《超能陆战队》第8章
The next day, a makeshift memorial had been arranged at the entrance to the university. Students had placed flowers and candles near pictures of Tadashi and Professor Callaghan.
Friends gathered at the Lucky Cat Café to grieve and support each other, but Hiro sat on the stairs, away from everyone else. None of it consoled him.
For weeks, Hiro barely left his room. He sat in his beanbag chair and numbly played with his old battle bot. The blinds were closed and plates of food were usually left untouched.
One morning, Aunt Cass softly knocked on Hiro's door. "Hey, sweetie," she said, coming in. "I brought you some breakfast. You get any sleep?" Then she noticed that Hiro's bed was still perfectly made.
"Yeah, sure," Hiro replied.
Aunt Cass opened the blinds to let in some light. "Hey, Mrs. Matsuda's in the café. She's wearing something super inappropriate for an eighty-year-old. That always cracks you up. You should come down."
"Maybe later," Hiro said.
Aunt Cass nodded. "Okay," she said. "No rush. Come down whenever." Then she added, "The university called again. It's been a few weeks since classes started, but they said it's not too late to register."
"Okay. Thanks," Hiro said. "I'll think about it." When Aunt Cass left, Hiro got up and closed the blinds again. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed an icon on his computer screen blinking at him. A video of his friends popped open. Go Go, Honey, Fred, and Wasabi stared back at him.
"Hey, Hiro!" they called in unison.
"We just wanted to check in and see how you are doing," Honey said.
Wasabi smiled. "Wish you were here, buddy." "We should hang out soon, okay ... " Fred piped up.
Hiro hit a button, and silence filled the room. He sighed as his eyes moved across his desk, stopping as they fell on a letter from SFIT. Anger and despair filled him, and he grabbed the letter and tossed it in the trash. He picked up Megabot, his fighting bot, and the bottom of it fell off, landing on his foot. "Ow!" he yelled.
Hiro hopped up and down for a minute, and then he saw something moving on Tadashi's side of the room. He was stunned for a moment. He stared as a white shape rose and began to take form. It was Baymax!
Once Baymax had fully inflated, he shuffled and shimmied his enormous white body to Hiro's side of the room. His big belly and behind knocked over books and lamps along the way. "Hello," he said finally. "I am Baymax, your personal health-care companion."
Hiro had forgotten all about Tadashi's last project. "Hey, Baymax," he said. "I didn't know you were still ... active."
"I heard a sound of distress. What seems to be the trouble?"
Hiro wiggled the toes of his hurt foot. "Oh, I just stubbed my toe a little. I'm fine."
Icons with smiling and scowling faces representing degrees of pain appeared on Baymax's chest. "On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?" he said.
"Zero," Hiro replied, flicking his hands, trying to shoo the robot away. "I'm okay, really. You can ... uh, shrink now."
Baymax reached down with a big puffy arm and waddled forward. "Does it hurt when I touch it?"
Hiro backed up. "What are you doing? No. No touching. I'm fine."
Hiro tripped on the rug and fell, wedging himself between his bed and dresser. Baymax loomed over him. "You have fallen," he said.
Hiro rolled his eyes. "You think?" he asked, grabbing a shelf above his dresser to pull himself up. The shelf tipped and Hiro's toys and speakers slid off. "Ow!" Hiro yelled as first a book and then a large robot toy hit him on the head.
"On a scale of—" Baymax kept saying as more items hit Hiro on the head.
"Ow!" Hiro shouted as the last thing fell.
"On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?" Baymax asked.
Hiro rubbed his head, clearly in pain, and said, "Zero!"
Baymax reached down and picked Hiro up. Alarmed, Hiro tried to push the big arms away.
"It is all right to cry," Baymax said. "Crying is a natural response to pain. I will scan your injuries."
"I'm not crying!" Hiro shouted, struggling out of Baymax's embrace. Hiro quickly backed away. "And you don't need to scan me!"
"Scan complete," Baymax said in a flash.
"Unbelievable," Hiro grumbled.
"You have sustained no injuries. However, your hormone and neurotransmitter levels indicate you are experiencing mood swings, common in adolescence. Diagnosis: puberty."
"Whoa! Okay!" Hiro said, grabbing for Baymax's suitcase. "Time to shrink now."
"You should expect an increase in body hair, especially in your armpits and on your legs, chest, and—"
"Thank you! That's enough!" Hiro said, pushing Baymax toward his charging station. "Let's get you back to your luggage."
"I cannot deactivate until you say you are satisfied with my care."
"Fine," Hiro said. "I'm satisfied with my—" But before Hiro could finish, he tripped over Baymax's foot and landed flat on the floor.
As he lay there, he noticed a hoodie under his bed. It was the one he had worn to the SFIT Showcase. The hoodie was moving softly, causing dust to rise in little puffs. Then it started to vibrate and shake!
