*** Arlene ***

Inspired by "Expresso love", written by Mark Knopfler.

.

"Not again!"

Marlene was looking at herself in the mirror. Her fur was white as a mink's. She didn't dislike it, but she remembered all what had happened the previous time that Alice had overdone the chlorine. She sighed. At least, she hoped the others remembered it too and acted naturally.

The day was bright, perfect. It felt like being outside and Marlene went out to sunbathe as if nothing had happened. Really, nothing had happened. In the distance she saw the penguins doing one of their inspection rounds in their car. She saw that they were going towards her habitat. Private was driving... luckily: he parked, Rico did another thing. Private was the first one to approach her.

"Hi, Marlene!" he greeted her with his usual happiness.

"Marlene!" Rico greeted too.

Marlene was pleased that both had recognized her. She took out her sunglasses and greeted them back. Next, arrived Kowalski, who took his abacus when he saw her.

"Unbelievable. The probability of this happening twice is 0.0005495943867%. Between what we call never and what we call never ever."

Marlene looked at him in disbelief, raising an eyebrow.

"Marlene... I'm a scientist penguin," he said.

"At least you three have noticed that it's me," Marlene said. "It won't happen again what happened that other time, right?" She was referring to the presumed murder incident, since otherwise she had felt, let's say... different.

At that moment, Skipper arrived. He didn't look very happy.

"Soldiers! Did I tell you to leave the inspection round?" Then he saw Marlene and was left with his beak open, like a fool, for some seconds. "Eh... euhm... eh, well... I..."

Marlene shut his beak. "You... what?"

Skipper blushed under his feathers. He was unable to say anything else.

"Skipper... are you okay?" Kowalski asked.

Skipper left his trance. "Eh? Yeah, yeah, I'm fine."

"You don't seem so," Private intervened.

"I'm better than ever," Skipper replied, approaching Marlene and taking her paw between his flippers. "I couldn't be better with this albino lady right in front of me."

Albino lady? Didn't Skipper really recognize her? Again?

"Skipper... it's me, Marlene. Smell me. You see? I smell like chlorine. Alice has poured too much chlorine in my pool."

Something changed in Skipper's look, or Marlene thought that.

"Arlene! You're back! Long time no see you! And you smell like roses!"

Aw, no...

Kowalski took Skipper out of Marlene's eyesight.

"But, Skipper... can't you see it? It's Marlene, our usual Marlene. With an M. M-A-R-L-"

"Hah, no!" Skipper was talking as a child in the middle of a tantrum. "It's Arlene: A-R-L-E-N-E. The same Arlene as that time."

"The one who killed Marlene?"

"Kowalski! What you're saying has no sense! Arlene didn't kill Marlene. Otherwise, how could Marlene appear later?"

"Because... okay! What does it matter?" Kowalski answered. "It's Marlene, and this has been another error by Alice... and I'm going to prove you."

Skipper smiled. "Yeah... go and investigate. Take Rico and Private... I'll interrogate Arlene."

"Marlene."

"Whatever."

Kowalski said something to Rico and Private, who followed him. The three disappeared as three ghosts would do. Skipper stayed alone with Arlene.

.

Kowalski gave the order to go to Alice's office, and Rico and Private followed him. They saw that the door was open, which meant that Alice was inside. They sneaked in unseen and they hid: Kowalski behind a shelf, Rico regurgitated a pot with a ficus and hid behind it and Private got into an open sports bag that was on the floor.

Alice was wandering around in the office, with the wireless telephone on her ear, waiting for something. From time to time she raised a jar that was on the desk and read something in its label.

"Finally! Yeah, listen, I'm calling from Central Park Zoo. On Tuesday we were sent a box full of jars with chlorine tablets for the animals' pools." She listened attentively. "I'll check it right now and I'll tell you."

Alice left the telephone on the desk and took a green folder from the shelf. It was chock-full with papers. She was sure that what she was looking for was there. Yes, it was there.

"Yes, I asked for them on 3rd. That is, a box with twenty jars. Batch number?" She raised the jar again and looked for it... where the hell did they print those things? "I got it. Batch L37874."

When Alice left the jar on the desk again, Rico feinted to go for it. Kowalski jumped over him and prevented it. Both had to hide fast. Luckily, Alice hadn't seen them.

"Yes, let's see... I'm telling you this is not the product I asked for - Okay, I'll check it."

Alice's look changed when she opened the site where she had made the order and saw that she was the one mistaken. Mental memo: we must always read all the information.

"Then, to sum up... these jars are concentrated and we must pour half the tablets we poured with the previous ones." She nodded to what her interlocutor was saying. "No, nothing has happened. I just called because I saw the instructions different. But if I didn't remember it another day, the effect would be temporary... right? Great. Thank you very much, goodbye," she said right before hanging up.

A lie! She had noticed because she had seen the otter as white as milk, the same as the previous time. And she had already poured chlorine in all the places where she had to do it.

She went running to turn on all the taps and drainpipes. It wasn't a visiting day, but she had to solve it the sooner the better. The three penguins went behind her.

.

