Chapter 8
The next day, a makeshift memorial had been arranged at the entrance to the university. Students had placed flowers and candles near pictures of Tadashi and Professor Callaghan.
Friends gathered at the Lucky Cat Café to grieve and support each other, but Hiro sat on the stairs, away from everyone else. None of it consoled him.
For weeks, Hiro barely left his room. He sat in his beanbag chair and numbly played with his old battle bot. The blinds were closed and plates of food were usually left untouched.
One morning, Aunt Cass softly knocked on Hiro’s door. “Hey, sweetie,” she said, coming in. “I brought you some breakfast. You get any sleep?” Then she noticed that Hiro’s bed was still perfectly made.
“Yeah, sure,” Hiro replied.
Aunt Cass opened the blinds to let in some light. “Hey, Mrs. Matsuda’s in the café. She’s wearing something super inappropriate for an eighty-year-old. That always cracks you up. You should come down.”
“Maybe later,” Hiro said.
Aunt Cass nodded. “Okay,” she said. “No rush. Come down whenever.” Then she added, “The university called again. It’s been a few weeks since classes started, but they said it’s not too late to register.”
“Okay. Thanks,” Hiro said. “I’ll think about it.” When Aunt Cass left, Hiro got up and closed the blinds again. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed an icon on his computer screen blinking at him. A video of his friends popped open. Go Go, Honey, Fred, and Wasabi stared back at him.
“Hey, Hiro!” they called in unison.
“We just wanted to check in and see how you are doing,” Honey said.
Wasabi smiled. “Wish you were here, buddy.” “We should hang out soon, okay ... ” Fred piped up.
Hiro hit a button, and silence filled the room. He sighed as his eyes moved across his desk, stopping as they fell on a letter from SFIT. Anger and despair filled him, and he grabbed the letter and tossed it in the trash. He picked up Megabot, his fighting bot, and the bottom of it fell off, landing on his foot. “Ow!” he yelled.
Hiro hopped up and down for a minute, and then he saw something moving on Tadashi’s side of the room. He was stunned for a moment. He stared as a white shape rose and began to take form. It was Baymax!
Once Baymax had fully inflated, he shuffled and shimmied his enormous white body to Hiro’s side of the room. His big belly and behind knocked over books and lamps along the way. “Hello,” he said finally. “I am Baymax, your personal health-care companion.”
Hiro had forgotten all about Tadashi’s last project. “Hey, Baymax,” he said. “I didn’t know you were still ... active.”
“I heard a sound of distress. What seems to be the trouble?”
Hiro wiggled the toes of his hurt foot. “Oh, I just stubbed my toe a little. I’m fine.”
Icons with smiling and scowling faces representing degrees of pain appeared on Baymax’s chest. “On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?” he said.
“Zero,” Hiro replied, flicking his hands, trying to shoo the robot away. “I’m okay, really. You can ... uh, shrink now.”
Baymax reached down with a big puffy arm and waddled forward. “Does it hurt when I touch it?”
Hiro backed up. “What are you doing? No. No touching. I’m fine.”
Hiro tripped on the rug and fell, wedging himself between his bed and dresser. Baymax loomed over him. “You have fallen,” he said.
Hiro rolled his eyes. “You think?” he asked, grabbing a shelf above his dresser to pull himself up. The shelf tipped and Hiro’s toys and speakers slid off. “Ow!” Hiro yelled as first a book and then a large robot toy hit him on the head.
“On a scale of—” Baymax kept saying as more items hit Hiro on the head.
“Ow!” Hiro shouted as the last thing fell.
“On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate your pain?” Baymax asked.
Hiro rubbed his head, clearly in pain, and said, “Zero!”
Baymax reached down and picked Hiro up. Alarmed, Hiro tried to push the big arms away.
“It is all right to cry,” Baymax said. “Crying is a natural response to pain. I will scan your injuries.”
“I’m not crying!” Hiro shouted, struggling out of Baymax’s embrace. Hiro quickly backed away. “And you don’t need to scan me!”
“Scan complete,” Baymax said in a flash.
“Unbelievable,” Hiro grumbled.
“You have sustained no injuries. However, your hormone and neurotransmitter levels indicate you are experiencing mood swings, common in adolescence. Diagnosis: puberty.”
“Whoa! Okay!” Hiro said, grabbing for Baymax’s suitcase. “Time to shrink now.”
“You should expect an increase in body hair, especially in your armpits and on your legs, chest, and—”
“Thank you! That’s enough!” Hiro said, pushing Baymax toward his charging station. “Let’s get you back to your luggage.”
“I cannot deactivate until you say you are satisfied with my care.”
“Fine,” Hiro said. “I’m satisfied with my—” But before Hiro could finish, he tripped over Baymax’s foot and landed flat on the floor.
As he lay there, he noticed a hoodie under his bed. It was the one he had worn to the SFIT Showcase. The hoodie was moving softly, causing dust to rise in little puffs. Then it started to vibrate and shake!
