Chapter 17
Joy, Sadness, and Bing Bong rushed off the stage of Riley’s dream at Dream Productions, leaving Jangles behind as he smashed up the sets and everything in his path with his giant mallet. They hurried toward the Train of Thought.
The train was moving! The three leapt aboard the very last car.
“Ha ha!” Joy said. “We made it!” They laughed and celebrated. She grabbed Sadness and swung her around. “Guess who’s on their way to Headquarters?” Joy sang.
“We are!” said Sadness.
Back at Headquarters, Anger and Disgust stumbled out of the break room, disheveled and barely awake. “What is going on?” asked Disgust.
“He did it again,” said Anger, gesturing to Fear trembling beneath the console.
“We were at school, and we were naked, and there was a dog, and his back half was chasing him… ,” Fear rambled, recalling Riley’s dream.
Anger was reaching his limit. “It was a DREAM! This is ridiculous, we can’t even get a good night’s sleep anymore. Time to take action.”
Anger stomped off and retrieved the idea he had held up earlier. He stood at the console, ready to plug it in. “Who’s with me?” He looked at Fear, who was still recovering and unable to utter a word. Then he looked at Disgust and waited for a response.
“Yeah, let’s do it,” said Disgust finally.
Anger plugged the lightbulb-shaped idea into the console.
Inside her bedroom, Riley’s expression changed. She pulled out her laptop.
“She took it. There’s no turning back,” said Anger.
“So, how’re we gonna get to Minnesota from here?” Disgust asked.
“Well, why don’t we go to the elephant lot and rent an elephant?” Anger asked sarcastically. Then he yelled, “We’re taking the bus!”
Riley pulled up the Greyhound Bus website and began to look at the schedule for buses to Minnesota.
“A ticket costs money,” said Disgust. “How do we get money?”
“Mom’s purse,” Anger said casually.
Disgust gasped. “You wouldn’t.”
“Oh, but I would,” said Anger. “Where was it we saw it last?”
He punched up a memory and the Tripledent singers came on again, singing the theme song.
“NOOOO!” Anger slammed down on the console, ejecting the memory. Then he remembered that Mom’s purse was downstairs somewhere. “Mom and Dad got us into this mess,” Anger said. “They can pay to get us out.”
Inside the train, Joy, Bing Bong, and Sadness were happily speeding along. Joy looked at Sadness. “Hey, that was a good idea,” she said. “About scaring Riley awake.”
“Really?” Sadness said, sounding surprised.
“Nice work.”
Sadness brightened a little as Joy exhaled, feeling relieved. “I can’t wait to get the old Riley back,” she said. “As soon as we get there, I’m going to fix this whole mess.”
Bing Bong had found a box of memories and was looking through them. He discovered a recent memory and saw that Riley was much older than he had thought. “Whoa,” he said. “Is this Riley?”
Joy took the memory to get a closer look. She nodded.
“She’s so big now,” Bing Bong said. “She won’t fit in my rocket. How’re we gonna get to the moon?” Joy recognized the memory. “Oh, it’s that time in the twisty tree, remember? The hockey team showed up and Mom and Dad were there cheering… Look at her, having fun and laughing. It’s my favorite.” Joy sat back down, beside Sadness.
“I love that one, too,” said Sadness.
Joy couldn’t believe it! Sadness actually liked a happy memory. “Atta girl!” she said. “Now you’re getting it!”
Sadness stared at the memory. “Yeah,” she said, remembering. “It was the day the Prairie Dogs lost the big playoff game. Riley missed the winning shot. She felt awful. She wanted to quit.”
Joy’s face fell. Sadness had started out so positive. “Sorry,” Sadness apologized. “I went sad again, didn’t I?”
“I’ll tell you what,” Joy said. “We’ll keep working on that when we get back. Okay?”
Sadness smiled. “Okay.”
Meanwhile, Riley sneaked downstairs to find her mom’s purse. Mom was in the kitchen on the phone, talking to the moving company, so Riley was able to find the purse and slip the credit card out quietly. She put it in her pocket and crept back upstairs without Mom noticing.
Joy looked wistfully out the train window. All of a sudden a loud BOOM broke the spell. “Honesty Island!” Joy shrieked.
The train tracks they were on began to sway as Honesty Island started to collapse below them. Joy, Sadness, and Bing Bong were jostled back and forth. Screaming, they fell as the train started to tumble, the tracks slipping away with the collapsing island.
The train crashed onto the side of a cliff and began to tip over as mind workers rushed on board.
“Let’s go! Move it! Move it!” the workers shouted, trying to get everyone off safely.
Joy, Sadness, and Bing Bong jumped to land just in time as the train plummeted into the Memory Dump below. Joy couldn’t believe it. “That was our way home!” she said. “We lost another island.… What is happening?”
“Haven’t you heard?” asked a worker. “Riley is running away.”
第 17 章
樂樂、憂憂和兵兵跑下造夢場中萊莉的夢境舞臺,留下叮叮在臺上用巨大的木槌將布景和所到之處的所有東西砸得粉碎。他們朝思想火車趕去。
火車已經(jīng)開動了,他們仨跳上了最后一節(jié)車廂。
“哈哈!”樂樂說,“我們成功了!”他們笑著慶祝。樂樂拉著憂憂轉(zhuǎn)圈,歡快地唱著:“猜猜是誰要回情緒總部了?”
“是我們!”憂憂說道。
情緒總部里,怒怒和厭厭跌跌撞撞地走出休息室,兩人蓬頭垢面、睡眼蒙眬。厭厭問:“發(fā)生了什么事?”
