Chapter 15: New York City and A New Life

Penelope rolled over, regaining consciousness rubbing her injured head. Her emerald eyes widened and noticed flashing red lights. She turned to James and shook him. Jaelle slowly got up back to her hooves and bleated, shaking herself. Somehow, they were unharmed, save for a few bumps and scratches. The girl noticed that her sandals were gone, but her dagger was still wrapped around her calf.

"Are we dead?" Penelope asked.

"I don't think so," James said.

In a moment, they both coughed out something green; they both squeaked and got away, even the goat coughed out the tongue. The children both stood up, and as they looked at each other, touching their faces. They were back to their human form.

"We're back to normal!" cried Penelope.

"Yes, we defeated the Rhino!" said James smiling.

"Yeah, but where are the others?"

James soon remembered, the bugs were separated from them as they fell from the sky. They were all gone. The boy grew concerned and crawled through the hatch, hoping to hear the others.

"Miss Spider? Mr. Grasshopper? Mr. Centipede?" he called out.

"Earthworm? Mrs. Ladybug?" Penelope called. "Mr. Dragonfly? Glowworm? Where are you?"

"Hello? Is anybody there?" James opened the peach hole and climbed out. Penelope, and Jaelle followed him out, and they saw a tall beacon with the blinking red light. That's where the light came from.

They found the spider silk and tied it around their waists to prevent themselves from falling and Penelope tied one strand around Jaelle's middle. They looked over the edge of the peach and gasped at the sight. Below them were brightly lit streets saw the cars driving around and honking. The tall skyscrapers showed off their lights.

"Wow, what a view," the girl said.

James looked into his travel book and frowned. "This isn't right… Where's the Empire State Building?"

"Yeah, Where are we?"

It turned out that they were right on top of the Empire State Building and since the peach went, right through the antenna, similar to an olive stabbed through a toothpick on top of a sandwich. Peach juice started to leak downwards on unsuspecting people. The juice landed on a lady wearing a white fur coat and she was walking her dog, causing her to scream. Another leak landed on a police chief who was about to take a bite of an apple, and jumped.

"What the…" the startled chief said as he looked up. He saw the peach way on top of the Empire State Building and to him it looked like a round ball.

"Officer!" a little girl with a telescope from a window yelled, and pointed up. "There's a boy, a girl, and a goat up there!"

"What?" the dumbfounded police chief asked, as a crowd was starting to form. "A boy? A girl? A goat?" He ran to the pay phone and dialed a number, and spoke into the mouth piece, almost having a heart attack. "Mabel! We got us a huge unidentified object here."

"What's it look like?" Asked Mabel.

"Round, fuzzy… it sorta looks like a giant fruit or something."

"Well… what is it?"

"I don't know what it is!" He yelled. "Just send us the biggest crane in New York!"

After that, a giant came driving through the streets. At that time, more people began to gather around the Empire State Building to stare at the strange object. Skylights lit up as they shone on the peach, as a man stood on one end of the cable of the crane and came towards the peach.

A bright light flashed on James, Penelope, and Jaelle. They were both startled, while Jaelle bleated as they saw a man on a crane coming towards them. James waved at him as he landed in front of them.

"Please sir, how do we get to the Empire State Building?" the boy asked politely.

"Where exactly are we?" the gypsy girl asked.

"You're on top of it, kids," he said.

"We made it!" James exclaimed, realizing his dream came true. His face then turned glum, as tears formed in his eyes. "Well only Penelope, Jaelle, and I made it."

"Our friends…" sighed Penelope as she hugged her brother.

The peach stem was attached to the crane and the man helped the children get on with him.

"Hang on," he said.

"Wait," the girl said. She turned towards her goat. "Come on Jaelle."

The goat jumped into her mistress's arms and relaxed as the crane lifted the man, the children and the goat into the air, and slowly lowered them down with the peach as it slowly landed onto the top of a large truck.

"Have you seen any big bugs tonight?" James asked hopefully.

"Big bugs?" Asked the man. "How big?"

"Well… our size," said Penelope.

Police cars and fire trucks crowded the streets to know more about the peach filled with the sounds of sirens and flashing lights. Even the news came.

