Chapter  7

BLAM! Joy shot out of the tube and landed in a basket of memories. Sadness fell out next, crashing hard against the ground next to Joy. The core memories rolled in different directions. Joy frantically gathered them up. "One, two, three… okay. Where are we?"

Joy looked at the shelving units that surrounded them, and suddenly she realized they were in Long Term Memory. Grabbing the core memories, Joy hopped out of the memory basket. She could see Goofball Island in the distance, silent and dark. Beyond Goofball, the other islands were dark and lifeless, too.

Sadness walked up slowly behind Joy. "Riley's Islands of Personality. They're ALL down! Oh, this is bad, this is very, very bad," she whimpered.

"We—we can fix this," Joy stammered. "We just have to get back to Headquarters, plug the core memories in, and Riley will be back to normal."

With a sense of urgency, Joy and Sadness hurried toward Headquarters. "Riley has no core memories, no personality islands and no…" Sadness stopped suddenly with a gasp.

"What is it?" Joy asked.

"You!" Sadness declared. "YOU'RE not in Headquarters. Without you, Riley can't be happy."

Joy realized that Sadness was right. Together they crossed the bridge toward Goofball Island. She knew that if she could make it to the lightline, she could walk the power line that led from the core memory holder to the Islands of Personality, all the way back to Headquarters. "I'm coming, Riley," Joy said, determined. Headquarters loomed in the distance, the tallest structure in all of Mind World. It was going to be a long journey back.

That night, when Riley sat down to have dinner with her parents, she was quiet and distant.

Fear, Anger, and Disgust stood in Headquarters, stumped, as they looked at the empty core memory holder and the dark Islands of Personality.

"Riley is acting so weird," Disgust commented.

"What do you expect?" Anger demanded. "All the islands are down."

Disgust flipped her hair. "Joy would know what to do."

The three Emotions looked at one another as they came to a decision. They would do what Joy did until the missing Emotion returned. But there was a problem. None of them knew how to be happy.

"Hey, Riley," Mom said. "I've got good news! I found a junior hockey league right here in San Francisco. And get this: tryouts are tomorrow after school. What luck, right?"

"Pretend to be Joy," Fear said, quickly pushing a reluctant Disgust toward the controls.

"Won't it be great to be back out on the ice?" Mom asked.

Disgust rolled her eyes as she pushed a few buttons.

"Oh yeah, that sounds fantastic," Riley replied sarcastically.

The look on Mom's face showed that she was clearly taken aback.

"What was that?" Fear asked. "That wasn't anything like Joy."

"Uh, because I'm NOT Joy," Disgust said.

Inside Mom's Headquarters, her Emotions were scrambling to assess the situation. "Did you guys pick up on that?" Mom's Sadness asked. Her other Emotions nodded. "Let's probe," Mom's Sadness said. "But keep it subtle so she doesn't notice."

"So, how was the first day of school?" Mom asked.

"She's probing us," Anger said.

"I'm done," said Disgust. She turned to Fear. "YOU pretend to be Joy."

"What? Uh...okay," Fear said, awkwardly stepping up to the controls.

But Fear wasn't any better at helping Riley act like herself than Disgust. Riley continued to sound strange, and her mom noticed.

Inside Mom's Headquarters, her Emotions decided to take a different approach. "Signal the husband," Mom's Sadness said.

Mom tried to signal Dad, but inside his Headquarters, his Emotions were busy watching a hockey match. Finally, Mom's signal worked. "Uh-oh," Dad's Anger said. "She's looking at us." He clicked off the hockey game and tried to pay attention.

Mom raised her eyebrows at him, signaling him again as he stared at her blankly, wondering what she was trying to say. Finally, he got it. "Ahhh, so, Riley! How was school?" he asked.

Inside Riley's Headquarters, Anger had had enough. "Move," he said, marching up to the console. "I'LL be Joy."

"School was great, all right?" Riley's voice was full of attitude.

