Driven by Emotions (4 page)

“Wait!” Sadness suddenly shouted. “We’re two-dimensional. Fall on your face!”

She fell forward. Instead of a blob of color, she was now a line and crawled inchworm-like toward the window.

It was brilliant! Bing Bong and I did the same, and we made it out the window…just as the train pulled away without us. We tried to run after it, but it took a while for us to get back to
our regular shapes. By the time we did, the train was long gone.

“Don’t worry, there’s another station. That way!” said Bing Bong, pointing off into the distance. “The train always stops there right before it goes to
Headquarters. If we hurry, we can catch it!”

After what we had just been through, I wasn’t sure we should rely on Bing Bong to point us in the right direction anymore.

“This isn’t another one of your shortcuts, is it?” I asked him.

“Ha, ha, ha! Yeah!” he said, and walked off.

I turned to Sadness. “Is there really another station?”

Sadness nodded yes. “Through there,” she said.

Sadness knew her way around—I trusted her. So we followed Bing Bong, and soon enough we were at the gates of…

“Imagination Land!” exclaimed Bing Bong. “I come here all the time. I’m practically the mayor!”

Bing Bong first took us through French Fry Forest, which was absolutely finger-licking good! The fries were crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, hot enough to be delicious without burning
your tongue…perfection.

Then we went through Trophy Town, which was just filled with trophies and medals. Bing Bong saw a soccer ball on the ground and kicked it into a goal, and workers
swarmed
out to load his
arms with trophies and flower bouquets and hang medals around his neck. So fun!

And then I saw
Cloud Town
! For real—a town made of clouds! I pulled a small chunk of cloud off a building and jumped on as it floated into the air. It was so soft!

Bing Bong then headed to the House of Cards—an actual house made of playing cards—and emerged with his rocket. Well, it was really a wagon, but when he played with Riley, it
transformed into a rocket that took them on the most amazing adventures!

“I stashed it in there for safekeeping,” said Bing Bong. “Now I’m all set to take Riley to the moon!” Then he accidentally bumped into the House of Cards, and it
collapsed. “Oh, I’m sorry,” he said.

“Great,” muttered a construction worker.

“I love Imagination Land,” I said.

“Isn’t it great?” he replied. “And there’s always something new, like…who the heck is that?”

Bing Bong was looking at a giant machine with a conveyer belt. A teenage boy with hair flopping in his face, dark brown eyes, and a major case of bad-boy attitude rolled out onto the belt.

“Imaginary boyfriend,” said a nearby worker.

When the boy turned to look at us, we could see the depths of heartsick despair in his gaze. “I would die for Riley,” he said.

Ewww.

We quickly moved beyond the Imaginary Boyfriend Generator.

“This way, through Preschool World! We’re nearly to the train!” said Bing Bong.

Sadness and I followed Bing Bong to the Preschool World gates. Just then, there was a loud
BOOM
! I quickly turned around and saw Hockey Island collapsing. Riley loved hockey! She
couldn’t give up on hockey.

I knelt down and pulled out Riley’s hockey core memory from the satchel. The memory sphere showed Riley when she was just two-and-a-half years old. She was with Mom and Dad on the frozen
lake, trying to shoot a puck into the goal. She missed at first but then spun around and accidentally knocked the puck into the goal. She was so proud of herself, and so were Mom and Dad. I looked
up at the empty space where Hockey Island used to be. I sighed and then quickly caught up with Bing Bong.

“We have to get to that station,” I told him.

“Sure thing,” he said. “This way, just past Graham Cracker Castle.”

But there was no Graham Cracker Castle. Bing Bong looked confused. “It used to be right here. And where’s…I could have sworn Sparkle Pony Mountain was right over there.
What’s going on?”

Just then, a bulldozer came by and knocked over a cotton candy-pink castle.

“Princess Dream World!” Bing Bong gasped.

The bulldozer kept knocking things over. Soon the air was so full of glitter and fluff that I could barely breathe. What was this stuff?

“The Stuffed Animal Hall of Fame!” Bing Bong wailed. Then he screamed out loud, “My rocket!”

He ran as fast as he could, chasing two Mind Workers who had taken his rocket when he wasn’t looking. Bing Bong tried to catch up to them, but they were faster and they had a head start.
They tossed the wagon onto a pile of rubble that was getting bulldozed off a cliff.

