Chapter  8

Joy and Sadness had finally made it across the bridge to Goofball Island and stepped carefully onto the lightline. Joy looked down into the deep darkness of the Memory Dump that loomed¹ below her.

Sadness was afraid, but walking the tightrope² of the lightline was the quickest way back. "If we fall," she protested, pointing down at the Memory Dump, "we'll be forgotten forever."

"We have to do this," Joy said, trying to reassure³ her. "For Riley. Just follow my footsteps.

Holding the memories in her arms, Joy tried to balance herself on the narrow line. One of the memories slipped over the side, but she snatched it back just in time. She breathed and slowly began the long, treacherous⁴ trip toward Headquarters with Sadness right behind her. Joy wished she knew what was happening with Riley.

Tap, tap, tap. Dad knocked on Riley's bedroom door and peeked⁵ inside. "Hey," he said.

Riley lay in her sleeping bag on the floor, silent and motionless. "So, uh… ," Dad said gently. "Things got a little out of hand downstairs." He waited for Riley to respond, but she remained silent.

"You want to talk about it? Come on, where's my happy girl? Monkey," Dad said. "Oo oo ooo!" He made silly monkey sounds, trying to cheer her up.

The Emotions could see he was trying to start up Goofball Island. Fear looked at the empty core memory holder⁶ and then out the window at Goofball. It was still dark.

Riley didn't respond or laugh like she normally would when her dad acted silly. Instead, she glanced at him before rolling over to face the wall.

Rrrrrrrrrrck. Goofball Island made an awful groaning⁷ noise and shuddered⁸ like an old, tired ship. Suddenly, bits and pieces of the island began to crumble⁹ away!

Joy and Sadness, who were still balancing on the lightline connected to the island, felt it tremble beneath their feet as Goofball started to disintegrate¹⁰. The lightline was falling! They had to get off it now! "Run! Run! Run!" Joy screamed.

Frantically¹¹ they dashed back to Goofball Island, barely outracing the crumbling¹² pieces of land.

At the edge of the island, the bridge twisted and buckled¹³ underneath¹⁴ them. They managed to stay on their feet as they reached one of the cliffs of Long-Term Memory just as the memory tube and basket they had arrived in broke off and fell into the Memory Dump below.

From the safety of solid ground, they watched in horror as Goofball Island sank and vanished into the dump. The island was GONE. Joy gasped¹⁵. "What… ?"

Inside Riley's bedroom, Dad was telling her that he understood and that he thought she probably needed some alone time. "We'll talk later," he said as he left the room.

Fear, Anger, and Disgust stared out the back window of Headquarters, stunned¹⁶.

"We have a major problem," said Disgust.

"Oh, Joy, where are you?" whined¹⁷ Fear.

 

第 8 章

乐乐和忧忧终于走过通向耍宝岛的桥梁，她们小心翼翼地踩上光缆。乐乐向下望去，记忆清理库在漆黑的深渊里若隐若现。

忧忧很害怕，但是沿着钢丝一样的光缆走回去是最快的方法。“如果我们掉下去，”她指着底下的记忆清理库抗议道，“我们会被永远遗忘的。”

“我们必须这样做，”乐乐试着安抚她道，“为了莱莉，跟上我的脚步。”

乐乐抱着记忆球，在狭窄的光缆上努力保持平衡。一个记忆球差点从边上滑下去，幸好她及时抓住了。她深吸一口气，小心翼翼地踏上返回情绪总部那漫长而危险的旅程，忧忧紧随其后。乐乐多希望自己知道莱莉现在怎么样了。

咚，咚，咚，爸爸敲了敲莱莉卧室的房门，探头朝里看了看，说：“嘿。”

莱莉躺在地板上的睡袋里，没有出声，也没动。“那么，呃……”爸爸温和地说，“刚刚楼下发生的事有些过火了。”他等着莱莉的反应，但是她保持沉默。

“想不想谈一谈？别这样，那个快乐的小女孩哪去了？小猴子。”为了让莱莉高兴起来，爸爸模仿猴子发出傻傻的叫声，“喔喔——喔喔——喔喔喔！”

情绪小人们明白爸爸想要启动莱莉脑中的耍宝岛。怕怕看着空无一物的核心记忆装置，再看看窗外的耍宝岛，仍然漆黑一片。

莱莉没有反应，往常如果爸爸这样犯傻的话，她一定会大笑起来。但是，她瞟了爸爸一眼，翻过身，面向了墙壁。

“隆——隆——咔”，耍宝岛发出可怕的闷响声，像疲惫的旧船一样抖动起来。突然，耍宝岛开始一点一点地崩塌!

乐乐和忧忧此刻正在连接耍宝岛的光缆上保持平衡，耍宝岛开始解体的时候她们感到脚下的光缆也跟着摇晃起来。光缆就要坠落了！必须马上离开！“快跑！快！快！”乐乐喊了起来。

她们疯了似的往回跑，好不容易在耍宝岛化成碎片前跑了过去。

岛屿边缘的桥梁弯曲变形了，她们努力稳住身体，到达了长期记忆存储库的一座悬崖边，她们之前待过的记忆管道和记忆筐都碎裂了，跌进了底下的记忆清理库。

她们站在安全、坚实的平地上，惊恐地看着耍宝岛沉没，消失在清理库里。耍宝岛没有了，乐乐倒抽一口气：“怎么……?”

爸爸还在莱莉的卧室里，告诉她他能理解莱莉，觉得莱莉可能想一个人静一静。“我们以后再聊。”他边说边走出了房间。

怕怕、怒怒和厌厌看着情绪总部窗外那一片漆黑，吓呆了。

“碰上大麻烦了。”厌厌说道。

“噢，乐乐，你到底在哪儿？”怕怕咕哝了一句 。

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