Luyện nghe bài hát Tragic Events - Part II

Are you crying,

No... Well, yes.
I was just thinking Sandy.
And Bimba and Kimba.
I them, Evelyn.

I know,
I them too.
this time of year, Evelyn.

The is 1991,
2 is the highest-grossing film at the Box Office,
the first Super Nintendo Entertainment System has been released,
and after 70 of Communist rule
the of Soviet Socialist Republics has collapsed.

And on a ranch just outside of Claxton, Georgia,
twin sisters are waiting for supper.

The is old and operated by Alfred McClock,
an eccentric man with a with Civil War weaponry.
McClock's chicken farms produces over 140, 000 chickens a
and ships wings, thighs and all over the continental United States.

the modest success of his business,
McClock a solitary life,
never marrying and tending of the chicken houses himself.
A simple man with a not bad heart.
McClock never knew how to take care of the young girls who came into his life shortly after their birth,
so he raised the only way he knew how -
in a two by two foot wire-mesh cage,
on a of mash, crumbles, pellets and egg booster.

One September day,
during the sixth year at the farm,
McClock does not come at time.
Night falls and still he appear.
The girls and the cry out from hunger.

pass, and the chickens in neighboring cages begin to die.
The smell of rotting permeates the air of the hot, humid barn.

Finally,
desperate to food and concerned over the whereabouts of their guardian,
the break free from their cage.
McClock's is locked tight,
but the girls find the hose, which quenches their thirst.
half delirious with hunger,
they their way out to the road.

Little time passes before a dusty black Cadillac Coupe DeVille drives by and over.
A tall, mustachioed man with a kindly steps out of the vehicle.
He at the girls
(Hello)
and them with the first candy they have ever tasted - a Twix bar,
they share in silent, odd delight.
The girls do not feel at all uncomfortable when the man leads them gently the dark, spacious trunk.

In the following days the girls are transferred into the trunks of other cars (Hello)
by other kindly, (Hello) candybar-offering men (Hello)
until they reach their destination at a lakeside lodge in Manitoba.

The underwood is a collection of cozy, waterfront cabins with an attached trailer park along the shores of lake Winnipeg.
It is the world headquarters of Budding Flowers Entertainment,
specializing in the production and distribution of photographs and VHS for clientele with unique tastes.

The are welcomed by Mrs. Deborah Bulgar, the fifty-two-year-old podiatrist, (?)
(Well, hello, girls!)
a of enormous proportions,
who lives with her own three children in the lodge of the underwood.

Upon finding the girls have no names she christens them Eva and Lynn,
names which she nor the twins themselves are ever able to keep straight.

(Eva, Lynn.)

The twins' at the underwood are relatively comfortable,
they are well for,
the is delicious,
and there are other girls their age.
Once a week, photo take place,
affairs that involve make-up,
a wide of dress up costumes
and new games.

Every few days Mrs. Bulgar introduces the girls to one of many uncles.
(Eva, Lynn, say hello to uncle, Mark.)
(Heeey.)
uncles,
seemingly in number,
travel from all over the world to visit nieces.

The girls don't always their new uncles,
but Mrs. Bulgar is always to remind them
that 'family is family' and is thicker than water'.

The conjoined sisters are not amongst the other girls,
however, one gentle resident, a few their senior, befriends them and takes them under her wing.

(Hello, your name?)

Her is Sandy.

(I'm Sandy.)

She has blonde hair that reaches down to her knees.
Everyone she looks like a mermaid.
daily by Mrs. Bulgar in trademark fishnet stockings and vintage attire,
Sandy is by far the popular girl of the underwood.
She has so many
that the twins count.

Every after dinner and chores,
Sandy tucks the young sisters into bed and tells fantastic stories
until fall peacefully to sleep.
(And after three long weeks at sea, John Luke (?) the sailor spotted land.)
But these times do not last.
Shortly after the twins' third Christmas Mrs. Bulgar's care,
disappears,
to return.

