Chapter 3:
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Maria wasn’t lying when she said her mother, correction; their mother was one of the best cooks in the world. Her baked ziti was rich with fresh cheese and the spices played a symphony for Mario’s taste buds. The meal was accompanied by a salad and what Luigi had accidentally called toast. It was called bruschetta.
“You eat it like this,” Maria said as she sprinkled oregano and basil onto a little saucer and drizzled on olive oil. “You break of a piece.” She tore off a section of her bread, “And then you dip it in the oil, and then you eat it.”
Mario had followed the directions. It was delicious. “This is good. You are an excellent cook, mom.”
“Thank you dear,” their mother said.
“Sorry we called the bruschetta toast,” Luigi said before he took another bite of his salad.
“You were the one who called it toast,” Mario said.
“You should know how to eat like proper Italians,” their father said. “It’ in your blood.”
“You were not from Italy, Lucio.” Their mother pointed out.
“The Pasta Kingdom is very similar to Italy,” their father said. “Canal Land is just like Venice. Your ancestors are from Italy.”
Their mother nodded. “I’m just glad to see that my sons are alive and healthy and have been eating well.”
“Mario does like to eat.” Luigi said.
Mario growled and winced at how pathetic it sounded now that he was human. He gave his brother a small kick in the shins.
“Ouch,” Luigi dropped his fork. “Mama, Mario kicked me.”
“Luigi made a fat joke about me.”
“You guys are so immature,” Maria rolled her eyes.
“Now boys,” their mother raised a finger. “If you don’t apologize and promise to behave you won’t get any dessert.”
“I’m sorry Weegie,” Mario said.
“Sorry bro.”
“That kind of felt good,” Maria said. “Like how I would have always imagined it. Now I want to invite some friends over and have a slumber party, just so you can crash it.”
“Why would we crash it?” Luigi asked.
“The same reason why Morton, Larry, Roy and Lemmy crashed Wendy’s slumber parties,” Mario said. “It’s something brothers do.”
“Then we chase you out by threatening to give you make-overs.”
Their father cleared his throat. “How long will you be staying again.”
“About a week,” Mario said. “We have today, and seven days after, and then we start turning back.”
“There is no way to keep you in your human form?” Their mother asked.
Mario pursed his lips and sighed. “I know we were born as humans, but Luigi and I are Koopas. We spent our whole lives as reptiles and being human feels kind of odd.”
“We’ll visit again,” Luigi said. “But Mario is right.”
“I see,” Their mother said softly and decided to change the subject. “Tomorrow I’m calling my brother and sister, and see if we can have a small family reunion.”
“I was hoping we could go to Coney Island tomorrow,” Maria said. “Just the four of us.”
“We do have a whole week,” Mario nodded. “Maria wants to show us the city.”
“We can do that,” their mother smiled. “We can meet up with the family, go on the Circle Line tour and then have lunch and see if anyone wants to see any other sites.”
“You should let your mother know if you have any food allergies,” their father said.
“I don’t have any food allergies,” Mario said. “I just don’t like the taste of eggs.”
“So you were the one,” their mother pointed at them. “While I was carrying you two I could not stand the taste or smell of eggs and eggplant.”
“The eggplant would be me,” Luigi said.
“I’ll make you a good breakfast,” their mother smiled. “Maria, why don’t you invite Pauline and her boyfriend to join us?”
“How many times have I asked you not to read my mind?” Maria chuckled.
“I just have one small question,” Mario said.
“What is that?” Their father asked.
“What is for dessert?”
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Mario was already awake when their mother knocked on the door. The scent of bacon frying along with something that included cinnamon had teased his nose and he sat up. He also was able to smell coffee brewing, even with his much weaker human nose he was able to detect such rich aromas.
“Good morning boys,” their mother greeted. “Did you two sleep well?”
“We slept well,” Luigi sat up and yawned.
“Good, I have already called you sister. She and Pauline and Pauline’s new boyfriend are on their way over. Make sure you get enough to eat.” Their mother pointed at Luigi. “And no jokes about Mario’s weight.”