转天,大学的入口处设置了临时悼念处。学生们在泰迪和卡拉汉教授的照片旁边放置了花和蜡烛。
朋友们都聚集在幸运猫咖啡馆哀悼并安慰彼此,可小宏坐在楼梯上,远离所有人。没人能够安慰到他。
几周过去了,小宏几乎不出他自己的房间。他坐在自己的豆袋椅里,呆呆地摆弄着他原来的格斗机器人。百叶窗没有打开,盘子里的食物通常是动也不动地放在那儿。
一天早晨,卡斯阿姨轻轻地敲了敲小宏的房门。“嘿,亲爱的,”她说着走了进来。“我给你送来了些早餐。你昨晚睡了吗?”这时她注意到了小宏的被子还整齐地叠放在那。
“嗯,当然。”小宏回答道。
卡斯阿姨打开了百叶窗,让阳光照进来。“嘿,松田太太来店里了。她穿了件超不适合八十岁人穿的衣服,以前总会让你哈哈大笑的,你应该下来看看的。”
“待会儿吧。”小宏说道。
卡斯阿姨点点头。“好吧,”她说,“不急,什么时候下来都行。”然后她又说道:“大学那边又打电话过来了。他们说虽然开课已经有几周了,但现在去登记还不算晚。”
“好,谢谢,”小宏说道,“我会好好考虑的。”卡斯阿姨一离开,小宏就起身把百叶窗重新关了起来。他用余光扫到电脑屏幕上有个图标在闪烁。他的朋友们发来的视频突然跳了出来。神行御姐、哈妮柠檬、弗雷德和芥末无疆正看着他。
“嘿,小宏!”他们齐声打着招呼。
“我们只是想知道你是不是好点了。”哈妮柠檬说道。
芥末无疆微笑着:“你要是和我们在一起就好了,兄弟。”“很快我们就可以一起出去闲逛,好吗……”弗雷德插话道。
小宏点击了一个按钮,整个房间又陷入静寂。他扫视了一下自己的桌子,叹息了一下,目光最终落在了旧金山理工大学的那个封信上。愤怒与绝望充斥着他,他一把抓起那个信封,把它扔进了垃圾桶。他捡起超能机器人,他的格斗机器人,机器人的底部掉了下来,砸在他的脚上。“嗷!”他大喊道。
小宏跳上跳下好一会儿,突然他注意到有什么东西正在房间里属于泰迪的那侧移动。他吓了一跳。他看见一个白色的东西开始涨大成形,是大白!
大白一充满气就拖着脚步,摇摆着他巨大的身体向小宏这边走了过来。他的大肚子和大屁股把路过两侧的书和灯都碰了下来。“你好,”最终他说道,“我叫大白,您的私人健康顾问。”
小宏全然忘记了泰迪的最后一项研究。“嗨,大白,”他说,“我不知道你还……能工作。”
“我听到了一声痛呼。你怎么了?”
小宏动了动他受伤的脚趾头。“哦,我只是砸到了脚趾头。我没事。”
代表着疼痛等级的笑脸和皱眉小脸的图标呈现在大白的胸部。“疼痛指数从1到10,请给自己的疼痛评级。”他说道。
“零。”小宏回答道,轻轻摇动着他的手,发出嘘声想要赶走大白。“我没事,真的。你可以……呃,缩回去了。”
大白伸出肥大的胳膊,摇摆着向前走了几步:“如果我碰它,它会痛吗?”
小宏倒退着:“你干什么?别,别碰,我没事。”
小宏被地毯绊倒,把他自己夹在床和柜子之间。大白靠近他,说道:“你摔倒了。”
小宏转着眼球,问道:“你觉得呢?”他抓住柜子上的架子想要把自己拽起来。可架子一倾斜,小宏的玩具以及喇叭纷纷滑落下来。“嗷!”小宏不停地号叫着,首先是一本书,然后是一个大机器人玩具砸在了他头上。
“疼痛指数从……”随着不断地有东西掉落砸在小宏的头上,大白不停地重复着这句话。
“嗷!”小宏号叫着直到最后一样东西砸落在他头上。
“疼痛指数从1到10,请给自己的疼痛评级。”大白说道。
小宏揉着头,显然疼得厉害,却说道:“零!”
大白走过来把小宏拽了起来。惊慌的小宏想要推开这双大手臂。
“哭出来吧,没事的。”大白说道,“哭是疼痛刺激下的自然反应。我会对你受伤的地方进行扫描。”
“我不会哭!”小宏嚷着从大白的怀抱中挣扎出来,迅速后退。“你没必要扫描我!”
“扫描完成,”大白随即说道。
“难以置信,”小宏喃喃地说道。
“你并没有受伤。不过你的荷尔蒙与神经递质水平表明你正在经历一段情绪起伏期,这在青春期很常见。诊断结果:青春期综合征。”
“哦!好吧!”小宏说道,抓过大白的箱子。“你该缩小了。”
“你会出现体毛增多的现象,尤其是出现在你的胳肢窝、腿、胸部和……”
“谢谢!够了!”小宏说道,把大白朝他的充电站里推着。“你快回到你的箱子里去吧。”
“你不说对我的本次护理感到很满意,我就不能待机。”
“好,”小宏说道,“我对你的本次护理……”可还没等小宏说完,他绊在了大白的脚上倒在了地上。
他躺在那才发现,他的床底下有件连帽衫。正是他去参加旧金山理工大学作品展时穿的那件。那件连帽衫正在轻轻地移动,腾起了一些细小的灰尘。随后它开始颤动起来!