Chapter 12
“Look at me! I’m closer to the station ’cause I’m taking the shortcut!” Bing Bong sang from inside.
“Let’s go around. This way.” Sadness pointed 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 scattered 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 flickered 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 underneath 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 shuffled around, as if they were built out of tiny cubes that made them look like weird, 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!” yelped 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!” grunted 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 puffed its way toward Headquarters.
She turned to Bing Bong. “How long until the next train?”
He shrugged. “Who knows?”
第 12 章
“看看我!正因為我選擇了捷徑,所以我離車站更近了!”兵兵在里面高聲說道。
“我們繞過去吧,這邊走。”憂憂指著建筑外圍的一條路,一條仿佛沒有盡頭的路。樂樂重新看著兵兵。
“就要到了!”兵兵叫道。
樂樂轉向憂憂說道: “如果你想走遠路,隨便你。但是萊莉需要快樂,我不想錯過這班車。”她繼續(xù)說道:“兵兵知道自己在做什么,他有一部分可是海豚。海豚是非常聰明的!”
“呃……或許吧……”憂憂跟著樂樂通過艙口走進建筑。
里面一片昏暗,灰蒙蒙的,四處散落著各種奇怪的形狀。
這時,兩名大腦工人推著車來到艙門外,他們還不知道兵兵、憂憂和樂樂進入了建筑。
“好了,今天我們要領會的抽象概念是什么?”一名大腦工人問道。
“呃……孤獨。”另一名大腦工人看了看控制板回答道。
“里面好像有什么東西。”第一名大腦工人朝艙口里看了看說,“我得打開開關一分鐘,將里面的物質(zhì)燃燒掉。”他關上艙門,樂樂、憂憂和兵兵聽到“砰”的一聲。
突然,屋子里亮了起來,白色的光線閃爍著。奇怪的形狀們從地面浮了上來,飄在空中。
“哇,快看。”兵兵對眼前的景象表示驚嘆道。
其中一個形狀從樂樂腳下擦過。“哇!”她叫道。
另外一個形狀嗖嗖地朝憂憂的頭部襲來,她迅速躲開。“??!”
“發(fā)生了什么事?”樂樂大聲叫道。
“哦,不,”憂憂回答,“他們打開了開關。”
“?。∥乙郧翱蓮膩頉]見過這些。”兵兵發(fā)現(xiàn)空中飄浮的形狀開始熔化。
樂樂和憂憂尖叫起來,因為她們看到兵兵的腦袋已經(jīng)變形了,看上去一團糟,就像畢加索畫中的多面人。他的長鼻子現(xiàn)在像一段凹凸不平的樓梯,其中一只眼睛已經(jīng)移到了扁平的腦袋頂上。
接著,樂樂和憂憂也開始變形了!她們的身體仿佛由細小的立方體組成,扭曲變換著,現(xiàn)在的她們就像先前模樣的怪異而又混亂的整合,所有的身體部位都扭曲著,而且移到了不應該在的地方!
“怎么回事?”樂樂哭了起來,她感覺自己的鼻子跑到頭頂上去了。
“我們正在被抽象化!”憂憂叫道。她的嘴巴已經(jīng)移到了原本右耳所在的地方,兩只眼睛疊在一起!“一共有四個階段,這是第一階段:抽象碎片化!”
她們掙扎著前行,身體僵硬,因為膝蓋和手肘已經(jīng)消失了。
“好了,先別慌!”兵兵說道,“重要的是我們都在一起。”
突然,兵兵的左胳膊掉了下來!樂樂尖叫著,她的腦袋掉了! 接著,憂憂的右胳膊也掉了,她摔倒在地。
“現(xiàn)在是第二階段,”憂憂說道,“我們要被分解了!”
他們?nèi)讼癖恢獾耐婢咄尥抟粯颖环至殉梢粔K一塊的。“啊——!”兵兵叫了起來,“我的腿沒知覺了!”他的胳膊找到了雙腿,一把抓?。?ldquo;噢,原來在這兒。”
樂樂試圖將自己重新拼接完整,但是卻抓住了憂憂的一條腿。她迅速將腿接在自己身上,看上去極不相稱,樣子怪異。
憂憂追著自己剛剛掉下的腦袋。“我們必須盡快出去,否則就會變成只有形狀和顏色的東西,永遠被困在這里!”她大聲叫道。
“困在這里?我們剛剛為什么要進來?”樂樂叫喊著。“我告訴過你,這是一條捷徑!”兵兵回答。
外面?zhèn)鱽砘疖國Q笛的聲音,他們朝窗外看去,發(fā)現(xiàn)火車進站了。“火車來了!”樂樂哭喊著。
砰的一聲!樂樂、憂憂和兵兵再一次變形,現(xiàn)在他們是扁平的了!
“哦,不,”憂憂說道,“我們變成二維的了!這是第三個階段!”
“厚度!”兵兵尖叫著,“我的厚度沒了!”
他們掙扎著在這個奇怪的平面世界里尋找出路,看起來近在咫尺的地方卻需要很長時間才能到達,看起來和他們大小差不多的門卻突然小得穿不過去。“門太小了!”樂樂抱怨道,她試圖將身體擠過去。
砰的一聲!他們再次變形?,F(xiàn)在他們變成了沒有形狀的顏色團,就像泥團一樣。
“哦,不,我們被抽象化了,”憂憂說,“這是最后一個階段!”
“我們出不去了!”兵兵說道。
憂憂撞到地板上,突然變成了一條藍線。“等等!”她說道,“我們是二維的,快臉朝下臥倒!”她像一只尺蠖一樣在地上爬行。
樂樂和兵兵按照憂憂的指示臥倒在地上,也變成了有顏色的線條。他們搖晃著、扭動著穿過窗戶!
嘟,嘟!火車再一次鳴笛,準備離開車站了。
“等等!停下!”樂樂一邊叫一邊試著跳起來,但是沒有成功。砰的一聲!樂樂變回二維的平面形狀,摔了下去。她抬頭看著火車開過。“不——!”她深受挫敗,看著火車冒著蒸汽咔嚓咔嚓地朝情緒總部駛去。
她轉向兵兵問道:“下一輛火車什么時候到?”
他聳聳肩:“誰知道呢?”