“I wont make any jokes,” Luigi said and didn’t hear Mario’s chuckling.
The last three members to their party had arrived just they were finishing their breakfast.
“We will be taking the subway,” their father said as he answered the door. “I can’t fit everyone in my car, and besides. You will get to experience another part of the city this way.”
“Hi dad,” Maria stepped inside. “You all remember Pauline?”
“Of course,” Mario smiled at Pauline. She was accompanied by a blond man who was almost as short as he was. The stranger also had bright green eyes, just a bit of a belly like Luigi and a dimple in his chin. “I believe we have not been introduced.”
“Mario?” Pauline blinked. “Is that really you?”
“In the human flesh,” Mario nodded.
“Wow,” she noticed the way her boyfriend was staring at her. “He used to have longer hair, and a beard.”
“Oh,” the blond nodded. “I’m Darien,” he held out a hand.
“Mario Ko-Segali,” Mario had to stop himself.
“What’s the K stand for?” Darien asked
“Kristopher,” Mario said. “My parents wanted to be unique with the spelling.”
“It fits our boys,” their father placed a hand on Mario’s shoulder. “Our sons are very unique.”
“I just need to grab my purse and we will be off,” mother said. “I should also grab the camera.”
“We are already a head of you,” Maria said as both she and Pauline held up their digital cameras.
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The ride to Coney island wasn’t too long and it gave everyone enough time to fill each other in. Darien wants to start his own arcade business. He wants it to contain ski ball, several different racing games, pin ball, fighting tournament games, first person shooters, a few platform games and even a few classics.
“What were those names again?” Mario asked.
“Pac-man, Q-bert, Frogger, Pitfall, Kangaroo and Space Ace,” Darien explained. “I don’t know if you have never played them, but they are the classics.”
“I don’t think we have played them,” Luigi said.
“Surely you have heard of them,” Darien said. “They even made several modern updates, for example there was Pitfall the Mayan adventure made about ten years ago.”
“Can’t say we have,” Mario shook his head.
“Really?” Darien scratched his head. “That is odd.”
“What about Dig Dug?” Maria asked. “Or that other animated screen game that was like Space Ace, Dragon’s Lair?”
“I probably have that as well,” Darien nodded. “Many people do enjoy those older games. Chalk it up to nostalgia.”
“What about games from the silver age of gaming?” Maria asked. “Legend of Zelda, Metroid and Tetris, before Lara Croft we had Samus.”
“She always reminded me of Ripley,” Pauline said. “From the Alien movies.”
“Is that why one of the bad guys is called Ridley, after the director?” Maria asked.
“That is one of the popular theories,” Darien nodded. “I probably will include those games as well, but I still have to wait until I have the money to open one.”
“I hope you let us know,” Luigi said. “Mario and I will want to be there around opening day and be one of the first ones to play the games.”
“Will do,” Darien nodded.
Mario had raised his eyebrows at the suggestion, but he figured out what Luigi had meant. They would receive the news from either Maria or Pauline, they would then receive their temporary transformations again and return to Brooklyn for the event, and of course to visit.
“I don’t think we want to go on a fast ride at first,” their mother said once they left the train. “I don’t think we have completely digested our breakfasts yet.”
“We just had bagels with cream cheese and coffee while we were on our way over,” Pauline said.
“We had sausages and cinnamon rolls,” Mario said. “Sliced fruit and coffee.”
“That does sound much better than what we all had,” Darien said. “How about we go on one of the haunted house rides, before we even think about some of the faster rides.”
“We may even play a little ski ball,” Pauline rubbed her elbow against Darien’s.
“What does everyone say?” Father asked.
“Sounds like a good idea,” Mario nodded. He turned to Luigi who had appeared to have blanched at that idea. “C’mon Weegie, you are too old to be scared by ghosts.”
“They still give me goosebumps,” Luigi whimpered. “Even the boos give me the chills.”
“These house are a little scary,” Maria nodded. “But I know I will feel much braver if I had my two big brave brothers to ride with me.”
The ride wasn’t even that scary and they mostly laughed, even Luigi, at all the odd creatures that had popped out to try and scare them. There were a few gasps, but there weren’t any screams, except for the ones generated by the speakers.
