Two
One of the most recent developments in the Mindscape was Science Island, the result of an unintended collaboration between Fear and Disgust. Science Island was one of the more recent additions to the archipelago of dozen Islands of Personality that towered along the edges of what was called the Memory Dump. The Memory Dump was a vast, darkened chasm where faded Memories and other disused features of Riley's mind were sent to perish. Each Island represented a different aspect of Riley's life, and each one had a story- a Core Memory- that fueled it. Core Memories were a rarity among the thousands of colored globes that the Emotions produced, both consciously and unconsciously, over the years: super important times in Riley's life, as Joy might describe them.
A Core Memory glowed with a much brighter, blazing intensity than any other, and until recently, they were all Joy's creations.
Riley carried a passing fascination with all things science as far back as grade one when she heard for the first time that men had at one time walked on the moon. It only became serious recently, one day in seventh grade biology, when dissecting a frog became a Core Memory, courtesy of Disgust and Fear. They still shuddered thinking of it, and Dream Productions liked to bring it up from time to time in Riley's sleep.
It was the one subject that Riley looked forward to, if she had one. Unlike most of her other subjects, she found science to be engaging and stimulating, and worked quickly and purposefully with none of the meandering that happened so frequently with Algebra, or even any of the "easy" rote subjects such as history or Language Arts. Riley might have even enjoyed it too if she wasn't in such a great hurry. By 7:10, when Dad came, Riley was nearly finished with science and her wrist was sore from scribbling. At this time, Dad asked how much work Riley had left, and she had no choice left but to be honest. She was on the third to last question in Biology, but Algebra was still very much undone, including the Sudoku puzzle, where her efforts at filling up spaces had proven fruitless.
Riley was in trouble with her parents, no doubt about it, but it struck her how casually they sidelined those issues in the face of the mess that she was now in. Mom and dad immediately sat down to offer their best help. Dad's math was different, much to the chagrin of everybody. Mom, as it turned out, was really good at Sudoku. While Dad was trying to make sense of the textbook, Mom was trying, and failing, to explain the principles to Riley. Which numbers do you see in this column? What does that leave us with? Eventually she settled on dictating the answers, which took five minutes. Riley was only glad this headache of a puzzle was getting done.
"Why didn't you ask sooner? I could have helped you, ya know."
Riley stared blankly. Mom was right.
Mom promised to sit down with Riley and properly teach her Sudoku after school. She was definitely grounded.
Riley had her textbook and answer sheet in her lap during the drive through climbing and falling suburban roads in the hills of San Francisco. In the moving car, she fought to keep her pencil steady. They rolled to a stop. "We're here," Dad announced.
"I know," snapped the middle schooler. She stayed in her seat for a few more seconds rushing a solution, then slammed the door behind her as she disembarked.
"Guys, was that really necessary?" Fear asked nobody in particular. Nobody in particular answered.
Riley glanced at her phone and broke into a sprint.
It was too late for school breakfast. She went straight to the classroom and casually made her way to her seat pretending not to catch her breath. She kept her eyes low on the way there.
"Hey! Has anyone noticed that Ian can really draw?" remarked Joy as they passed a classmate who was doodling sports cars in his notebook.
"Watch out!" cried Fear, jerking the controls. Riley flinched.
"Hey, watch it!" groaned the boy who had thrown the paper airplane. Briefly, Anger glared up from his sudoku puzzle.
Riley halted in her tracks, ignoring the airplane throwing jerk, and briefly made eye contact with an Asian girl with straight neck length hair and glasses.
The Train of Thought signaled its arrival with a blow of a whistle as it approached Headquarters, no less than quarter our late. Anger was usually the one to receive deliveries and today was no exception. He kept his nonexistent nose in his newsprint while the materials were rolled out of one of the carriages and onto the outdoor platform in wooden crates.
"Sorry," the conductor apologized to the indifferent recipient. "Bad forecast. Honesty Island."
