“For our boy Butch and his nice new lady friend,” Tony said as he placed the bowl on the table between them. “Buon appetito.”
Lady and Tramp exchanged looks. What were they supposed to do now? Neither of them was used to this kind of treatment. Lady normally ate out of a dog bowl, and Tramp ate off the street. Shrugging, Tramp gently nudged a meatball toward Lady with his nose. Lady leaned down and gingerly bit it with her teeth. She ended up with sauce on her nose, but she didn’t care. The meatball was delicious. She went in for another bite as Tony and Joe once again appeared behind her. Only this time, they were holding musical instruments. As the stars twinkled in the sky, they began to play a private concert for Lady and Tramp.
As Lady took a bite of the pasta, she smiled. She realized she was happy. With the music playing and the candle sparkling, it was warm and cozy. Pulling one strand of spaghetti into her mouth, she didn’t realize Tramp was working on the same piece until their noses touched. For a moment, neither of them moved. The music played on, then she pulled back. Meeting Tramp’s gaze, Lady blushed.
She wasn’t sure what was happening. But one thing was certain: she was beginning to really like Tramp.
The moon was high in the sky by the time Lady and Tramp finished their dinner. She didn’t say anything, but Tramp seemed to know that Lady still wasn’t ready to go home. They walked slowly, enjoying the sights and sounds. They passed by a giant fountain surrounded by beautiful trees. They meandered down cobblestoned streets and up into a peaceful park. At the top of a gentle hill, Tramp came to a stop. He nodded to the whole town, spread out below them.
“Lady, the world,” he said, as if introducing two new friends. “World, Lady. I think you two are going to get along just great.”
Looking over the town, Lady realized she had lived there her whole life yet had never really seen it before—not until she met Tramp. As he let out a howl beside her, Lady tilted her head back and joined him. She had never done it before—and it felt incredible.
Lowering her head, she shyly met Tramp’s gaze. He was smiling at her. “Look at you. Howling at the moon. Digging some music. Enjoying a beautiful evening stroll.” He paused before adding, “Yesterday the only experiences you had were behind a fence.”
It was nice to be out. But there had been a lot of good times behind that fence, too. “I feel bad about leaving them,” she said softly.
Tramp shot her a look. The moment had taken a serious turn. “They already left you,” he said. “I know how much it hurts—”
Lady shook her head. “How would you know?” She stared at Tramp. She was trying to figure out what he was thinking behind his big brown eyes. Then it hit her. “Oh. You do know. You used to have a name.…”
Tramp nodded and told her his story. Like Lady, he had had a home and people who loved him. And then the baby arrived. Things changed—slowly at first. Just a little less love, fewer pats. And then, on a dark night, one of Tramp’s humans put him in a car, drove him to the outskirts of town, took off his collar, and left him.
Just like that, Tramp went from house dog to street dog.
“I’m so sorry,” Lady said when he finished. “I didn’t know.”
Tramp shrugged. “Eh,” he said. “Every dog’s got to learn sometime. You learned today: humans don’t do loyalty.” Lady opened her mouth to protest. But then Tramp gave her a smile, and when he spoke again, her heart melted. “And if I were with them still, I wouldn’t have met you. And we wouldn’t have had this amazing day.”
“And night,” Lady said, returning the smile.
“It doesn’t have to end,” Tramp said. “Every day could be an adventure. You and me. No loyalty to anyone…”
Lady cocked her head. “Except to each other, right?”
Tramp’s eyes widened. He clearly hadn’t expected Lady to say that. The words had surprised her, too. She waited for him to say something. He stood, shifting on his feet. He opened his mouth to speak and then stopped as lights flashed across the park. Turning, they both saw Elliott, the dogcatcher, clambering up the hill.
“Run!” Tramp said, already on the move. Lady stood frozen. “We gotta run—now!”
Lady didn’t wait another moment. As Tramp took off, she followed. Behind them, Elliott kept chasing.
Tramp raced across the grass. He could hear Lady’s terrified breathing close behind.
