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 miss too.
Especially time of year, Evelyn.

The is 1991,
2 is the highest-grossing film at the Box Office,
the first Super Nintendo System has just been released,
and 70 years of Communist rule
the Union of Socialist 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 with a with Civil War weaponry.
McClock's farms produces over 140, 000 chickens a year
and ships wings, thighs and legs all the continental United States.

Despite the modest of his business,
leads a solitary life,
never marrying and tending several of the chicken himself.
A simple man a not entirely bad heart.
McClock never knew how to best take care of the young girls who came his life shortly after their birth,
so he raised them the way he knew how -
in a two foot by two foot cage,
on a diet of mash, crumbles, and egg booster.

One clear day,
during the twins sixth at the farm,
McClock does not come at time.
Night falls and he doesn't appear.
The girls and the chickens cry out hunger.

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

Finally,
desperate to food and concerned over the whereabouts of their guardian,
the twins break free from cage.
house is locked 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 dusty black Cadillac DeVille drives by and pulls over.
A tall, mustachioed man with a face steps out of the vehicle.
He smiles at the
(Hello)
and them with the first candy they have ever tasted - a Twix bar,
which share in silent, odd delight.
The girls do not feel at all when the man leads them gently into the dark, spacious trunk.

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

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

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

Upon finding that the girls have no she christens them Eva and Lynn,
names which neither she nor the twins themselves are ever to keep straight.

(Eva, Lynn.)

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

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

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

The sisters are not popular 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 hair that reaches to her knees.
says she looks like a mermaid.
Dressed daily by Mrs. Bulgar in trademark fishnet and vintage attire,
Sandy is by far the most popular of the underwood.
She has so many
that the lose count.

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

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

One autumn, when the 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 oddities, freaks of nature! Be warned, people with heart condition, children, women - We will accept no responsibility for fainting, reoccurring nightmares, or death.)

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

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

(What are you around for?)

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

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

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

The and the elephants are inseparable.

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

But one terrible morning,
Bimba and Kimba refuse to their food.
Due to the unsanitary conditions of their
and an improper diet of and cotton candy,
the elephants contracted a rare form of elephantine diphtheria,
compounded by early onset disease.

For the next two weeks the twins can stand by helplessly,
as their companions sicker and weaker
and displaying obvious signs of memory loss.
The last few are almost unbearable.
Bimba and Kimba's confused, sad eyes
looking up at the with great 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 Depot
in Dodge, Iowa.

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

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

(Get on damn ball!)

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

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

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

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

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

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

(It's the of the Lord!)

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