Their homes were not the nurturing places they once were. The little people had difficulty sleeping and were having nightmares about not finding any Cheese.
But Hem and Haw still returned to Cheese Station C and waited there every day.
Hem said, “You know, if we just work harder we’ll find that nothing has really changed that much. The Cheese is probably nearby. Maybe they just hid it behind the wall.”
The next day, Hem and Haw returned with tools. Hem held the chisel while Haw banged on the hammer until they made a hole in the wall of Cheese Station C. They peered inside but found no Cheese.
They were disappointed but believed that could solve the problem. So they started earlier, stayed longer, and worked harder. But after a while, all they had was a large hole in the wall.
Haw was beginning to realize the difference between activity and productivity.
“Maybe,” Hem said, “we should just sit here and see what happens. Sooner or later they have to put the Cheese back.”
Haw wanted to believe that. So each day he went home to rest and returned reluctantly with Hem to Cheese Station C. But Cheese never reappeared.
By now the little people were growing weak from hunger and stress. Haw was getting tired of just waiting for their situation to improve. He began to see that the longer they stayed in their Cheesless situation, the worse off they would be.
Haw knew they were loosing their edge.
Finally, one day Haw began laughing at himself. “Haw, Haw, look at me. I keep doing the same things over and over again and wonder why things don’t get better. If this wasn’t so ridiculous, it would be even funnier.”
Haw did not like the idea of having to run through the maze again, because he knew he would get lost and have no idea where he would find any Cheese. But he had to laugh at his folly when he saw what his fear was doing to him.
He asked Hem, “Where did we put out jogging suits and running shoes?” It took a long time to find them because they had put everything away when they found their Cheese at Cheese Station C, thinking they wouldn’t be needing them anymore.
As Hem saw his friend getting into his running gear, he said, “You’re not really going out into the maze again, are you? Why don’t you just wait here with me until they put the Cheese back?”
“Because, you just don’t get it,” Haw said. “I didn’t want to see it either, but now I realized they’re never going to put the Old Cheese back. That was yesterday’s Cheese. It’s time to find New Cheese.
Hem argued, “But what if there is no Cheese out there? Or even if there is, what if you don’t find it?”
“I don’t know,” Haw said. He had asked himself those same questions too many times and started to feel fears again that kept him where he was.
Then he thought about finding New Cheese and all the good things that came with it and gathered his courage.
他們的家，也不再是美好舒適的地方。他們睡不上一個安穩(wěn)覺，而且每晚的時光伴著找不到奶酪的噩夢度過。
但他們?nèi)匀幻刻於蓟氐侥汤褻站，仍然每天在那里等待。
哼哼說：“你知道，如果我們再努力一些，我們也許會發(fā)現(xiàn)事情并沒有發(fā)生太大的變化。奶酪也許就在附近，它們也許只是被人藏到墻后面去了。”
第二天，哼哼和唧唧帶了工具回到奶酪C站。哼哼拿著鑿子，唧唧則用錘子敲打。他們費了九牛二虎之力，終于在墻上打出了一個洞，朝里面窺視，卻依舊沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)奶酪的蹤跡。
盡管他們感到非常失望，但他們?nèi)匀幌肽顔栴}會得到解決。以后，他們起得更早，工作得更長、更努力。但是，一段時間以后，他們得到的只是一個個更大的空洞。
唧唧開始認識到行動和結(jié)果的區(qū)別。
“也許，”哼哼說：“我們只需要坐在這里，看看到底會發(fā)生什么事情。遲早他們會把奶酪再送回來。”
唧唧希望他說的是真的。這樣，他每天回家休息，然后勉強陪著哼哼去奶酪C站查看情況。但是，奶酷始終沒有再出現(xiàn)。
由于焦慮和饑餓，這兩個小矮人已經(jīng)變得有些虛弱。唧唧已經(jīng)開始厭倦等待——完全被動地等著狀況自己發(fā)生好轉(zhuǎn)。他開始明白，他們在奶酪C站等待的時間越長，情況只會變得越糟糕。
唧唧明白，他們正在失去自己的優(yōu)勢。
終于，有一天，唧唧開始自己嘲笑起自己來了：“唧唧呀唧唧，看看你自己吧！你居然等到每天重復(fù)同樣的錯誤，還總是奇怪、懷疑為什么情況還沒有得到改善，還有什么比你這種做法更可笑的呢？這如果不是荒謬，就是滑稽。”
唧唧并不想再到迷宮中去奔波。他知道他可能會迷路，而且他也不知道究竟應(yīng)該到哪兒去尋找新的奶酪。但當他明白正是他的恐懼感使他如此裹足不前、坐以待斃的時候，他嘲笑起自己的愚笨。
他問哼哼：“我們的運動衣和慢跑鞋放到哪里去了？”他花了很長的時間才翻出了那些運動裝備。當初，他們在奶酪C站找到奶酪以后，就把鞋啊什么的都有扔到一邊去了，因為他們滿以為再也不會需要這些玩意兒了。
當哼哼看到他的朋友穿上運動服時，他說，“你不是真的要到迷宮中去吧？你為什么不留下來，和我一起在這里等，等著他們把奶酪送回來？“
“因為如果這么做，我們將永遠不會得到那些奶酪，”唧唧大聲說：“不會有人把奶酪送回來了，現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)到了去尋找新奶酪的時候了，不要再想那些早已不存在的奶酪了！”
哼哼爭辯說：“但是如果外面也沒有奶酪怎么辦？或者，即使有奶酪，但你找不到，又怎么辦？”
“我不知道。”唧唧不耐煩地說。同樣的問題，他已經(jīng)問過自己多少遍了。他又感到了那種使他停滯不前的恐懼感。奶酪的喜悅再度鼓起了他的勇氣。
他最后問自己：“你希望到哪里去找奶酪——這里還是迷宮中？”
于是他的腦中出現(xiàn)了一幅圖畫，他看見自己面帶微笑地在迷宮中探險。
這樣的景象讓他有些驚慌，他發(fā)現(xiàn)自己終于克服了再次進入迷宮的恐懼。他看見自己在迷宮中迷了路但仍然滿懷信心地在那里尋找新奶酪，一切美好的事物都隨之而來。他又重新找回了自己的勇氣。
于是，他盡量發(fā)揮自己想象力，在腦海中為自己描繪了一幅他最信賴的、最具有現(xiàn)實感受的圖畫——他在尋找和品嘗新的奶酪。
他仿佛看見自己坐在一大堆奶酪中央，正在盡情品嘗各種奶酪，像蜂窩狀的瑞士奶酪、鮮黃的英國切達干酪、美國奶酪和意大利干酪，還有美妙又柔軟的法國卡米伯特奶酪，等等。
唧唧簡直想入了神，直到他聽到哼哼在一邊嘟囔著什么，他才意識到自己仍然還在奶酪C站。
