Driven by Emotions

by Elise Allen

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “The long…long…long…long way. I’m ready.”

  I got back down on the floor and lifted my leg so she could drag me, but then Joy ran off again. I found her talking to a strange-looking guy with a trunk, whiskers, and paws. I recognized him. He was Bing Bong, Riley’s old imaginary friend, but there was something I had never understood about him.

  “What are you supposed to be?” I asked.

  “You know,” Bing Bong answered, “it’s unclear. I’m part cat…part elephant…part dolphin.”

  Bing Bong seemed nice. He gave Joy a bag to help her carry the core memories. And he was willing to help us get to Headquarters. He thought we should take the Train of Thought, which sounded like a smart idea since it went up to Headquarters all the time.

  “I know a shortcut,” he said. “Come on, this way!”

  We followed him, but I didn’t like the idea of a shortcut. It sounded risky.

  Bing Bong led Joy and me to a warehouse. We could see through a door all the way to a window on the building’s other side. The train station was right outside that window.

  “The station is right through here,” Bing Bong said. He opened the door. “After you.”

  “Joy!” I cried, stopping her.

  “What?”

  “I read about this place in the manual,” I told her. “We shouldn’t go in there, that’s a bad idea.”

  “Bing Bong says it’s the quickest way to Headquarters,” said Joy.

  “No, this is Abstract Thought,” I explained. “Let’s go around. This way,” I said, pulling Joy’s arm.

  “What are you talking about?” Bing Bong asked. “I go in here all the time. It’s a shortcut, you see?” He pointed to a sign above the door and spelled it out. “D-A-N-G-E-R, ‘shortcut.’ I’ll prove it to you.”

  I was pretty sure he hadn’t spelled “shortcut,” but he went inside and Joy followed, so I went in, too. I didn’t like it, though. And I liked it even less when the lights popped on and shapes floated off the floor and into space.

  “Say,” Bing Bong said, “would you look at that.”

  “Oh, no,” I said, realizing someone must have just activated the room.

  I looked over at Bing Bong. His face had turned weird-looking. Like a dream version of his face. Joy and I both screamed, which made Bing Bong touch his face and realize what had happened.

  “My face!” he wailed. “My beautiful face!”

  “What is going on?” Joy cried.

  I told her. “We’re abstracting! There are four stages. This is the first: nonobjective fragmentation!”

  We tried to walk across the building, but we didn’t have joints anymore, so it was pretty hard.

  “All right, do not panic!” Bing Bong advised. “What is important is that we all stay together!”

  Then his arm fell off. Joy’s head fell off next. Then I lost my leg. I toppled after it.

  “We’re in the second stage,” I pointed out. “We’re deconstructing!”

  “Ah!” Bing Bong screamed. “Run!”

  I don’t like running, but I would have. It was just difficult when we didn’t have all of our body parts.

  “We’ve gotta get out of here before we’re nothing but shape and color and get stuck here forever!” I cried.

  “Stuck?” Joy wailed. “Why did we come in here?”

  “I told you,” Bing Bong said, “it’s a shortcut!”

  Through the window, we saw the Train of Thought pull into the station…just as we popped into flat, colored shapes.

  “Oh, no,” I moaned. “We’re two-dimensional! That’s stage three!”

  “Depth!” Bing Bong cried. “I’m lacking depth!”

  We still tried to make it to the window, but it was so hard.

  “We’re getting nowhere!” Joy cried.

  Then we abstracted into blobs.

  “Oh, no!” I groaned. “We’re nonfigurative. This is the last stage!”

  “We’re not going to make it!” Bing Bong declared.

  I was too sad to deal. I slumped to the ground and became a line.

  A line! That gave me an idea!

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

  I crawled like an inchworm, and Joy and Bing Bong did the same. As flat lines, we made our way out the far window. We had finally escaped the Abstract Thought building! The bad news was that we had just missed the train, but the good news was that we had popped back to our three-dimensional selves.

  “I thought you said that was a shortcut,” Joy said to Bing Bong.

  “I did, but wow, we should not have gone in there,” Bing Bong admitted. “That was dangerous! They really should put up a sign.”

  Bing Bong explained that there was another train station on the other side of Imagination Land. Joy wasn’t so sure about his navigation skills after he brought us through Abstract Thought, though, so she turned to me and whispered, “Is there really another station?”

  I remembered from the mind manuals that there was another station. “Uh-huh, through there,” I replied.

  So we followed Bing Bong into Imagination Land. He was really excited to give us a tour. Joy loved it, but it was a little too strenuous and interactive for me. We had to tromp through French Fry Forest, and Trophy Town, and Cloud Town…it really would have been nicer to lie down for a while. Then Bing Bong led us to Preschool World, but on the way there, we heard a loud sound.

  It was Hockey Island, crumbling like an iceberg.

  “Bing Bong,” Joy said, “we have to go back to the station now.”

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

  I was pretty sure he was still leading us to Preschool World, not the train station—but then he stopped, like he was confused, too.

  “Hey, that’s weird,” he said. “Graham Cracker Castle used to be right here. I wonder why they moved it?”

