~ Chapter Two ~
Tommy
Choo! Choo!
The train's sharp whistle broke through the steady rhythm of the engine chugging along the tracks. After almost three hours, I had slowly drifted asleep at the lulling sound, and now we were almost at our destination. At the sound of the bright screech, and at the slowing of the trees whizzing by outside the window, I snapped straight up in my seat and shook my brother, Timmy, awake.
"Timmy! Timmy, wake up! We're almost to Animal Village!" I nudged his arm. He rolled over a little without so much as opening an eye and batted my paw away from him before snoring again.
"Timmy," I insisted. "Aren't you excited? This is our first family vacation. Don't you want to be the first to see the village, hm?"
"Just five more minutes." My brother muttered these words through the cushioning of the seat that the dark mask of his face was now smashed lazily against. I rolled my eyes when the sound of his snoring returned. My gaze darted across the aisle to the seats across from us where our parents, Reese and Cyrus, sat. I wondered if they would be any more excited for our arrival than my brother was, but of course Dad was lying with a bubble of drool at his mouth too. Mom, however, was peering worriedly at a dusty map of the village in front of her.
"Oh, Cy-Guy," she said to Dad. "Maybe we should pick up another map when we get off the train. The village has probably changed so much since when we visited last! This map is probably obsolete by now."
Dad mumbled something in his sleep. Before I could groan with annoyance at everyone's lack of enthusiasm, the train conductor's voice sounded over the intercom:
"Attention, everyone! Now arriving at Animal Village, eek eek! Please watch your step and form an orderly line to depart the train once we have come to a complete stop, ook!"
I sucked in a deep breath. This was it. I couldn't believe we were finally here.
While I waited for the train to stop completely, I couldn't help but smirk at the sight of my brother lying in the seat next to me, his mind lost in dreamland. His dark mask held two eyes that looked weary even as he slept so soundly, and his ears were perked, as if he was dreaming about something particularly thrilling. His sleeping habits practically mirrored that of Cyrus across the aisle from us. If it weren't for the fact that Timmy and I had been adopted and we weren't related to Reese and Cyrus by blood, I would have said he inherited Cyrus' ability to sleep just about anywhere. Of course, that wasn't to say my brother or my dad were lazy; both had been wide awake the night before as we planned out our first day of our trip to Animal Village.
However, Timmy and I had stayed up even later than Mom and Dad were aware of, as we lay awake in our shared bedroom back in Boondox and discussed what it would be like to return to the town where we had been born. Or rather, where our parents had found us. Timmy and I had heard the story so many times - how our alpaca parents were visiting Animal Village fifteen years ago in the middle of winter, and had found my brother and I as babies abandoned and freezing in the middle of an old tree stump. Of course, pitying us, they had taken us in and had never found out who had left us there, no matter how many flyers they put out. Ultimately, when no one claimed us, they kept us and raised us as their own. Even though I'd heard the story a million times, I couldn't help but shoot my adoptive parents a grateful look while it flashed in my mind. I don't know where my brother and I would be without them today.
"Oof!" I felt a shove in the back of my shoulder that snapped me out of my thoughts. In the midst of my daydreaming, I hadn't realized that both Dad and Timmy had woken up, and it was our turn to unboard the train. Dad stood in front of me with a smirk on his face.
"Hey, little buddy, I thought you were looking forward to the glitz and glamour of the Village!" He grinned. Mom swatted his arm before kneeling down to pick up one of our suitcases.
"Oh, Cy-Guy, don't give him such a hard time. After all, you're the one who slept the whole way here. Come on guys, help me carry these suitcases, and let's go!"
Timmy was still wiping the sleep from his eyes. "That was a long trip," he complained.
Gathering my strength, I heaved one of our suitcases into my arms and began to carry it off of the train. "Come on, Timmy, do you really have to be so negative?" I muttered to him. "We were so excited to come here, and you wasted the whole train trip sleeping."
"Yes, well, you know Mom and Dad are just coming here for business, yes?" he muttered back. "This isn't a real vacation."
I stared at him incredulously. Our parents were already stepping off of the train, saying their thanks to Porter before doing so. I glared at my brother. "How could you say that?"
"Seriously, Tommy? When have Mom and Dad ever taken us on a trip besides for business reasons? You know their shop hasn't been doing well back in Boondox. I bet they're just looking for a better place to set up shop. We'll probably be moving here eventually."
"That's not true," I argued. "Mom and Dad would never want to leave Boondox. That's where all of their friends are, hm?"
"If you say so. At the very least, you can bet they'll be spending most of their time this week advertising and doing sales pitches here. I saw the flyers in Mom's purse this morning."
"What? Really?" I felt a little silly the more my brother spoke. He was right; it was pretty unusual for our parents to just take us on a trip out of the blue like this, unless the motive was for business.
He nodded. "This is going to get real boring, real fast, hm?"
My shoulders slumped for a moment, but then I shot him a sly look. "Well, we'll just have to make our own fun, yes?"
My own mischief reflected in his sparkling blue eyes. "Agreed, brother."
"Timmy! Tommy!" Mom's high-pitched voice squeaked. "Are the two of you coming? We haven't got all day!"
"Yes, Mom!" Timmy and I said in unison, and we quickly scurried down the steps of the train and onto the pavement of the train station. Immediately we were greeted with the crisp spring air of the village where we had been born. I gazed in awe at my surroundings as I stood there beside my family, taking it all in. The trees were so luscious and overflowing with an abundance of fruits - everything from apples to cherries to bananas. Boondox's fruit was sparse, so this was particularly amazing to see. Not just that, but the grass was lush and green, and didn't have patches of dirt scattered throughout like Boondox did. A beautiful stone fountain majestically decorated the front of the station, where twinkling water flowed all around.
"Wow," Mom breathed. "The village really has changed since we last visited."
"Well, where do you want to visit first?" Dad turned to face the three of us.
"We should take our bags to our room first," I suggested quickly. My arms were already exhausted from having to haul it off of the train, and I knew my dad already had the key to the cottage we were renting for our stay this week. To my surprise, ripples of agreement sounded from my family members. Mom once again fretted over the dusty old map in her arms.
"But Cy-Guy, I don't see the cottage on this map. It must have been built since we were last here."
"Don't worry, I know the way!" my dad announced proudly, suddenly sounding very awake despite snoozing for most of the train ride here. "You remember where the post office was, don't you, sweetheart?"
"Oh... I don't know, it's been such a long time ..."
As they bickered for a bit about the location of the post office, I couldn't tear my gaze from the rich expanse in front of me. There were a lot of houses and businesses dotted along the pathway down the hill, I couldn't wait to visit them all. A large pearly-white building loomed in the distance - a museum? Wow. This village seemed like it had so much to see, so much to do ...
Even with my brother's disappointed and bored expression, and my parents' arguing in the background, my mind was reeling with thoughts of adventure and curiosity. This week was going to be interesting.