当然，他是对的。我听从了他的建议，但现在请注意，从那以后，在我看来，我一直回避那些可能被认为与众不同的人和事。那么，当我面临有一匹小马在我的公寓里出没的危机时，我该怎么办呢?我需要建议，但我只认识普通人。我告诉了一两个人，他们说：别这样，伙计——别开我们的玩笑了。在接下来的几天里，他们一直躲着我。
I told Mr Ducksbury, my sales manager. He reacted the same, then started showing me new photos of his grandchildren.
我告诉了我的销售经理达克斯伯里先生。他也有同样的反应，然后开始给我看他孙子的新照片。
“No. No. Really. I'm serious,” I said.
“Oh, yeah. A small horse? There's no such thing.”
“But there is - I've seen one.”
“Then why's no one else ever seen one? What makes you so special?”
“没有。不。真的。我是认真的，”我说。
“哦,是的。一匹小马?没有这样的事情。”
“可是有——我见过一个。”
“那为什么其他人都没见过呢?”是什么让你如此特别?”
There was a young man who'd worked part-time in the packing department for a bit（片段）. I'd avoided talking to him at the time, even when I needed to check on a stock-level, because someone had said he was a painter - oils and all that（等等，诸如此类）. I looked up his address in the files. I went there that very day.
有个年轻人在包装部做过一段时间的兼职。当时我一直避免和他说话，即使是在我需要检查库存量的时候，因为有人说他是个画家——油画之类的。我在档案里查到了他的地址。我那天就去了。
“Excuse me.”
“Yes.”
“You may remember me from Hollis's. Can I come in for a moment?”
He let me in.
“对不起。”
“是的。”
“你也许还记得我在霍利斯那儿见过。我能进来一会儿吗?”
他让我进去了。
There were two naked girls seated back to back on a dais（讲台） thing. He was painting them, all in orange. I was highly embarrassed. One put on a dressing gown and went to make a pot of tea, but the other just sat there scratching herself. I never got the tea, and didn't gabble（急促而含混不清地说） through much of my story to the young man, either. He grew sarcastic（讽刺的，挖苦的） very quickly and asked me to leave. The girls started laughing as he prodded me out.
有两个裸体女孩背靠背坐在一个讲台上。他把它们都涂成了橙色。我非常尴尬。一个人穿上晨衣，去泡茶，而另一个人只是坐在那里挠自己。我没有喝茶，也没有对那个年轻人絮絮叨叨地讲我的故事。他很快就开始挖苦我，并要求我离开。当他把我推出去时，女孩们开始大笑起来。
When I got back home the horse was drinking from a saucer of milk I'd left out for it. I poured some breakfast cereal（/ˈsɪəriəl/谷类食物） into my hand and offered it for the thing to eat. It stood thinking, but wouldn’t dare come. I got bored of crouching there, so went off to watch TV.
当我回到家时，马正在喝我给它留的一碟牛奶。我倒了一些早餐麦片到我的手里，递给它吃。它站在那儿想，却不敢过来。我厌倦了蹲在那里，就去看电视了。
But I tried to get it to eat from my hand every time I saw it and at last, a fortnight later, mid-morning - I hadn't bothered to go to work-it trotted（快步，疾走） up and ate contentedly from my hand. I was thrilled to see it close up. With my feeding, it had put on some weight. What a perfect little thing it was! But, being the way I am, I couldn't tolerate its mystery, its extraordinariness. I decided to kill it, to put poison down and be rid of it.
