Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12 Charlie looked at his friends, aghast. 'It's empty,' he said flatly. 'Empty?' asked Wogan. Charlie nodded. 'Like COMPLETELY empty?' Charlie nodded again. Wogan stormed over to the safe, and popped his head inside. 'It's empty,' he said, his head still in the safe. 'Like COMPLETELY empty?' asked Mohsen. Wogan nodded, but nobody saw because his head was still in the safe. 'Well, that's it,' said Charlie. 'I'm finished. Done for. No gold means my parents have to sell the house and we have to move into Aunt Brenda's. This is goodbye, guys.' Silence fell on the four friends like fog at night. Charlie sat on the floor, head in hands. He felt utterly defeated.

第十二章查理目瞪口呆地看着他的朋友们。 “是空的，”他平淡地说。 “空?沃根问。查理点了点头。 “完全空了吗？”查理又点了点头。 沃根冲到保险柜前，把头探了进去。 “是空的，”他说，他的头还在保险箱里。 “完全空了？”莫森问。 沃根点了点头，但没人看见，因为他的头还在保险柜里。 “好了，就是这样，”查理说。 我完成了。完蛋了。没有金子就意味着我父母得卖掉房子，我们就得搬去布兰达姨妈家。 再见了，伙计们。”寂静像夜晚的雾一样笼罩着四个朋友。 查理坐在地板上，双手托着头。 他感到彻底失败了。

'And just look at this place,' he added. 'All this mess. For nothing.' Flora, Wogan and Mohsen, looked around in silence. Charlie fell back and groaned. 'I just want to change into a slug or something and slime off under a rock and completely forget that I'm Charlie.' 'Dylan,' said Flora abruptly. The others looked at her. 'What about him?' Wogan said. 'He must know where the gold is hidden.' 'Yeah, probably,' Wogan said. 'But he'll never tell us.'

“看看这个地方，”他补充说。 “这么乱。免费。”弗洛拉、沃根和莫森默默地环顾四周。 查理倒在地上呻吟着。 “我只想变成一条鼻涕虫或者别的什么东西，然后在石头下面粘上粘液，完全忘记我是查理。”“迪伦，”弗洛拉突然说。 其他人看着她。“他怎么了？”Wogan说。 “他一定知道金子藏在哪里。“是啊，可能吧，”沃根说。 “但他永远不会告诉我们的。”

Flora thumped her palm. 'We'll make him!' 'But he's gone! He ran out of the building.' 'We can catch him! Or Charlie can at least. He just needs to change into something fast.' Charlie looked up. Despite everything, a sliver of hope gleamed in his eyes. 'I guess it might be worth a try…' 'That's the spirit! Come on!' The four friends started running, and then sprang up the half-destroyed stairs. A moment later they were standing outside the gate of Van der Gruyne Industries, scanning for Dylan. 'There!' shouted Flora. 'At the end of the street!' In the distance was a small figure– and it was unmistakably Dylan. 'Now quick, Charlie! Change!' Flora urged. 'Think of something fast! A cheetah would be perfect. When you change, keep the image of a cheetah in your mind!' His friends edged backwards, the whale incident still pretty fresh in their minds because: I. It had only happened a few minutes ago. 2. Their best friend had just turned into an enormous whale and back again, and when you see your friend turn into an actual whale and back again, it tends to stay quite fresh in your mind.

弗洛拉捶打着手掌。“我们要逼他！”“可是他已经走了！”他跑出了大楼。“我们能抓住他！”或者至少查理可以。 他只是需要尽快换件衣服。”查理抬起头来。 尽管如此，他的眼中还是闪烁着一线希望。 “我想也许值得一试……”来吧!”四个朋友开始跑，然后跳上被毁坏了一半的楼梯。 片刻之后，他们站在范德格鲁恩工业公司的大门外，寻找迪伦。 “有!弗洛拉喊道。“在街的尽头！”远处有一个小小的身影——那无疑是迪伦。 “快，查理！”改变!”植物敦促。 “快想办法！”猎豹是最好的选择。 当你换衣服的时候，记住猎豹的形象！”他的朋友们后退了一步，鲸鱼事件仍然记忆犹新，因为： 这事几分钟前才发生过。 2. 他们最好的朋友刚刚变成了一头巨大的鲸鱼，当你看到你的朋友变成了一头真正的鲸鱼，然后又变回来的时候，这一幕往往会在你的脑海中留下深刻的印象。

