I'm sorry for not posting another chapter since many months ago, boredom and laziness got me. At least I'm making progress now. Enjoy reading!
Chapter Four: Correcting Behaviors
The grandfather clock presents that the time is now about the first hour in the afternoon; Patch was on the hallway waiting on the door like a guard dog to preoccupy himself from being bored in the living room. Freckles enters the hallway from the living room discreetly followed by Lucky entering after a few seconds. He noticed Freckles behind him in a distance but he didn't mind it and proceeded to approach Patch. Lucky sits behind him in his right and asks him what he is doing. Patch tells him that he's watching the door in case someone comes in while not looking back at him.
Meanwhile behind them was Freckles, thinking silently while he lets out a mischievous grin before executing his plan at them. He then pretends to be minding his own business, walking aimlessly, until he sneaked behind Patch slowly who was preoccupied. He pushed Patch in his back and ran towards the living room to not be caught in sight.
"Hey! Lucky! What's the big idea, pushing me like that? I wasn't even looking!" Patch didn't know who pushed him so he blamed Lucky for that with an angry expression.
"Sorry, Patch. But I didn't push you." Patch feels annoyed about Lucky's response. "Did too!" he said against him, speaking loudly. "No honest, I didn't." Lucky said with honestly to him.
"Well I got pushed, so it had to be you!" It suddenly became a back and forth speech to what they claim is true to them while the puppies on the other side of the room seemed to hear their argument. It lasted for a few seconds until Patch questions Lucky again since he was quite reaffirming of his stance. "Well, if you didn't push me, then who did?"
"I don't know. The only other one around when I got here was Freckles." When Lucky said that, Patch was shocked to hear that with his eyes wide open and his jaw dropped. "Freckles! Aw, he's always tryin' to play tricks on me. I shoulda known. Sorry, Lucky." Patch lowers his head because of the blame he did to Lucky.
"Aw, that's all right, Patch. Freckles sneaks up on me too, sometimes." Lucky puts his right paw to Patch's left shoulder as a sign that he accepted his apology.
"We gotta get him to teach us his tricks so we can be stealthy like that, too." Patch said after standing with happiness followed with the both of them grinning and then chuckling at it. Freckles heard what Patch just said and so he readies himself to what was about to come.
A few seconds later, two heads popped out of the door that leads to the living room. They are looking at their fellow puppies, scanning for the puppy they are looking for. They walked slowly with their paws in the living room full with puppies and things such as the grandfather clock in front of the stairs, the couch where usually the three puppies would be while watching the television and of course, the television that faces the couch.
They walked until they reached the couch, looking at everybody else for a familiar face.
"He could be any of them Patch, we know how he blends in with everybody." Lucky whispers to Patch who both are having their eyes wide open for a possibility of Freckles camouflaging within the puppies. "Yeah I know Luck." Patch replied to him.
It was for a moment that they looked towards the crowd with their eyes going in any direction until all of the sudden; they feel like something hit them at the back which pinned them into the ground.
It was Freckles.
"Well that wasn't stealthy of you both." he laughed after saying that to the both of them who are still lying and groaning at their fronts. He released his paws and walked the back into the front while they are managing to sit.
"Hey Freckles, what was that for? You scared us." Patch asked Freckles and then tilts his head while looking at him.
"I'm teaching you both how to be" Freckles then posed in a stealth manner and said "stealthy." Lucky during this time, sits down and asks Freckles with a frown in his face, feeling sad. "Hey Freckles. Why did you push Patch?"
"Sorry if I made you both fight each other, it was my idea to see if you and Patch would still argue." It was then preceded with a reaction by both Lucky and Patch. "Oh" they emit the word long while their eyes widening and jaws dropping, slowly as the word continued on.
And so they went running towards their mother who is near the television, retelling her and Pongo's experience to some of the puppies in front of her sitting, feeling engaged as to hear the part when they were stuck in a town known as Dinsford, finding a way to escape Cruella and the Baduns patrolling and looking for them.
"Hi mom!" Lucky tries to ask while panting to which after Perdita heard him, she introduced them both to the puppies.
"Oh children, may I introduce my two sons, Lucky and Patch." Both of them approached their mother with smiles on their faces while the other puppies are looking at both of them. They nuzzled their mother who bent down towards them with their heads on her chin, their eyes closing out of love. Afterwards they stopped nuzzling each other to sit again, Lucky on the left and Patch on his right, facing front of the puppies with confidence.
"Lucky, Patch, say hello to your brothers and sisters." their mother urges to greet them and so they did with a "Hi!" making the sitting puppies to greet them back. Perdita then recalls what she was telling the puppies about.
"Let us go back to the story. Well, me and Pongo were thinking on how to escape that devil-woman and the other two." Suddenly, a puppy spoke with a loud voice, saying. "The Baduns! They want to kill us!"
"Yes children but they are not coming back anymore; for they are now in jail." Her words bring promise to the puppies who, after hearing did express happiness with their faces smiling and tails wagging.
"Mother, what's jail?" Penny asked out of curiousity. "Well Penny, jail is where the bad guys are being punished for doing crime." Penny thanks her mother for the meaning, as her vocabulary is still growing.
"We were still thinking for a little while about the escape we did, until it was interrupted by an argument." Hearing those words, both Lucky and Patch remembered how they argued that day. Their eyes blinked and then their jaws slightly dropped down in realization. "It's them mom! They started it!" shouted one puppy amongst the crowd.