Skipper hadn't wasted time, although he hadn't proceeded to make the interrogation. Instead of that, he and Arlene had been swimming in the habitat pool and they were in her cave: Skipper was delighting Arlene with the product of eight years (or four months) hidden in the jungles in Mexico, when the others arrived and Kowalski made a gesture asking Rico and Private to wait. Arlene didn't know Skipper's musical streak, but she was so pleased to meet it.

Skipper left the Spanish guitar aside and stared at Arlene.

"Anything wrong?" she asked him.

"Nothing, it's just... there's someone here on Earth who is made in Heaven," he said, grabbing her by the waist.

Arlene's heart was accelerated.

"And I'd do anything for her," Skipper added. "If she wanted to take me for a walk on the wild side of life..."

"Then plug the music, maestro," she said, pointing to her sound system.

Skipper plugged the system. A song with the saxophone as protagonist surprised him.

"You listen to this, Arlene?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "I thought you liked guitars."

"That is Marlene. I prefer the saxophone... It goes so well with the night... although there's some hours left. But after some hours you'll stay here... won't you?" she asked, winking an eye to him.

"Of course," Skipper replied with a smile. "I'm waiting for someone, I have to be with her."

"I'm waiting for someone too," Arlene acknowledged. "Who are you waiting for?"

"My best friend." Skipper lowered his stare. "I feel so good when I'm with her... She likes a lot talking with me, she sometimes asks me a lot of questions and I can't answer because everything is classified information."

"Then you won't tell me either," Arlene said with an annoyed tone.

"I'd tell you, but don't tell her: Marlene drives me crazy."

Arlene blushed under her fur dyed in white. She wished Skipper hadn't noticed. Arlene looked at Skipper's eyes. She didn't know that the same fever which was running inside her was running inside him too.

"Marlene has told me that Skipper drives her crazy too," she said.

The revelation left Skipper breathless for a moment. Could that be? So near and so far at the same time, so unreachable for fear of losing her and looking like a boor. Maybe Marlene was right when she told him that boys didn't know anything, though he knew something: he wanted her. And it was easier to tell Arlene. But... what had he heard?

"Arlene... why are you talking about me in the third person?"

"I wasn't talking about you," Arlene said.

"You were talking about me in the third person, you've said Skipper and not you."

Arlene placed her paws on his shoulders and guided him to a full-length mirror. Skipper saw on it an albino penguin who was looking back at him. And he hadn't noticed, as dazed as he was looking at Arlene all the time! He felt like an idiot. Marlene had paid him back! He looked at her very seriously. She was laughing! Now she would see!

"Do you know something, Arlene?" he said. "If we close our eyes, we're not so different."

Arlene closed her eyes. Next, the albino penguin kissed her. No, if they closed their eyes they weren't different... but all had changed.

Meanwhile, unaware of both, the other penguins had seen and heard everything from the cave entrance, where they were trying to laugh at their leader silently. Skipper got out of the cave and saw them there, covering their beaks with their flippers.

"Not a word of this," he said with a threatenin tone.

The hidden laughs became loud laughters.

.

The next morning, Skipper was preparing some coffee with a sardine after having been swimming in his habitat pool. Kowalski cleared his throat, grabbing his attention. Skipper turned round and saw the three penguins opposite him.

"Skipper, yesterday we investigated Alice. She has made a mess with chlorine again," he announced. "She bought some chlorine twice as concentrated by mistake and she used it in all the zoo. We all would have ended white if we had taken a bath yesterday."

"Apparently, she has already solved the problem," Skipper said looking at his flipper, which was black again."

"As for what happened yesterday in Marlene's cave -"

"It was so tender," Private interrupted Kowalski.

"It really was," Skipper acknowledged. "But I hope it won't be a reason for laughter for you three."

The three shook their heads. Rico then started laughing and the other two nudged him.

At that moment, they heard the squeal of the fishbowl moving. Someone was climbing down the ladder. Skipper adopted a defense stance. False alarm, it was just Marlene.

"Hi, guys!" she greeted. "Oh, it smells great..."

"It's coffee time," Skipper said. "Do you want an expresso?"

"Yes, please," she answered.

Skipper prepared a cup for Marlene and she poured two spoonfuls of sugar.

"Don't you want some?" she asked.

"No sugar and no milk... nothing white in my coffee, please."

Marlene took the hint. "And yesterday?"

"Yesterday... yeah, of course. But not Arlene at all."

"There's not Arlene today," Marlene said, leaving the cup on the table and approaching him until she almost touched him.

Skipper looked sideways at Kowalski, Rico and Private. The three had on their beaks the same dopey smiles as the previous evening.

"Don't you have anything to do?" he asked them. "Get out of here you three."

When he saw that the three had already gone up to the concrete island, Skipper took Marlene by her waist.

"Arlene told me some things yesterday. Anything to say?"

"They're true," Marlene replied. "Anything to declare?"

"I was afraid of telling you what I was feeling. I'm happy that Arlene came back and made things easier."

"You afraid? The secret agent penguin? ¡Wow!" Marlene smiled mockingly.

"You can laugh, but there are missions... and missions." Skipper looked very serious. "Give me another like yesterday."

"A kiss?"

"No... an expresso," he said, moving her closer and touching her lips with his beak.