Penelope was amazed by all of New York City, but Jaelle looked down and bleated at the fear of heights.

"Is your goat all right miss?" the man asked.

"Oh, Jaelle's afraid of heights," she said. She gave a sigh at another sad thought.

"I hope they're all right," James said sadly.

"I hope so too James," Penelope said filled with heartache for her bug friends.

As the peach was lowered onto the truck, the man lowered James, Penelope and Jaelle down on the peach. A firefighter came up to them from a ladder.

"Don't worry you guys," he said. "You'll be all right."

Jaelle jumped up and bleated.

"Come on sonny," he said gently. "Don't be afraid. I got you guys." He gently as he wrapped his arms around James and Penelope as he slowly climbed down the ladder.

Another firefighter carried Jaelle down the ladder too, and she didn't even struggled.

"Stay away from those trucks," the chief shouted an order.

As the two firefighters lowered James, Penelope, and Jaelle down, three reporters surrounded them and asked them many questions.

"What is this thing?"

"Where are you two from?"

"Why are you two here?"

"Who?"

"What?"

"Where?"

"When?"

"Why?"

"Hold your fire, fellas!" The police chief snapped. "They're just kids for Pete's sake."

"Here I got you two," he turned to them and picked up James and placed him down. He also carried Penelope down, and he picked up Jaelle and carried her down.

"It's okay, little guy and miss." The police chief reassured them. "Nobody's gonna hurt you two."

As they hoped things would get better, a car honked and the crowd cleared up. A flat out car appeared and it was covered with seaweed and it was surrounded with smoke and it came towards them.

Then the doors opened and seawater poured out with seaweed and out came two women who were none other than Sponge and Spiker. Their make-up and clothes were ruined and Spiker removed some seaweed and Sponge flung away a crab from her hand.

"No!" James's brown eyes widened in fear at the sight of his aunts again, and he thought he would escape from them for good.

"Oh crap, not them!" Penelope muttered as her green eyes widened. They both gasped at Spiker and Sponge. Jaelle glared at them and bleated angrily.

"Hello… little angels…" Sponge said as she snickered at them.

"So kind of you to look after our little lost lambs and goat," Spiker said as she grinned at them.

"You!" the girl hissed.

Sponge blew kisses at them and the children both made grim faces.

"Who are you?" Asked the police chief.

"We are the boy's and gypsy girl's legal guardians," Spiker said as she pulled out the papers to show that she's telling the truth.

"We missed them so much," Sponge said.

"So we'll just take them home now," said Spiker

"And the peach, of course," Sponge said. "We're taking that as well."

"Well, wait a minute. Back up," the confused police chief said. "You mean to tell me that this thing is a peach?"

"It's not a peach," Spiker snapped. "It's our peach."

"Our peach," agreed Sponge.

"Show him, Spongie," said Spiker.

"Yes," Sponge said as she took out a wet picture and showed it to the chief. It showed Sponge and Spiker smiling in their clothes on the day that the giant peach grew.

It was from that day… James mused. When they were making money out of it.

How could these women be so selfish and care about themselves but us… oh how I loathe them so much… Penelope muttered.

"Looks like it's their peach, all right," said the police chief smiling.

"Yes! Yes!" Spiker said happily. "We're very proud of it."

"We're going to be in the record books," Sponge said grinning.

"It's not their peach," James spoke up. "The old man gave the green things to me and Penelope. That's what made it grow."

"How dare you disagree with us?" Sponge said angrily.

"James has the right to disagree," Penelope snapped, taking out her dagger for defense. "Even I have the right to disagree as well!"

The audience gasped, at the sight of the girl holding a dagger in public. Jaelle charged at Sponge and hit her in the gut. She bit Spiker's knees and she toppled over.

"Ow," Sponge clenched her gut. "You naughty beast!"

Before Sponge could lose her temper, and get her hands on Jaelle. Spiker grabbed her arm.

"Patience sister. Remember his… condition. And the gypsy girl's condition, along with the goat's temper."

"Their condition?" the Chief asked.

"They're chronic liars," Sponge said. "And the goat has a temper."

James, Penelope, and Jaelle glared at Sponge and Spiker for being big far liars.

