。 “我不会锉虫，杰弗里！”

"Oh, ah—sorry, I used the wrong hand," said Geoffrey. He apologized to each of the worms before scooping them back into his bouquet. "Won't happen again, I promise." Geoffrey moved on to the next file. He was almost certain that, in spite of his promise, his mind would drift back to the date-not-a-date. But the file captured his attention, because it happened to be the one that belonged to Bethany. Geoffrey felt almost guilty looking through it, like he was rummaging through someone's diary. He was just about to move the file onto Timothy's side when something caught his eye. Several pictures of the mustachioed man, the mustacheless woman, and the scowling baby Bethany came tumbling out. The

“哦，啊——对不起，我用错手了，”杰弗里说。 他向每只虫子道歉，然后把它们舀回花束里。 “不会再发生了，我保证。” 杰弗里继续看下一个文件。 他几乎可以肯定，尽管他许下了诺言，他的思绪还是会飘回到那个不是约会的约会。 但这份文件引起了他的注意，因为它恰好是宝芬妮的。 杰弗里翻看它时几乎感到内疚，就像翻找别人的日记一样。 他正要把文件移到蒂莫西那边时，有东西吸引了他的目光。 几张有胡子的男人、没有胡子的女人和愁眉苦脸的婴儿贝瑟尼的照片滚了出来。 的