Chapter 11: Visiting Mrs. Smith
Cody's POV
Just a few more lines and my sketch of Dixie was done. Honestly, she has been on my mind quite a lot recently. I can't help but blush whenever I think of her, I guess it's because this is the first time I've actually had a girlfriend. I wonder if Dolly has the same feelings whenever she thinks of Hansel. The sketch of Dixie in question was of her sitting on a windowsill looking at the viewer whilst holding a rose to her smiling face. I was about to colour the sketch in when I heard mum call out to me.
"Cody! Can you come over here for a second, love?" Putting away my sketchbook and colouring pencils for later, I stood up from where I was sat and headed to where mum was to find her on the house phone when she glanced over at me with a smile on her muzzle. "Hey mum, what's up?" I greeted as she held up a finger, signalling her to give a moment. "Yeah, that's great! I think he'd love to meet you! Alright, talk to you later!" She said on the phone before hanging up and turning to me.
"Cody? Did I ever tell you about my human godmother who used to live with us?"
Huh. So I wasn't the first human to live here? I briefly remembered at that moment about how Great-Great-Grandad and Grandma Pongo and Perdita lived with their human godmother and godfather, Anita and Roger. The term "Godmother/father" being what anthros prefer to use nowadays instead of "Owner" since the latter sounded more objectifying. I shook my head 'No' as I never recalled her ever mentioning that she had a human godmother.
"Oh goodness, it must've slipped my mind." Mum scratched the back of her head in slight embarrassment before continuing. "But yes, she used to live here with me when I was a pup myself. We even had my aunt Oddball and Uncles Domino and Little Dipper living with us for a while too. And when I married Doug, she realised I was old enough to be able to take care of myself so she handed down the house to me and him and moved away to live on an island." Wow, she must've been rich. Maybe she was a famous writer or something given how long ago it would've been since she moved away. I quickly noticed however that mum's face had faltered a little and she let out a sniffle whilst wiping her eye.
"Mum? ...Are you okay?" I asked her, concern being very evident in my tone. "O-Oh yeah, sorry sweetie. I just miss her sometimes. Been a long time since me and her last talked." She explained, managing a smile through her nostalgia-induced moment before clearing her throat. "Anyway… She's actually come to London on holiday and is currently staying at a hotel called Bulgari. She called me just to ask me how things have been with the family and well, I let it slip that I had a human son now." She chuckled with a sheepish grin, obviously referring to me. "And she would love to meet you!" She finished as I wondered what her godmother would look like.
"That does sound good! What would be the best time to visit her?" I wondered as she walked over to a desk and wrote down a slip of paper. "She said she's able to see you right now if you want!" Mum suggested before handing me the piece of paper. What was written on it was the address to the Bulgari Hotel and the number '42', possibly the room number. Since I had nothing important planned at the moment, I nodded at the idea and was about to head for the door when I looked back to her.
"Don't you want to come with? It wouldn't be fair if I got to visit her and you didn't after so long." Mum shook her head sadly at me in response. "I really wish I could, but I have work to go to. Have fun though, sweetheart." She gave me a small smile before waving to me to which I nodded understandingly and waved back before leaving.
It was probably a good thing I took the bus to the hotel. The whole ride to maybe over twenty minutes to get there from Camden so imagine how long it could've taken if I had walked. The look of the hotel itself wasn't too fancy compared to the other sights I had seen in my life in London. The exterior was like a wide office building with nothing but rows of rectangular windows, the front probably had the longest set of windows and see through doors I'd seen on a hotel. I shrugged this off and went into the lobby, the inside looked rather nice at least. It was like I was inside one of those modern houses with abstractly shaped exteriors.
"Can I help you with anything, sir?" A voice cut my view of the lobby short as I looked to my left to see a male tuxedo cat in a work uniform facing me whilst holding a towel in his arm. "Oh yeah, I'm looking for the person who lives at room forty-two." I answered truthfully before handing him the slip of paper as he looked at it for a moment before looking back at me. "I see… Any business you have with Mrs. Smith?" He inquired with a quizzical look. "Well, she was my mum's godmother. Used to live with her on 101 Dalmatian Street." His curious look didn't fade as he handed me back the paper and pointed to a hallway in the distance. "Fourth floor is where you'll want to go. Elevators are over there."
"Alright, thank you sir." I nodded gratefully before heading to where he pointed to, finding the elevators seconds later and tapping on the button to call one down. The doors opened and I stepped in, finding the control pad next to the doors and tapping on the button labelled '4' as the elevator doors soon closed and I felt the brief shift of the elevator going upwards. The elevator soon stopped and the doors re-opened as I stepped out and looked down the hallway, taking a few steps before spotting the very numbered door I was looking for to which I knocked on, not seeing the door open but instead hearing a voice from inside seconds later.
"Who is it?" A female voice called out from within the room. "It's me, Cody. Delilah's adopted son she told you about on the phone." I replied, hearing a much more excited response. "Oh! Come in, the door's unlocked!" I did exactly as the voice asked, turning the handle as the door opened. Just like the lobby, the room itself was modern but quite expensive looking. You'd probably have to be a celebrity or billionaire to stay even one night in this room.
What got my attention the most however was the source of the voice herself, an elderly human woman probably in her early 90's wearing a white blouse and low cut skirt was facing the window before turning to face me with a warm smile. "Is that really Delilah's adopted human son I'm looking at? You're more handsome looking than I thought, dearie!" I smiled back with a faint blush whilst waving at her.
