Chapter Four: Train Talk
It was evening as the train bustled down the track, heading for the site of the next performance. Friends gathered in certain train cars to talk, for maybe even the whole night long.
"Come on!" Marty said. "Let's hear some stories! And how 'bout some stories we haven't heard before?"
"Sorry," Melman told him crossly.
"We want-a to hear-a your-a stories!" Stefano piped up. "From New York-a and Africa!"
"Yes!" Gia agreed. "Tell us, please!"
Vitaly snickered at their eagerness.
"Speaking of," he began, "ve vill perform to go to Africa in Vashigton D.C."
Alex leapt up.
"Africa?" he asked. "Really?"
Vitaly seemed a little perturbed.
"Yes," he said.
Alex didn't seem to notice his change in mood.
"A lot of stuff happened in Africa!" he continued. "I was born there, we crash-landed the first time there, we got chased around by savages... am I missing anything?"
"Yeah," Marty told him. "The actual stories?"
"We're getting there!" Alex said.
Vitaly cleared his throat. Alex looked at him.
"Something wrong?" he asked.
He saw that Gia and Stefano didn't look as happy either.
"Guys," he began, "don't worry. We won't run off like we did in New York! I definitely learned my lesson!"
"Especially after he was almost killed twice," Gloria added.
"There's no way we're jumping ship," Alex continued. "Circus life is better than living on the dry, hot, African plains."
"But don't you need to go back sometime?" Melman piped up.
Marty and Gloria gave him looks.
"Yeah," Alex said, "but I can do that years from now. Dad won't be on his deathbed any time soon!"
"What do you mean by that?" Gia asked.
"Oh, uh," Alex answered, "My parents are the alphas of my home pride, and, well, I'm the only heir. I shoulda told you that earlier, huh?"
"You will-a have to leave-a?!" Stefano squeaked, tears starting to flow.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Alex protested. "Settle down, Stefano! I'll probably only leave when everyone's thinking of retirement! It's no big deal!"
"You run from home?" Vitaly asked. "Is that vhy I teach you to fight?"
"No," Alex told him. "I need to learn to fight regardless. I didn't exactly give Dad the time to train me himself."
Everyone fell silent.
"So, how 'bout story time?" Marty said.
"It can't hurt," Melman agreed.
"Does anyone have New York stories?" Gloria asked. "Just to get that out of the way?"
Alex thought for a minute after he sat down with Gia. Then he laughed a little.
"What?" Gia asked.
"Lucille," Alex said, just loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Oh," Gloria teased, "your favorite vet!"
"Shut it," Alex told her as she, Marty, and Melman began to laugh.
"A vet-a?" Stefano asked.
"The first thing you need to know about vets," Alex began, "is that you should never mess with 'em. Now that I think of it, wasn't Lucille always the one that darted me when I needed to come in?"
The other three were stifling laughs.
"I think so," Melman said.
"Oh, poor you," Gia said with false concern.
"Whatever," Alex continued. "It may be the same with other vets, but you should never turn your back on Lucille, whether you know she has a needle or not. I'm not kidding!"
He added that last part as everyone but him started to laugh.
"At least she doesn't lie," Melman said.
Alex suddenly shuddered.
"Oh, jeez," he began, "I just remembered someone else."
"Park?" Marty asked, solemn.
"Eh? Park?" Vitaly asked. "Who is Park?"
"Jonathan Park, the owner of the Central Park Zoo," Alex told him. "He was the only human I didn't like while we were still living there. Creepy guy, more stuck-up than I'll ever be."
Vitaly, Gia, and Stefano had looks of surprise on their faces.
"He keeps claiming that he bottle-fed me when I was first brought to the zoo," Alex continued. "It isn't true, because I remember clearly that it was always Lucille that did, and he just 'supervised'."
"Idiot," Gia breathed.
"Exactly," Alex said. "But, now we're free of that jerk because he released us into the wild!"
"I didn't hear anything like that!" Marty protested. "He really released us?"
"Yeah," Alex told him. "After I woke up from Grand Central, I heard some news people announcing that the zoo was releasing us into the wild."
"Then they drugged you again?" Melman asked.
"Yep," Alex growled.
"So after this 'Grand Central'," Gia began, "you were sent to Africa?"