Charlie closed his eyes. It was easy to change this time. He just remembered how he'd felt just a few moments ago by the empty safe. The electricity tore straight through him. He could feel his body changing almost immediately. And as he changed he tried to keep a picture of a cheetah in the front of his mind. He was growing fur. That was a good sign. He felt that squeezing sensation that made him feel like he was being turned inside out. Still he pictured the cheetah sprinting majestically across the savannah. He could tell he now had four legs. Another good sign. The change was finishing. He was nearly the complete animal. He was growing claws. Fur, four long legs, claws? Had he done it? Had he finally discovered how to choose which animal to change into? Charlie started running after Dylan as fast as he could. He felt strong and powerful as he pushed his new body to unimaginable speed… 'Charlie.' As he ran, Charlie turned his head towards Flora. He didn't seem to have moved very far from his friends considering he had been running as fast as he could. In fact, he seemed to have moved less than half a metre from where he had started. 'Charlie,' repeated Flora. 'You're a sloth, Charlie.' I'm a what? Charlie's jaw dropped. Very slowly.

查理闭上了眼睛。这一次很容易改变。 他只是想起了几分钟前坐在空保险柜旁的感受。 电流直接穿过他的身体。 他几乎立刻就能感觉到自己的身体在变化。 当他换衣服的时候，他试图在脑海中保持一幅猎豹的画面。 他在长毛。这是一个好迹象。 他感到一种挤压的感觉，使他觉得自己被翻了个底朝天。 他仍然想象着猎豹在大草原上威严地奔跑。 他看得出自己现在有四条腿了。 这又是一个好迹象。变化就要结束了。 他几乎是一只完整的动物。 他长出了爪子。皮毛，四条长腿，爪子？ 是他干的吗？他终于发现了如何选择要变成哪种动物吗？ 查理开始尽可能快地追迪伦。 当他把自己的新身体推向难以想象的速度时，他感到自己强壮有力……“查理。”查理一边跑一边把头转向弗洛拉。 他似乎并没有离开他的朋友们太远，因为他已经尽可能快地跑了。 事实上，他似乎离他出发的地方还不到半米远。 “查理，”弗洛拉重复道。 “你是个树懒，查理。”我是什么？ 查理的下巴掉了下来。非常缓慢。

A sloth? Of all the bloomin' useless animals to turn into now, Charlie thought slowly. Well, never mind– this sloth is going to have to run faster than any sloth has ever run before if Dylan isn't going to get away! Charlie picked up his speed, his legs pumping as hard as possible, wind whistling in his fur, the world a blur. 'Oh dear,' Flora said as she walked slowly to stand by Charlie's side. 'A sloth!' Charlie felt slightly miffed that despite his furious pace, Flora seemed able to match his speed by plodding slowly next to him. 'Oh, Charlie, a sloth!' Flora said, a tinkle of laughter in her voice. What's so funny about that? thought Charlie. 'Yeah, hurry up, Charlie!' said Mohsen. 'If you keep up that pace, we should be able to catch Dylan some time next month!' Wogan, Flora and Mohsen all burst out laughing. Charlie finally stopped running and noticed to his surprise that this hardly changed his rate of forward momentum at all. He turned his head, very slowly, to give his friends a look of disgust. How could they laugh at a time like this, when Dylan was getting away? But this only seemed to make his friends laugh even more.

懒惰吗?查理慢条斯理地想，现在该变成那么多没用的动物了。 好吧，没关系——如果迪伦跑不掉，这只树懒就得跑得比以前任何树懒都快！查理加快了速度，他的腿使劲地蹬着，风在他的皮毛上呼啸，世界变得模糊起来。 “哦，天哪，”弗洛拉边说边慢慢地走到查理身边。 “一个懒惰!”查理觉得有点恼火，因为尽管他的速度非常快，但弗洛拉似乎也能跟上他的速度，在他旁边慢慢地走着。 “哦，查理，一只树懒！”弗洛拉说，声音里带着叮当的笑声。 这有什么好笑的？ 认为查理。“是啊，快点，查理！”莫森说。 “如果你保持这样的速度，我们应该能在下个月的某个时候赶上迪伦！”沃根、弗洛拉和莫森都大笑起来。 查理终于停止了奔跑，他惊讶地发现，这丝毫没有改变他前进的速度。 他慢慢地转过头，厌恶地看了他的朋友们一眼。 在迪伦离开的时候，他们怎么能笑得出来？ 但这似乎只会让他的朋友们笑得更厉害。