"Hi. Yeah it's us." Patch chuckles now with his head with a shameful smile bent while Lucky lays on his front covering his eyes with his paws, cringing at what his fellow puppy just said. After Patch gives his words, a crowd of puppies laugh at the matter. The laughter attracts the other puppies as word spread from one puppy to another, filling the whole room with laughter and engagement to listen to the story.
Even Pepper along with Rolly joins with the others to laugh at them without knowing the matter of the situation. Some puppies began to mock Lucky and Patch's name calling them as "Unlucky" and "Black eye". It was all until they stop laughing to listen after their mother says something, knowing that they are children who are in need of guidance.
"Children, please don't laugh at them. What if you would get sick and be make fun of being sick? I'm not happy with what you're doing children, what you all are doing is not respectful and it's not good. Please, don't do this again children, alright?" After she lectured the puppies, it deems to be serious. Laughter ceases fast and silence fills the room as they feel guilty.
"Mother's right." Penny comes and stands in defense against the actions her other siblings made. "I'm Penny and it's not good that Patch is being laughed at." Freckles joins with Penny to defend his two troubled brothers. "I agree with Penny, Patch and Lucky are my friends too and I don't like this."
"Include me too. Please, let us come together again in peace my fellow brothers and sisters." Cadpig pleas to her siblings as they are feel remorse from the words spoken earlier by their mother and their 3 fellow puppies.
"We're sorry mother." spoke one puppy melancholically with a peculiar coat, its spots looking like black pepper whilst frowning and his head down. "I didn't know it's bad to do that." Another puppy Rolly, regrets their actions and slowly, more and more puppies confess that they're sorry to their mother, although some present their sorries not just through words, but through actions such as bowing their heads out of shame or walking towards their mother and cuddling her.
"Children, don't say sorry to me because you didn't do anything wrong to me, say sorry to Lucky and Patch. " The situation was awkward but nevertheless, Perdita's words made the puppies realize to who they must apologize. And so the puppies turn their attention to the two brothers. "We're sorry Lucky and Patch." spoke many of the puppies.
"Lucky, Patch, what must you say when they say sorry?" Perdita reminds her sons, knowing that they're quite forgiving with each other. "It's ok, we forgive you" Patch forgives them first with Lucky following next. "Yeah Patch and me forgive you now."
"Very well children, at least you puppies learned that there are some things that are bad to do. Now let's go back to the story alright?" The mood around the room changes as her words change the minds of many puppies. Though some return to what they've been doing as before, many are now curious about this story their mother had been telling some of the puppies before. And so they sit together with some in the couch and some climbing in the television.
"Let's go back a little bit from the story. It was the winter before when we were escaping from Cruella and the Baduns. We were inside a house, hiding from them. While Pongo and I were thinking of a plan to escape, it was then Lucky and Patch had an argument."
"Why?" the puppies ask to which Lucky answers instead of Perdita. He asks his mother if he should answer them and his mother's response is to allow him."Well, that's because I started it" Patch reaffirms Lucky's honesty, saying that what he said is true with Lucky speaking after.
"We're just playing until I pushed Patch into the soot. And then Patch pushed me into the soot too because I did it first. So I came to my parents and yeah, I lied to them that Patch pushed me first. Sorry mom." The puppies got their answer however Perdita is in a state of shock upon hearing that his son lied to her and Pongo days ago.
"Lucky, why did you lie to me and Pongo? Lying especially to your parents is not good because you are breaking our trust. Nevertheless, I hope you won't do it again alright Lucky?" Lucky nods and agrees to her request.
"You know children, thankfully that argument gave Pongo an idea to escape and because of them, Pongo used the soot as disguise." Pepper realizes and then tells a joke. "Wait, so Lucky and Patch arguing because of dirt saved us all? Wow, I never knew that not taking a bath can save lives." The puppies find his joke funny and are amused by it, including both Lucky and Patch, and Perdita who is chuckling at his joke.
"Indeed, after all the soot covered our spots Pepper so that Cruella doesn't spot us. She only spotted us because Lucky's soot was washed up by the ice. After all the hardships, we finally escaped that devil-woman and here we are now, a one, big, happy family." Penny reminds her mother that his father is not yet home. "Your father will come home later my daughter; he's still busy finding a new home for us all with my pets."
"Is it true mom?" Freckles stands with excitement. "We're gonna get a new home?" His mother confirms his question with the puppies feeling excited after. "So mother, what does our new home look like?" Patch asks his mother out of curiousity and Perdita gives her son the words.
"Well my dear son, I do not know what our new home looks like because my pets haven't found one yet." The puppies realize with disappointment but their mother reassures that they will find a new home in the future.
After she finishes the story and the puppies going back at their businesses, Lucky finally asks his mother after a long wait with Patch, both coming closer to her paws to listen to her answer. "Mother, why do me and Patch argue?"
"Well that's natural Lucky because you are brothers, and you both always make up in the end. Sometimes there's a thing you want which he also wants and a thing he wants which you also want. But then, you and Patch always resolve things eventually with a talk. You forgive each other after because, you both love and care for each other."
Pertita bows her head near her sons and spoke softly with a soft, sweet voice. "And I always love you Lucky and you too Patch, my dear sons." Both brothers replied whilst nuzzling their mother's head "I love you too mother." as affection.