"Sad, really," said Spiker. "They need their treatment."

"Well, that's why we're here," said Sponge. "To bring him and her home. So you come with us, eh lovies?"

As they come towards them, James, Penelope, and Jaelle ran to the police chief.

"James, Jaelle, come on!" Penelope pulled out a magic ball from her shirt. She threw it down on the ground hard and created a poof. When the dust cleared, they were gone. Everyone gasped as they disappeared.

"Where'd they go?" the Chief asked.

"That witch and her witchcraft," Spiker muttered in anger.

"Up here," a girl's voice called. She, James, and Jaelle were at the very top of the truck. The people gasped seeing them up their in shock.

"We're not the one's who're lying, they are!" James said to everyone.

"We don't trust them one bit," Penelope snapped as she crossed her arms. "They're such fools to lie."

Jaelle blew a raspberry at them.

"As you can see, officer..." Spiker tried to control her temper. "It is urgent that release them to us immediately."

"Let the boy and the young girl speak!" a voice shouted from the crowd as the crowd agreed with him.

This encouraged James, Penelope, and Jaelle.

"All right, all right, all right!" the chief yelled. "Let's get to the bottom of this. This thing is a peach. All right, I'll buy that. Now… does somebody wanna tell me how it got here?"

"We attached it to a hundred seagulls," said James.

"Seagulls?" Snickered Spiker.

The crowd started to laugh.

"Justice!" Penelope snapped.

"That's what happened!" James said. "Me and Miss Spider, and the Centipede, and the Old Green Grasshopper…"

"Mrs. Ladybug, Earthworm, Dragonfly, and Glowworm, they were our family." Penelope said.

"I think they've gone mad!" Spiker said grinning.

The crowd laughed more harder. The girl never felt this more humiliated in her life.

"Oh shut up you miserable earthworms!" Penelope snapped, causing the crowd to gasp as she cursed. "So shut your stupid goddamn traps and listen to us."

"This is all something both of you have dreamed up," said Spiker.

"Well, maybe it started that way. As a dream," James said. "But doesn't everything? Those building, these lights, this whole city!"

"Exactly," Penelope said.

Jaelle bleated and nodded in agreement.

"Somebody had to dream about it first, and maybe that's what Penelope, Jaelle, and I did. We dreamed about coming here, but then we did it!"

"The poor boy and girl need their medicine," Spiker said sighing.

"Yes," Sponge said agreeing.

"So we'll just take them…"

"And the peach," Sponge added.

"Back to our cozy little house on the hill." Spiker finished, throwing the crumpled wet papers over her shoulder. She turned to the children and the goat and smiled as she tried to grab them. "Come along. You three are going home with us."

"No, we're not!" James snarled as he had enough of his aunts.

"Hell no!" Penelope snapped at them as she too had enough of them, the people gasped as the girl cursed.

Spiker's neck stiffened, making her skin crack, hissing though her clenched teeth, "What did both of you say?"

"I said Hell no!" Penelope snapped. "You will not take us!"

"I said… no… we're… not!" James yelled. "We hate that house and that cold room and we were always hungry!"

"And how cruel you witches were…" Penelope said to them.

"All right, that's enough!" Spiker interrupted and she was ready to blow up.

"And how you beat us!" James yelled and everyone gasped.

"They're lying!" cried Sponge.

"And told us we were nothing!" snapped James.

"Shut up! Shut up!" the aunts yelled.

"No!" Penelope snapped. "You're the ones who need to shut up! Idiots!"

"No! Not this time!" James said. "My sister, pet goat, and I flew the giant peach across the ocean! We landed on top of the tallest building in the world! WE made it! Penelope, Jaelle and I are not the ones who are nothing, YOU are! And we are never going with you! Not me, not Penelope, not Jaelle, nor the peach!"

"In fact, you hags absolutely had no right to treat me and James, the same way you mistreated my family and my people," the gypsy girl added. "You are heartless chiennes who never showed sympathy to others, not even caring if they died. Even if you had to kill them like you did to my parents!"

The whole crowd gasped in horror hearing the girl confessing the truth, color drained from Sponge and Spiker's faces as their eyes widened in horror.

"How did you know?" they stuttered.

