Chapter  3

"WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?!" shouted Fear as he watched Riley and her mother standing¹ at the pizza counter, staring at a slice covered in broccoli².

"That's it. I'm done," said Disgust.

Anger fumed³. "Congratulations, San Francisco, you've RUINED PIZZA! FIRST THE HAWAIIANS AND NOW YOU!" he shouted, shuddering⁴ as he thought about the pineapple that Hawaiians liked to add to their pizza.

As Riley and her mom walked home, the mood was somber⁵. "What kind of a pizza place only serves one kind of pizza?" Mom asked.

Joy sighed as she glanced at the day's wall of multicolored memories and noticed there were not a whole lot of golden ones.

Then Riley and her mother started to talk about the long car trip to California. "What was your favorite part?" Mom asked Riley.

"Oh! What about the time with the dinosaur⁶?" Joy said as she ran to the console to pull up the memory.

The happy memory was of Riley and her mom posing in front of a big cement dinosaur on the side of the road in Utah. As Dad knelt to get the shot, the car started to roll down the hill behind him! Riley and Mom tried to tell him, but he was too busy trying to take the perfect picture. By the time he finally noticed, it was too late. Dad ran after the car as it rolled in reverse and crashed into the tail of a cement stegosaurus!

"I liked that time at the dinosaur," Riley said, smiling. "That was pretty funny."

The Emotions chuckled⁷ as Riley enjoyed the memory. But then something strange happened. The memory turned BLUE and Riley's smile faded.

"Wait. What happened?" Joy asked as she spun⁸ around, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. Her gaze landed on Sadness, who was standing right next to the memory.

"What did you do?" Joy asked.

"I just touched it," Sadness said.

Joy tried to rub the memory to see if she could change it back to gold, but the blue color wouldn't come off!

"Good going, Sadness," Disgust said. "Now when Riley thinks of that moment with Dad, she's gonna feel sad. Bravo."

"I'm—I'm sorry, Joy," Sadness stammered⁹.

Joy told Sadness not to touch any memories until she figured out what was going on. Then she turned her attention back to Riley.

Riley and her mom were coming up to a set of stairs that led down a hill. The stairs had a railing. "Get ready! This is a monster railing, and we are riding it all the way down!" Joy said as she took control of the console.

Goofball Island, one of Riley's Islands of Personality, lit up with life as Riley sat on the banister, about to fly down. But then Riley changed her mind. She walked down the stairs instead.

"Wait, what happened?" Joy asked, confused. She gasped¹⁰ as a memory rolled over her feet.

"A core memory!" cried Fear. Core memories powered Riley's Islands of Personality. If Riley's core memories weren't in the core memory holder¹¹, what was controlling her personality?

"Oh no," said Joy, picking up the memory. Everyone looked out the window to see a lifeless Goofball Island, completely dark and still.

Joy rushed to the core memory holder and saw Sadness standing right next to it! "Sadness!" she shouted. "What are you doing?"

"It looked like one was crooked¹², so I opened it and then it fell out! I…" Sadness said, referring to a core memory.

Joy placed the memory back in the holder and everyone breathed a sigh of relief as Goofball Island started running again.

Riley ran up the stairs and jumped back on the railing. "Woo-hoo!" she cried as she slid down.

"I wanted to maybe hold one," Sadness admitted. She reached toward a core memory and it started to turn BLUE! As the other Emotions gasped, Joy grabbed Sadness's hand before she could remove it. The memory turned back to gold.

"Sadness!" Joy scolded. "You nearly touched a core memory. And when you touch them, we can't change them back."

Sadness felt terrible. "I'm sorry," she said.

"Something's wrong with me. I, uh… It's like I'm having a breakdown¹³"

"You are not having a breakdown," said Joy. "It's stress."

Sadness sighed. "I keep making mistakes like that. I'm awful—"

"No, you're not," Joy interrupted, but Sadness continued.

"—and annoying."

Joy wanted Sadness to stop focusing on what was wrong. "There's always a way to turn things around, to find the fun," Joy said.

"I don't know how to do that," Sadness said.

Joy suggested that Sadness think of something funny, but she couldn't seem to do it. Sadness constantly focused on the negative. While Joy saw the rain as a fun opportunity for Riley to jump in puddles¹⁴ and carry a cool umbrella, Sadness liked when the rain made Riley feel soggy, droopy, and shivery. Sadness even started to cry as she thought about it.

"Oh, hey, hey… easy. Why are you crying?" Joy asked softly.

"Crying helps me slow down and obsess¹⁵ over the weight of life's problems," she said.

Joy put her head in her hands to think of a way to keep Sadness out of trouble. "Let's think about something else," she said, leading her over to the manual shelf. "How about we read some mind manuals, huh? Sounds fun."

Joy left Sadness among the stacks of books and marched back to work.

