"We're here short man" Phil announced as he gave a U turn so he could park the Packard on the boarding's house garage.
Once they were parked inside, Arnold walked out of the vehicle and headed to the trunk. Pulling his backpack with a little effort, he walked to the door adjacent to the garage but Phil stopped him.
"Sorry short man, there's been some remodeling. We have to go all the way around"
Arnold sighed and started to walk to the exit of the garage. Phil pulled the green wooden door down with the help of Gerald, considering now that Phil was shorter than him. After the door was locked the three of them started to walk around the building.
"Want some help man?" Gerald suggested.
"Nah, I'm fine" Arnold responded.
After struggling a little they were finally at the doorsteps of the boarding house. The place looked exactly the same and Arnold was glad it was this way. Climbing carefully the steps of the front, he prepared himself to be ambushed by all the herd of animals his grandparents still kept. As expected once he opened the door he was bombarded but by a set of arms that pulled him inside.
"Welcome home!"
In all the fuss, he just heard that same phrase repeated constantly as some of the figures threw him all sorts of colorful confetti and streamers. Someone took off his backpack from him and before he could figurate out what just happened he was standing in the middle of the dinning room. Blinking a couple of times, his brain finally started to register what just happened.
There were almost all the boarders he still remembered from his childhood. Oskar and Suzie Kokoshka both with some gray hairs on top of their head but smiling widely. Next to them was the small figure of Ernie holding a huge red horn in his hands, now almost all his red hair gone due to baldness. And finally on the end of the table was his grandmother dressed up in a conqueror outfit. With an agile jump, she got on top of the table while pulling out the sword around her waist and smashing the cake in half.
"I claim this cake in the name of Spain!"
Arnold smiled and waited until Phil stopped reprehending his wife and helping her down of the table. Once she was down Arnold run to her and held her in a tight embrace.
"I missed you too, Captain Cortes" she said, placing a kiss on his forehead.
Arnold looked from one side of the room to the other, finding someone was missing.
"Where's Mr. Hyunh?" he asked.
"He moved out, to live with his daughter and son-in-law" Ernie said as he cleaned his face from the few traces of the frosting that reached him.
Arnold nodded and felt a little sad that he wasn't able to see one of the boarders he grew up to love. But was glad that finally Mr. Hyunh was reunited with his only family.
"Hey Arnold? Did you bring any presents?" Oskar asked and was almost instantly nudged on the stomach by his wife.
Arnold chuckled and nodded, looking for his backpack and finding it on the corner of the room. As he opened the main lid he started to look for something in it and when he got it, he pulled out a black plastic bag from it. He started by pulling out a green jade mask and gave it to his grandmother, which immediately place it on her face and ran out of the room speaking in a made out language, later he pulled out a silver necklace with a small oval locket hanging from it and gave it to his grandfather.
"Oh Arnold! You remembered" Phil exclaimed as he took the souvenir and opened the locket "Wait? Where's Hedy Lamar?"
Arnold chuckled and kept on pulling things from the bag, handing a pocketsize jade hammer to Ernie, he thanked him as he started to watch the potential on it. At last he pulled out a tote bag and a wallet made of leather and handed to the Kokoshka matrimony. Suzie thanked him and nudged Oskar one more time when he started to complain about the value of the present.
All the boarders sat around the table and started to question Arnold about how San Lorenzo looked like, how was the people and the traditions. He started by telling them how the expeditions of his parents worked. Not long after that Gertie walked in, wearing nothing but a couple of leafs hanged around her chest and waist, poorly covering her body as she hauled and danced around the room.
"Pookie! Nobody wants to see that!" Phil exclaimed as he covered his face in shame "See Arnold? That's why you put a photo of Hedy Lamar here" he said by pulling his necklace off his neck and showing it to Arnold "Instead of Pookie's!"
Arnold just snickered just like the rest of the borders. He was enjoying the moment when Gerald approached him.
"Hey man, you have to come with me" he said in a low voice.
Arnold just looked up and raised an eyebrow but nodded afterwards. Excusing himself he hugged his grandparents one more time before heading out of the place. Once they were on the sidewalk Arnold turned to his friend.
"Gerald… where are we going?"
"You'll see" he responded as he started to walk to the right.
Arnold just shrugged and started to follow him, wondering what exactly his friend had in mind.
A/N: Ok now I'm definately in love with Phil and Gertie, they're so adorable and fun to write about :D Also I got a recomendation from one of the readers to work on my Gerald skills hehehe I seriously don't know how to do slang and even if I watch the series and I know how Gerald sounds like, I just can't find a way to capture his essence. So if you can help me out, I would definately appreciate it :D