At the bottom of the hill, he paused. Ahead of them was the train yard. Looking at Lady, he pointed to the long fence that ran along the yard. “We need to split up,” he said. “Go that way! I’ll find you!”
Lady hesitated, not wanting to leave him. Pushing her gently away from the train yard, he slipped through the fence. “Don’t worry about me,” he said. “I’ll figure something out. I always do.”
As Elliott’s light swung wildly over the fence, Lady gave Tramp one last look and then took off. When he was sure she was out of sight, Tramp let out a bark. Instantly, Elliott’s light was on him. Perfect. That was just what Tramp wanted. Bounding onto the tracks, he began to run through the yard, Elliott at his heels.
Tramp weaved in and out of the trains sitting still on the tracks. He could hear hammers banging on anvils in a nearby workshop. He ran toward the sound. After he slipped into the workshop, he rushed past workers getting ready to end their night shift. Just then, Elliott appeared. Tramp looked around. Seeing an open door, he headed toward it. But suddenly, one of the workers, finished for the night, started to shut it.
Leaping up onto a table, Tramp began to bark. The worker turned, surprised to see Tramp out so late. He held the door open just long enough for Tramp to jump through. Tramp didn’t wait to see if that had stopped Elliott. He kept running. He skidded to a stop when he saw the foreman.
Tramp was trapped. If he went forward, the foreman would get him. If he went back, Elliott would surely stop him. Just when he thought he was done for, he heard barking. Distracted by the noise, the foreman turned, giving Tramp just enough time to slink through an open window of a vacant train car and out the other side.
As he raced into the open air of the train yard, Tramp let out a shout. He had gotten away—again! He did a little leap of joy. He couldn’t wait to tell Lady all about his narrow escape. But then a mournful howl filled the air. Tramp stopped. As he looked up at the bridge that ran over the train yard, Tramp’s heart sank.
Lady, her head back as she howled, was being shoved into Elliott’s paddy wagon. She had been caught. It must have been her bark that had distracted the foreman. She had saved him—only to be caught herself.
Furious with himself, Tramp turned to go after her. But before he could make it even a dozen steps, Isaac emerged from the shadows. “I’ve been looking for you…thief.”
Tramp groaned. Not now, he thought. “Isaac, please,” he said. “I need to get by.”
He moved to go around Isaac, but the big dog had other plans for Tramp. Stepping in front of him, Isaac blocked his path. Helplessly, Tramp watched as the paddy wagon drove off—with Lady inside.
Lady had never been so scared. She was in the pound.
As the doors to the pen closed, Lady pushed herself back into a corner. She shook as she looked at the odd assortment of dogs around her. Some were old, their eyes foggy, while others, like a pair of cute puppies, were young. Suddenly, the crowd of dogs parted. A small dog with long, flowing fur gracefully falling over one eye appeared. Beside her was a squat bulldog. They walked to Lady and stood right in front of her.
“Oh, just look at you,” the pretty dog said in a husky voice. “Not used to digs like these, are you, honey?” Lady didn’t answer.
Another pair of dogs approached, sniffing the air. “Smells like she’s had a bath,” one of them said bitterly.
Peg, the dog with the nice hair, shooed them away. They were just jealous, she said. Peg explained that there were two types of dogs in the pound: those who were adoptable—like Lady—and the “others.” Those were the dogs who, for whatever silly reason, people didn�
�t think were “good” enough. They were the older dogs, or the dogs who had a droopy lip or a lazy eye. The dogs whose coats weren’t shiny or whose tails didn’t wag hard enough.
“But that’s wrong,” Lady said when Peg had finished. “Every dog should be adoptable.” She thought about the night: running under the stars, howling at the moon. “Maybe I’m a street dog now, too,” she added softly.
Bull, the bulldog, moved closer. “How did you end up here, anyway?” he asked.
“A friend and I ran into trouble and got split up. He—”
Peg cut her off. “‘He’?” she repeated, suddenly more interested. “This is about to get juicy. Does he have a name?”
“He told me he doesn’t have a name,” Lady answered honestly.