The route was a perilous one. Due to the location of Headquarters, the last stretch of track would always take the Train of Thought over the Memory Dump. There had been one event in the past where an entire shipment was lost due to an Island of Personality toppling and taking a section of elevated track with it. Incidentally, the collapsing Island that time had been a previous incarnation of Honesty. Riley had never been anything short of truthful with parents and teachers growing up, even in situations that spelled trouble for her. Now, on the cusp of her teenage years, nobody knew what had happened, but honesty no longer came as naturally. Certainly not as naturally as it had that evening a year ago when Riley shamefully drew from one sweater pocket and placed on the table the credit card she had stolen from Mom's purse.
Anger made a grunting sound to acknowledge without taking his eyes off the paper. He didn't blame the Mind Workers whose job it was to bring the Trains of Thought in day after day after day. Their precautions for preventing similar disruptions from occuring in the future were understandable to him. The same could not be said for Joy's leadership decisions. As far as he was concerned, what was happening now was her fault and what had happened a year ago had also been her fault. Partially her fault, perhaps, but her fault nonetheless. She was the one with an ego problem.
Anger rolled up the newsprint under his arm as he signed the manifest. Daydreams. Facts. Opinions. It was all there, what Joy had ordered. He was carting the crates into Headquarters while the rail carriages pulled away on tracks that materialized out of thin air and then vanished back into thin air after the train passed. The workings of this world were of neither his concern nor his contemplation.
He came inside again in time to hear Fear declare, "three more to go."
"See, what did I tell ya?" Anger grinned with satisfaction.
"Oh please," chided Disgust. "Mom and dad were going to send us up anyway."
She was still sorting through memories with Sadness. She considered their task 90 percent complete now.
"After wasting more precious time," said Anger.
"Guys, guys." Joy cut in. "Either way, we're already here and we're grounded."
"Gee, I wonder why that is…" mused Disgust.
Anger grunted approval. It was a fleeting moment when he shared common ground with his green skinned colleague and it was soon lost on both of them. He wheeled the crates up to Disgust and Sadness, setting them back about 30 percent. Disgust crossed her arms and frowned starkly.
Joy turned to Fear.
"Fear, the hour."
"Seven forty-four," he answered without delay.
The door swung open.
"Good morning, everyone!"
"Good morning, Ms Ashe."
The teacher set her coffee flask down on the desk.
"Whoa what's the matter here? Did you all turn into a bunch of zombies or something?
"Good morning, everyone!"
"Good morning, Ms Ashe!"
"Better!" said Mrs Ashe. "Come on, guys! It's not even Halloween yet."
There were a few audible groans and a lip smack. Inside the Headquarters of Riley's mind, Disgust pretended to respond directly, "Respectfully, ma'am, please shut up."
The teacher was none the wiser. "So who had a good weekend?"
For a while no one raised their hand. Some students looked around expectantly.
"Wanna tell them about that amazing shot we got past Erica?" whispered Disgust.
"Please don't jinx it," said Fear. He was wringing his hand, watching the monitor attentively in case Riley was called for any reason.
The Asian girl raised her hand.
"How was your weekend, Vivian?"
Vivian cleared her throat. "So we went to Vallejo to visit my brother…"
While Vivian told her story, Fear answered Joy. "It… depends. We need at least fifteen minutes to finish Algebra and five minutes to finish science.
"Ordinarily, that wouldn't be a problem. Except Science comes before break. We'll need to work during class."
"So? Pretend to take notes then."
"We'll miss the lessons. Have you forgotten…"
"Ah yes. The great C of Shame. Don't remind me," said Joy finally. "Just… do your best, alright?"
"I'll try," said Fear. "But… don't expect any promises."
"Well?" Disgust and Sadness returned from their chore. She was dusting off her skirt. Then her hands. It was purely out of habit. Dust was nonexistent in Headquarters. It was always that clean, but still not clean enough for Disgust.
"I guess now is as good a time as any. How did we get here?"
"Don't pretend you aren't at least partially responsible for this," said Joy.
