CHAPTER 33
The trip from India to our destination in Africa took Albert and me and the rest of the animals across northern India and the Arabian Sea before crossing into the African countries of Somalia and Kenya. We finally reached our destination of Tinga Tinga, Tanzania around two in the afternoon.
Landing near the same spot we had before when we were traveling with Warble and Mary McGorkle, Albert and I and the rest were completely shocked to see the Arodnap parked there.
Where had it come from? We had assumed that it was still back in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, in the twenty-first century, and would probably never again budge from its resting spot there. Who brought it here? Certainly not Warble, as he was banned from flying it. Was Mary here by herself? Had the McGorkles sold it? Had they lent it to somebody else? Or what was up?
The one possibility we didn’t even consider was that Warble himself had turned over a new leaf and improved to the point where the big red M had disappeared from his forehead and the facial recognition software in the Arodnap allowed him to fly it again.
As we were puzzling over this conundrum, who hove into sight but the McGorkles! They had seen the Zephyr land and had now come over to renew acquaintances.
I must say that we were all at least a little leery of meeting up with Warble again. We still couldn’t get it through our heads that Warble could have changed that much — enough so that he could be ‘allowed out of his cage.’ Our attitudes toward him ranged from cautiously optimistic to furrowed-brow wary.
Mary was another matter. She was always sweet to all of us. We could never understand how such a couple ever got together. But, as they say, “opposites attract”; perhaps more apropos was the old saw, “There’s no accounting for taste.”
Stripes, Albert, and I stepped forward to form the vanguard in case any “funny business” was afoot. Tubthumper had already gone off to see her brother, having made a beeline for her old watering hole right after we touched down and after she had been inflated back to her natural size.
“Welcome back, friends!” Warble sang out as he approached, extending his hand to Albert and smiling to beat the band. “I see you’ve fashioned a new time & space vehicle for yourself.”
“Yes, welcome back, all,” added Mary, who was walking hand-in-hand with Warble.
We stared back at them, confused. How had this constantly quarreling couple transformed itself into a couple of giddy lovebirds? More confusingly, how had Warble changed to that extent — if this was not some kind of ruse on his part — from a most disagreeable martinet to a hail-fellow-well-met sort?
Instead of pressing the issue (none of us had made any reciprocal displays of being happy to see him), Warble let his hand drop to his side, seemingly unembarrassed and not taking offense at our hesitancy to acknowledge him as a friend, or even as a worthy acquaintance.
Albert told Warble about how he had designed and built the Zenia Zephyr by reverse-engineering the Arodnap. After all, as the builder and maintainer of the prototype that the McGorkles had, Albert knew exactly how it was constructed as well as its manner of operation.
Warble and Mary then took a better look at our group. Albert, Stripes (with Marmalade by his side, naturally), and I had blocked the view of Drako, Rinky, and Rovette behind us, but now they, too, stepped to the fore.
“Well, who do we have here?” Mary asked, indicating Rinky the Duck-billed Platypus and my dogfriend Rovette (she already knew Drako and had recognized her).
I was too proud to keep cool; I blurted out, “Mary, let me introduce you to Rovette, the light of my life, my boon companion, the most beautiful creature on this planet — or any other — and, I hope, the future mother of my pups: Rovette!”
My lady love then took another step forward, somewhat bashfully. She wasn’t shy by nature, but my last comment had made her blush. Fortunately, nobody else had noticed any change in her appearance, as her fur had covered it up. I knew where to look, though — the tip of her nose and the inside of her ears had brightened in color. I felt a little bad for embarrassing Rovette, but I was glad that she had not objected to my alluding to the Goldadors we might be blessed with in the future. In due time, she would probably have quadruplets, or maybe even more.
Mary and Warble both commented on how lovely Rovette’s coat was, which brought the color back to her nose and ears just as it had begun to fade. Mary petted her, and then me, too. Rovette enjoyed it; I tolerated it.
I allowed even Warble to do this, although previously I would have moved away and avoided any skin-to-fur contact with him. But I did sense a real change in him. By “sense a change,” I mean that literally: He looked different, his tone of voice was different, he even smelled different. I could hardly believe it — Warble changing from the totally selfish and self-aggrandizing person that he had been to this person would have seemed even more far-fetched than traveling millions of years back in time and seeing Terri and the other Dinosaurs. But both had happened. It is true: Wonders never cease.
To make a long story less long, the McGorkles were then introduced to Drako’s new companions, Rinky and Terri. Both of them were wonderful in Warble and Mary’s eyes. That is to say, the McGorkles wondered at their unusual . . . “equipage,” as Warble put it.
Sensing that the McGorkles didn’t know what to make of him, Rinky stuck up for himself by letting all of us know that “a certain Mr. Mark Twain — ahem! — famous animal lover and anti-vivisectionist, called my kind ‘the opulently endowed E. Pluribus Unum of the animal world.’”
The McGorkles nodded upon receiving that intelligence, thus showing that they had heard what Rinky said, but otherwise remained noncommittal about whether they agreed with Twain’s view or not. Nevertheless, they warmly greeted the one-from-many conglomeration.
“We have an Elephant with us, too,” I told Warble and Mary (who were both wearing Doolittles now). “She has already gone down to the watering hole to see her brother. She missed him terribly when she was away.”
As I was saying this, who of all people but Ward Robespierre walked up and joined the group. He, too, had changed. Not as drastically as Warble had, but that was because he hadn’t needed to change as much. Ward had needed to change some, but not nearly as much as Warble, who had been an unholy terror. Ward had not been my favorite person, by any means, but he had been much preferable to Warble. Now both Warble and Ward were just as nice — well, almost as nice, anyway — as Mary was.
We animals were getting a little antsy to join Tubthumper at the watering hole and catch up with Chumbawumba, Rory, and Yukyuk — and introduce Rovette, Rinky, and Terri to all of the regulars down there. I was especially looking forward to introducing Rovette, as I was tremendously proud of her.
Still, we waited around long enough to hear part of the discussion the humans were having. We were about to take our leave when Albert said, “Warble, now that you have molted, so to speak, I think a name change is in order.”
“Why, what’s wrong with ‘Warble,’” the bearer of the name replied.
“No, not your name, the name of your time & space vehicle. Arodnap doesn’t seem to fit it anymore.”
“Oh, I see what you mean. I guess you’re right.”
“How about the WarbleMobile?” Ward suggested.
“Or the WarbleWagon,” Mary joked.
Warble — still being Warble, after all — didn’t realize that Ward and Mary were teasing him, and responded as if they were seriously suggesting those names.
“No, no; nothing with my name on it,” he said, modestly.
“Rocinante?” Albert suggested.
“I’ve got it,” Mary said. “Fast Forward & Back!”
All instantly knew, without any further discussion needed, that Fast Forward & Back was the perfect name for the craft. And so Albert began working right away on the name change, blotting out the old name painted on the side of the craft using the same solution Mary had applied to gradually lighten the big red M that had been painted on Warble’s forehead during his period of “house arrest.”
We animals now left, I no longer feeling it necessary to tell Albert where I was off to. I didn’t want Rovette to think that Albert owned me or anything like that. Well, we do own each other, in a sense; he is my friend, and I am his friend. But, you know what I mean.
As I found out later, though, once the new name, Fast Forward & Back, had been painted on the erstwhile ‘Arodnap,’ the four former fellow adventurers, and now friends (Albert, Ward, Mary, and Warble) walked to the village to enjoy the rest of the afternoon and evening together.
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