"Before I explain this, I'm going to do something I should have done to you two a long time ago." The Romani aimed herself towards Sponge and she spit out her saliva and it landed on Sponge's forehead. She turned to Spiker and spit out more saliva and it landed onto Spiker's face. This caused the whole crowd to gasp.

"What was that for gypsy?" Sponge cried in disgust as she flung the saliva away.

Penelope felt energy in her heart explode as she finally had the courage to stand up to Sponge and Spiker once and for all.

"I just had this dream, that you two planned on killing my parents and you slipped poison into their wine, and they got sick and soon died. You just wanted to see them dead! Ever since you got robbed by those gypsies in Rome, you never forgave them for what they did. You never appreciated James' parents for helping Gypsies and people in need! They even harbored my family and other gypsies during the depression and Second World War! Then Papa fore told that you and fatty will spend the rest of your lives in prison on how you two raised us and beat us to death. You instead assaulted them, thinking it was mumbo-jumbo. James' parents ordered you to leave, or you would face a terrible fate. You planned on getting revenge on them by poisoning them, and Jaelle knew you did this, and she has proof!"

Penelope never felt so angry and she raised her voice as she un-bottled all her emotions.

"You two are an insult and a disgrace to my family and my people, the gypsies. You are also demons from Hell, what you said about my family and my people, is a big fat lie! You two are nothing but monsters! Real true monsters! You killed my parents! God always says that the Wicked shall not go unpunished! I can see that someday in punishment for killing my parents you will rot in Hell! Vous chiennes stupide!"

Spiker suddenly snapped when the children revealed the truth. And worse, Penelope insulted them!

"How dare you brats speak to us this way?" She yelled, revealing her and Sponge's true colors. They grabbed two axes from the fire truck and immediately, Penelope jumped to the top of the truck and she pulled James and Jaelle up. She hid them behind her back as she held out her dagger to protect him and Jaelle.

Sponge swung her axe and got it stuck in the front, and Spiker slammed her axe in the window and the chief got so scared that he blew the whistle to stop them and the people tried to grab the aunts, but the firemen kept them back and they realized that they were telling the truth.

As Penelope blocked James, they heard a familiar voice from above, "James! Penelope! Jaelle! Up here!"

The crowd looked up and gasped what they saw up in the sky. A green light glowed in the sky and they heard the voices.

"Hello we're here!" Glowworm called.

"Hey buddies!" Centipede called.

"H'llo laddie and lassie!" it was Dragonfly.

Sponge and Spiker stared at the sky and wondered whom did those voices belong to.

"What are they?" Asked Sponge.

Only James, Penelope, and Jaelle recognized the voices and their eyes lite up as they saw their bug friends coming down and they were hanging onto Miss Spider's strings with the seagulls.

"Young James! Darling Penelope!" Called Glowworm. "Little Jaelle!"

"Hey Jimmy! Hey Penny!" Called Centipede as he waved to them.

" 'allo Jaelle!" Dragonfly waved his beret too.

"Bugs!" Screamed Spiker.

"Need a little help down there?" Called Centipede.

"Giant bugs!" Screamed Sponge.

"Hey you old biddies!" Centipede yelled as he suck out his tongue and made a raspberry sound.

"Help us!" the aunts screamed as they hugged each other.

"Whoo-ee! Here we are, dears!" Called Mrs. Ladybug.

"Hello James!" Called Earthworm. "Hello Penelope and Jaelle!"

"We'll be down soon!" Dragonfly called.

"We told you they we real!" James said smiling.

"Now do you believe us?" Penelope asked the crowd smiling.

The crowd finally believed the children as they saw the bugs coming down.

"Hello old boy and my fair child!" called Mr. Grasshopper. "Young goat!"

"Requesting clearance to land!" said Miss Spider.

The bugs landed on the peach and they released the strings and the seagulls flew away freely. The crowd watched the giant bugs in shock and the aunts stared at them too in shock.

"Miss Spider," James yelled to Miss Spider. "Throw me a string!"

Miss Spider took out some string and tossed it to James and Penelope and caught it immediately.

They both grinned and James threw the string around Sponge and Spiker. They both screamed.

