Chapter  20

When Riley's parents came home, they were surprised to find that she wasn't there. "I'll call her cell," said Mom.

Riley's cell phone rang as she walked through the streets of San Francisco. She looked down at who was calling.

"It's Mom. She's on to us. Where's my bag?" asked Fear, looking for his paper bag. He felt as if he was about to hyperventilate.

"What do we do?" asked Disgust.

"Riley needs to get core memories. We keep going," said Anger.

Riley ignored the call, put the phone in her pocket, and continued to walk toward the bus station.

Joy frantically¹ ran through the aisles² of Long-Term Memory, searching for Sadness as Family Island began to break apart behind her. "C'mon, Sadness, where are you? Okay. If I was Sadness, where would I be?" Joy looked around and imagined being Sadness. "Ohhh… everything is awful and my legs don't work and you have to drag me around while I touch all the—" Joy said, imitating her. She slumped³ to the ground and kicked her leg up in the air. Then she saw something: a trail of blue memories on the bottom shelves! Joy followed the trail.

Meanwhile, Riley had made it to the station and was standing⁴ in line to get on the bus. Her cell phone rang. It was Mom again. Her phone read "15 missed calls from Mom."

"Oh… it's Mom again," said Fear. "What do we do?" He began to breathe faster into his bag. BOOM! Family Island rumbled⁵ behind them. It was the only island still standing.

"This is madness! She shouldn't run away," said Anger.

"Let's get this idea out of her head," said Disgust. Fear and Anger agreed, and the three rushed to the console to unplug the idea.

Joy was still searching for Sadness in Long-Term Memory, following the trail of blue memories.

"Sadness!" she called.

Sadness turned around. "Joy?" She was surprised to see her, but she couldn't face her. She ran away.

"Wait!" shouted Joy.

"Just let me go," Sadness called, still running. "Riley's better off without me!"

Joy chased Sadness into Imagination Land. Sadness toppled fries from French Fry Forest into Joy's path to slow her down.

"Come back!" yelled Joy. Then she used a super long fry to pole vault⁶ over the mound⁷ of fallen fries.

She tried to follow close behind Sadness but lost her in Cloud Town. Suddenly, a shadow passed over Joy, causing her to look up. Sadness was flying overhead on a chunk⁸ of cloud, away from Headquarters. "What? Sadness!" Joy called.

"I only make everything worse," Sadness cried as she drifted farther away.

"Wait—Sadness! We've gotta get you back to…" Joy chased after her, but the cloud was moving too fast.

Joy didn't know how she was going to catch up with Sadness until suddenly, her eyes fell on the Imaginary Boyfriend generator⁹.

Inside Headquarters, Anger struggled as he tried to untwist the idea bulb from the console. "It's stuck!" he shouted.

"Oh, great," said Disgust.

"Whaddaya mean it's stuck?" said Fear, reaching out to try.

"Now what?" asked Disgust.

Then the console started to shut down! A strange blackness slowly crept across the console, like a dark, scary blob. "What is this?" cried Fear. Nobody knew.

Riley stepped onto the bus.

Thinking the idea bulb was making the console shut down, Fear struggled with it, but it wouldn't budge¹⁰. He even tried using a crowbar. As Fear strained to pry¹¹ it out, he lost control and the crowbar whacked¹² him in the face.

"Make her feel scared!" urged Disgust. "That'll make her change her mind!"

Fear frantically pushed buttons and pulled levers on the mostly black console, but nothing worked.

"Guys," he said, turning his gaze to Disgust and Anger. "We can't make Riley feel anything."

 

第 20 章

莱莉的父母回到家，惊讶地发现她竟不在。妈妈说：“我给她打个电话。”

莱莉正走在旧金山的街道上，手机响了，她低下头想看看是谁打来的。

“是妈妈，她发现我们了。我的袋子在哪儿？”怕怕一边问一边开始找自己的纸袋子，他感觉自己就要呼吸过度了。

“我们该怎么办？”厌厌问。

“莱莉必须拥有核心记忆球，我们继续向前走。”怒怒回答。

莱莉不理会来电，将手机放进口袋里，继续朝汽车站走去。

乐乐疯了似的在长期记忆存储库的通道里跑来跑去，寻找忧忧的踪影，与此同时，她身后的家人岛开始解体。“拜托，忧忧，你在哪里？好吧，如果我是忧忧的话，我会在哪里？”乐乐环顾四周，想象自己是忧忧。“噢……一切都可怕极了，而且我走不动了，你得拖着我四处走，而我则碰了所有的——”乐乐模仿忧忧说。她躺在地上，将腿抬到空中。这时她注意到了：架子底部有一排蓝色记忆球！乐乐跟随着蓝色的痕迹前行。

与此同时，莱莉已经来到汽车站，正在排队等候上车。她的手机响了起来，又是妈妈。手机显示有15个妈妈打来的未接来电。

“噢……又是妈妈。”怕怕说道，“我们怎么办？”他开始更加急促地朝纸袋里呼气。“嘣”！他们身后的家人岛发出轰隆的响声，那是剩下的唯一一座岛屿。

“这太疯狂了！她不应该逃走。”怒怒说道。

“咱们让她改变主意吧。”厌厌说道。怕怕和怒怒同意了，他们三人一起冲向控制台，想要将点子球拔下来。

乐乐还在长期记忆存储库里追随着蓝色记忆球的路线，寻找忧忧。

“忧忧！”她喊道。

忧忧转过身：“乐乐？”她很惊讶再见到乐乐，不过她没办法面对乐乐，她跑开了。

“等等！”乐乐叫道。

“让我走吧。”忧忧没有停下， “没有我，莱莉才可以过得更好!”

乐乐追着忧忧进了想象之境，忧忧推翻薯条森林的薯条挡住乐乐的去路，让她慢了下来。

“回来！”乐乐大声喊道。接着，她用一根超长的薯条以撑杆跳的方式越过了滑落的薯条堆。

她努力追赶忧忧，但是进了云之城之后就不见了忧忧的踪影。突然，一个影子遮住乐乐，她抬头望去。忧忧正在上空的一片云上，朝远离情绪总部的方向飞去。乐乐叫道：“什么？忧忧！”

“我只会让一切变得更糟。”忧忧哭了，她越飘越远。

“等等——忧忧！我们一定会把你带回……”乐乐追着她，但是云朵飞得太快了。

乐乐不知道怎么才能追上忧忧，直到她突然瞄到想象男友生成器。

情绪总部里，怒怒奋力想要将点子球从控制台上拧下来，他叫道：“卡住了！”

“哦，这下可好了。”厌厌说道。

“卡住了是什么意思？”怕怕说着伸手去试。

“现在怎么办？”厌厌问。

接着，控制台开始自动关闭！奇怪的黑色在控制台上逐渐蔓延开去，像一团漆黑的、可怕的阴影。“这是什么？”怕怕叫道，没有人知道答案。

莱莉登上了汽车。

怕怕以为是点子球让控制台关闭了，于是用力地捣鼓，但是点子球纹丝不动。他连撬棍都用上了。怕怕用尽全力想要将点子球撬下来的时候，他失去平衡，撬棍狠狠地打在他脸上。

“让她害怕！”厌厌催促道，“那会让她改变主意！”

怕怕疯狂地按下按钮，推起控制台上的控制杆，但没有任何反应，而控制台大部分已被黑影覆盖。

“朋友们，”他将目光移到厌厌和怒怒身上，“我们已经无法控制莱莉的情绪了。”

点击收听单词发音