Inside Out Junior Novel

by Suzanne Francis

  “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?”

  “But don’t worry. There’s another station,” said Bing Bong in a comforting voice as they all popped back into their original three-dimensional selves. “If we hurry, we can catch it.”

  Joy was skeptical, wondering if they were simply headed on another of Bing Bong’s shortcuts. As he walked ahead, she whispered to Sadness, “Is there really another station?”

  “Uh-huh,” Sadness said. “Through there.”

  Straight ahead, Bing Bong stood with his arms held wide in front of big, beautiful gates. “Welcome to Imagination Land,” he declared.

  “Imagination Land?” Joy asked.

  “Sure, I come here all the time. I’m practically the mayor. Hey, you guys hungry?” he asked. “There’s French Fry Forest!”

  “No way.” Joy’s eyes grew wide as she looked at the small area filled with giant French fries.

  The next area Bing Bong led them to was full of glittering trophies and medals. “Check it out. Trophy Town! Medals, ribbons, certificates…everyone’s a winner,” he said, before kicking a soccer ball into a goal. Mind workers immediately rushed to him and showered him with medals. “I won first place!” he shouted.

  Down the way, Joy spotted Cloud Town and got even more excited. “That’s my favorite!” she said, ripping off a small chunk of cloud. She held on as the little piece of cloud floated her up into the air. She quickly let go and ran off to see more of Imagination Land.

  Bing Bong stared at the cloud. Then he ripped off a piece, too. But it wasn’t just a random cloud in Cloud Town—it was part of a cloud house. A cloud man stomped angrily from the front door. Startled, Bing Bong took a deep breath and blew out, pushing the cloud man away.

  Swiftly, the three moved on to the land of Lava! There, Joy and Bing Bong jumped on big couches, moving from cushion to cushion over the lava and having a great time. “Imagination Land is the best!” shouted Bing Bong.

  Sadness didn’t agree. “Is it all going to be so interactive?” she asked.

  “Wait, wait! Hang on just a minute,” Bing Bong said as he spied a house made of giant playing cards.

  Joy and Sadness watched as he rushed into the house and emerged with a red rocket ship wagon. Joy was so excited to see it. “I stashed it in there for safekeeping,” Bing Bong explained. “Now I’m all set to take Riley to the moon!”

  Bing Bong flung his arms wide and accidentally hit the card house. One by one, the cards collapsed on one another until the house disappeared. Joy, Sadness, and Bing Bong moved on to another area.

  “Isn’t it great?” asked Bing Bong as he looked around Imagination Land. “And there’s always something new, like…Who the heck is that?” Bing Bong stopped and pointed to a handsome teenage boy leaning against a wall, striking a pose.

  A worker passing by answered, “Imaginary Boyfriend.”

  “I would die for Riley,” said Imaginary Boyfriend in a dramatic, raspy voice.

  “Oh, gaah,” said Joy, her lip curling in disgust.

  “I’ve never seen him before,” said Bing Bong.

  “I live in Canada,” the boyfriend said quickly.

  Joy was anxious to get to the train. “This way, through Preschool World,” Bing Bong said as he guided them.

  “Riley, here we come!” Joy exclaimed.

  Meanwhile, Riley was inside a local hockey rink. She was sitting on the bleachers next to her mom, getting ready for tryouts. “These
kids look pretty good considering they’re from San Francisco,” her mom said jokingly.

  “Okay, Anderson, you’re up!” the coach shouted.

  “I gotta go,” said Riley as she stood. Then she skated onto the ice.

  Inside Headquarters, Disgust, Fear, and Anger were racking their brains, trying to figure out what to do. With the core memories gone, the Islands of Personality were all dark. That meant that when Riley went to use one, she wouldn’t be able to. “If she tries to use Hockey Island, it’s going down,” said Disgust.

  “Which is why I’ve recalled every hockey memory I can think of,” said Fear. “One of these has got to work in place of the core memory.”

  They started loading the memories into the core memory holder as Riley skated onto the ice. Out the back window, the Emotions could see Hockey Island sputtering, lighting up weakly. “Ha ha!” Fear cried. “We did it! It’s working!”