 

第 3 章

“这是什么鬼东西？！” 莱莉和妈妈站在比萨店柜台前时，怕怕盯着那块铺满西兰花的比萨喊了起来。

“够了，我受不了了。” 厌厌说道。

怒怒生气了，大叫道：“恭喜你，旧金山，你把比萨给毁了！先是夏威夷，然后就是你！”一想起喜欢在比萨上加菠萝的夏威夷人，他就气得浑身发抖。

莱莉和妈妈走路回家，两人都挺沮丧。妈妈说：“什么样的比萨店才会只卖一种比萨？”

乐乐看着情绪总部墙上记录莱莉当天情绪的各色记忆球，金色的并不多，她叹了口气。

接着，莱莉和妈妈聊起了来加利福尼亚州的漫长旅程，妈妈问：“你最喜欢的是哪段旅程？”

“噢！和恐龙一起的那段时光怎么样？”乐乐跑向控制台，取出相应的记忆球。

那是一段开心的记忆，犹他州的公路边有一只大型水泥恐龙，莱莉和妈妈站在恐龙前摆姿势拍照。爸爸蹲下给她们照相的时候，身后的车子开始从山坡上滑下去！莱莉和妈妈想要告诉他，但是他正忙着试图拍出完美的照片。等他发现时，已经太晚了。爸爸追着车子跑，车子却向后撞上了一只水泥剑龙的尾巴！

“我喜欢在恐龙雕塑那里的时光，”莱莉笑着说，“很搞笑。”

莱莉享受回忆的同时，情绪小人们也咯咯地笑了起来。但是奇怪的事情发生了，记忆球变成了蓝色，莱莉的笑容也消失了。

“等等，怎么了？” 乐乐转身问道。她试着去搞清楚是什么地方出了错。她的目光落在正站在记忆球旁边的忧忧身上。

“你做了什么？”乐乐问道。

“我只是碰了它一下。”忧忧回答。

乐乐赶紧擦了擦记忆球，看是否能变回原来的金色，但是蓝色根本擦不掉！

“忧忧，瞧你干的好事，”厌厌说，“现在只要莱莉想起和爸爸的那段记忆，她就会难过。干得好。”

“我——我错了，乐乐。”忧忧结结巴巴地说。

乐乐警告忧忧在她弄清楚发生了什么之前不准再碰任何记忆球，接着，她把注意力又转回莱莉身上。

莱莉和妈妈来到一个有台阶的山坡，台阶一侧有栏杆，“准备好啦！这是一个怪兽栏杆，让我们骑着它一路向下！”乐乐一边说，一边操纵控制台。

当莱莉坐在扶栏上准备滑下去的时候，耍宝岛——莱莉的性格岛屿之一亮了起来。但是莱莉突然改变主意，走下了台阶。

“等等，怎么回事？”乐乐被弄糊涂了。这时一个记忆球滚到她脚边，她倒抽了一口气。

“核心记忆球！”怕怕叫了起来。核心记忆球给莱莉的性格岛提供能量，如果莱莉的核心记忆球不在核心记忆装置上，那是什么在控制她的性格？

“哦，不。”乐乐拾起记忆球。情绪小人们看向窗外，耍宝岛毫无生机，一片黑暗，全然不动。

乐乐冲向核心记忆装置，发现忧忧正站在旁边！“忧忧！”她叫道，“你在做什么？”

“有一个记忆球好像变形了，因此我打开了它，然后它就掉了出来！我……”忧忧指着一个核心记忆球说。

乐乐把记忆球放回架子上，耍宝岛重新启动了，所有人都松了一口气。

莱莉跑上台阶，坐上扶栏。“唔——哈！”她大叫着滑了下去。

“我本来是想，也许，我可以拿一个。”忧忧承认了。她朝一个核心记忆球伸出手，记忆球开始变成蓝色！其他情绪小人倒抽了一口气，乐乐赶在忧忧移动记忆球之前抓住了她的手，记忆球重新变为金色。

“忧忧！”乐乐骂道，“你差一点就碰到核心记忆球了，只要你一碰它们，我们就没办法让它们变回原样了。”

忧忧难过极了。“对不起。”她说道。

“我有些不对劲。我，呃……我好像要崩溃了。”

“你不会崩溃的，”乐乐说道，“是压力太大了。”

忧忧叹了一口气：“我总是犯这样那样的错误，我坏透了——”

“不，你没有。”乐乐打断她，但是忧忧继续往下说。

“——而且遭人厌。”

乐乐希望忧忧不要揪着过去的错误不放，她说：“总有办法解决的，总有办法找到快乐。”

“我不知道该怎么办。”忧忧说。

乐乐建议忧忧想一些开心的事，但是忧忧似乎做不到，她总是悲观地看待问题。乐乐觉得下雨是个寻找乐趣的机会，莱莉可以跳进地上的水坑，撑一把酷酷的雨伞；忧忧却觉得下雨会让莱莉浑身湿淋淋，会让她无精打采，会让她冷得发抖。想着想着她甚至哭了起来。

“噢，嘿，嘿……放松点，你怎么哭了？”乐乐问道。

“哭泣能让我平静下来，专注于生活中的难题。”她答道。

乐乐双手掩面，思考着如何才能让忧忧远离烦恼。“我们想点别的吧，”说着她把忧忧带到指南书架旁，“我们来读读大脑指南怎么样？哈？听起来挺有趣的。”

乐乐让忧忧待在书堆里，然后回到了工作岗位。

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