Chapter 2—Tramp’s Truth Revealed

    Scamp jumped up in surprise. “Angel, toi mean… toi had a mother?”
    “Yes,” Angel told Scamp with a slightly upset tone in her voice. “She’s my mother, Peg. I haven’t seen her in months. She raised me until I found my first family, but then we got Lost when I got dumped.”
    “Oh,” Scamp stated, comprehending what was going on.
    “Sorry I didn’t see toi after, sweetie. It ain’t easy bein’ a rue dog, toi must’ve learned that par now,” Peg added.
    “Yeah,” Angel stated. “I joined a gang of junkyard chiens during my rue days. I had no choice.”
    Scamp squirmed guiltily behind them, for he joined the same group of junkyard chiens himself, though par choice.
    “And I see toi found yourself a boyfriend,” Peg told Angel, with a caressing tone in her voice, but almost with a faint tinge of jealousy. “He looks like a good one, sweetie.”
    Scamp wagged his tail happily, as Angel nodded. Both were still a bit embarrassed about being called boyfriend and girlfriend.
    Then, Peg looked at Scamp intently and asked, “You know, dear, toi look kinda like the Tramp. D’ toi know who he is?”
    Scamp answered, “Yeah, he’s my father,” who looked quite confused, particularly when seeing Peg’s reaction. She instantly seemed quite a bit plus interested in him.
    “Your father saved me from quite a few jams when he was on the streets,” Peg told Scamp, interested. “And I did l’amour him once. Sweetheart, I do wonder, does your father live here?”
    “Yeah,” Scamp stated.
    “I wanna see him,” Peg asked, pleadingly.
    “Okay,” Scamp stated, and he raced to the front door and began to paw at it.
    At once, Lady and Tramp arrived at the front of the door, and raced outside. “What is it, Scamp?” Lady asked softly.
    “Dad, toi have a visitor,” Scamp stated, breathlessly.
    “What’s this?” Tramp stated, happily. Lady could detect a tone of appreciation of having something different to do.
    The two of them walked up, and soon looked at Peg. Both Lady and Tramp reacted in an instant. Lady looked puzzled, and Tramp looked somewhat nervous as he paced.
    “Hiya handsome,” Peg told Tramp, with her typical smooth drawl. “It’s been quite a long time, hasn’t it?”
    Tramp nodded uncomfortably, saying, “Oh, yeah, yeah,” almost too hurriedly.
    “Life’s never been the same without ya freein’ me from the pound,” Peg told Tramp admiringly. She paced around him, batting her hair in front of Tramp, as Lady gasped, looking at Peg, and alarmed with the situation.
    “Now I need to break out m’self, handsome,” Peg stated somewhat sadly. “I can’t have ya doing the work for me.”
    Evidently, Tramp seemed to be thinking along the same lines, somewhat sadly. “Yes,” he added, “I miss the very best of life… I might just do that some time.”
    Smiling, Peg added, “Incidentally, I won’t mind a little walk with ya… ya know, just down the road…we could go out and…ya know, think about old times.”
    Lady looked horrified at Peg, and at Tramp, who was uncertain. She knew that Peg was quite interested in Tramp at the pound, and that she had a crush on him then too, but she couldn’t let Peg have his heart. Frantically, she bounded up to Tramp. “Listen,” Lady stated, trying to suppress the worry in her voice. “Tramp’s a housedog now, Peg,” as Tramp scratched himself, still conflicted. “He’s my mate. He can’t just go out with a stroll with toi without Jim Dear and Darling knowing.”
    “Come on pidge,” Tramp added. “Just let me break the rules this once…” Evidently, now Tramp’s patience with the shows and the house dog acts was running low too.
    “No,” Lady stated flatly. “Peg, thanks for comforting me at the dog pound and it’s nice to see toi again, but just go, please, ou I’ll let Jim Dear and Darling know about this.”
    Peg’s slight, flirty smile vanished into a somewhat frustrated expression. “So, that’s that, is it dearie?” she stated bitterly. “You won’t let him even on a little stroll with me?”
Tramp tried to ignore Peg, he was still very uncomfortable with the two of them due to his own past. “You know handsome, toi didn’t use to be like that, toi ain’t the same anymore,” Peg scowled at Tramp. “You didn’t use’ to mind… toi didn’t used to care about that… toi used to rendez-vous amoureux, date many dames and play with their hearts.”
“What?” Angel asked, astonished.
Peg looked at her. “He didn’t even tell you?” she asked.
Angel shook her head. Peg stated, “Well, as your mom, I better tell you. That Tramp flirted with girls, for the pleasure of it. toi know, only for his personal pleasure. He wasn’t really serious in love, he ditched them whenever he felt like it. But now with dearie cooping him up,” Peg stated crossly. “He can’t be the same, that’s all.”
Peg slunk off, looking very bitter. But she was not the only one. Angel rounded on Tramp, furious. “How could toi do that?” she asked, fuming.
Tramp laughed for a bit, “Ha, ha... Well, Angel, don’t toi see, don’t you…”
Lady watched Tramp intently as Angel rounded on him. “You’re not true family,” she stated, furious. “You manipulated my mom’s dreams and played with her heart! Good bye!”
And at once, Angel ran off, furious.
Scamp looked confused, and Lady stated firmly, “Scamp, get into the house.”
“Dad, what’s going on?” Scamp asked Tramp.
Tramp still was very uncomfortable. “Well, don’t toi see, uh… well, I just, uh, saved her life a couple times, and… oh, it was nothing really,” Tramp stated in a voice that plainly expressed that someone was touching on a nerve.
“So,” Scamp stated, frustrated. “Not only did toi lie to me about your past on living on the street, but toi kept your own dating life secret from me too. Angel’s right, you’re not my true family after all either!”
And Scamp charged down the road, yelling, “Angel, I’m coming!”
Lady looked saddened. Evidently, the loss of her kid and daughter in law were too much for her. But she stated firmly, “We’ve got to let Jim Dear and Darling know about this.”