"Riley, is everything okay?" Mom asked, concerned.

Riley rolled her eyes and let out a dramatic groan.

Inside Dad's Headquarters, his Emotions finally noticed Riley's odd behavior. "Sir, she just rolled her eyes at us," Dad's Fear said.

"Riley, I do NOT like this new attitude," Dad said.

"Oh, I'll show you attitude, old man," Anger said, steaming up.

"No!" Fear said, trying to stop Anger from exploding. "Stay happy!" But Anger shoved him away and forcefully hit a button on the console.

"What is your problem? Just leave me alone," said Riley.

Like a soldier, Dad's Fear reported "high levels of sass" and his Emotions took it to DEFCON 2, the highest level of alert before things got really bad. The siren inside Dad's Headquarters blared and his Emotions prepared to "put the foot down."

Inside Riley's mind, Anger had really worked himself up. "You want a piece of this, Pops? Come and get it!" he yelled, and with all his might, he pushed two levers as far forward as they would go.

"Just shut up!" Riley yelled.

"Fire!" yelled Dad's Anger, like a sergeant.

"That's it!" Dad yelled. "Go to your room! Now!" Riley pushed her chair away from the table and stomped upstairs to her bedroom.

Once Riley got to her bedroom, she slammed the door behind her.

"The foot is down! The foot is down!" Dad's Fear announced. All the Emotions inside Dad's mind cheered.

"Good job, gentlemen," Dad's Anger said. "That could have been a disaster."

Mom's Emotions sighed with disappointment. "Well, that was a disaster," Mom's Sadness said.

第 7 章

“砰!”乐乐被弹出管道，掉到一个满是记忆球的篮筐里。忧忧紧接着掉了下来，重重地摔在乐乐旁边的地板上。核心记忆球四处滚动，乐乐疯了似的把它们捡起来。“一，二，三……好了，我们这是在哪儿？”

乐乐看着周围一排排的架子，突然反应过来，她们在长期记忆存储库里。乐乐抓起核心记忆球，跳出记忆球筐。她能看见远处的耍宝岛——沉寂、漆黑。耍宝岛之外的其他岛屿也一样，一片漆黑、了无生机。

忧忧慢吞吞地跟在乐乐后面，呜咽着说：“莱莉的性格岛全都不动了！噢，这可不好，非常非常不好。”

“我们——我们一定能解决的。”乐乐结结巴巴地说，“我们只要回到情绪总部，将核心记忆球放回原处，莱莉就会恢复正常。”

形势紧迫，乐乐和忧忧朝情绪总部赶去。“莱莉没有了核心记忆，没有了性格岛，也没有了……”忧忧突然停了下来，喘着气。

“没有了什么？”乐乐问道。

“你！”忧忧宣布道，“你不在情绪总部了。没有你，莱莉不可能快乐。”

乐乐意识到忧忧说得对。她们一起穿过桥梁朝耍宝岛走去。乐乐知道只要找到光缆，她就可以沿着从核心记忆装置到性格岛的电缆一路走回情绪总部去。“莱莉，我来了。”乐乐决心已定。情绪总部在远处隐约可见，那是大脑世界中最高的建筑。回去的路还长着呢。

那天晚上，莱莉坐下和父母一起吃晚饭时，她显得安静又冷漠。

怕怕、怒怒和厌厌站在情绪总部，看着空荡荡的核心记忆装置和黑漆漆的性格岛，束手无措。

“莱莉看起来怪怪的。”厌厌评价道。

“你希望她怎样？”怒怒不客气地问，“所有的性格岛都不动了。”

厌厌撩撩头发说：“乐乐会知道该怎么做。”

三个情绪小人互相看了看，做出了决定，那就是他们将履行乐乐的职责，直到她们回来为止。可是，问题来了，因为他们都不知道怎么才能快乐。

“嘿，莱莉，”妈妈说，“我有个好消息要告诉你！我发现旧金山这儿竟然有一个少年冰球联盟，你猜怎么着？选拔赛就在明天放学后，多么幸运啊，是吧？”