“Wait!” Bing Bong pleaded. “Riley and I were still using that rocket! It still has some song power left!” He sang his theme song and the rocket fired forward, powered by
the music.

Unfortunately, when it zipped forward, it launched itself over the cliff and into the dump below. Bing Bong fell to his knees.

“Riley can’t be done with me,” he murmured.

I hated to see him so sad, especially when we had a mission to accomplish that would put everything back to normal. I put a hand on his back and tried to rally him. “We can fix
this!” I assured him. “We just need to get back to Headquarters. Which way to the train station?”

“I had a whole trip planned for us,” Bing Bong said sadly.

He was
not
snapping out of it. I had to try a new tactic. “Hey, who’s ticklish, huh? Here comes the tickle monster…”

I tickled him under his arms, which is the most supremely ticklish part of the entire body, but he didn’t even move. Not a giggle, not a flinch.

“Hey, Bing Bong!” I tried. “Look at this!”

I made the goofiest face in my arsenal: crossed eyes, tongue out, fingers pulling my lips wide apart in two different directions.

No response at all. How was I going to make him happy again so he could lead us to the train station?

Then Sadness came over and plopped down beside him.

“I’m sorry they took your rocket,” she said gently. “They took something that you loved. It’s gone…forever.”

Oh, great. That’s just what Bing Bong needed—something to make him feel even worse.

“It’s all I had left of Riley,” Bing Bong said.

“I bet you and Riley had great adventures,” Sadness said, once again reminding him how much he’d lost. Honestly, she does not understand how to be
positive
!

“They were wonderful,” Bing Bong agreed. “Once we flew back in time. We had breakfast twice that day.”

“That sounds amazing,” Sadness said. “I bet Riley liked it.”

“Oh, she did,” Bing Bong said. “We were best friends.”

Then Bing Bong started to cry. His candy tears weren’t so bad…actually, they were kind of delicious…but still! What was Sadness thinking? Why had she made him cry?

“Yeah, it’s sad,” Sadness said.

Bing Bong put his head on Sadness’s shoulder, and the candy tears started to pour.

Sadness kept her arm around him while he cried. Eventually, he sat back up, sniffling and blinking.

“I’m okay now. C’mon, the train station is this way,” said Bing Bong.

My jaw dropped open. How did that happen? How did
crying
motivate Bing Bong to help us get back to Headquarters? As Sadness and I followed him, I pulled her aside and asked, “How
did you do that?”

“I don’t know,” Sadness said. “He was sad. So I listened—”

“Hey!” Bing Bong shouted. “There’s the train!”

Sadness and I ran to catch up with him. The Train of Thought was right there at the station, and we climbed aboard just as it started up. We were on our way, and everything was going to work out
perfectly.

At least, it
would have
worked out perfectly if the train hadn’t stopped when we were only halfway through the long ride to Headquarters.

“Hey, hey!” I called to the engineer. “Why aren’t we moving?”

“Riley’s gone to sleep,” the engineer said. “We’re all on break.”

“Oh, yeah,” Bing Bong remembered. “The Train of Thought doesn’t run while she’s asleep.”

“You mean we’re stuck here until morning?” Sadness wailed.

“We can’t wait that long!” I said. But a second later, I had a great idea—we could wake Riley up! Or maybe Sadness had the idea, but I don’t think so. I think it
was mine. Either way, it doesn’t matter. The main thing is the idea was terrific. So Sadness, Bing Bong, and I got off the train and walked onto the lot of Dream Productions. I was super
excited. Like I said, I’d
always
been a huge fan of Dream Productions, and there I was! I saw lots of big studio buildings, actors walking around in costumes, golf carts zipping this
way and that. I even recognized the guy who played Riley’s hockey coach in her favorite recurring Olympics dream!

Then it got even better. I saw a giant white horse-creature with a pink horn. She sat in a director’s chair sipping a latte. I grabbed Bing Bong’s arm. “Rainbow Unicorn!
She’s
right there
!”

I didn’t want to make a big fuss and embarrass her, so I just gave her a little nod as we walked by, but Sadness went right up to her.

“My friend says you’re famous,” she said. “She wants your autograph.”

