Chapter Eleven
"Oh, Jim Dear, I am ever so worried about them…"
"I know you are, Darling. I am, too," Jim Dear sighed, taking another smoke of his pipe and sitting himself down in their rocking chair, "Tramp, Scamp, and Angel have all been gone for two whole days now.'"
His wife put away the woolen hat she was knitting for their little son, "Do you suppose all three of them are together out there?"
"I certainly hope they are," Jim Dear nodded, then put a hand up to his forehead, "I just can't think of where they might be! I've looked all over town, and I checked the pound yesterday and the day before. Not one of them is there."
An elderly woman with her gray hair up in a bun walked into the living room, holding Junior in her arms, "There, there, dears. I'm sure your dogs will all show back up before too long."
"Thank you, Aunt Sarah," Darling smiled, taking Junior from her aunt and sitting the child down in her lap, "I know you're really more of a cat person, though."
"Well, yes, but I feel simply awful seeing you look so down, dearie," Aunt Sarah patted her arm and sat down beside her niece. Her two Siamese cats came gliding over to her, meowing very lovingly and innocently.
"Why, if my Si and Am ever ran away, I would be simply distraught!" Aunt Sarah petted her two precious cats.
"Yes, I understand," Darling smiled, rocking her child back and forth gently, then looked up to see their Cocker Spaniel passing through the living room, "At least we still have Lady and the three girls with us."
"Lady! Lady!" Junior laughed, then looked up at his mother, "Scamp? Tramp? Angel?"
"They'll be back soon, sweetheart. I'm sure they will," Darling kissed her child's forehead.
Si and Am sneered down at Lady, but she knew by now not to let the two of them provoke her. Lady simply turned her nose up at the cats and trotted out the door and into the backyard.
"Shall we see what the little doggy is up to?" Si grinned.
"Yes, let's!" Am purred, "Let's see if we can cause any- "
"Trouble?"
"Mischief!"
The two Siamese cats waltzed into the kitchen and hopped up on the counter to look out at Lady from the window. She was approaching the doghouse in the backyard, and then-
"Ooh! Who is that?" Si cackled when a large Doberman came out from hiding in the doghouse.
"Someone who should not be there, I think! Shall we see what he's doing here?"
"Yes, let's!"
Back in the living room, Jim Dear had gotten up from the couch, excused himself from the room, and walked out to the front porch.
He took another puff of his pipe, then sighed to himself, "I hope you'll come back soon, Tramp. I don't know why you've gone, but I sure do miss you."
He sat down on the porch swing, gazing out to the town streets as though Tramp might come walking up the sidewalk any moment.
"Come back to us, old boy…" Jim Dear shook his head sadly and began swinging.
The Tramp yawned, stretching out his front legs and looking up at the clear morning sky, "Aah… What a day!"
But the mutt suddenly gasped in pain, his back and legs aching terribly, "Oww… I guess I'm not used to- Aah! …not sleeping on soft pillows…"
His old wooden barrel in the train yard wasn't nearly as comfortable to sleep in as he remembered it being - in fact, he didn't feel well-rested at all. Regardless, the Tramp was determined to reclaim his old life on the streets.
I was once the greatest street dog there ever was… he told himself firmly, And I still am.
The Tramp's stomach growled, so he took off down the sidewalk in search of a bit to eat. He passed by a couple buildings, pondering where to eat his breakfast, "Let's see here… Francois? No, no, way too much starch as I remember. Maybe… Tony's?"
His mind immediately went to the night he had eaten spaghetti with Lady at Tony's. A candlelight dinner, music playing for them, and the stars shining down on their lovely bella notte…
"No. No, not Tony's," the Tramp decided, walking past his favorite restaurant without a second thought.
He continued down the town street, trying to think of a place to eat, "Hey… how about Bernie's? Yeah, I used to eat there all the time!"
The Tramp ran down the sidewalk to find the diner, but when he came to the spot he distinctly remembered Bernie's being… no diner was there.
"Uh… maybe they moved?" he looked up and down the street, but he saw the diner nowhere. A rustling from an alley behind him made the Tramp quickly turn around, bringing him face to face with his old buddy Bull.
"Blimey! If it ain't the Tramp!" Bull the English bulldog laughed in his distinct Cockney accent.
"Hiya, Bull! Long time no see!"
"Same ta' you, chum," Bull set down the bone he was chewing on, "Whatever are you doing on the streets without a collar? Last I heard you'd become a house pet."
"Well, the times are changing. I'm done being a house dog. But never mind that, I'm pretty hungry… Didn't Bernie's used to be right here?"
"Bernie's? Oh, that diner closed down months ago, old chum. They up and replaced it with that there clothing shop," the bulldog nodded to the shop that the Tramp had never seen before.
"Ah man, that's too bad," the Tramp sighed, and his stomach gave another loud rumble, "Uh… say, old pal… you wouldn't mind sharing your bone there with a hungry dog, would you?"
"Sorry, old friend, but it's every dog for himself out here. You should know that," Bull picked up his bone for fear the Tramp would try to snatch it up.
"Yeah… guess I forgot about that."
"Well, blimey, chum! Aren't you supposed to be the best street dog of them all?" the English bulldog laughed at him, "Surely you can dig up your own food!"
With that, Bull walked back into the alley, taking his bone with him. The Tramp sighed again, then took off down the sidewalk, again in search of food.
Yep. Forgot how much I love life on the streets… I guess I can see why Peg wanted to skip town… he thought as he wandered the town, finally finding some trashcans to dump over and eat out of. He managed to scavenge a few scraps of meat and a piece of stale bread.
What was it he'd told Angel? "You don't need to dig around dirty alleys for food anymore."
The Tramp sighed. Perhaps his days of being a street dog had not been quite as good as he'd always remembered them to be.
"…and that was the night that I… well, that I fell in love with Tramp," Lady finished her story.
"Wow… candles, music, spaghetti dinner an' everything. That traitor sure knew how ta' trick a pretty girl into falling for him, didn't he?" Buster scoffed.
"Yes, but… I really thought he and I had something special…" she sighed to him, "That night was always so important to me… and now…"
"Hey… lift your head up, beautiful!" Buster grinned; his eyes lit up when he spotted two Siamese cats sneaking around the yard, "I know how ta' have some fun, Lady! Let's get those cats over there!"
"Oh no, Buster! Those are- "
But she was too late. Buster had begun barking and chasing after Si and Am. The two cats hissed and darted back inside the house, but Buster keep barking loudly at them.
"Who's that barking?" Jim Dear came running down from the porch and into the backyard. He did a double-take when he saw a big, scary-looking Doberman with no collar in his yard.
"Hey! Get out of here! Go on! Get!" Jim Dear yelled at the dog.
"What on earth is going on out there?" Darling poked her head out of the kitchen window.
"Some big dog's in our yard!" Jim Dear explained to his wife, then resumed shooing off Buster, "Go on! Get away, you!"
Buster barked back at him, but took off running out of the Darlings' yard and down the street. Once making sure he was out of sight, Jim Dear walked back up the front porch and into his house.
"Oh, dear… I was afraid this would happen…" Lady sighed, but she then heard Buster calling her name from the other side of the backyard fence.
"Buster! Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," the Doberman assured her, "Hey, I was getting pretty tired of sleeping in that doghouse, anyways."
"Will you be alright out on the streets? How's your leg doing?"
"My leg feels great. Don't worry," Buster grinned, "Trust me, I'll be fine. But if you'd like… you an' I can head out around the town tonight. What do ya' say, beautiful?"
She smiled at him through the fence, "Alright, Buster. Tonight it is."