1B - An Invitation to Dinosaur Land
"Mario! Luigi! Mail delivery!" an unknown mailman called out from the street. Mario approached the mailman who had only one envelope to give to him. "Thank you," Mario said as he walked back to Luigi and Jim. "That's weird. Both of us got mail at the same time." "Yeah. What a coincidence," Jim and Luigi wondered respectively.
"Who's it from, bro?" Luigi asked. Mario slowly opened the envelope and pulled out a postcard. It had Princess Peach's signature on it. "It's Princess Peach!" Mario exclaimed. In response, Jim and Luigi became thrilled about what Peach wrote down. "Awesome!" "That's fantastic! I had a hunch it was the princess." Mario flipped over the postcard to read the back, which bore a picture of Peach with a green dinosaur:
"Dear Mario and Luigi, I'm writing to you from Dinosaur Land, which is a beautiful paradise located within the Equatorial Sea northwest of the Mushroom Kingdom. There are lots of cute and friendly dinosaurs roaming the islands that make up the country, as well as exotic fruits that hardly anyone in the Mushroom Kingdom has heard of. You should come and visit Dinosaur Land too! I'll be waiting for you at the airport as soon as you land. Have a safe flight. Sincerely, Peach. P.S. There is a picture of me and my new friend, Yoshi on the back of this postcard, which should give you an idea of what the dinosaurs look like."
"All right-y! Let's go to Dinosaur Land!" Mario exclaimed. "What a great idea!" Luigi replied. He turned to Jim and asked, "You want to come with us, Jim?" "I'd love to! I want to see what Dinosaur Land is like!" Jim said. Without hesitation, Jim and the Mario Brothers set off for the Mushroom International Airport; they would be chauffeured by Lloyd Toadsworth, Princess Peach's steward.
It's now 10:10 AM and Jim and the Mario Brothers have just arrived on the tarmac, walking to their ride to Dinosaur Land: a DC-7 aircraft piloted by Captain Timothy Earl and First Officer Michael Under (both are also from Jim's world). "Good morning, Mario," said Captain Earl. "Good morning, Captain. Did you get the call from the princess?" asked Mario. "I sure did. We've got the plane all set for you and Luigi." Captain Earl noticed Jim standing next to Luigi. "Who might you be, kid?" "I'm Jim Heeding. Mario and Luigi suggested that I go with them to Dinosaur Land," Jim said. "Well, Mr. Heeding, we have plenty of space inside for you," Captain Earl replied. "Thanks, Captain."
"Mario, Luigi, we're gonna depart in about fifteen minutes, so you may now take your seats," Captain Earl informed the Mario Brothers after checking his watch. "Okey-dokey," Mario acknowledged. So, Jim, Mario, and Luigi walk up the walkway into the fuselage, where two flight attendants welcomed them onboard. "Where should we sit?" asked Jim. "Anywhere you like, buddy," Mario said. Jim led the Mario Brothers to the fifth row of seats in front of the back exit door; Jim takes the window seat while Mario and Luigi take the center and aisle seats respectively. "You must like the window seat, don't you?" asked Mario. "Yeah. It's pretty cool to see everything when you're that high up. Sorry, Luigi," Jim said, knowing that Luigi would've wanted to sit where Jim is.
As soon as Jim and the Mario Brothers fastened their seat belts, Captain Earl entered the plane and headed towards the cockpit where First Officer Under is already at his place. He takes his seat and tells the flight attendants through the intercom to close the back exit door. "Good morning, folks. Welcome aboard our Douglas DC-7 aircraft," Captain Earl reported. "We're mere minutes away from beginning our nonstop flight to Dinosaur Land Regional Airport, which should take approximately 3 hours and 15 minutes. The time is now 10:15 AM, which means that our arrival time should be no earlier than 1:30 PM. I'll be back with more about today's flight as soon as we reach our cruising altitude. In the meantime, make sure your seat belts are securely fastened for takeoff. Thank you." On that note, First Officer Under began starting up the four piston engines.
