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 them too.
Especially time of year, Evelyn.

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

And on a chicken just outside of Claxton, Georgia,
twin are waiting for their 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 a year
and ships wings, thighs and all over the continental United States.

Despite the success of his business,
leads 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 best take care of the 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 wire-mesh cage,
on a of mash, crumbles, pellets and egg booster.

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

Days pass, and the chickens in neighboring begin to die.
The smell of rotting poultry 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.
McClock's is locked tight,
but the girls find the garden hose, which their thirst.
Still delirious with hunger,
they make 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 kindly steps out of the vehicle.
He smiles at the
(Hello)
and presents them with the first candy they ever tasted - a Twix bar,
which they in silent, odd delight.
The girls do not feel at all uncomfortable when the man leads them gently into the dark, trunk.

In the following days the are transferred into the trunks of several other cars (Hello)
by many 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 park along the shores of lake Winnipeg.
It is the world headquarters of Budding Flowers Entertainment,
in the production 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 woman of proportions,
who lives with her own children in the main lodge of the underwood.

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

(Eva, Lynn.)

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

Every few days Mrs. Bulgar introduces the girls to one of their 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 remind
that 'family is and 'blood is thicker than water'.

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

(Hello, what's name?)

Her is Sandy.

(I'm Sandy.)

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

night after dinner and chores,
Sandy 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 these times do not last.
Shortly after the twins' third under Mrs. Bulgar's care,
disappears,
to return.

The twins remain in the underwood for the part of two long, miserable years.
Without Sandy to them,
they are ostracized and by the other girls.
(What are YOU at, four-eyes?)
The photo sessions involve fewer costumes,
and over time their uncles more peculiar.
(Did I ask you to talk?!)
The twins begin to notice a tendency
for girls, much like their 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 orange van and drives them to their new home.

(Step right up, right up, see amazing human 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, and illogical traveling show
is the twelfth largest touring in North America.
Former insurance salesmen, and Fullerton,
distinguish their enterprise by procuring the shocking specimen of the grotesque and unusual.
Their administrative staff works tirelessly
to legal actions and public allegations of animal cruelty
and human trafficking.

Life in the is harder than their time at the underwood.
There is 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 around for?)

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

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

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

The twins and the are inseparable.

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

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

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

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

The funeral is held the day,
a grisly affair at an industrial trash behind a Home 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 exausted sisters fall from favor within the circus.

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

(Get on damn ball!)

The audience with laughter each time they awkwardly fall.
Their discomfort is by a pair of radical groups ,
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 Siamese Twins Now.

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

The second group operates under the acronym SPLIT - the 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 second of Christ.

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

One day a Sunday matinee in Sacramento, a chaotic 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 decide they are no longer safe at the circus.
That night, they make a resolution - to leave the Dillard and Fullerton traveling
forever.