Chapter  19

Joy landed with a thud and groaned as she rolled down the long, steep hill into the shadows filled with faded memories. When she finally stopped, she looked around, confused, trying to figure out where she was.

She hugged the bag of core memories tightly. All the memories were still inside.

Then she looked up at the ledge high above her. Suddenly, she knew where she was: the Memory Dump! She couldn't believe how far she had fallen. She frantically ran up the steep mountain, trying to climb it, but came crashing back down. She tried again and again, but each time she tumbled right back down to the bottom.

A short distance away, Bing Bong was looking down at his hand: it was beginning to fade. "Oh no," he said. He ran off to find Joy.

When he finally reached her, Joy was still trying to claw her way up the mountain.

"Joy, what are you doing?" Bing Bong asked.

"Would you stop, please?"

But Joy ignored him and continued trying to scale the cliff.

"Don't you get it, Joy? We're stuck down here. We're forgotten."

Joy stopped in her tracks, feeling the pain of Bing Bong's words. She looked down at her feet and watched as the memories around her faded and disappeared. A short distance away lay the blue core memory of Riley crying in class. Her heart breaking, Joy fell to her knees as tears began to run down her face.

She tried to focus on the old happy memories of young Riley. "Remember how she used to stick her tongue out when she was coloring?" Joy said longingly. She continued to flip through old memories, watching and remembering happier times. "I could listen to her stories all day," she said, watching one of three-year-old Riley talking to a bug.

Joy finally picked up the blue core memory. She couldn't believe how miserable Riley was. "I just wanted Riley to be happy, and now…" Feeling truly hopeless, Joy cried even harder.

One of Joy's tears fell onto the sphere that contained the faded memory of the twisty tree. Joy wiped the tear away and it rewound the memory… and the color of the sphere changed from gold to blue.

In the memory, Riley sat in the tree with her parents as the team approached in the distance. Joy looked closer and closer. Then she used her hand to rewind the memory farther. She remembered what Sadness had said: It was the day the Prairie Dogs lost the big playoff game. Riley missed the winning shot. She felt awful. She wanted to quit.

Joy watched as the hockey team surrounded Riley in the twisty tree, and suddenly she realized…

Mom and Dad… the team… they had come to help because of Sadness.

Joy turned to Bing Bong with renewed energy. She knew what had to be done. "We have to get back up there," she said, determined.

Bing Bong looked at her sadly. "Joy, we're stuck down here forever. We might as well be on another planet."

"Another planet," Joy said thoughtfully. That gave her an idea—what about taking Bing Bong's rocket ship to the moon? She started to sing his theme song.

Bing Bong's eyes lit up as he understood the plan, and he joined her in song. As the melody drifted across the dump, off in the distance Bing Bong's rocket answered back by binging and bonging!

Joy and Bing Bong ran toward the sound and found the rocket. They could fly out of the dump!

They pulled the rocket wagon up one of the big mountains. "Hop in!" Joy shouted, and they both climbed inside. Bing Bong pushed off and they sang their hearts out. The song powered the rocket as it sped down the mountain. When it reached the bottom, it shot up the next hill, launching into the air.

Joy reached for the high ledge above the dump… but they weren't even close. They crashed back down. "C'mon!" Joy said, ready to try again.

They took the wagon up another mountain, singing even louder now. But again they fell short of the ledge and dropped back into the dump. The rocket just didn't have enough power. Bing Bong looked down at his hand and noticed that it was disappearing!

"Come on, Joy," he said, reaching out to help her stand. "One more time. I've got a feeling about this one."

They took the wagon up the mountain and sang once again. "Louder!" yelled Bing Bong. "Louder, Joy! Sing louder!"

When they reached the base of the mountain, Bing Bong dove out of the wagon, but Joy didn't notice. Without his additional weight, the wagon had plenty of momentum. Bing Bong watched as Joy and the wagon soared into the air.

"We're going to make it!" Joy shouted as she flew closer and closer to the ledge.

The rocket made it! "Woo-hoo!" Joy cried. "Bing Bong, we did it! We—" Joy turned around and gasped. "Bing Bong? Bing Bong!"

Joy hurried to the edge and looked over the side. Bing Bong was down at the bottom, laughing and dancing. "Ya ha ha!" he sang. "You made it! Ha ha! Go! Go save Riley! Ha ha ha! Take her to the moon for me. Okay?" Bing Bong waved and vanished.

"I'll try, Bing Bong," Joy said, hanging her head. "I promise."