Within minutes, the DC-7 taxied to the west end of one of four runways. Captain Earl then throttled the engines to full power, allowing the aircraft to take off on its way to Dinosaur Land. The aircraft reaches its cruising altitude of 25,000 feet within 15 minutes, at which point Captain Earl turned on the intercom again. "We have now reached our cruising altitude of 25,000 feet. At this time, you may unfasten your seat belts, but we recommend that in the case of turbulence, you should refasten them as soon as possible. In the next few minutes, our flight attendants will be serving complementary drinks and snacks. Lunch, however, will not be served until 12:30 PM. Until then, please relax and enjoy today's flight. Thank you."
"So, what do you want to talk about, Jim? We have about three hours, so feel free to tell me and Luigi more about yourself," Mario said. "Well, I WAS gonna tell you about my world before your postcard came in," Jim replied. "Oh, right! I remember now. You told us it was different from ours."
"Exactly. So, first of all, where I'm from is in one of the fifty United States of America: Texas. I was born and raised in the city of Austin, which happens to be the state's capital. On top of that, I live with the nicest mom and dad I've ever seen," Jim explained. "That's really nice. Me and Luigi's parents are pretty much just like yours, except my father has Italian descent," Mario said. Out of confusion, Jim noted, "Wait a minute. Both of you are from America too? I thought you've lived here your whole life." Luigi then began telling the story of him and Mario's lives.
"For several years now. Me and Mario were born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and started a small-time plumbing business called Mario Brothers Plumbing." Mario proceeded to chime in, "It wasn't until five years ago that we were fixing the bathtub drain of a nearby neighbor's house, and just when we thought we unclogged the drain, the water started flushing down so quickly that it startled Luigi and he dropped the plunger, which disappeared almost immediately." "So, I jumped into the tub, trying to grab the plunger, but as soon as my feet went underwater, I was being sucked down the drain. I was so scared that I grabbed Mario's legs and accidentally pulled him under with me. Everything went black at that point."
"So what happened then?" Jim asked. "We woke up lying in the middle of a green field, where an unseen voice told us about how Princess Peach was kidnapped by the Koopa King known as Bowser, and that we were the only ones to save her," Mario explained. "You probably know what happened afterwards if you played this game based off of that first adventure," Luigi said. It turns out that the Mario Brothers were fully aware that a video game company called Nintendo created a video game that told the true story of their first time saving Princess Peach.
"Are you and Luigi still working at that plumbing business?" Jim asked. "Not anymore," Mario replied. "After we saved the princess, we found our way back to Brooklyn and closed down the business so that we can start our new lives in the Mushroom Kingdom." At the same time Mario wrapped up that story, one of the flight attendants rolled a cart with drinks and snacks next to Luigi. "Hello. May I get you something to drink?" asked the flight attendant. "I'll just have a cup of coffee." "Me too. But make mine a decaf," Mario and Luigi said respectively. After handing the Mario Brothers their coffee drinks, Jim asked for some orange juice before the flight attendant made her way back to the rear end of the fuselage.
"Do you have any brothers or sisters?" asked Luigi. "Only one brother: Kent," Jim replied. "He's about four years older than me. Both of us get along really well, but I can't remember the last time we argued. It may have been when I was three or something. Have you and Mario gotten into a fight before?" "Oh, yes. Plenty of times back then," said Mario. "One notable fight was, I think, two years ago. Luigi got this new book the day before and wanted to read it in peace. I didn't know about it at first and I was listening to classical music at the wrong time."
"Although I asked Mario nicely to turn down the music, he didn't hear me because he was preoccupied. After two more times, I rushed towards the record player, snatched the vinyl, and destroyed it into small pieces before throwing them out the window. I immediately regretted doing that, but I had no choice but to argue with Mario until it got to the point where both of us ran away from each other," Luigi added in.
"How long was it until you made up?" asked Jim. In response, Mario said, "It took about five hours, from what I remember. Why? I don't know. But what matters is we always make up in the end." "And as Mario said later on, 'You can't live with your brother, you can't live without him,'" Luigi said. Jim then proceeded to raise his cup of orange juice. "To the best siblings we grew up with." "And to the brand-new friends we meet every now and then," Mario said. All three of them clinked their cups and sipped their drinks.