Again with the embarrassing! I pulled Sadness away and kept on walking—but not before Rainbow Unicorn and I had a great moment together, where I told her how amazing she was and she really
appreciated it. We’re definitely friends now.

Soon we came to a large building that said
STAGE B
. There was a red flashing light on the building and a sign that said
DO NOT ENTER WHEN LIGHT IS
FLASHING
.

“Huh,” Bing Bong said. “Wonder what that means. Ah well, let’s go in.”

We went into the room and it looked so exciting! People were running everywhere, working cameras, carrying script pages, focusing lights. It was show business in action! Sadness, Bing Bong, and
I hid behind a costume rack as we decided what to do. “How are we gonna wake her up?” I asked.

“Well,” Sadness said, “she wakes up sometimes when she has a scary dream. We could scare her.”

That was a terrible idea. Why make Riley feel terrified when we could make her feel happy? “We are going to make Riley so happy that she’ll wake up with exhilaration,” I
suggested. “We’ll excite her awake!” I looked through the costume rack and found a dog costume. It had two pieces—one for the back half and one for the front. I tossed
Sadness the back half of the costume. “Put this on,” I told her. “Riley loves dogs!”

I gave Bing Bong the bag of core memories to hold. “Don’t let anything happen to these,” I told him. Then I tossed on the top half of the dog costume and led Sadness to the
side of the set. It was set up like a classroom, and when the scene started, I knew what they were doing—acting out Riley’s first day of school, when she cried in front of everyone.

Who writes these scripts? Why would they show that to Riley when it was hard enough going through it in real life? Good thing I was on the scene to make things happier.

I waited until the most dramatic point of the scene, when Riley was standing in front of everyone, and then Sadness and I loped onto the set. We pranced around just like a real puppy! I barked,
we trotted in circles, I made the puppy’s tongue lick Riley and all the other students…I was
adorable
! No way Riley could resist this. Sure, it’s true, the dial on the
wall said Riley was still asleep, but she couldn’t stay asleep for much longer. Not with this much fun going on, right?

And it was about to get even better. I looked at Bing Bong, who was watching from backstage. “
Psst!
You’re on! Go!” Bing Bong pulled a rope that let a ton of balloons
fall from the ceiling, and another rope that set off a confetti cannon. Now it was a puppy dance party! Riley would spring awake and start dancing!

“Joy, this isn’t working,” Sadness said from the back half of the dog, but I didn’t listen. I was dancing, Bing Bong was dancing…this was irresistibly fun!

Then Bing Bong danced into a light…that crashed onto the stage…that made Sadness jump away from me—which made it look like the adorable puppy had split in half!

Then there was chaos. Actors were running around to avoid the fallen light, technicians were trying to shoo Sadness and I offstage, and Bing Bong decided that was the perfect time to speak
directly to Riley and get them to be friends again.

“Hi, Riley, it’s me! BING BONG!”

“Joy, look!” Sadness said. “It’s working!”

There was
nothing
working about it. At least, that’s what I thought. But when I looked where Sadness was pointing, I saw the dial on the wall had moved! Riley was slowly getting
closer to awake! Soon we’d be able to get out of there and hop back on the Train of Thought!

“They’re trying to wake her up!” the director said, pointing to Bing Bong, Sadness, and me. “Call security!”

Sadness and I ducked away and hid, but Bing Bong wasn’t as fast. A security guard put him in handcuffs and dragged him away. We watched from the shadows as the guard pulled Bing Bong out
of the studio and threw him through a thick, scary gate into a dark pit of a chamber. We heard Bing Bong’s screams getting softer and softer as he sunk down into the depths.

“They threw him into the Subconscious,” Sadness said. “I read about it in the manual. It’s where they take all the troublemakers.”

“He has the core memories,” I told Sadness. “We have to go after him.”

Luckily, Sadness knew the way. We walked down as everything around us grew dim and then dark. Finally, we made it to another gate. Two guards were standing nearby, but they were deep in
conversation, so Sadness and I simply snuck past them and walked right up to the gate. Sadness rattled it and the guards spun around.

“Hey! You!” one shouted.

“Oh! You caught us!” Sadness said as if she was really upset about it.

“Get back in there!” the other guard demanded. “No escaping!”

The two of them shoved us into the Subconscious and slammed the gate behind us.