Chapter  12

"Look at me! I'm closer to the station 'cause I'm taking the shortcut¹!" Bing Bong sang from inside.

"Let's go around. This way." Sadness pointed² to the path alongside the incredibly long building. Joy looked back at Bing Bong.

"Almost there!" Bing Bong shouted.

Joy turned to Sadness. "If you want to walk the long way, go for it. But Riley needs to be happy. I'm not missing that train," Joy said. "Bing Bong knows what he's doing. He's part dolphin. They're very smart!" she added.

"Well… I guess… ," Sadness said, following Joy through the hatch and into the building.

Inside, it was dark and gray. There were strange shapes scattered³ all around.

Outside, two mind workers wheeled a cart over to the hatch they had just entered. They didn't realize that Bing Bong, Sadness, and Joy were inside the building.

"Okay, what Abstract Concept are we trying to comprehend today?" one worker asked.

"Um… loneliness," said the other worker, checking his clipboard.

"Looks like there's something in there," said the first worker, peering into the hatch. "I'm going to turn it on for a minute and burn out the gunk." The worker closed the door and Joy, Sadness, and Bing Bong heard a slam.

Suddenly, the room brightened as white lights flickered⁴ on. Strange shapes floated up off the floor and hung in the air.

"Say, would you look at that," said Bing Bong, marveling at the sight.

One of the shapes swiped by underneath⁵ Joy's feet. "Whoa!" she yelled.

Sadness ducked out of the way as another shape whizzed closely by her head. "Ah!"

"What's happening?" Joy cried.

"Oh no," said Sadness. "They turned it on."

"Huh! I've never seen this before," said Bing Bong, watching as the floating shapes started to melt.

Joy and Sadness screamed as they took in the sight of Bing Bong's head: it had transformed into a misshapen mess and made him look like a multifaceted figure from a Picasso painting. His trunk looked like a jagged staircase, and one of his eyes moved over to the now flat side of his head!

Then the same thing happened to Joy and Sadness! Their bodies shuffled⁶ around, as if they were built out of tiny cubes that made them look like weird⁷, mixed-up versions of their former selves. All their body parts were twisted around and in the wrong places!

"What is going on?" Joy cried, feeling her nose shift up to the top of her head.

"We're abstracting!" screamed Sadness. Her mouth moved to where her right ear used to be, and her eyes were stacked on top of each other! "There are four stages. This is the first: nonobjective fragmentation!"

They struggled to walk, their bodies moving stiffly without knees and elbows.

"All right, don't panic!" said Bing Bong. "What's important is that we all stay together."

Suddenly, Bing Bong's left arm fell off! Joy screamed as her head fell off! Then Sadness's right leg fell off, causing her to topple over.

"We're in the second stage," Sadness said. "We're deconstructing!"

All three of them separated into pieces, like dolls that had been taken apart. "Ahh!" screamed Bing Bong. "I can't feel my legs!" Bing Bong's arms found his legs and grabbed them. "Oh, there they are."

Joy tried to put herself back together again and grabbed Sadness's leg instead. She slapped it on and looked like a mismatched puzzle.

Sadness chased after her disassembled head. "We've got to get out of here before we're nothing but shape and color and get stuck here forever!" she screamed.

"Stuck? Why did we come in here?" Joy yelled. "I told you, it's a shortcut!" said Bing Bong.

They could hear the train whistling outside and watched through the window as it pulled into the station. "The train!" Joy cried.

POP! Joy, Sadness, and Bing Bong changed form once again. Now they were flat!

"Oh no," said Sadness. "We're two-dimensional! That's stage three!"

"Depth!" yelped⁸ Bing Bong. "I'm lacking depth!"

They struggled to make their way through the strange, flat world. Things that seemed close by took a long time to reach. Doors that seemed just their size suddenly became too small when they tried to walk through them. "We can't fit!" grunted⁹ Joy, trying to squeeze through.

POP! They changed again. Now they were shapeless blobs of color, like lumps of clay.

"Oh no, we're nonfigurative," said Sadness. "This is the last stage!"

"We're not going to make it!" said Bing Bong.

Sadness hit the ground and instantly transformed into a blue line. "Wait!" she said. "We're two dimensional. Fall on your face!" She crawled like an inchworm along the ground.

Joy and Bing Bong followed Sadness's lead and fell, turning into lines of color, too. They wiggled and squirmed right through the window!

TOOT, TOOT! The train whistled as it prepared to leave the station.

"Wait! Stop!" Joy yelled. She tried to jump but couldn't. POP! Joy changed back into her two-dimensional shape and fell down flat. She looked up at the passing train. "Nooooo!" she said, defeated, watching as the train chugged and puffed¹⁰ its way toward Headquarters.

She turned to Bing Bong. "How long until the next train?"

He shrugged¹¹. "Who knows?"