第 8 章
轉(zhuǎn)天,大學的入口處設置了臨時悼念處。學生們在泰迪和卡拉漢教授的照片旁邊放置了花和蠟燭。
朋友們都聚集在幸運貓咖啡館哀悼并安慰彼此,可小宏坐在樓梯上,遠離所有人。沒人能夠安慰到他。
幾周過去了,小宏幾乎不出他自己的房間。他坐在自己的豆袋椅里,呆呆地擺弄著他原來的格斗機器人。百葉窗沒有打開,盤子里的食物通常是動也不動地放在那兒。
一天早晨,卡斯阿姨輕輕地敲了敲小宏的房門。“嘿,親愛的,”她說著走了進來。“我給你送來了些早餐。你昨晚睡了嗎?”這時她注意到了小宏的被子還整齊地疊放在那。
“嗯,當然。”小宏回答道。
卡斯阿姨打開了百葉窗,讓陽光照進來。“嘿,松田太太來店里了。她穿了件超不適合八十歲人穿的衣服,以前總會讓你哈哈大笑的,你應該下來看看的。”
“待會兒吧。”小宏說道。
卡斯阿姨點點頭。“好吧,”她說,“不急,什么時候下來都行。”然后她又說道:“大學那邊又打電話過來了。他們說雖然開課已經(jīng)有幾周了,但現(xiàn)在去登記還不算晚。”
“好,謝謝,”小宏說道,“我會好好考慮的。”卡斯阿姨一離開,小宏就起身把百葉窗重新關(guān)了起來。他用余光掃到電腦屏幕上有個圖標在閃爍。他的朋友們發(fā)來的視頻突然跳了出來。神行御姐、哈妮檸檬、弗雷德和芥末無疆正看著他。
“嘿,小宏!”他們齊聲打著招呼。
“我們只是想知道你是不是好點了。”哈妮檸檬說道。
芥末無疆微笑著:“你要是和我們在一起就好了,兄弟。”“很快我們就可以一起出去閑逛,好嗎……”弗雷德插話道。
小宏點擊了一個按鈕,整個房間又陷入靜寂。他掃視了一下自己的桌子,嘆息了一下,目光最終落在了舊金山理工大學的那個封信上。憤怒與絕望充斥著他,他一把抓起那個信封,把它扔進了垃圾桶。他撿起超能機器人,他的格斗機器人,機器人的底部掉了下來,砸在他的腳上。“嗷!”他大喊道。
小宏跳上跳下好一會兒,突然他注意到有什么東西正在房間里屬于泰迪的那側(cè)移動。他嚇了一跳。他看見一個白色的東西開始漲大成形,是大白!
大白一充滿氣就拖著腳步,搖擺著他巨大的身體向小宏這邊走了過來。他的大肚子和大屁股把路過兩側(cè)的書和燈都碰了下來。“你好,”最終他說道,“我叫大白,您的私人健康顧問。”
小宏全然忘記了泰迪的最后一項研究。“嗨,大白,”他說,“我不知道你還……能工作。”
“我聽到了一聲痛呼。你怎么了?”
小宏動了動他受傷的腳趾頭。“哦,我只是砸到了腳趾頭。我沒事。”
代表著疼痛等級的笑臉和皺眉小臉的圖標呈現(xiàn)在大白的胸部。“疼痛指數(shù)從1到10,請給自己的疼痛評級。”他說道。
“零。”小宏回答道,輕輕搖動著他的手,發(fā)出噓聲想要趕走大白。“我沒事,真的。你可以……呃,縮回去了。”
大白伸出肥大的胳膊,搖擺著向前走了幾步:“如果我碰它,它會痛嗎?”
小宏倒退著:“你干什么?別,別碰,我沒事。”
小宏被地毯絆倒,把他自己夾在床和柜子之間。大白靠近他,說道:“你摔倒了。”
小宏轉(zhuǎn)著眼球,問道:“你覺得呢?”他抓住柜子上的架子想要把自己拽起來??杉茏右粌A斜,小宏的玩具以及喇叭紛紛滑落下來。“嗷!”小宏不停地號叫著,首先是一本書,然后是一個大機器人玩具砸在了他頭上。
“疼痛指數(shù)從……”隨著不斷地有東西掉落砸在小宏的頭上,大白不停地重復著這句話。
“嗷!”小宏號叫著直到最后一樣東西砸落在他頭上。
“疼痛指數(shù)從1到10,請給自己的疼痛評級。”大白說道。
小宏揉著頭,顯然疼得厲害,卻說道:“零!”
大白走過來把小宏拽了起來。驚慌的小宏想要推開這雙大手臂。
“哭出來吧,沒事的。”大白說道,“哭是疼痛刺激下的自然反應。我會對你受傷的地方進行掃描。”
“我不會哭!”小宏嚷著從大白的懷抱中掙扎出來,迅速后退。“你沒必要掃描我!”
“掃描完成,”大白隨即說道。
“難以置信,”小宏喃喃地說道。
“你并沒有受傷。不過你的荷爾蒙與神經(jīng)遞質(zhì)水平表明你正在經(jīng)歷一段情緒起伏期,這在青春期很常見。診斷結(jié)果:青春期綜合征。”
“哦!好吧!”小宏說道,抓過大白的箱子。“你該縮小了。”
“你會出現(xiàn)體毛增多的現(xiàn)象,尤其是出現(xiàn)在你的胳肢窩、腿、胸部和……”
“謝謝!夠了!”小宏說道,把大白朝他的充電站里推著。“你快回到你的箱子里去吧。”
“你不說對我的本次護理感到很滿意,我就不能待機。”
“好,”小宏說道,“我對你的本次護理……”可還沒等小宏說完,他絆在了大白的腳上倒在了地上。
他躺在那才發(fā)現(xiàn),他的床底下有件連帽衫。正是他去參加舊金山理工大學作品展時穿的那件。那件連帽衫正在輕輕地移動,騰起了一些細小的灰塵。隨后它開始顫動起來!