第 19 章

乐乐“砰”的一声落在地上，她呻吟着滚下又长又陡的山坡，跌入满是褪色记忆球的阴影里。当终于停下来后，她迷糊地看了看四周，想弄清楚自己在哪儿。

她紧紧地抱着装有核心记忆球的包，所有的记忆球仍在里面。

接着她抬头看到了顶上的悬崖岩脊，瞬间明白了自己在哪里：记忆清理库！她不敢相信自己竟向下跌了这么深。她慌忙跑上陡峭的山坡，试着爬上去，但是重新跌了下去。她试了一次又一次，却每次都跌回谷底。

离乐乐不远处，兵兵正低头看着自己的手：手开始褪色了。“哦，不。”他赶紧跑去找乐乐。

当他好不容易找到乐乐时，她还在努力往山坡上爬。

“乐乐，你在干什么？”兵兵问。

“请你停一停，好吗？”

但是乐乐并不理会他，继续在悬崖上攀爬。

“乐乐，难道你还不明白？我们被困在这里了，我们被遗忘了。”

乐乐感觉到兵兵话语间的痛苦，停了下来。她低头看着脚下，发现周围的记忆球开始褪色并且逐渐消失。那个蓝色的核心记忆球在离她不远的地方，里面是一段莱莉在课堂上哭泣的记忆。乐乐心碎了，她跪了下来，泪水顺着脸颊淌下。

她试着将注意力集中在小莱莉以前那些快乐的记忆上。“还记不记得她在给画涂颜色的时候总喜欢吐舌头？”乐乐留恋地说道。她继续翻找着旧的记忆球，看着它们，回忆快乐的时光。看着三岁的莱莉给一只昆虫讲故事的画面，乐乐说：“我可以听她讲故事讲一整天。”

乐乐终于还是捡起了那个蓝色的核心记忆球，她不敢相信莱莉竟然那么痛苦。“我只是想让莱莉快乐，可是现在……”真正感到绝望的乐乐哭得更厉害了。

乐乐的一滴眼泪落在了记忆球上，里面存储的是那棵弯树上的已经褪色的记忆。乐乐擦掉记忆球上的眼泪，这让里面存储的记忆倒了回去……记忆球的颜色由金色变成了蓝色。

画面里，莱莉和爸妈坐在树上，冰球队从远处走来。乐乐看得越来越入神，然后用手将记忆画面继续往前倒。她想起忧忧说过的话：就是在那天，草原土拨鼠队输掉了重要的总决赛。莱莉没能击中制胜的一球。她感觉糟透了，都想放弃冰球了。

乐乐看着冰球队的队员们环绕着坐在弯树上的莱莉，突然，她意识到……

妈妈、爸爸……还有冰球队的队员们……是因为莱莉感到悲伤，他们才去那儿帮她。

乐乐重获力量，知道该怎么做了。她转向兵兵，坚定地说：“我们必须回到上面去。”

兵兵难过地看着她：“乐乐，我们被永远地困在这下面了，和在另外一颗星球没什么两样。”

“另外一颗星球？”乐乐若有所思。这句话给了她灵感——乘坐兵兵的登月火箭船怎么样？她开始唱起兵兵那首主题曲。

兵兵明白了乐乐的计划，他的眼睛明亮起来，他跟着乐乐唱起了那首歌。歌声在整座清理库飘荡，兵兵的火箭在远处乒乒乓乓地响应他们！

乐乐和兵兵朝响声跑去，发现了火箭。他们可以乘火箭飞出清理库！

他们将火箭船推上其中一座大山。“进去吧！”乐乐叫道，他们俩一起爬了进去。兵兵让火箭起飞，他们一起用尽力气唱着。歌声给了火箭能量，当火箭朝山下冲去，到达谷底的时候，它向上朝另一座山冲去，飞到空中。

乐乐想要够着清理库顶上那高高的岩脊……但是火箭还离得很远，他们重新跌了回去。“加油！”乐乐说道，准备再试一次。

他们将火箭推上另一座山，这一次唱得更大声，但仍未够到岩脊，他们重新坠回清理库。火箭的能量不够。兵兵低头看着自己的手，发现它正在逐渐消失！

“加油，乐乐。”他伸出手帮助她站稳，“再试一次，我预感到这次我们能成功。”

他们将火箭推到山顶上，再一次唱了起来。“大点声！”兵兵叫道，“大点声！乐乐！唱得再大点声！”

当他们到达谷底的时候，兵兵从火箭里跳了出去，但乐乐并未发现。减掉了兵兵的体重之后，火箭有了足够的动力。兵兵看着乐乐和火箭朝空中飞去。

“我们一定能成功！”乐乐叫着，她离岩脊越来越近了。

火箭飞上去了！“唔——哈！”乐乐叫道，“兵兵，我们成功了!我们——”她回头一看，倒吸了一口气，“兵兵？兵兵！”

乐乐赶紧跑到岩脊边缘朝底下看。兵兵在下面笑着、跳着。“呀哈哈！”他高兴地叫道，“你成功了！哈哈！快去！快去救莱莉！哈哈哈！替我带她去月球，好吗？”兵兵挥挥手，消失了。

“我会的，兵兵。”乐乐垂下头，“我向你保证。”