"No," Gloria told her. "We got stranded on Madagascar, and then went to Africa."
"Madagascar?" Stefano asked.
"Nothing much happened there," Marty said. "The usual stranded on a deserted island stuff. Alex tried to find and flag down ships, I made a shelter, and then Alex went nuts and bit me."
"Hey! I said I was sorry!" Alex shouted.
Everyone laughed a little.
"So who has the most Africa stories?" Gia asked.
"That would be Alex," Melman said. "After all, he's the only one with family out there."
"So what are your parents like, Alex?" Gia asked him.
"Si! Si!" Stefano cried. "Tell-a us!"
"Well," Alex began, "Mom is kind and supportive, even after I accidentally got us banished. And Dad is strong, brave, and is, well, sometimes pretty hard on me."
"Especially when you accidentally got you guys banished?" Gia asked.
"Pretty much," Alex replied.
"How-a did you-a get-a banished?" Stefano asked.
"It was a huge misunderstanding on my part," Alex said quickly. "We got it all sorted out by bringing the water back and technically banishing the guy that set me up."
"It sounds like you had a great adventure there," Gia said.
"And that was only the beginning!" Marty added. "I found this huge heard of my own look-alikes, Melman became a witch doctor, and Gloria met a guy named Moto Moto."
"And I hope I'll never meet that jerk again," Gloria said sternly. "Melman's all I'll ever need."
"Aw, honey," Melman told her.
"Which reminds me," Alex began, "when are you gonna find someone, Marty? Have you asked one of the triplets yet?"
"Hey!" Marty protested. "You know I'll never do that! It'll only lead me into trouble! I still can't tell them apart!"
Everyone snickered. Then Marty got a look on his face. He knew just how to get back at Alex.
"Hey, Al," he said. "I think we forgot a story. The Joke?"
He, Gloria, and Melman started laughing again. Alex lost his smile.
"Oh, come on," he complained. "Not that one."
"If this-a is a joke-a," Stefano asked, "why aren't-a you laughing, Alice?"
"Because it isn't a joke," Alex said. "It was a prank."
He reached out and smacked the back of Marty's head. But this made the zebra laugh harder.
Vitaly let out a laugh.
"You vere pranked!" he said.
"Yeah," Alex admitted. "I was."
"What happened?" Gia asked eagerly.
"Do you really need to know?" Alex asked.
"Well, what happened was Alex was entertaining this group of cubs," Gloria began to explain, trying not to laugh before she was done. "He was imitating a big, buff lion with a deep voice, you know, just trying to make them laugh! And then Marty comes up, and he -!"
She started laughing again.
"I made a little handbag," Marty continued, "just like the one a certain little old lady used when she beat him up two or three times a while ago! And I snuck up behind Alex, and I hit him on the shoulder, and he-!"
He started laughing harder than Gloria. Melman could hardly breathe because he was laughing so hard, so he couldn't continue the story.
"What?" Gia asked. "What happened?"
Alex looked at his cackling friends and sighed uncomfortably.
"I jumped literally four feet in the air and shrieked like a little girl," he admitted.
Everyone but him roared with laughter. Stefano even fell over.
"And that- that wasn't even the best part!" Melman wheezed.
"While Alex was chasing me," Marty continued, still laughing, "his dad came charging in, thinking it was some lioness that got attacked."
"And he figured out what actually happened," Alex growled. "I think it was really difficult to tell who was more embarrassed."
It took a while for everyone to stop laughing. They finally realized that the sun had long since gone down.
"Is getting late," Vitaly suddenly growled, standing up.
"We should really be heading back to our car," Gia said as Vitaly opened the door to leave.
"We should-a be arriving in-a the-a afternoon-a," Stefano yawned as Vitaly left.
"Gia, wait."
Gia turned to look at a standing Alex as Stefano left.
"Is something wr-!" she began.
Alex suddenly wrapped his arms around her and planted a kiss on her lips. She seemed stunned for a fraction of a second before wrapping her arms around him and kissing him back. After some time, they let go of each other.
"Sleep well," he told her.
Gia seemed to have a dreamy look on her face as she turned to leave. When she left, Alex heard a wolf whistle from Marty.
"Hey!" he snapped. "That's my girlfriend! Only I get to whistle at her!"
He and his friends laughed as they settled in for the night.