20 Bye-Bye, Boy

20 Bye-Bye, Boy Peanut ruffled Doodle's scribbly fur. "Bye-bye, boy. I'll be back soon, I promise." The dog cocked his head to one side and watched as Peanut ran back towards the door. She grabbed the knob, pulled it open and dived through. As she landed on her bedroom carpet the door slammed shut behind her. Peanut looked back just in time to see it slowly crumble and fall from the roll of paper, leaving a small pile of grey dust on the floor. She stood up, took her dressing gown off and started to mentally prepare for the inevitable roasting from Mum, who must be back from her date by now. Peanut left her room and headed downstairs.

20 再见啦，花生男孩揉了揉嘟嘟乱蓬蓬的毛。 “再见啦，小家伙。 我保证，我很快就回来。” 狗狗歪着脑袋，看着花生朝门口跑回去。 她抓住门把手拉开门，冲了出去。 当她落在自己卧室的地毯上时，门在她身后“砰”地关上了。 花生回头看，刚好瞧见那扇门慢慢从画纸上碎裂掉落，最后变成一小堆灰落在地板上。 她站起来，脱掉睡袍，心里已经做好准备，迎接妈妈少不了的一顿骂——妈妈现在肯定约会回来了。 花生走出房间，往楼下走去。

Unsurprisingly, the lights were all still on. Peanut wondered whether the police would be there yet. Knowing her mother, they probably would. She remembered the time she and Little-Bit had arrived home after taking Giles for a walk to find six police cars parked at strange angles outside their house. They had only taken twenty minutes longer than usual (Little-Bit thought it would be a fun experiment to let the dog escape in order to find out if the microchip embedded in his neck actually worked) and Mum had filed a missing person's report. Peanut steeled herself and went into the kitchen but, to her relief, there were no police officers there. In fact, there wasn't even a mum! Just Leo, who was slowly loading the dishwasher while wearing his headphones. "Er, Leo. Why are you still up?" she asked. Leo pulled a headphone bud from his ear. Uh, "Probably because I'm not six years old. "What do you mean? What time is it?" She looked at her watch.

不出所料，所有的灯都还亮着。 花生琢磨着警察会不会已经到这儿了。 以她对妈妈的了解，警察大概率已经在了。 她想起上次，她和小不点遛完贾尔斯回家，发现家门口歪歪扭扭停了六辆警车。 她们其实只比平时晚了二十分钟而已（小不点当时觉得，把狗放跑试试他脖子里植入的芯片管不管用，会是个很有意思的实验），结果妈妈就报了失踪。 花生硬着头皮走进厨房，可让她松了一口气的是，这儿一个警察都没有。 事实上，这儿连妈妈都不在！ 只有利奥，他戴着耳机，正慢慢往洗碗机里放餐具。 “呃，利奥。 你怎么还没睡呀？”她问道。 利奥摘下一只耳机。 唔，“大概因为我不是六岁小孩了吧。 “你这话是什么意思？ 现在几点了？” 她低头看了看自己的手表。

"WHAT THE—?" she shrieked. How could she have only been gone for nine minutes? "Something wrong?" said Leo, his tired eyes flashing with anxiety. "Oh, Er, no. It's nothing. Don't worry about it," stammered Peanut. Actually, I'm really tired. I might just head up to bed. Peanut went back upstairs, brushed her teeth and put on her pyjamas. As she climbed into bed, she thought about Doodle all alone in the snow. She imagined him curled up at the base of a tree, frightened, trying to keep warm, and she felt guilty. Something had scared him Maybe she should have brought him back with her. No, that wouldn't have worked remember what happened to the door. The idea of Doodle turning into a pile of grey powder didn't bear thinking about. She grabbed her discarded dressing gown, reached into the pocket and took out the pencil. Then she picked up the wooden box from her bedside table ready to stash Little Tail safely in its hiding place, but as she opened the lid, one of the Post-it notes caught her eye. Suddenly she sat bolt upright in bed and stared at the drawing. "No way!" she gasped. "I knew he looked familiar!" On the Post-it was a picture of a dog. A scribble of fur with legs and a tail. He was standing on a snowy hillside next to a tall signpost with lots of flat, arrow-shaped arms coming off of it, all pointing in different directions. Coming out of

“搞什么——？”她尖叫道。 她竟然才离开了九分钟？这怎么可能。 “出什么事了吗？”利奥问道，疲惫的眼睛里闪过一丝焦急。 “哦，呃，没事。 没什么的。 别担心啦。”花生结结巴巴地说。 其实，我真的很累了。 我打算直接回房睡觉了。 花生回到楼上，刷了牙换上睡衣。 爬上床的时候，她满脑子都是孤零零留在雪地里的嘟嘟。 她想象着嘟嘟缩在树根旁，又害怕又想取暖，心里满是愧疚。 有什么东西吓到他了 说不定她该把嘟嘟一起带回来的。 不行，那样行不通，别忘了那扇门的下场。 一想到嘟嘟也变成一堆灰，她就不敢往下想。 她拿起刚才脱下的睡袍，伸手从口袋里掏出了那支铅笔。 接着她拿起床头柜上的木盒子，准备把小尾巴好好收进藏身处，结果刚打开盒盖，一张便利贴就吸引了她的注意。 她猛地一下坐直身子，盯着那张画。 “不可能！” 她倒吸一口凉气。 “我就说他看着好眼熟！” 便利贴上画着一只狗。 一团乱毛加上腿和尾巴，草草画成的狗。 他站在积雪的山坡上，旁边立着高高的路标，路标伸出好多平平的箭头形支臂，全都指向不同的方向。 从

the dog's mouth was a little speech bubble, inside which was written, "Hi Peanut!" "It's Doodle," she whispered. "It's definitely Doodle. And that's definitely the signpost that says "You are in The North Draw" at the top. She stood up as the enormity of what this meant began to sink in: not only must her dad have visited Chroma, but he must have met Doodle too—and maybe the Markmakers. Perhaps the answer to why he'd disappeared was in Chroma! She grabbed a strip of passport photographs of her and Dad pulling funny faces from her pinboard. It was at that moment that Peanut made the decision that would change her life forever. She spoke directly to the photographs. "Tomorrow, I'm going to go back to Chroma. I'm going to find out who these Markmakers are and I'm going to take Doodle back to them... She took a deep breath. and then I'm going to ask them if they've seen you. She kissed the picture. Don't worry, Dad. I'm coming to find you.

狗狗嘴巴那里有一个小小的对话气泡，里面写着：“嗨，花生！” “是嘟嘟呀，”她轻声说。 “肯定就是嘟嘟。 那也肯定就是那个路标，顶端写着‘你现在在北画区’。 她站起身，慢慢明白这件事意味着什么：爸爸不仅肯定去过克罗玛，他一定也见过嘟嘟——说不定还见过那些标记匠。 说不定爸爸失踪的原因，答案就在克罗玛！ 她从软木板上撕下一张她和爸爸做鬼脸的护照照片条。 就在这一刻，花生做出了那个会永远改变她人生的决定。 她对着照片开口说道。 “明天，我要回克罗玛去。 我要弄清楚这些标记匠是谁，还要把嘟嘟送回他们身边…… 她深吸一口气。 然后我要问他们有没有见过你。 她吻了吻这张照片。 别担心，爸爸。 我来找你了。