Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8 'You are joking?!' Charlie said in utter disbelief. 'It's the ONLY explanation,' Flora said, crossing her arms. It was Monday lunch break, and the first time the four had been together since the Bandit's Hill Disaster. 'You're saying I wasn't scared enough to change? You are actually completely and totally– DO YOU REALISE HOW TERRIFIED I WAS?' 'I think you enjoyed yourself too much,' Flora said thoughtfully, as much to herself as anyone else. 'You have lost it. Like actually properly lost it,' Charlie replied. 'She might have a point,' said Mohsen. 'It did look awesome wicked fun.' 'I can assure you it was NOT.'

第八章“你在开玩笑？！”查理难以置信地说。 “这是唯一的解释，”弗洛拉交叉着双臂说。 这是星期一的午休时间，也是土匪山灾难之后，这四个人第一次聚在一起。 “你是说我不够害怕，不敢改变？” 你真的是——你知道我有多害怕吗？“我觉得你玩得太尽兴了，”弗洛拉若有所思地说，既是自言自语，也是自言自语。 “你把它丢了。“好像真的丢了。”查理回答。 “她可能有道理，”莫森说。 “这看起来确实很有趣。“我可以向你保证那不是。”

'Charlie,' crazy said Wogan, placing a hand on Charlie's shoulder. 'You were whooping with delight. The whole way down.' 'That was NOT whooping! I was screaming!' protested Charlie. 'We could hear you, Charlie. Whooping.' 'Screaming!' 'Whooping.' 'I. WAS. SCREAMING. SCREAMING! I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO DIE. I WAS TERRIFIED.' 'Hmm,' said Flora. 'Oh, do not start hmming!' snapped Charlie. 'We should listen to Flora's hmms. You know that,' Mohsen said. 'Hmm,' Flora hmmed again. 'I think I might have made a mistake.' 'YES, I KNOW!' said Charlie. 'I should have thought more carefully,' continued Flora. 'You're absolutely right there,' said Charlie. 'Charlie, you had rollercoaster fear.'

“查理，”沃根说，一只手搭在查理的肩上。 你高兴得叫了起来。 一路下来。“那不是吼叫！”我在尖叫！查理抗议道。 “我们能听到你说话，查理。 高叫。“尖叫!高喊“。“我。 是什么。尖叫。尖叫!我以为我要死了。 我吓坏了。“嗯，”弗洛拉说。 “哦，别哼！”查理厉声说。 “我们应该听听弗洛拉的哼哼声。 你知道的，”莫森说。 “嗯，”弗洛拉又哼了一声。“我想我可能犯了一个错误。“是的，我知道！”查理说。 “我应该更仔细地考虑一下，”弗洛拉接着说。 “你说得对极了，”查理说。 “查理，你有过山车般的恐惧。”

'Rollercoaster fear?' Charlie replied, shaking his head. But there was something that nagged in the back of his mind. Deep down– deep, deep down– Charlie knew there had been a tiny element of excitement in his descent down Bandit's Hill. Looking back, Charlie realized that as well as ludicrously dangerous and terrifying and insane, it had been… fun. 'The first time you changed, you were worried about your brother. The second time it happened, you were in trouble at school. You were upset and

“过山车恐惧?”查理摇着头回答。 但有件事一直萦绕在他的脑海里。 在内心深处——在内心深处——查理知道他从班迪特山下来的过程中有一种小小的兴奋。 回想起来，查理意识到，这段经历不仅危险、可怕、疯狂，而且……很有趣。 “你第一次改变的时候，你很担心你哥哥。 第二次发生的时候，你在学校遇到了麻烦。 你很沮丧

anxious both times. There was nothing enjoyable about that. Worry isn't fun. And that's where the experiment went wrong.' 'And so…?' said Charlie, nervous of the reply. 'And so we need to do another experiment to test the improved theory,' said Flora, with an air of finality. 'That's how science works, Charlie.' 'OK then, smarty-pants, what's your plan this time?' Flora stroked her chin. 'I haven't quite finalized it yet. It's nearly there. But not quite. But I will definitely have a plan before you change again. One hundred per cent definite,' said Flora with an air of confidence and certainty. Behind the four friends, clearly looking very pleased at what he had just overheard, Dylan crept off silently, unnoticed.... Perhaps Charlie shouldn't have been quite so willing to believe Flora's confidence and certainty. Two days after their conversation, her plan was still yet to