  BOOM! Suddenly, the holder blew out one of the memories like a bullet and took Anger right along with it! “Umph!” Anger groaned as the memory knocked into him.

  On the ice, Riley struggled to control the puck. She went to slap it but missed and fell flat on her back.

  Inside Headquarters, Fear tried to jam the memory back into the holder, but it shot out again and blew him back. Then the holder spun like a top and blasted all the memories out, spitting them at Fear! He collapsed to the ground, in pain.

  Riley continued to fumble on the ice. She looked like she had never played hockey before. She tried to slap the puck and fell down again.

  “That’s it!” Anger said, pushing Fear off the controls.

  “Wait,” Fear said. “No, no, no! Use your words.”

  “GrrraaaAAHHH!” Anger screamed.

  Riley snapped. She threw down her hockey stick. The other players stopped in their tracks to watch as she rushed off the ice, back to the bleachers.

  “Riley, what’s wrong?” Mom asked.

  “Let’s go,” Riley said, taking off her skates.

  “You’re not going to finish tryouts?”

  “What’s the point?”

  “Hey, it’ll be all right,” Mom said. “Let’s just—”

  Riley exploded. “Stop saying everything will be all right!” she yelled. Then she dashed toward the exit.

  Back in Imagination Land, Joy heard a deafening BOOM! She turned to watch Hockey Island crumble like an iceberg. Another island was gone.

  “Bing Bong, we have to get to that station,” Joy said. She couldn’t believe they had lost another island. The train whistled in the distance, which made her feel even more anxious.

  “Sure thing,” Bing Bong said. “This way, just past Graham Cracker Castle.” But then he stopped and looked around, confused. The castle was gone. “I wonder why they moved it?” he asked. He walked a bit farther. Suddenly, he realized things didn’t look right.

  A giant bulldozer came hurtling toward him and knocked over a pink castle. Bing Bong gasped. “Princess Dream World!” Glitter flew into the air as the castle disintegrated. All of Preschool World was being torn down!

  “My rocket!” Bing Bong screamed as he saw the Forgetters walking by with a red wagon. He ran after it. “Wait!” he yelled as a bulldozer pushed the pile of old memories closer and closer to the cliff edge. “Riley and I were still using that rocket! It still has some song power left!”

  He desperately sang the song that powered the rocket and it responded, binging and bonging back at him and firing up. It rocketed into the air, then dove straight over the cliff! “Nooo!” Bing Bong screamed. “You can’t take my rocket to the dump! Riley and I are going to the moon!” He watched in shock as the rocket disappeared into the infinite darkness of the dump below. “Riley can’t be done with me,” he said, feeling heartbroken and falling to his knees.

  Joy could think of only one thing: she had to get to the station. So she tried to pep Bing Bong up. “Hey, it’s going to be okay. We can fix this. We just need to get back to Headquarters. Which way to the train station?” Bing Bong had no reaction. He was frozen with grief.

  “I had a whole trip planned for us,” he said quietly.

  “Here comes the tickle monster,” Joy said, as she tried a different tactic. She tickled him, but he didn’t respond. She even tried making funny faces, but her silliness wasn’t snapping Bing Bong out of his misery. “Oh, here comes a fun game. You point to the train station, and we’ll go there,” Joy said. Bing Bong remained motionless.

  Sadness walked over and sat down next to him. “I’m sorry they took your rocket,” she said gently. “They took something that you loved and it’s gone…forever.”

  “Sadness, don’t make him feel worse,” Joy said.

  “Sorry,” said Sadness.

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

  “I bet you and Riley had great adventures,” Sadness said.

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

  “That sounds amazing. I bet Riley liked it.”

  “Oh, she did. We were best friends,” Bing Bong said. He started to cry.

  “Yeah,” said Sadness. “It is sad.”

  Bing Bong put his head on Sadness’s shoulder and cried candy tears. Sadness put her arm around him and tried to comfort him as he sobbed.

  After a good cry, Bing Bong wiped his eyes and took a deep breath. “I’m okay now,” he said with a sniffle. He stood up and looked around. “C’mon. The train station is this way.” He started to walk toward it.