Peg and Bull shared a look. The other dogs nodded. They all knew who Lady was talking about. Tramp was legendary—and so was his reputation of running off at the first sign of trouble. He was a charmer through and through, Peg told Lady. But more than that, he was a loner. He had a good heart, but he never opened it. Whatever they had shared out on the street, it was an illusion, Peg explained. At the end of the day, Tramp cared about only one dog—himself.
Lying down, Lady put her head on her paws. The night had been perfect. But then she remembered the moment—right before they got caught—when Tramp hesitated about their future. Maybe Peg was right.
Hearing the metal door squeaking open, Lady lifted her head. She saw Elliott. He scanned the room and then, seeing her, walked over and picked her up. She wiggled in his arms, trying to get free. She barked to the other dogs, but they could do nothing to help her.
“Lady!”
At the sound of Darling’s voice, Lady’s ears perked up and her fear vanished. Looking over Elliott’s shoulder, she saw Jim Dear and Darling. Huge smiles broke over both their faces when they saw her. Grabbing her out of Elliott’s arms, they hugged her tight.
“You must have been terrified,” Darling said, rubbing her nose into Lady’s neck. As she cooed, Jim Dear ushered them out of the pound. Lady glanced back over her shoulder. The last thing she saw was Peg and the others watching her go—a mixture of happiness and jealousy on their faces.
For the whole ride back to their house, Darling gave Lady belly rubs and kisses. When he could, Jim Dear reached over and scratched behind her ears, just the way she liked it. And when they finally got home, Darling insisted on carrying Lady into the house. Only when they were safely inside, with the door firmly shut behind them, did Darling let her down.
“I can’t believe you were running around town all alone,” Darling said as she knelt down and put Lady’s collar—the one she had lost at the pet store—back on. “It’s awful.”
Lady let out a bark of agreement. Then she took a few prancing steps around the room. The jingling of her name tag filled her with happiness.
And then Aunt Sarah appeared.
Bending down, she tried to pet Lady. Lady backed up. She wanted nothing to do with the woman. And neither, it seemed, did Jim Dear and Darling. They didn’t need Lady to tell them what had happened. They had put it together. And now they wanted Aunt Sarah gone. As they ushered her out the door, the woman paused and pointed at Lady.
“If I were you, I’d think long and hard about letting that dog get close to the baby,” she said. “Next time—”
“There won’t be a next time,” Jim Dear said. Without another word, he nudged Sarah out the door and slammed it.
Lady let out a sigh of relief. She couldn’t imagine spending another minute in the house with Aunt Sarah. And what right did she have to say Lady should stay away from the baby? She had never even met the baby, let alone done anything to her.
“You know,” Darling said, looking down at Lady with a smile, “Sarah does have a point about letting you get close to the baby.…” Urging Lady to go with them, Jim Dear and Darling went up the stairs and into the nursery.
Nervously, Lady followed. Darling gently picked up Lulu, and then she sat on the bed, the baby between her and Jim Dear. Ever so slowly, Lady approached. Standing on her back legs, she found herself face to face with the tiny human. Lulu’s eyes opened and locked on Lady. Then she let out a soft coo.
“Lulu,” Jim Dear said, “this is your big sister, Lady. She’s part of the family, too.”
And just like that, Lady was in love.
She had been so worried that Lulu was going to take her place, but now she knew that wasn’t going to happen. Jim Dear had said it himself. Lady was family, too. And from now on, she was going to take the best care of her little sister. She wasn’t the center of Jim Dear and Darling’s world anymore, but that was okay. At least she had a home and a family. She had seen what it was like for those dogs who didn’t. And she never wanted to go back to that world.
Tramp was miserable. The days were all the same. He didn’t even enjoy his morning chases with the foreman anymore, and he hadn’t bothered to try to steal anything from Isaac in weeks. As he stood in the middle of a busy street market full of food, his stomach didn’t even gurgle.
“What’s the scam today, handsome?”
Hearing Peg’s voice, Tramp looked down. The pretty dog was standing beside Bull, as usual. Tramp moved to join them, but he stopped when he saw a young man walk up to the dogs. The man held a paper bag. “The butcher’s best,” he said, taking two meaty bones out of the bag and tossing them to Peg and Bull.