“又是他干的好事。”怒怒示意了一下躲在控制臺下顫抖的怕怕。
“我們在學(xué)校里,但是沒穿衣服,接著出現(xiàn)了一只狗,被撕裂成兩半,后面一半追著他……”怕怕慌亂地描述著萊莉的夢境。
怒怒的忍耐似乎達到極限:“那不過是個夢!這太荒唐了,現(xiàn)在連好好睡一覺都不行了,是時候采取行動了。”
怒怒跺跺腳走開,取回了之前拿過的點子球。他站在控制臺前,準備插入點子球。“你們同意嗎?”怒怒看了看怕怕,他還沒有從驚嚇中恢復(fù)過來,一句話也說不出。于是,怒怒轉(zhuǎn)頭看向厭厭,等著她的回答。
“好吧,就這么做吧。”厭厭終于開了口。
怒怒將燈泡形狀的點子球插入了控制臺。
臥室里,萊莉臉上的表情出現(xiàn)了變化,她拿出筆記本電腦。
“她接受了提議,沒有回頭路了。”怒怒說道。
“那么,我們怎么從這兒去明尼蘇達州?”厭厭問道。
“呃,我們何不去大象棚租頭大象呢?”怒怒諷刺地回答。接著,他叫道:“當然是坐巴士去!”
萊莉登陸灰狗巴士官網(wǎng),開始查看前往明尼蘇達州的汽車時刻表。
“買車票需要錢,”厭厭說,“我們怎么才能搞到錢呢?”
“媽媽的錢包。”怒怒隨口說道。
厭厭倒抽了一口氣:“你不會吧。”
“哦,可是我會的,”怒怒回答,“我們上次見到它是在哪兒?”
他將一個記憶球按了進去,Tripledent口香糖廣告里的歌手們再一次出現(xiàn),唱起了那首主題曲。
“不——不——!”怒怒朝控制臺用力一拍,彈出了記憶球。接著,他想起媽媽的錢包應(yīng)該在樓下某處。“是媽媽和爸爸給我們帶來了這么多麻煩,”怒怒說,“他們應(yīng)該出錢讓我們脫離困境。”
樂樂、兵兵和憂憂乘著火車開心地向前奔去。樂樂看著憂憂。“嘿,那主意不錯。”她說,“就是把萊莉嚇醒的主意。”
“真的嗎?”憂憂驚訝地問。
“做得好。”
憂憂露出一點喜色,樂樂也長呼了一口氣,如釋重負地說:“我已經(jīng)等不及讓萊莉恢復(fù)到原來的樣子了。一回到情緒總部,我會將所有的麻煩都處理好。”
兵兵找到了一盒記憶球,一個接一個地翻看。他發(fā)現(xiàn)一個最新的記憶球,看到萊莉比他想象中長大了不少。“哇,”他說,“這是萊莉?”
樂樂拿過記憶球來仔細看。她點點頭。
“她現(xiàn)在長這么大了,”兵兵說,“我的火箭已經(jīng)裝不下她了,我們還怎么飛向月球呢?”樂樂認出了記憶球里的畫面。“哦,這是那次發(fā)生在那棵彎樹上的事,記得嗎?冰球隊出場的時候媽媽和爸爸在那兒歡呼……看看她,那么開心,笑得那么歡快。這是我最喜歡的記憶。”樂樂坐回了憂憂旁邊。
“我也喜歡那段記憶。”憂憂說道。
樂樂簡直不敢相信!憂憂竟然會喜歡一段快樂的記憶。“好姑娘!”她說道,“現(xiàn)在你也明白了吧!”
憂憂盯著記憶球。“是啊,”她一邊說一邊回憶,“就是在那天,草原土撥鼠隊輸?shù)袅酥匾目倹Q賽。萊莉沒能擊中制勝的一球,她感覺糟透了,都想要放棄冰球了。”
樂樂的臉拉了下來,憂憂剛剛還挺積極的。“對不起,”憂憂向她道歉,“我又傷心了,是吧?”
“我會告訴你的,”樂樂說,“我們回去后再一起研究這個問題,好嗎?”
憂憂笑了起來:“好的。”
與此同時,萊莉偷偷溜到樓下去找媽媽的錢包。媽媽正在廚房和搬家公司打電話,于是萊莉悄悄地找到錢包并且將信用卡抽了出來。她把信用卡放在口袋里,躡手躡腳地回到樓上,媽媽沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)她。
樂樂滿懷希望地看著車窗外,突然傳來一聲巨響,打破了美好的現(xiàn)狀。嘣的一聲!樂樂尖叫道:“誠實島!”
底下的誠實島開始崩塌的時候火車鐵軌也跟著傾斜,樂樂、憂憂和兵兵在車上前后搖晃。車軌隨著島嶼的塌陷逐漸消失,火車就要翻了,他們尖叫著摔倒了。
火車撞到了懸崖邊上,開始傾斜,這時,大腦工人沖上火車。
“快走!快!快!”工人們大叫著,努力讓每一個人安全地離開。
樂樂、憂憂和兵兵剛跳到地上,火車就垂直栽進了下面的記憶清理庫。樂樂不敢相信眼前發(fā)生的一切。“那是我們回家的火車!”她說,“又一座島嶼消失了……究竟發(fā)生了什么?”
“你沒聽說嗎?”一位大腦工人說,“萊莉要離家出走。”