  Joy looked at Sadness in disbelief. “How did you do that?” she asked.

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

  “Hey, there’s the train!” Bing Bong called.

  The three ran up to the train and climbed aboard just as it was starting up. “We made it!” Joy said. “We’re finally going to get home!”

  Back in Headquarters, Anger, Fear, and Disgust ranted about the terrible day they’d had. “On a scale of one to ten, I give this day an F,” said Disgust.

  “Well, why don’t we quit standing around and do something,” Anger suggested, dropping his newspaper, which was emblazoned with the headline “Riley Quits Hockey!”

  Fear thought they all should quit their jobs as Riley’s Emotions. He knew it was the coward’s way out, but since he was Fear, he was okay with that.

  “Emotions don’t quit, genius,” Disgust said.

  Suddenly, Anger ran to the back and rummaged through the ideas, looking for something. “Aha!” he shouted, holding up an idea bulb triumphantly. He believed he’d found the solution they needed to fix everything for Riley. “Just the best idea ever!” he announced.

  “What?” Disgust asked.

  “All the good core memories were made in Minnesota,” Anger said. “Ergo, we go back to Minnesota and make more. Ta-da!”

  “Wait, wait, wait. You’re saying we run away?” asked Fear. “You can’t be serious.”

  “Our life was perfect until Mom and Dad decided to move to San Fran Stinktown,” said Anger.

  “But, I mean, it’s just so…drastic,” said Fear.

  “Need I remind you how great things were there? Our room? Our backyard? Our friends?” Anger punched up a memory, playing it on the screen.

  The Tripledent gum commercial song played throughout Headquarters. “Did I ask for the gum commercial?” Annoyed, Anger slapped his hand against the console, ejecting the memory. “Anyway, it was better. That’s my point.”

  “Yeah, Riley was happier in Minnesota…” said Disgust, nodding her head.

  “Shouldn’t we just sleep on it or something?” asked Fear.

  “Fine. Let’s sleep on it,” Anger said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Because hey—I’m sure jolly, fun-filled times are just around the corner.”

  Inside her bedroom, Riley drifted off to sleep.

  With Riley asleep, day turned to night in Mind World and the Train of Thought came to a screeching hal
t. “Huh?” Joy was confused. “Hey! Why aren’t we moving?”

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

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

  “Yeah, the Train of Thought doesn’t run while she’s asleep,” answered Bing Bong.

  “Oh, we can’t wait that long!” groaned Joy.

  Sadness stared out the window and came up with an idea. “How about we wake her up?”

  “Sadness, that’s ridiculous,” Joy said. “How could we possibly…” She followed Sadness’s gaze and saw what she was staring at: Dream Productions. “How about we wake her up!” Joy said.

  Joy, Sadness, and Bing Bong hopped off the train and quickly made their way over to Dream Productions. The busy studio was full of action and excitement. Actors in all kinds of costumes walked around sipping coffee and carrying scripts, grips pushed rolling sets, and golf carts zipped from stage to stage.

  “Whoa!” said Joy, taking in the scene. “This place is huge.”

  “Yeah, it looks so much smaller than I expected,” Sadness said.

  Joy almost fainted when they walked by the star of a majority of Riley’s dreams: Rainbow Unicorn. “She’s right there!” Joy whispered in awe, pointing at the unicorn casually sitting in a director’s chair.

  Sadness walked right up to her. “My friend says you’re famous,” she said. “She wants your autograph.”

  “No, no, Sadness, don’t bother Miss Unicorn, okay?” Joy said, grabbing Sadness. “Sorry,” she said to the unicorn. “She’s from out of town. That was so embarrassing, right?” Joy awkwardly pulled Sadness away. Then she popped her head back toward Rainbow Unicorn and squealed, “I loved you in Fairy Dream Adventure Part 7! Okay, bye! I love you!”

  Dashing away, Joy caught up with Sadness and Bing Bong. They had reached one of the stages and were just walking right in. The dream director was addressing the cast and crew. “Today’s memories are in,” the director declared. “We’ve got a lot to work with here. Riley dumped her best friend, had a miserable day at school, and quit hockey.”