两次都很焦虑。这一点也不令人愉快。 担心并不好玩。这就是实验出错的地方。“那么……”查理说，对这个回答有些紧张。 “所以我们需要做另一个实验来检验改进后的理论，”弗洛拉带着一种确定的神情说。 “科学就是这样的，查理。“好吧，自作聪明的家伙，你这次有什么计划？”弗洛拉抚摸着她的下巴。 “我还没有完全定稿。 就快到了。但也不完全如此。 但在你再次改变之前，我一定会有一个计划的。 “百分之百确定。”弗洛拉带着自信和肯定的神情说。 迪伦跟在四个朋友后面，显然对他刚刚听到的话感到非常高兴，他悄悄地溜走了，没人注意.... 也许查理不应该那么愿意相信弗洛拉的自信和肯定。 在他们谈话的两天后，她的计划还没有完成

appear, and it was the day of the dress rehearsal for the play. Ms Fyre and Mr Wind had spent many long evenings together writing their musical masterpiece, The Veg of Reason, the story of two rival gangs of vegetables, and two star-crossed vegetables from those rival gangs who fall in love and– Actually there's no need to say anything more about the plot. There's really no point in destroying your brain cells by giving you any more details. All you need to know is that Ms Fyre and Mr Wind were very proud of it and were extremely anxious that everything should go as smoothly as possible at the dress rehearsal. About twenty children were waiting backstage, all dressed in vegetable costumes and chatting and giggling excitedly. Mohsen and Flora had decided against auditioning for the play. Wogan, though, had gone along to the audition to give Charlie moral support, and had been accidentally auditioned and cast as the main star. He was dressed as a big stalk of broccoli and was sweating under the heavy costume at the thought of having to kiss Cara Cotton at the end of the play. Cara was sitting opposite him, nervously adjusting her cauliflower costume.

出现了，那天是戏剧彩排的日子。 费莱女士和风先生一起度过了许多漫长的夜晚，共同创作了他们的音乐巨作《理性的蔬菜》，讲述了两个对立的蔬菜帮派，以及来自这两个敌对帮派的两颗命运多吉的蔬菜坠入爱河的故事。 给你更多的细节来破坏你的脑细胞是没有意义的。 你只需要知道，弗尔女士和风先生对此感到非常自豪，他们非常着急，希望在彩排时一切都能尽可能顺利。 大约有20个孩子在后台等着，他们都穿着蔬菜服装，兴奋地聊天，咯咯地笑着。 莫森和弗洛拉已经决定不去试镜了。 不过，沃根去试镜是为了给查理精神上的支持，他意外地被选为主角。 他打扮成一棵大花椰菜，一想到在剧终时要亲吻卡拉·科顿，他就在厚重的戏服下汗流浃背。 卡拉坐在他对面，紧张地调整着她的花椰菜服装。

Charlie sat on the floor looking very glum. This look was perfect for his role as Sad Potato Number 1, and Mr Wind seemed very happy to see Charlie getting into his character so well. Charlie sank further into the floor when he heard Cara's cue to go on. Dylan, dressed in a bright orange costume, was also getting perfectly into his role as Happy Carrot Number 2. He sauntered up to Charlie with a huge grin stretched across his face. 'Cheer up, Charlie,' sneered Dylan. 'It's not the end of the world. It's not like you're about to change into an animal and be revealed as a freak of nature and sent to the circus. Oh, sorry! I forgot. Yes you are. That's exactly what's going to happen. Say goodbye to your life, loser.' 'Oh, get lost, Dylan. I'm really not in the mood.' Dylan gave him a smug smile in return and sauntered off. Charlie hated happy carrots.

查理坐在地板上，一副闷闷不乐的样子。 这个造型非常适合他饰演的伤心土豆一号，风先生似乎很高兴看到查理如此好地融入了他的角色。 当查理听到卡拉示意他继续的时候，他往地板里陷得更深了。 穿着亮橙色服装的迪伦也完美地融入了快乐胡萝卜2号的角色。 他慢悠悠地走向查理，脸上挂着大大的笑容。 “振作起来，查理，”迪伦嘲笑道。 这不是世界末日。 这又不是说你要变成一只动物，然后被发现是大自然的怪胎，然后被送到马戏团。 哦,对不起!我忘记了。是的，你是。 这就是将要发生的事情。 跟你的生活说再见吧，失败者。“哦，走开，迪伦。” 我真的没心情。”迪伦给了他一个得意的微笑作为回报，然后悠闲地走开了。 查理讨厌快乐胡萝卜。