The twins remain in the underwood for the greater part of two long, years.
Without Sandy to them,
they are ostracized and by the other girls.
(What are YOU at, four-eyes?)
The photo sessions fewer fancy costumes,
and over time their become more peculiar.
(Did I ask you to talk?!)
The twins begin to notice a disturbing
for girls, much like their friend Sandy,
to quietly disappear from the underwood around twelfth or thirteenth birthday.
The sisters brace for something terrible.

One autumn, the girls are eleven,
an old man, who speaks only Spanish, takes the twins into a orange van and drives them to their new home.

(Step right up, step right up, see amazing human oddities, freaks of nature! Be warned, people with condition, children, women - We will accept no responsibility for fainting, reoccurring nightmares, or death.)

Dillard and Fullerton, elusive and illogical show
is the twelfth largest touring in North America.
Former salesmen, Dillard and Fullerton,
distinguish enterprise by procuring the most shocking specimen of the grotesque and unusual.
Their small administrative works tirelessly
to combat legal actions and public allegations of cruelty
and human trafficking.

Life in the circus is harder than their at the underwood.
There is always to be done.
In addition to their chores of and sweeping,
Mr. Dillard insist that the twins many hours each day practicing their act.

(What are you standing for?)

The are frightened of the clowns,
of whom, by amazing coincidence,
also happen to be uncles.
(Hello!)
(Hello!)
(Hello!)
But still, overall,
these early days at the are happy times for the twins.

night to the delight of audiences across the country,
the girls appear in the center ring, and strumming a ukulele,
atop Bimba and Kimba - the world's known conjoined twin siamese elephants.

The twins feel they found true soulmates in Bimba and Kimba,
who affectionately refer to as 'Elephant, Elephant'.
This special bond by the pachyderms,
who fondly nozzle the girls with trunks
and seem to delight in giving rides.

The and the elephants are inseparable.

With the of the Alphonso the Arresting, the animal trainer,
(Like this!)
the twins to the elephants,
feeding and grooming daily.

But one terrible morning,
and Kimba refuse to take their food.
Due to the unsanitary of their quarters
and an improper of popcorn and cotton candy,
the elephants have contracted a rare form of diphtheria,
compounded by early Alzheimer's disease.

For the next two the twins can only stand by helplessly,
as their become sicker and weaker
and begin displaying obvious signs of loss.
The last few are almost unbearable.
With Bimba and Kimba's confused, sad
looking up at the girls with anguish,
but no of recognition.

And on one September day
the sixteenth birthday
Elephant dies.

The funeral is the same day,
a grisly affair at an industrial trash compactor behind a Home
in Dodge, Iowa.

The are devastated.
Without Bimba and Kimba life is but a and meaningless void.
They resign themselves to out the rest of their hollow existence
in mourning.
The emotionally exausted sisters fall from within the circus.

No longer willing to and play their ukulele,
the girls are dressed in a pink and forced to balance on a giant red ball,
an impossible for the conjoined sisters.

(Get on that ball!)

The audience roars with laughter each time awkwardly fall.
Their is increased by a pair of radical groups ,
who have taken an in the twins.
Every night in most cities, protesters assemble,
nosily waving signs and chanting in front of the Box Office.

The faction claims to represent an organization called 'FASSTEN' - the Foundation for Always Separating Siamese Twins Everywhere Now.

Citing the bible, members vehemently believe
that it is the of the Lord that all conjoined twins
be separated and allowed to individual lives.
Wielding surgical saws and blunt carbon knives,
FASSTEN members the ticket buyers for supporting the abomination of god.

The second group operates under the SPLIT - the Society for the Preservation of Linked Identical Twins.
A organization,
working to the claims of FASSTEN,
SPLIT believes that conjoined twins will play a role in the second coming of Christ.

The twins are terrified by both groups - the knives and saws make very nervous,
and SPLIT members make threats to the girls
and take them to they will be kept safe in a place of darkness until the rapture.

One day before a Sunday matinee in Sacramento, a brawl erupts between the two factions
and one FASSTEN member gets alarmingly close to the twins a hacksaw.

(It's the of the Lord!)

Stricken fear,
the sisters decide that are no longer safe at the circus.
That night, make a resolution - to leave the Dillard and Fullerton traveling show
forever.