Chapter  18

In her quiet, empty bedroom, Riley pulled her books out of her backpack and picked up her clothes, ready to pack them in her bag. Then she paused and her expression changed.

Fear was driving. "Are we really doing this? I mean, this is serious," he said.

Anger pushed Fear aside and took control. "Look," he said. "We have no core memories. You want Riley to be happy? Let's get back to Minnesota and make some." Riley's worried expression faded and was replaced with anger as she stuffed her clothes into her bag and exited the room.

Out on the cliff, Sadness, Joy, and Bing Bong stared at the empty space where Honesty Island used to be.

"Joy, if we hurry, we can still stop her," said Sadness, offering a ray of hope.

There was only one island left… and one lightline that they could follow back to Headquarters. "Family Island," said Joy. "Let's go!"

They ran along the cliff edge, bolting toward the bridge to Family Island. Sadness saw the island start to quake and yelled, "It's too dangerous! We won't make it in time!"

Joy looked out to see pieces of Family Island falling away. "But that's our only way back!"

The shaking island had caused parts of Long-Term Memory to collapse and break apart. Suddenly, Sadness pointed over to a memory recall tube. The tubes were normally buried deep beneath the shelving of Long-Term Memory, but with all the earthquake-like movement, one of them had become exposed. If they got to it in time, maybe they could get sucked up and sent back to Headquarters.

"A recall tube!" said Joy.

"We can get recalled!" Sadness added.

They ran past the bridge and headed for the tube.

With her bag strapped to her back, Riley walked toward the front door of the house. "Have a great day, sweetheart," Mom called from the kitchen.

"See you after school, monkey," Dad added, making monkey noises.

"We love you!" Mom said.

Riley didn't respond. She just turned and walked right out of the front door, headed for the bus station.

Joy, Sadness, and Bing Bong were closing in on the tube, but Family Island quaked and twisted the bridge like a piece of taffy. Then a large piece of the island broke off!

"Go!" shouted Joy. "Run, run!" A nearby cliff cracked and crashed down into the dump, and the ridge where they were just standing fell away. They screamed as they fled the crumbling chunks of land and headed toward the recall tube.

Joy stepped into the lower section of the recall tube first, with Sadness right behind her. But the tube was small and there wasn't enough room.

Sadness and Joy jostled against each other and the memories inside the bag started to change color. "Whoa, whoa! Sadness!" Joy cautioned. The bag emitted a blue light, and Joy tried to push Sadness away. "Sadness, stop! You're hurting Riley!" Joy pulled one of the memories out of the bag. It was bright blue. Sadness stepped back, horrified.

"Oh no!" she said. "I did it again!"

"If you get in here, these core memories will be sad," Joy said.

RUMBLE! Joy looked to see the source of the terrible sound: the family statue on Family Island was breaking apart. Joy didn't know what to do! She had to make a quick decision. "I'm sorry… Riley needs to be happy."

Joy pulled the tube closed and began to ride it up to Headquarters… alone.

"Joy?" Sadness called after her friend as she stood with Bing Bong on the cliff.

Then the intense rumbling from below made the cliffside fall and shook the tube apart. Joy fell from the tube. Bing Bong reached for her, but the ground beneath him disintegrated, causing them both to fall into the abyss.

"Joy!" Sadness cried. Feeling helpless as she stood on the cliff's edge, she buried her face in her hands.

第 18 章

在安静而又空荡荡的卧室里，莱莉把书从背包里拿出来，接着收拾衣服，准备把这些东西一起放进包里。就在这时，她停住了，脸上的表情发生了变化。

怕怕在操控，他说：“我们真的要这么做吗？我的意思是，这可不是闹着玩的。”

怒怒把怕怕推到一边，自己操控起来。“你看，”他说，“我们现在没有核心记忆球，你希望莱莉快乐吧？让我们回明尼苏达州再创造一些快乐的记忆。”莱莉脸上的担忧消失了，变成了愤怒。她把衣服塞进包里，走出卧室。

悬崖边上的忧忧、乐乐和兵兵盯着诚实岛原本所在的地方，现在是一片空洞。

“乐乐，如果我们抓紧时间，还能阻止她。”忧忧想给乐乐一线希望。

只剩下一座岛屿了……这也就意味着只剩下一条可以让他们回情绪总部的光缆。“家人岛，”乐乐说，“我们走！”

他们沿着悬崖边缘跑了起来，朝通往家人岛的那座桥冲去。忧忧发现家人岛也开始摇晃起来，她大声喊道：“这太危险了！我们赶不过去的！”

乐乐朝外看了看，发现家人岛正一点一点消失：“但那是我们回去的唯一一条路！”

岛屿摇晃着，导致长期记忆存储库也跟着开裂和倒塌。突然，忧忧指了指一根记忆球召回管道。那些管道平时都被深埋在长期记忆架的下面，但随着这些地震般的运动，其中一根管道暴露出来。如果他们及时到达那儿，或许他们会被吸进管道，送回情绪总部。

“那是召回管道！”乐乐说道。

“我们可以被召回去！”忧忧补充道。

他们从桥上跑过，朝管道冲去。

莱莉背着包，朝前门走去。“上学愉快，亲爱的。”妈妈从厨房喊道。

“放学后见，小猴子。”爸爸模仿着猴子的声音，补充了一句。

“我们爱你！”妈妈说道。

莱莉没有回应。她转了个弯，直接出了前门，朝汽车站走去。

乐乐、忧忧和兵兵正在靠近管道，但是家人岛摇晃着，桥像一块太妃糖一样被拧弯了。接着，家人岛有一大块裂开了！

“快！”乐乐叫道，“快跑！快跑！”附近的悬崖也裂了开来，轰然倒塌，掉进清理库里，而他们刚刚站过的山脊也脱落了。他们尖叫着逃离即将大面积崩塌的地面，朝召回管道冲去。

乐乐首先进入召回管道位置较低的那段，忧忧紧随其后。但是管道太小了，空间不够。

忧忧和乐乐互相推搡着，此时包里的记忆球开始变了颜色，乐乐赶紧警告忧忧：“停!停！忧忧！”包里射出一道蓝色的光，乐乐用力把忧忧推开：“忧忧，住手！你在伤害莱莉！”乐乐从包里取出一个记忆球，球呈现出明亮的蓝色。忧忧后退了一步，吓呆了。

“哦，不！”她说，“我又犯错了！”

“如果你进来的话，这些核心记忆都会变得悲伤。”乐乐说道。

轰隆！乐乐看了看，发现了这一可怕声响的来源：家人岛上的家人雕塑正在崩塌。乐乐不知道该怎么办！她必须迅速做出决定：“对不起……莱莉需要快乐。”

乐乐将管道关了起来，准备前往情绪总部……独自前往。

“乐乐？”忧忧在她朋友身后喊道，她和兵兵还站在悬崖上。

突然，底下强烈的震动令悬崖的边缘向下坠去，管道也被震开了，乐乐从管道里掉了出来。兵兵伸出手去拉她，但是他脚下的地面裂开了，他们俩一起跌进了深渊。

“乐乐！”忧忧哭了。她站在悬崖边，双手掩面，孤立无助。