Cherry and Atticus Meet Dumbo

chapter 11

During the walk back to the other side of the circus, Atticus fell asleep in Atlas's arms.

Atlas smiled to Atticus. "He's a little cute when he's asleep..."

"I'll take care of Dumbo and Timothy, you put Atticus to bed." Cherry suggested.

"Deal." Atlas nodded and went to put Atticus to sleep.

"Maybe a little drink will help cheer Dumbo up." Timothy smiled.

"Yeah, I always take a drink when I feel upset about something." Cherry agreed.

Dumbo was starting to cry again, but not as much as before.

"Let's see if some water will help." Timothy said.

"It should..." Cherry looked to the water. "Ah, good, I think I'll have some too... I feel thirsty now that I think about it."

"I know how ya feel Dumbo, but you gotta pull yourself together," Timothy said to the sobbing baby elephant. "What would your mother think of you if she saw ya crying like this. Remember, you come of a proud race. Why you're uh...a pachyderm, and pachyderms don't cry. What's cryin' get ya anyhow?"

Cherry rolled her eyes.

"I wanna be with my mama!" Dumbo cried out.

"I know, little guy, I know and you will soon enough, I promise." Timothy assured him.

Dumbo sniffled and then started to hiccup.

"Oh, no, he's cried too much..." Cherry noticed.

"I know, now he's got the hiccups." Timothy said.

"All right, Dumbo, come here, let's get some water." Cherry said, lifted Dumbo's trunk up gently and put it in the water, she then took a clean plastic cup and scooped herself up some water.

"Thanks." Dumbo said.

"Here, take a trunk full." Timothy suggested.

Dumbo started to suck up the water just as Cherry drank down her glass.

"Hold your breath." Timothy said.

Dumbo held his breath and his face turned bright red.

Cherry took another cup full of water and sipped it down before it would be sucked away from the baby elephant.

"Why, you're mother's gonna be so proud of ya," Timothy encouraged Dumbo to boost his self-esteem. "I'm gonna be proud of ya too. Cherry and Atticus are gonna be proud of ya. The whole circus is gonna be proud of ya. Now, whatdaya think of that? Swallow it."

Dumbo gulped down the water before he instantly hiccuped again.

"You okay?" Timothy asked.

Cherry smiled out of the blue and lightly laughed.

"What's so funny?" Timothy asked.

"Talking animals..." Cherry said in a slurred voice, then laughed louder before cracking up and falling on the ground and pounding it with her fist.

"Huh? What's in this water?" Timothy asked before taking a look.

"Have a drink, old chum!" Cherry laughed and accidentally slapped Timothy into the tub as she kept having her hysterical moment.

"Whoa!" Timothy yelped.

Cherry kept laughing hysterically for no reason. Timothy eventually emerged from the water and was going under the same spell as Cherry. What neither of them knew was that the water had been spiked while they were away. Dumbo was then overly smiling from the water he had ingested.

"Oh, my gosh..." Cherry kept laughing and laughed so hard that tears came to her eyes.

"Uh... What was so funny, Cherry?" Darla asked, interrupting the story.

"Yeah, what was in that water?" Amber added.

"Uhh.... Soda pop?" Cherry seemed to lie.

"The truth, Cherry, what was really in the water?" Patch asked.

"Well... You're getting older... But it was..." Cherry gulped in mid-sentence. "Alcohol."

"Alcohol!?" Amber, Darla, and Patch panicked.

"We didn't know though," Cherry defended. "We just thought it was plain old water, so we drank it!"

"Yikes and that happened while Atticus was asleep?" Darla asked.

"Pretty much," Cherry said.

"You guys didn't see anything 'strange', did you?" Atticus asked since he was asleep during this part.

"We thought we saw pink elephants," Cherry explained. "It was really screwed up."

"Pink elephants?" Patch said confused.

"Just a disclaimer," Cherry put her hands together. "When you go under the influence from drinking, you can tend to see things that aren't really there..."

"So what happened?" Darla asked.

"I don't remember much after the pink elephant thing." Cherry said.

"We found her with Timothy and Dumbo in a tree." Atticus added.

"But Cherry, you always told us you can't and won't climb trees." Patch pointed out.

"I should also mention when you get drunk, you do things you wouldn't normally do." Cherry quickly said.

"Ohh, please continue." Amber said.

"Um, Atticus, why don't you start this one off?" Cherry suggested. "I just remember pink elephants and the world's worst headache."

"Okay, so it got to happen like this..." Atticus said.

Flashbacks to Atticus and Atlas finding Cherry Timothy and Dumbo on their way up a tree. Atticus and Atlas had been looking around all morning for Cherry, Dumbo, and Timothy since they weren't back at the circus ground or anything.

"So, did you sleep okay last night, little buddy?" Atlas asked.

"Yeah and I think I saw my family in my dream last night." Atticus smiled.

"What were they like?" Atlas asked, smiling at his smile, that was a good sign.

"They were caring and kind, my father, he was brave kind and strong, well, not like god strong, but just strong fatherly strong and my mother, she was kind caring and beautiful and so was my older sister." Atticus smiled as a small tear slipped out.

"So you had a sister." Atlas said from that.

"Yeah, she seemed so cool..." Atticus said softly with a sad smile. "I... I wonder if they're even still alive... And... Why they gave me up."

"I'm sure they had a reason." Atlas assured him.

"I wish I could know..." Atticus said.

"Don't worry..." Atlas hugged him gently. "I know how you feel a little..."

"How so?" Atticus asked.

Atlas let go and sighed. "I... I haven't seen MY family in years... Sure, you can think of the circus as a new family since you all got a lot in common, but it's not the same."

"Well, maybe when that jerk is humiliated, we could get the contracts and rip them up so you can see your family and so then me and Cherry can get back to her family." Atticus said.

"Oh, I don't know..." Atlas frowned. "Ringmasters are strict when it comes to contracts."

"Not that I've seen, but I'd love to see ours go through that." Atlas laughed rather wickedly, then looked up and his eyes widened. "What the..?"

"What?" Atticus asked.

Atlas pointed up. Atticus looked up and saw Cherry, Dumbo, and Timothy on high tree branches.

"How in the world did they get up there?!" Atticus asked.