Joy and Sadness had finally made it across the bridge to Goofball Island and stepped carefully onto the lightline. Joy looked down into the deep darkness of the Memory Dump that loomed below her.

Sadness was afraid, but walking the tightrope of the lightline was the quickest way back. “If we fall,” she protested, pointing down at the Memory Dump, “we’ll be forgotten forever.”

“We have to do this,” Joy said, trying to reassure her. “For Riley. Just follow my footsteps.”

Holding the memories in her arms, Joy tried to balance herself on the narrow line. One of the memories slipped over the side, but she snatched it back just in time. She breathed and slowly began the long, treacherous trip toward Headquarters with Sadness right behind her. Joy wished she knew what was happening with Riley.

Tap, tap, tap. Dad knocked on Riley’s bedroom door and peeked inside. “Hey,” he said.

Riley lay in her sleeping bag on the floor, silent and motionless. “So, uh…” Dad said gently. “Things got a little out of hand downstairs.” He waited for Riley to respond, but she remained silent.

“You want to talk about it? Come on, where’s my happy girl? Monkey,” Dad said. “Oo oo ooo!” He made silly monkey sounds, trying to cheer her up.

The Emotions could see he was trying to start up Goofball Island. Fear looked at the empty core memory holder and then out the window at Goofball Island. It was still dark.

Riley didn’t respond or laugh like she normally would when her dad acted silly. Instead, she glanced at him before rolling over to face the wall.

Rrrrrrrrrrck. Goofball Island made an awful groaning noise and shuddered like an old, tired ship. Suddenly, bits and pieces of the island began to crumble away!

Joy and Sadness, who were still balancing on the lightline connected to the island, felt it tremble beneath their feet as Goofball Island started to disintegrate. The lightline was falling! They had to get off it now! “Run! Run! Run!” Joy screamed.

Frantically they dashed back to Goofball Island, barely outracing the crumbling pieces of land.

At the edge of the island, the bridge twisted and buckled underneath them. They managed to stay on their feet as they reached one of the cliffs of Long Term Memory just as the memory tube and basket they had arrived in broke off and fell into the Memory Dump below.

From the safety of solid ground, they watched in horror as Goofball Island sank and vanished into the dump. The island was GONE. Joy gasped. “What…?”

Inside Riley’s bedroom, Dad was telling her that he understood and that he thought she probably needed some alone time. “We’ll talk later,” he said as he left the room.

Fear, Anger, and Disgust stared out the back window of Headquarters, stunned.

“We have a major problem,” said Disgust.

“Oh, Joy, where are you?” whined Fear.