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 highest-grossing at the Box Office,
the first Super Nintendo System has just been released,
and 70 years of Communist rule
the Union of Soviet Socialist has collapsed.

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

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

the modest success of his business,
McClock leads a life,
never marrying and tending of the chicken houses himself.
A man with a not entirely bad heart.
never knew how to best take 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 foot by two foot cage,
on a of mash, crumbles, pellets and egg booster.

One September day,
during the twins year at the farm,
McClock does not at meal time.
Night and still he doesn't appear.
The and the chickens cry out from hunger.

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

Finally,
desperate to find food and concerned over the of their guardian,
the twins free from their cage.
house is locked tight,
but the find the garden 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 face steps out of the vehicle.
He smiles at the
(Hello)
and presents them with the first candy they have tasted - a Twix bar,
which they in silent, odd delight.
The girls do not feel at all uncomfortable when the man leads 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 they reach their destination at a lakeside lodge in Manitoba.

The underwood lodge is a collection of cozy, waterfront cabins with an attached trailer park along the shores of Winnipeg.
It is the world headquarters of Budding Flowers Entertainment,
specializing in the production and 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 woman of proportions,
who lives with her own children in the main lodge of the underwood.

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

(Eva, Lynn.)

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

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

The girls don't always like new uncles,
but Mrs. is always 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 their senior, befriends them and takes them under her wing.

(Hello, what's name?)

Her is Sandy.

(I'm Sandy.)

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

Every night after 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 happy do not last.
Shortly after the twins' third under Mrs. Bulgar's care,
disappears,
to return.

The twins remain in the underwood for the greater of two long, miserable years.
Without to protect them,
they are ostracized and by the other girls.
(What are YOU at, four-eyes?)
The photo involve 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, like their dear friend Sandy,
to quietly disappear from the underwood around their twelfth or 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 large 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, - We will accept no responsibility for fainting, reoccurring nightmares, or death.)

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

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

(What are you standing for?)

The girls are of the clowns,
several of whom, by coincidence,
happen to be their uncles.
(Hello!)
(Hello!)
(Hello!)
But still, overall,
these days at the circus are happy times for the twins.

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

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

The and the elephants are inseparable.

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

But one August morning,
Bimba and Kimba to take their food.
Due to the unsanitary of their quarters
and an improper diet of and cotton candy,
the elephants have contracted a form of elephantine diphtheria,
by early onset Alzheimer's disease.

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

And on one September day
the sisters' sixteenth
Elephant dies.

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

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

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

(Get on that ball!)

The audience roars with laughter each 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,
nosily waving and chanting slogans in front of the Box Office.

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

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

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

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

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

(It's the of the Lord!)

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