雙語讀電影 《愛麗絲夢游仙境-2》第07章 :被愛慕的感覺真好。

Wilkins clanked along the hallway in front of Alice, leading her through the maze of passageways. Alice stewed behind him, her mind churning. She was not ready to give up on her mission yet.
A shrill voice sang out from somewhere ahead, breaking into Alice’s thoughts. “Oh, tick-tock!”
Grinding to an abrupt halt, Wilkins turned to Alice, his face ashen and his eyes blinking rapidly. “Miss, would you mind seeing yourself out?” he asked, a quaver in his voice.
Before Alice had even f?inished nodding, the little foreman had disappeared into a side corridor. That was her chance! Alice spun and raced back into the castle, then hid behind a pillar when she heard footsteps approaching. They stopped just yards from her.
Peering around the edge of the column, she spotted Time f?idgeting in front of a mirror. He was nervously patting his hair, trying to smooth it down. Then he cupped his hand in front of his mouth and exhaled into it, sniff?ing to check his breath.
Alice slipped quietly after him as he stalked into a room labeled UNDERLANDIANS LIVING.
The bright chamber was unlike anything Alice had ever seen. Countless pocket watches hung from chains, their combined ticking f?illing the space like the buzzing of bees.
Walking among them, Time turned his face upward. “Who’s stopped?” he asked. “Who has ticked their last tock? Tocked their last tick?”
He closed his eyes, his head cocked at an angle, as he listened carefully to the millions of pocket watches in his care.
“Ah,” he said, opening his eyes. “Brilliam Hinkle!”
Time held out his hand and a chain dropped from above, depositing a watch into his palm.
“Yes, Brilliam Hinkle,” Time conf?irmed as he glanced at the name engraved on the stopped watch. “Time’s up.” He snapped the watch closed without ceremony.
With a sympathetic frown, Alice imagined a man miles away, his heart abruptly giving out. How could Time be so cavalier about it? Had he been as heartless when he claimed the Hightopps? Her eyes narrowed as anger simmered inside her.
Oblivious to her glare, Time passed into a room labeled UNDERLANDIANS DECEASED. Unlike the last room, this one was deadly quiet.
Time moved along an orderly row of pocket watches, reading out names from their backs as he went. “Higgens, Highbottom”—Time paused as he came to a gap in the watches, then shrugged and continued on—“Highview, Himmelby ... ah, Hinkle.”
With more gentleness than Alice had seen in him before, Time carefully hung the stopped watch in his hand on an empty chain in the row. He ran his f?ingers around its face and said softly, “I hope you used your time well. Good night.”
Alice thawed slightly. Maybe he wasn’t as cruel as she’d thought. Then the clicking of heels in the stone hall behind her made Alice spin in alarm. Shrinking back behind a column, she glanced at the f?loor, where a shadow loomed, coming ever closer. It was an odd shadow, though.
A bolt of fear shot through her as she realized the head was abnormally large. Only the Red Queen had a dome that misshapen! What was she doing there? Surely that wasn’t who Time had been primping for, was it?
Once the footsteps had passed, Alice peeked around the pillar, her eyes widening in surprise at what she saw. Iracebeth’s oversized head had, if anything, grown since Alice had last seen her. The Red Queen paraded down the hall as if she owned the place, Wilkins and a group of Seconds scuttling to keep up with her.
Turning a corner, the group left Alice alone once again. She frowned, her mind spinning. Where the Red Queen went, trouble was sure to follow. Alice raced for the Chamber of the Grand Clock. If she was going to steal time, it was now or never.
Time hurried into his sitting room and rif?ledthrough a drawer. An insistent knock sounded at the door and Time jolted upright. She was there!
“Coming, my love!” Time called, rushing to let his visitor in.
The Red Queen sauntered into the room, lifting one hand toward Time without even glancing at him. With a deep bow, he planted a servile kiss on her delicate skin.
“Oh, my radiant and beautiful dial-face, bulbous of head and soft of heart,” he said lovingly. “You are my only beacon!”
Iracebeth smiled at him indulgently; it was so nice to be adored. Thanks to her horrible sister, she no longer had a court full of nobles to compliment her. But Time helped soothe that wound. As she watched, he shuff?led across the room to pick up a small music box and carried it back to her.