"Hello, Grand-Godmother Dodie. It's nice to finally meet you." I said to her as she took a seat on a sofa. "Oh, the pleasure is all mine, Cody. But you're free to call me just Grandma Dodie if you wish." Technically, Grandma would've been Delilah's biological mother, but I let it slide since it definitely sounded more familial than 'Grand-Godmother'. I took seat on the other sofa next to the one Dodie was sat on before she began a conversation.
"It's a shame Delilah couldn't come visit me with you. I understand if work got in the way of that however. What about your brothers and sisters, are they treating you well?"
"Oh yeah! In fact, they were really excited to see me when I first met them. I was literally dog piled by them!" I chuckled upon recalling that as did Dodie before she gave me another question.
"Oh yes, I've heard from what Dylan wrote to me once that they were very excitable whenever they saw a human in their home. You know, speaking of your siblings… Do you have any favourites? Like a favourite brother and sister?" That was a bit of a tough question but there were two particular Dalmatians of the bunch that I loved to spend the most time with even though I loved all of my siblings equally. Da Vinci and DJ. They were almost like best friends to me, especially since we both had the same interests.
"Well… I'd have to say my favourite sister is Da Vinci and my favourite brother being DJ. Just don't tell any of the others or they might get jealous." Dodie laughed at my answer. "Ah yes, the artistic girl and the music loving boy! Those two are really talented in what they love doing." There was no way I could disagree with that, especially if you saw how DJ played his keyboard or any of Da Vinci's recent artworks.
"Oh, but what about Dolly and Dylan? They still keeping everyone in check whilst Delilah and Doug are working?" I nodded after she asked that. "Yep, Dylan's still doing his best to keep the house clean and Dolly's still making things fun for everyone." I chose to leave out the one night where the two had fought over the broken family portrait as I knew that was a memory neither of us would want to look back on. That was when I remembered something mum mentioned when she told me how Dodie used to live with her.
"Oh yeah, mum told me that her aunts and uncles, Oddball, Domino and Little Dipper used to live with you and her at a time when she was a puppy." Dodie blinked in realisation upon me recalling those names. "Oh, I'm glad you asked!" She said before getting up and walking over to one of the dressers and pulling out an old cardboard envelope, taking out a small framed photograph and handing it to me. The photo showed a human woman with a little Dalmatian girl sitting on her lap with a light blue dress. Next to the woman were three other Dalmatians seemingly around her age. Two of which were male and both had black ears, one with white spots on them patterned like aligned dots of a domino with four on one ear and three on the other. His clothing consisted of a v-neck shirt with black long sleeves and grey pants, a collar on his neck with the chain holding a black domino. The other's ears were spotless and he donned a jersey shirt with a grey coloured bone on the front and denim pants. His most prominent feature was the tip of his tail being coloured black and his hands had a fur pattern like he had just dunked them in ink. The girl Dalmatian had very few spots compared to the others and was wearing a princess shirt with pink shorts, a thicker collar of pink with spots that held a pink gemstone bordered with gold spikes. Unlike the other three Dalmatians in the photo, her nose was a solid pink.
It only took me a few seconds to figure out who they all were with the human woman being a younger Dodie Smith, the pup on her lap evidently being mum, the two adult boy Dalmatians being Domino and Little Dipper and the adult girl being none other than Oddball.
"Her real name is actually Odette but she used to be called 'Oddball' because she never got any spots until sometime when she was 10 years old, making her the odd one out of the family." Dodie explained as she pointed at the adult girl dog in the photo. I then noticed that she had used 'is' instead of 'was' when talking about Oddball which made another question came to mind.
"So Oddball is still around? Where is she and the others now?" I asked her before putting the photo down. "Ah, well last I heard from Oddball which was a week ago, she's currently retired in Wales. I should probably send her the address to Dalmatian Street so she can write to Delilah. Domino if I recall is still in Manhattan in his mansion with all his winnings from years of gambling in Vegas. His name must've been very lucky indeed, because to this day, no one has beaten him in Pai gow." I read somewhere once before that Pai gow was a kind of gambling game originated in China that used a set of 32 Chinese dominoes. "And as for Little Dipper, he's become a writer and is hoping to have his books published one day. I often tell him that I can just pay to have them published but he'd rather use his own money to do it." I could only wonder if I'd ever get the chance to visit either of the three as Dodie picked up the cardboard envelope again and pulled out another photo.
This one was of the entryway of the church, standing in front of the doors was mum and dad, the former in a pure white long flowing dress and the latter in a black tuxedo joined by a human woman in a party dress. No doubt this was a photo taken during mum and dad's wedding which Dodie had attended. I just couldn't help but smile warmly at the sight of mum and dad on that day looking so happy and Dodie seemed to notice this.
"I remember Delilah and Doug's wedding as if it were only yesterday. And that day was when I learned something extra surprising too." She reminisced whilst looking at the photo. "On the morning of that day before the wedding, Delilah got a little sick. I thought it was just from overexcitement from the event at first but it was soon after they kissed that we all found out the real reason why." Dodie said before whispering in my ear.
"It was the same day we found out she was pregnant with Dolly and Dylan."
We spent the rest of the day together making conversation which each other about the past, though I made sure to leave out everything regarding my biological father to avoid upsetting her. I even told her about my relationship with Dixie and she wished me the best of luck with her. It would soon be five in the afternoon and I was about to head home when Dodie had one last thing to say to me.
"Be sure to tell Doug I said 'hello', dearie!" I smiled at her in response before waving goodbye to her before heading home.
Author's Note: After some consideration, I might post this story along with some of my other stories on Wattpad in the near future after looking up that the site is just as popular as FanFiction