  He looked around, and seemed to get even more confused. “Wow, that’s not…I would have sworn Sparkle Pony Mountain was right here. Hey, what’s going on?”

  I noticed a bulldozer in front of us. It knocked over a big pink castle.

  “Princess Dream World!” Bing Bong gasped.

  Glitter dust plumed everywhere. The bulldozer kept moving. “Oh, no!” Bing Bong gasped again. “The Stuffed Animal Hall of Fame!”

  The dozer ripped the head off a big stuffed bear. Sad. Then Bing Bong saw something that really got him upset.

  “My rocket!” he screamed.

  It was a wagon, really, and two Forgetters were carrying it toward the pile in front of the bulldozer, which was pushing it all toward the edge of a cliff. Bing Bong ran as fast as he could and tried to catch up with them, but he didn’t make it. The Forgetters threw the rocket on the pile, and the bulldozer shoved it and the rest of the rubble off a cliff and into the dump.

  “Nooo!” he protested. “No! No! No! You can’t take my rocket to the dump! Riley and I are going to the moon!”

  But the rocket was gone. Bing Bong was so stunned and distraught he dropped to his knees. “Riley can’t be done with me.”

  Joy walked over to him and tried to make him feel better. “Hey, it’s going to be okay!” she said. “We can fix this! We just need to get back to Headquarters. Which way to the train station?”

  She tried to lead him back, but Bing Bong wouldn’t move. “I had a whole trip planned for us,” he said.

  Joy tried again. “Hey, who’s ticklish, huh? Here comes the tickle monster…”

  She tickled him, but he didn’t respond.

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

  She made a silly face. He didn’t even glance at her. I could tell Joy was getting impatient.

  “Here’s a fun game!” she said. “You point to the train station and we all go there! Won’t that be fun? Come on, let’s go to the train station!”

  I understood Joy wanted to get back to Headquarters. I did, too. But
Bing Bong didn’t need someone to cheer him up or get him motivated. He was sad because something really depressing had happened to him.

  He needed to be sad.

  I sat down next to him. “I’m sorry they took your rocket,” I said. “They took something that you loved. It’s gone…forever.”

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

  “Sorry,” I said…but I wasn’t. Not really. I didn’t want to upset Joy, but I thought, well, maybe she just didn’t understand.

  Bing Bong still stared into the pit where his rocket had disappeared. “It’s all I had left of Riley,” he said.

  “I bet you and Riley had great adventures,” I told him.

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

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

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

  He started to cry then. He cried candy, just the way Riley imagined he would when she was little. I let him put his head on my shoulder.

  “Yeah, it’s sad,” I said.

  I put my arm around him and let him cry. Eventually, the sobs got softer…then slower…and then they turned to sniffles. He lifted his head and blinked, wiping at his eyes.

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

  He started walking. I felt tired, like I’d been crying, too, but I also felt good, because I’d made it better for Bing Bong. I got up so I could follow him, but Joy was in front of me, and she had this weird look on her face.

  “Wow,” she said. “How did you do that?”

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

  Suddenly, we heard the train whistle.

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

  I hurried to catch up with him, and soon he, Joy, and I were riding the Train of Thought. It was a nice ride, but when it became nighttime and things got dark, the train stopped.

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

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

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

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

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

  “How about we wake her up?” I suggested.

  “Sadness, that’s ridiculous,” Joy scolded me. “How could we possibly…” Then she spotted the gates to Dream Productions. Her face lit up like she had an amazing idea. “How about we wake her up!”

  “Great idea, Joy,” I said.

  “Thanks,” she said. “Come on!”

  We walked to Dream Productions, where they produce Riley’s dreams. Once we were through the gate, we were surrounded by lots of actors in costumes, set workers and lighting guys, and lots of people on golf carts. Everyone seemed very busy.

  “Whoa!” Joy marveled. “This place is huge.”

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

  Joy got really excited when she saw a unicorn sitting in a director’s chair, so I went up to it and said, “My friend says you’re famous. She wants your autograph.”

  Joy didn’t like that. “No, no, Sadness, don’t bother Miss Unicorn, okay?”

  It was like she was embarrassed or something. Oh, well.

  Joy, Bing Bong, and I got to a big building: STAGE B. It seemed like a good place to find the Dream Productions team, so we went inside. There was a lot going on—lots of actors and sets and props and things. We weren’t supposed to be inside, so we hid behind some production equipment and shuffled over to a rack of costumes.

  “Okay, how are we gonna wake her up?” Joy asked.

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

  “Scare her?” Joy echoed. “No, no, she’s been through enough already. Sadness, you may know your way around down here, but I know Riley! We’re gonna make her so happy she’ll wake up with exhilaration! We’ll excite her awake!”

  “That’s never happened before,” I noted.

  “Ooh!” Joy squealed as she found a costume she liked. “Riley loves dogs. Put this on!”

  It was the back half of a dog costume. Joy took the front half.

  “I don’t think that’ll work,” I warned her, but I put on the costume anyway. Then Joy and I stood to the side of the set while everyone started shooting the dream. It was a dream about Riley’s first day at school, except even sadder than the way it actually happened. She was talking to her whole class…but then her teeth fell out and it turned out she wasn’t wearing pants.