Tramp looked back and forth, confused. What was going on? Who was this man? And who was the woman who joined him and started rubbing Bull’s neck? Saying something about getting more treats, the human couple walked off, promising to be back.
And suddenly, Tramp knew exactly what was going on.
“Adopted?” he said. “You two?”
Peg and Bull nodded.
“Those two took one look at us and they had to spring us from the joint,” Peg said.
Tramp’s ears perked up. They had been in the joint? Maybe they had seen Lady!
“We did meet your girl,” Peg answered when he asked. Bull made a few comments under his breath about Tramp’s one-track mind, but Tramp ignored him. He wanted to know more about Lady. Peg didn’t hold back. “You can’t keep running off like that. Broke the poor girl’s heart.”
“She was different. We had something…special,” Tramp admitted. “I screwed it up. I think…I think I might love her.”
Peg and Bull cocked their heads. This was a side of Tramp they had never seen. And they liked it. It was about time Tramp let someone in. “So are you going to keep moping around here? Or are you going to go do something about that?” Peg asked.
Tramp gave Peg a mischievous smile. Then, grabbing the meaty bone out from under her, he turned to go. “I’m stealing this!” he said. With one more wag of his tail, he took off through the market.
By the time Tramp got to Lady’s house, the sun had set. Bone in mouth, he sauntered into the backyard. He spotted Lady sitting inside her doghouse, her eyes on the moon.
Taking a deep breath, he stepped out of the shadows. “Hey, kid,” he said softly.
Lady got to her feet. When she spotted Tramp, a smile began to cross her face. But then her expression turned cold. Tramp gulped. It was going to take some work to earn her forgiveness. He walked over and dropped the bone into the bowl by her feet.
“Now we’re even,” he said.
Lady eyed the bone and then looked back at Tramp. “Did you steal that one, too?” she asked.
Yup. It was definitely going to take more than a returned bone to get her back. Tramp started to tell her he had borrowed it, but then decided to go with honesty. “Okay, yes,” he admitted. “I stole it.” Lady frowned. “Look, back at the train yard…I’m so sorry for trying to split up. I should never have left your side.”
Lady’s eyes shone with emotion. She was listening, but her mind was somewhere else. It was as if she was thinking of someone else’s words. He wondered what she had discovered about him in the pound. He thought of Peg. She c
ould have said a few choice things to Lady. Or, knowing him, he could have botched it. “You said it yourself,” she finally replied, confirming his fears. “Nobody else is loyal, so why should you be? I should have just believed you.”
Her words punched at Tramp’s heart. “No, you shouldn’t have believed me,” he said desperately. “Because being free without you there? That’s just being alone.” The words poured from his mouth in a rush of emotion. “Look, I know I’m a street dog and I don’t have much value to anyone—”
Lady stopped him. Stepping out of her doghouse, she walked up to him. Her eyes were warm. “Don’t you say that,” she said. “You have value to me.”
The breath he had been holding whooshed out of his lungs. He met Lady’s gaze, his own eyes now full of emotion. No one had ever said anything like that to him before. His heart swelled.
“I missed you,” Lady went on, making him feel even more amazing. “Sometimes I come out at night and just howl at the moon.”
“We could do that again,” Tramp said hopefully. “It’s not too late for that, is it?”
Lady sadly shook her head. It was too late. She belonged here, with Jim Dear and Darling. They were her family—and she was loyal to them.
“You’re right,” Tramp said softly. “What you’ve got here, you should cherish it.”
“You deserve it, too,” Lady said. “You deserve love. I’m so sorry it can’t be me.”
The moment stretched between them. Then, inside the house, a light flicked on and Jim Dear called out Lady’s name. “There’s a storm coming,” he said. “Come inside.”
Lady looked back at Tramp. He tried to smile. “I’ll go,” he said. “You belong with your family.” He began to make his way out of the yard. He felt Lady’s eyes on him as he walked away. A part of him wanted to turn around and run back to her, beg her to let him stay. But he knew he couldn’t.
Lady and the Tramp Live Action Junior Novel Page 5