"Last I checked, you're the one in the captain's chair, Joy."
Disgust crossed her arms. "And don't say anything about Vivian not being around to help!"
"I wasn't the one who dragged us into a social media war!" retorted Joy.
"Somebody had to put Melanie and her crew in their place! And from what I recall, you were behind me completely on that. The way she disrespected the For Horns. Our Fog Horns! That little battle took how long, twenty minutes? Worth every second. Not to mention the whole thing was Anger's idea."
"Guilty as charged," Anger huffed.
Fear looked up from his calculator and notepad. "Twenty-one minutes, fifty three seconds. That actually makes a huge difference, you know."
"Fear…" muttered Disgust. "Get back to work."
"Aww, your nephew and niece sound like the sweetest little angels!"
The teacher was still addressing Vivian.
"Thanks! That's very kind of you, Ms Ashe. I miss them already."
"That'll give you something you'll look forward to, I bet!"
Then the teacher clapped her hands together. "Thank you for sharing, Vivian! I wish I could say my weekend was nearly as fun, but instead, my girlfriend's cat was bitten by a spider…"
"Disgust. Just listen for a sec. Please," Fear insisted. Disgust blinked, taken aback. Fear hardly insisted on anything. "It's my fault too."
Disgust blinked. Her lips parted as a reply began to form. She didn't finish it.
"That isn't what…"
"No," Joy said. At last she drew the line. "Fear, don't take the blame. Just focus on helping Riley."
"Thankfully, the vet said it should heal up in about a week…"
"I'm glad he's alright, Ms Ashe."
"Thank you, Vivian!"
A hand raised. "So did he become, like, Spider Cat?"
Some laughs and snickers emanated from the class.
"Jordan, that's terrible of you! Definitely would have been cool though.
"Anyway, back to where we left off…"
Joy's lips parted in a sigh.
"It's the truth. We have a filthy social media habit. I have a filthy social media habit. But that isn't why we're here."
"Everyone pass your papers forward!" called Mrs Ashe.
Papers shuffled.
"Okay, it's part of why we're here, but that's beside the point."
"I'm listening," said Disgust.
Joy turned to the screen. She stared at the piece of paper that lay on Riley's desk. It was an essay on a Shakespeare play which the class was studying that a classic Disney movie was apparently based on. A work of art, Disgust had called the essay. It was the first subject Riley finished. One crisis: resolved. Three to go.
"You want the truth? I'll tell you everything before the day is up. Until then, we need to focus."
"We'll do what you need us to," Disgust reassured. "But you gotta throw me a bone here. Please tell me something. Anything. Remember the last time we didn't communicate?"
Anger crossed his arms. "The last time we didn't communicate? More like that time her obsession with control caused a freak accident that got herself and Sadness exiled to the Back."
"It wasn't the Back," Joy corrected.
"Long Term. Whatever. Point stands."
Fear lowered his printing calculator and notebook and spun his chair in her direction. Sadness approached them, stopping at a respectful distance, but showing them through eye contact that she was prepared to listen to anything.
Joy was on the spot.
With a deep breath, she turned around to face the Console, the device that, since the beginning, served as their primary means of interacting with Riley and her surroundings. Through the years, it had been expanded and upgraded. Only recently did it grow to have enough space for more than two Emotions to work at once. Joy reached one hand towards the vibrantly colored keyboard and punched a sequence of keys.
It was a Recall Code for withdrawing items at a moment's notice from the vast, distant archives of Long Term Memory.
In the blink of an eye, a long, segmented glass tube extended down from the middle of the roof and pneumatically spat the fluorescent globe of a Memory into the Projector, where unseen forces suspended it in place midair. The image contained inside the globe shone across the Monitor with a brilliant golden hue.
Disgust stared at the picture that was imposed on the screen, eyes skeptical at first, then confused.
Fear's eyes flashed in recognition. "I know this one."
He watched, transfixed, joined by the others, as the Memory took its scripted Emotional turn, shifting to purple in the blink of an eye.