Ski ball turned out to be fun, although it took Mario and Luigi a while to get used to handling the balls with their human hands and had to adjust to their weaker strengths they did improve when they were on their last tokens and earned a small amount of tokens to purchase a few cheap plastic toys from the prize area, including glow in the dark mini Frisbees.
“We have to cross the street to get to the Cyclone,” Mother said. “I lost count of how many times I’ve ridden it.”
“Me too,” Maria said. “I remember the first time I was old enough to ride on it. I held up my arms like all the older kids were doing and I squealed. I didn’t scream. I squealed out of pure joy.”
The roller coaster was built on wooden tracks. There weren’t any loops, so that meant they were not going to be upside down which is good for their stomachs. Mario wasn’t sure where they were going to go after that.
“Remember the first time we rode on a roller coaster?” Luigi asked as he and Mario got into their car. “You were so scared you wet your pants.”
“I remember,” Mario frowned. He wished he hadn’t. It was right after he and Luigi had finished slurping down their frozen lemonade treats. The line was long and somewhere in middle he felt the need to go, but Luigi didn’t want to get out of line. “You had to go to.”
“Yeah but I didn’t,” Luigi held up a finger. “And you were the one who said ‘well don’t cry like a baby if you wet your pants, and you were the one instead. I managed to hold it until I go to the bathroom.”
“You threw up, Mama Kammy had to clean both of us up.”
“My first coaster ride was different,” Pauline said as the safety bar came down. “I wasn’t kidding when I said I was excited, but as soon as we started down the first decent I started to cry and scream and held onto my father, but as soon as we stepped off I asked if we could ride it again.”
The ride was fun and a great rush. Mario held up his arms as they made their decent and he whooped along with Luigi. He couldn’t wait for the Dark Land carnival to come back to town and maybe even Peach might invite him to the Mushroom Kingdom carnival.
“Is anyone in the mood for the Scrambler?” Darien asked after the ride had ended.
They rode several rides that were fast, caused them to go upside down, and even backwards. Not everyone rose the rides together, some opted out and waited for the others, although after riding the tilt-o-whirl Mario had to agree with Maria’s nickname of the Tilt-o-hurl and had to sit down for a few minutes.
“I don’t know about everyone else,” their father said after they got out of the Viking ship ride. “But I’m actually hungry.”
“Can we go to Nathan’s?” Maria asked.
“Who’s Nathan?” Luigi asked.
“You guys never heard of famous Nathan’s?” Darien just stared at them.
“This is our first time in the city,” Mario said.
“Pauline had explained that you two were kidnapped and raised in Nebraska, but I thought that even there people have heard of Nathan’s Hot Dogs.”
“Honey,” Pauline placed a hand on her boyfriend’s shoulder. “I never heard of Nathan’s when I was in Iowa, never heard of it until I came to New York.”
“Oh,” Darien looked sheepish. “I’m sorry.”
Mario wasn’t certain if Pauline didn’t know about the place, or if she was just making that part up to throw suspicion off of him and Luigi. He gave her a smile.
“You two will love Nathan’s,” their mother said. “Best hot dogs in the world.”
“I just hope the line isn’t too long,” Maria said.
There were several long lines, but the food was worth the wait. The hot dogs were cooked on grills, and grilled hot dogs always tasted better to Mario. He ordered his with the works and a side of onion rings and a soda.
After lunch they decided to try their hands at some of the games. Mario was always good at knocking over the milk bottles and he managed to win a small pastel purple stuffed elephant. Luigi was excellent at sinking enough hoops to win a pale blue sea horse plush. Darien won a teddy bear for Pauline at the ring toss game and Maria won a framed picture of a tiger that the balloon dart game.
They decided to go on some of the more mild rides, or rides that wouldn’t cause much stomach discomfort such as the Ferris wheel and the swings before they sat down on benches and that over looked the beach.
“Do people swim or surf here?” Luigi asked.