 

第 12 章

“看看我！正因为我选择了捷径，所以我离车站更近了！”兵兵在里面高声说道。

“我们绕过去吧，这边走。”忧忧指着建筑外围的一条路，一条仿佛没有尽头的路。乐乐重新看着兵兵。

“就要到了！”兵兵叫道。

乐乐转向忧忧说道： “如果你想走远路，随便你。但是莱莉需要快乐，我不想错过这班车。”她继续说道：“兵兵知道自己在做什么，他有一部分可是海豚。海豚是非常聪明的！”

“呃……或许吧……”忧忧跟着乐乐通过舱口走进建筑。

里面一片昏暗，灰蒙蒙的，四处散落着各种奇怪的形状。

这时，两名大脑工人推着车来到舱门外，他们还不知道兵兵、忧忧和乐乐进入了建筑。

“好了，今天我们要领会的抽象概念是什么？”一名大脑工人问道。

“呃……孤独。”另一名大脑工人看了看控制板回答道。

“里面好像有什么东西。”第一名大脑工人朝舱口里看了看说，“我得打开开关一分钟，将里面的物质燃烧掉。”他关上舱门，乐乐、忧忧和兵兵听到“砰”的一声。

突然，屋子里亮了起来，白色的光线闪烁着。奇怪的形状们从地面浮了上来，飘在空中。

“哇，快看。”兵兵对眼前的景象表示惊叹道。

其中一个形状从乐乐脚下擦过。“哇！”她叫道。

另外一个形状嗖嗖地朝忧忧的头部袭来，她迅速躲开。“啊！”

“发生了什么事？”乐乐大声叫道。

“哦，不，”忧忧回答，“他们打开了开关。”

“啊！我以前可从来没见过这些。”兵兵发现空中飘浮的形状开始熔化。

乐乐和忧忧尖叫起来，因为她们看到兵兵的脑袋已经变形了，看上去一团糟，就像毕加索画中的多面人。他的长鼻子现在像一段凹凸不平的楼梯，其中一只眼睛已经移到了扁平的脑袋顶上。

接着，乐乐和忧忧也开始变形了！她们的身体仿佛由细小的立方体组成，扭曲变换着，现在的她们就像先前模样的怪异而又混乱的整合，所有的身体部位都扭曲着，而且移到了不应该在的地方！

“怎么回事？”乐乐哭了起来，她感觉自己的鼻子跑到头顶上去了。

“我们正在被抽象化！”忧忧叫道。她的嘴巴已经移到了原本右耳所在的地方，两只眼睛叠在一起！“一共有四个阶段，这是第一阶段：抽象碎片化！”

她们挣扎着前行，身体僵硬，因为膝盖和手肘已经消失了。

“好了，先别慌！”兵兵说道，“重要的是我们都在一起。”

突然，兵兵的左胳膊掉了下来！乐乐尖叫着，她的脑袋掉了！ 接着，忧忧的右胳膊也掉了，她摔倒在地。

“现在是第二阶段，”忧忧说道，“我们要被分解了！”

他们三人像被肢解的玩具娃娃一样被分裂成一块一块的。“啊——！”兵兵叫了起来，“我的腿没知觉了！”他的胳膊找到了双腿，一把抓住：“噢，原来在这儿。”

乐乐试图将自己重新拼接完整，但是却抓住了忧忧的一条腿。她迅速将腿接在自己身上，看上去极不相称，样子怪异。

忧忧追着自己刚刚掉下的脑袋。“我们必须尽快出去，否则就会变成只有形状和颜色的东西，永远被困在这里！”她大声叫道。

“困在这里？我们刚刚为什么要进来？”乐乐叫喊着。“我告诉过你，这是一条捷径！”兵兵回答。

外面传来火车鸣笛的声音，他们朝窗外看去，发现火车进站了。“火车来了！”乐乐哭喊着。

砰的一声！乐乐、忧忧和兵兵再一次变形，现在他们是扁平的了！

“哦，不，”忧忧说道，“我们变成二维的了！这是第三个阶段！”

“厚度！”兵兵尖叫着，“我的厚度没了！”

他们挣扎着在这个奇怪的平面世界里寻找出路，看起来近在咫尺的地方却需要很长时间才能到达，看起来和他们大小差不多的门却突然小得穿不过去。“门太小了！”乐乐抱怨道，她试图将身体挤过去。

砰的一声！他们再次变形。现在他们变成了没有形状的颜色团，就像泥团一样。

“哦，不，我们被抽象化了，”忧忧说，“这是最后一个阶段！”

“我们出不去了！”兵兵说道。

忧忧撞到地板上，突然变成了一条蓝线。“等等！”她说道，“我们是二维的，快脸朝下卧倒！”她像一只尺蠖一样在地上爬行。

乐乐和兵兵按照忧忧的指示卧倒在地上，也变成了有颜色的线条。他们摇晃着、扭动着穿过窗户！

嘟，嘟！火车再一次鸣笛，准备离开车站了。

“等等！停下！”乐乐一边叫一边试着跳起来，但是没有成功。砰的一声！乐乐变回二维的平面形状，摔了下去。她抬头看着火车开过。“不——！”她深受挫败，看着火车冒着蒸汽咔嚓咔嚓地朝情绪总部驶去。

她转向兵兵问道：“下一辆火车什么时候到？”

他耸耸肩：“谁知道呢？”

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