  “Ready?” Joy asked me.

  “I don’t think this happy thing is going to work,” I said. “But if we scare her—”

  “Here we go!” yelled Joy.

  She pulled me out with her, which was pretty easy since she was the front half of the dog, and we tried to leap around like a puppy. I guess it went okay. I couldn’t see anything from my part of the costume. All I knew was Joy was barking and running around for a long time, and still no one shouted that Riley was waking up, so I knew it wasn’t working. I said so to Joy, but before she could answer me, the costume split in half. I thought that might be good and scary, so I ran away from Joy, all around the classroom set.

  “Huh?” Joy whispered. “Sadness, what are you doing? Come back here!”

  I saw Bing Bong jump in front of the camera, so I let Joy get closer to me.

  “Sadness!” she said accusingly. “You are ruining this dream! You’re scaring her!”

  “But look,” I said, “it’s working!”

  I pointed to the Sleep Indicator on the wall. It was moving from ASLEEP to AWAKE. It wasn’t there yet, but it was a lot closer than when we started. Being half-dogs was a lot more effective than being one full dog. I wanted to have Joy actually catch my tail in her mouth and shake it around while I whimpered, but we didn’t get the chance.

  “THEY ARE NOT PART OF THIS DREAM!” the director yelled. “GET THEM!”

  Security came to get us. Joy and I left the dream and ran away, but they got Bing Bong. We couldn’t help him, because if they saw us, they’d grab us, too. Joy was really upset because Bing Bong had been holding the bag of core memories for her, and now they were gone, too.

  I saw where they took him. It was the Subconscious. To get there and find him, Joy and I had to go down a massive, dark, spooky staircase. At the bottom was a giant gate, with only darkness and eerie noises behind it. The gate was watched by two guards.

  “What is this place?” Joy whispered.

  “The Subconscious,” I told her. “I read about it in the manual. It’s where they take all the troublemakers.”

  Joy looked at the guards. “Hmmm. How do we get in?”

  I had an idea. I motioned for Joy to follow me. The two guards were deep in conversation, so Joy and I just tiptoed past them. We walked right up to the closed gate…then I shook it.

  “Hey! You!” one guard shouted.

  “Oh! You caught us!” I said. I tried to sound really guilty.

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

  The guards shoved Joy and me through the gate and then slammed it shut.

  I’d gotten us inside, but the place was really a massive, dark, damp cave with noises that echoed in spooky ways. “I don’t like it here,” I told Joy. “It’s where they keep Riley’s darkest fears.”

  “It’s broccoli!” Joy gasped as she saw a giant stalk of the evil vegetable. Then a door in the rock wall creaked open, revealing a rickety set of stairs. Joy and I both screamed.

  “The stairs to the basement!” I yelled.

  And we’d only just gotten away from them when we heard a giant roar and a massive vacuum cleaner popped out of the shadows and c
ame after us.

  “Grandma’s vacuum cleaner!” Joy screamed.

  We ran until it was out of sight, then hid behind a rock. Once we’d caught our breath, we tried tiptoeing through the cave again. We tried to be very quiet, but every step I took crunched down on something.

  “Would you walk quieter?” Joy asked.

  “I’m trying!” I told her.

  “What is going—” Joy asked, reaching down and picking something up. “Candy wrappers.”

  Bing Bong cried candy, so it seemed like a good sign. We followed the trail of wrappers. Soon we heard sobbing.

  “Bing Bong!” Joy cried.

  He was there, crouched down in a big cage made of balloons. He seemed happy to see us for about a second; then he warned us to be very quiet. He pointed, and we realized we were right next to a giant sleeping clown.

  “It’s Jangles,” Joy said. She sounded terrified. Jangles scared me, too. Riley met Jangles at her cousin’s birthday party. He had a face white as a tomb and a grinning mouth so red it looked like he snacked on children. I’m pretty sure his teeth were fangs, too. All of them.

  This Jangles was even scarier than the real one. He was as big as a T. rex. And he murmured wickedly while he slept. “Who’s the birthday girl?” he slurred.

  Joy spoke very softly. “Do you still have the core memories?”

  “Yeah.” Bing Bong handed them through the balloon-cage slats and Joy slung the bag back over her shoulder. “All he cared about was the candy!”

  Joy tried to pry apart the balloons so Bing Bong could get out, but they squeaked like fingernails running down a blackboard and made the hair on my neck stand up. I watched to see if Jangles would wake up. He snorted and rolled over, but stayed asleep as Joy stretched the bars even farther and Bing Bong escaped.

  “We’re out of here!” Bing Bong declared. “Let’s get to that train and wait for morning.”

  We were running really fast, but then Joy stopped and grabbed my arm. “Wait, the train’s not running. We still have to wake up Riley.”

  “But how?” I asked.

  We both had the same idea at once. We looked up at Jangles.

  “Oh, no,” said Bing Bong.

  Joy and I gathered all our courage and woke up Jangles. We told him that there was going to be a birthday party. That was enough to get him really excited.