“Yuck,” Maria shuddered. “You don’t want to go swimming around here, even after Rudy cleaned up the place, it’s still not somewhere you want to go swimming. I’m still surprised we haven’t come across any mutant fish yet.”
“But its nice to walk along the sand,” Mario watched as his parents strolled along the sand in one direction. “I think coming here kind of rejuvenated them. I mean they seem healthy before, but now they seem to be acting younger.”
“They do seem to act like they are on their second honeymoon,” Maria nodded. “But I think it’s also because you are here. They know that you are alive and you are with them after so long.”
“I kind of wish things were different,” Luigi stared at his seahorse. “I mean we had great child hoods and we love our adoptive mother and she loves us and I enjoy being a Koopa. I just can’t help but wonder what would have happened if Kamek hadn’t defeated the Yoshis.”
“We probably would have grown up human,” Mario stated. “We may have lived our entire lives in the mushroom kingdom, grown up to be heroes like our father used to be.”
“He’s still a hero,” Maria pointed out. “He took a bullet for a rookie once. I was only six at the time. Mother explained to me that my daddy was a bigger hero than usual that day. She tried to prepare for the possibility that he may have died. When she got the call that he pulled through she dressed me up and took me to see him. There had been many other incidents where had performed other heroic deeds.”
“Like?” Mario asked.
“He solved many cases where people have been murdered. He got transferred to the special victims unit and caught many rapists, found several kidnapped children and he once punched a man who had abused and raped several little girls. He got written up for that one.”
“He shouldn’t have,” Luigi said.
“Proper order and conduct and similar crap,” Maria rolled her eyes. “I agree with you.”
“I wonder if we would have eventually moved here,” Mario said. “After what you told me about our father and from what I have seen so far, I love Brooklyn.”
“Not too sure if I would want to live here though.” Luigi said.
“Dark Land is where the heart is?” Maria asked.
“Yeah,” Luigi nodded.
“I defiantly want to visit,” Mario nodded. “So many sights to see, fun things to do, great food to eat-“
“If you lived here you would even be rounder,” Luigi chuckled.
Mario reached over and plucked a hair from Luigi’s arm.
“Ouch,” Luigi jumped. He proceeded to shove Mario’s hat down and pull on his moustache.
“Damn it, Luigi.” Mario raised his hat. “You know how I hate that.”
“I would have also pulled on your tail,” Luigi said.
“Could we not fight?” Maria asked and pointed at Pauline and Darien. “Aren’t they cute together?”
“Yeah,” Luigi stared at his stuffed animal. “I think I’ll give this to Wendy.”
“What about you?” Maria pointed at Mario’s stuffed elephant. “What are you going to do with your prize?”
“I’m not sure,” Mario held up the elephant he had won. “Maybe I’ll give it to Peach.”
“Do you like her?” Maria asked. “More than a friend.”
“I-“ Mario felt himself blush. “I’m not exactly sure. She’s very sweet and caring of her people and she is going out of her way to help with the racism. She is also beautiful, and great at baking, and she is an awesome tennis player and golfer and pretty good at racing.”
“She is pretty good,” Maria nodded. “Maybe you should ask her out on a date, take her here, let her see Brooklyn.”
“I’ll think about it,” Mario pressed his index fingers together. “What about you.”
“What about me?” Maria raised her eyebrows.
“You and Bowser.”
“Wait,” Luigi blinked. “My sister and Bowser are dating?”
“No,” Maria shook her head. “We aren’t. We are enemies.”
“More like former enemies,” Mario held up a finger. “I’ve seen the way you two kissed, and not just when he struck that deal with you. He also watched over you while you were in the hospital.”
“I know,” Maria stared at her feet. “He is kind of attractive. As a human he would resemble the big burly foot ball players I dated while in high school, but what he has done in the past and-“ she closed her eyes. “This is complicated. Stuff like this only happens in TV and movies, not too mention it would be to weird for Luigi. I would be dating the father of his girlfriend.”
“It’s not too weird,” Luigi shrugged. “But I can understand if you do feel complicated on the issue.”
“Love and dating is odd,” Mario sighed and stared at the stars in the moon. “Kind of like the lack of eyes on everything.”
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