“Here,” he said as he held it out gingerly. “A gift—nay, a tribute!”
Iracebeth’s face lit up and her f?ingers twitched in excitement as she reached for it. “How sweet! Dear old tick-tock,” she said.
As she turned the crank, a soft melody emerged, but the music box held a grim scene. Crouching with his head upon a block, a small mechanical king looked up at her as an executioner loomed over him. The executioner’s ax swung down, neatly severing the king’s head, which plopped into a basket in front of the block. When the song came to an end, the ax and head both inched back to their starting places.
Clutching the music box to her chest, Iracebeth exclaimed, “I’ll treasure it forever!” But only a second later, she tossed it to the side. Time winced as it thunked against the f?loor.
With a melodramatic sigh, the Red Queent wirled away, rolling her eyes skyward.
“Something troubling you, my dear?” Time asked.
Iracebeth cast him an appraising look, then sidled up to him, leaning in close to run her f?inger along his arm. “You know what I desire,” she whispered. “With my big brain and your little Chronosphere, we could together rule the past, the present, and the future!”
At her words, Time’s shoulders drooped. “But my dear, dear Iracebeth,” he said. “I’ve told you time and again that’s out of the question. You ask the impossible! You cannot change the past.”
Iracebeth pulled away in disgust, the porcelain skin of her face turning a vibrant red. She would get her hands on that Chronosphere, no matter what it took. Then nobody—not her sister or any of Mirana’s cronies—could stand in her way. She could f?inally right all the wrongs of the past and make sure the future went the way she wanted.
All of time would belong to her.
Alice found the Chamber of the Grand Clock abandoned. From the balcony, she gazed down at the clock, plotting her course. At the center of it all, the silver light pulsed.
“The Chronosphere,” Alice whispered, equal parts awe and determination in her voice.
She set off down the stairs and picked her way along a beam to her f?irst challenge: a series of moving pendulums. She paused, and her eyes followed the closest one back and forth, back and forth as she judged the distance.
With a tremendous leap, she grasped hold of the pendulum. Wrapping her arms around the slippery metal, she let it carry her toward the next, then pushed off with her feet and spun in midair to catch the second pendulum. After a few more, she stopped to catch her breath.
The Chronosphere twinkled ahead, closer but still so far away. The sphere was spinning so fast its metal bands were a blur.
Creak. The door to the chamber opened and Time’s Seconds f?iled into the room.
Alice froze, hoping they hadn’t spotted her.
The Seconds whistled shrilly in alarm.
No such luck. In a clearly practiced maneuver, they clumped together, piling on top of one another in groups of sixty to form larger, more menacing f?igures.
“Seconds into Minutes,” Alice observed before stepping off the last pendulum to the edge of a spinning wheel. There was no time to waste: with every passing second, the Minutes were adding up. And the Minutes moved smoothly through the clock, scaling the gears in acrobatic leaps.
The Minutes were right behind her. A few hasty Minutes got ahead of themselves, the spinning cogs f?linging them into the air. Alice stayed focused on her task, looking ahead at an enormous revolvingtube that led to the Chronosphere.
She gathered her muscles and launched herself into the tube.
Whump! Alice’s feet slid out from under her. Like an out-of-control carousel, the tube whirled her around and around. As she tumbled upside down and then right side up again, she could see the Minutes converging on her—some from behind, some from ahead.
Trying to gain some traction, Alice spread her arms and legs wide, then somersaulted ahead of the tube’s rotation and landed on her feet. She began running right away, keeping pace with the tube.
Thunk! Thunk! Thunk! Minutes landed on the outer edge of the tube above her.
Alice picked up speed, but the Minutes ran just as fast as she did, only in the opposite direction. They were at an impasse. She could not get away; nor could they get any closer.
“This is absurd,” Alice muttered. She dug her feet in and stopped. Her abrupt shift in momentum threw the tube off. The Minutes f?lew into the air, shrieking in surprise.
Wiping her hands together, Alice calmly stepped out of the tube. She was close to her goal: she could see the Chronosphere glimmering ahead. But her heart sank as she saw the f?inal obstacle.
Wham! A massive hammer slammed down in front of her, followed by several more. Somehow, she’d have to get through the pounding maze in one piece if she wanted to save her friend.

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