“假装自己是乐乐。”怕怕说着，迅速地把不情愿的厌厌推向控制台。

“能重新回到冰上真是太棒了，不是吗？”妈妈问道。

厌厌翻了翻白眼，按下几个按钮。

“噢，是啊，听起来是有那么棒。”莱莉挖苦道。

妈妈脸色变了，显然没想到莱莉会有这样的反应。

“刚刚那算什么回答？”怕怕问道，“一点也不像快乐的样子。”

“呃，因为我不是乐乐。”厌厌回答。

妈妈情绪总部中的情绪小人们争着分析状况。“你们听到莱莉刚刚的话了吗？”妈妈大脑中的悲伤小人问道，其他情绪小人点点头。“让我们再试探一下中，”悲伤小人继续说，“但是尽量委婉些，不要让她察觉。”

“那么，第一天上学怎么样？”妈妈问。

“她在试探我们呢。”怒怒说道。

“我不干了，”厌厌转向怕怕说道，“你，来当乐乐。”

“什么？呃……好吧。”怕怕边说边笨拙地走上控制台。

但是怕怕的表现一点也不比厌厌好，莱莉依然言语奇怪，行为方式也异于往常，妈妈注意到了。

妈妈情绪总部中的情绪小人们决定变换策略，妈妈的悲伤小人说：“向丈夫示意。”

妈妈试着向爸爸使眼色，但是爸爸情绪总部中的小人们正忙着看冰球比赛。终于，他们注意到妈妈的示意。“呃——哦，”爸爸大脑中的愤怒小人说道，“她正看着我们呢。”他关掉冰球比赛，试图集中注意力。

妈妈朝爸爸抬了抬眉毛，再次示意，而他只是茫然地盯着她，不知道她到底想说什么。终于，他明白了。“啊，那么，莱莉！学校怎么样？”爸爸问道。

莱莉情绪总部里的怒怒忍不住了。“走开，”他说着大步跨上控制台，“让我来当乐乐。”

“学校很好，行了吧？”莱莉的声音里满是不屑。

“莱莉，真的一切顺利吗？”妈妈又问了一遍，她有些担心。

莱莉翻了翻白眼，夸张地嘟囔了一句。

爸爸情绪总部里的小人们总算注意到了莱莉的反常举动。“先生，她刚才朝我们翻白眼呢。”爸爸脑中的恐惧小人说道。

“莱莉，我可不喜欢你现在的态度。”爸爸说道。

“噢，老家伙，我让你见识见识什么是态度。”怒怒被惹怒了。

“不！”怕怕试着制止怒怒，“高兴点！”但是怒怒一把推开他，用力按下控制台的一个按钮。

“你到底想怎么样？就让我静一静吧。”莱莉回道。

爸爸脑中的恐惧小人像士兵一样报告了 “高级别的冲撞”，其他情绪小人把这当作二级防御事件，这是事情完全失控前的最高警戒。警笛在爸爸的情绪总部里嘟嘟作响，情绪小人们准备好要“解除威胁”。

莱莉大脑中的怒怒蓄势待发。“想试试这个吗，老头？接招吧！”他叫着用尽所有力气，将两根控制杆一推到底。

“给我闭嘴！”莱莉叫道。

“开火！”爸爸的愤怒小人像军士一样吼道。

“够了！”爸爸吼道，“回你房间去！马上！”莱莉把椅子推离餐桌，重重地踩着楼梯，回房间去了。

莱莉一进房间便将门砰的一声关上了。

“威胁解除！威胁解除！”爸爸的恐惧小人宣告道，所有的情绪小人都欢呼起来。

“先生们，干得好，”爸爸的愤怒小人说道，“差一点就酿成灾难了。”

妈妈的情绪小人失望地叹了口气，悲伤小人说：“刚刚可真是场灾难。”