Luyện nghe bài hát Tragic Events - Part II

Are you crying,

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

I know,
I miss too.
Especially time of year, Evelyn.

The is 1991,
Terminator 2 is the film at the Box Office,
the first Super Nintendo System has just been released,
and after 70 years of Communist
the Union of Soviet Republics has collapsed.

And on a chicken ranch outside of Claxton, Georgia,
sisters are waiting for their supper.

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

the modest success of his business,
McClock leads a life,
never marrying and several of the chicken houses himself.
A simple man with a not bad heart.
McClock never knew how to best care of the young girls who came into his life shortly after their birth,
so he them 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 clear day,
the twins sixth year at the farm,
McClock not come at meal 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 poultry permeates the air of the hot, humid barn.

Finally,
desperate to find food and over the whereabouts of their guardian,
the twins break free their cage.
McClock's house is tight,
but the girls find the hose, which quenches their thirst.
Still delirious with hunger,
make their way out to the road.

Little time passes before a black Cadillac Coupe DeVille drives by and pulls over.
A tall, mustachioed man a kindly face steps out of the vehicle.
He at the girls
(Hello)
and presents with the first candy they have ever tasted - a Twix bar,
which share in silent, odd delight.
The girls do not feel at all uncomfortable when the man them gently into 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 reach their final destination at a lakeside lodge in Manitoba.

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

The girls are 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 main of the underwood.

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

(Eva, Lynn.)

The twins' days at the underwood are comfortable,
they are cared for,
the is delicious,
and there are many other their age.
a week, photo sessions take place,
convivial affairs that make-up,
a variety of dress up costumes
and new games.

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

The girls always like their new uncles,
but Mrs. Bulgar is always quick to them
'family is family' and 'blood is thicker than water'.

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

(Hello, your name?)

Her is Sandy.

(I'm Sandy.)

She has soft blonde that reaches down to her knees.
says she looks like a mermaid.
Dressed daily by Mrs. Bulgar in trademark fishnet stockings and attire,
Sandy is by far the most girl of the underwood.
She has so uncles
that the twins count.

Every after dinner and chores,
Sandy tucks the young sisters into bed and tells them fantastic
they fall peacefully to sleep.
(And after three weeks at sea, John Luke (?) the sailor finally 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 part of two long, miserable years.
Sandy to protect them,
they are ostracized and by the other girls.
(What are YOU at, four-eyes?)
The photo sessions fewer fancy costumes,
and over time uncles become more peculiar.
(Did I ask you to talk?!)
The twins begin to notice a tendency
for girls, much like dear friend Sandy,
to quietly disappear from the underwood their twelfth or thirteenth birthday.
The brace themselves for something terrible.

One autumn, the girls are eleven,
an old man, who only Spanish, takes the twins into a large 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 heart condition, children, women - We will no responsibility for fainting, reoccurring nightmares, or death.)

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

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

(What are you standing for?)

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

Every night to the delight of audiences the country,
the girls appear in the center ring, singing and a ukulele,
atop Bimba and Kimba - the only known conjoined twin siamese elephants.

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

The and the elephants are inseparable.

With the help of the the Arresting, the animal trainer,
(Like this!)
the tend to the elephants,
feeding and them daily.

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

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

And on one grim day
the sixteenth birthday
Elephant dies.

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

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

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

(Get on damn ball!)

The audience roars with laughter each they awkwardly fall.
Their discomfort is increased by a pair of groups ,
who taken an interest in the twins.
night in most major cities, protesters assemble,
nosily signs and chanting slogans in front of the Box Office.

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

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

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

The twins are terrified by both groups - the knives and saws them very nervous,
and SPLIT members make threats to the girls
and take to where 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 with a hacksaw.

(It's the of the Lord!)

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