"Okay, pull them up!" Yelled James.

Jaelle bleated as a grin grew across her face.

The bugs nodded and pulled Sponge and Spiker up until they meet the bugs face to face.

"Help!" Yelled Aunt Sponge. "Where are we going?"

"To teach you a lesson!" Penelope said as she laughed. "For your own punishment."

As they got right in front of our friends, James yelled to the bugs.

"Spin them around!"

Mr. Grasshopper, who was closer to the aunts, lied on his back and used his legs and kicked them hard.

"You little…" Spiker shouted as she and Sponge started to spin around faster.

"Keep on with the spinning Mr. Grasshopper!" Penelope called to him.

Miss Spider tossed the string and threw it around Sponge and Spiker and they spinning increased that Sponge and Spiker's hair fell off of their heads. It turned out they were wigs after all.

"Tighter! Tighter!" James and Penelope yelled as the bugs did what the children told them.

Finally the aunts were covered up in the string just like they were wrapped in a cocoon.

"One more t'ing," Dragonfly flew over and let out a few punches on the aunts as if they were punching bags.

"Well I'll be a…" the Chief said. "The kids were tellin' the truth," He then called out, "Get those two creeps outta here!"

The crane drove Spiker and Sponge away to prison as they screamed and were still wrapped up.

James, Penelope, and Jaelle climbed the ladder and heard the crowd cheering. Many reporters ran to the phone booths and called the presses.

"Stop the presses. I got a new front page. 'Big Bugs In The Big Apple'!"

"In big bold print, 'Little Lindies Fly Giant Peach'."

"'Half-Pint Heroes and Their Peach Pit Pals'."

James and Penelope smiled at the crowd and were ready to introduce their friends.

"Everyone! These are our friends!" James called out. "The ones we've been telling you about. Mr. Centipede!"

The spotlight shone on him and he waved happily.

"Hi!" He climbed down the ladder.

"Old Green Grasshopper."

The spotlight shone on him.

"My pleasure," he bowed.

"Earthworm!" He did a pose as the light came on him and the crowd kept cheering.

"Mrs. Ladybug!"

"Charmed!" Mrs. Ladybug said as she showed off her wings in the spotlight.

"Mr. Dragonfly!"

" 'Allo!" Dragonfly to showed off his wings as the spotlight went on him.

"Miss Spider!" She giggled as the light came onto her.

"And the Glowworm!"

"God bless the colonies!" Called Glowworm, and Miss Spider turned her to the right direction.

"And this other girl with me, is my older sister and gypsy dancer, Penelope!" As James pointed at her, she took out her tambourine and shook it and hit it and smiled and the crowd cheered for her.

"And this is the dancing goat Jaelle!"

Jaelle bleated and hopped around as the crowd cheered.

"Could we eat some of your peach? A boy asked from the crowd.

"It won't keep forever," Centipede said as he grinned at James and Penelope.

"Go ahead!" Said James.

Many kids in New York City gathered around the peach and started to eat it.

People threw confetti out of the windows as everyone cheered.

"Hey! What was your name?" A boy shouted out to James.

"It's James!"

"Why don't I do a performance?" Penelope asked the crowd. The crowd cheered. Penelope sprinted to a stage and began her performance. She danced on the stage and pulled out a scarf. She spun around and shook her tambourine.

She leapt across and she wrapped a scarf around a man and flirted with him. She kissed his nose and pulled his hat down. The man blushed in embarrassment and gave a small smile. The girl spun around and did a front flip. She then did a full split and gave the crowd a wink.

She then grabbed a pole and dug it in the stage and swung herself around causing the audience to scream widely. She wrapped her leg around it, and leaned back and stopped. She then looked at the crowd with a grin and nodded.

James, Jaelle, the bugs, and the crowd cheered widely for her.

"I'm finally free," she said.

_
They ate that peach all the way down to the pit and set it up in Central Park as a permanent home. And James Henry Trotter and Penelope Esmeralda Trotter, who were once the saddest and loneliest little boy and young girl you could find now had a loving family new family and all the friends in the world.

James and Penelope are sitting on two stools telling a group of children their story.

The boy wore a yellow shirt, a light blue vest, tan pants, tan socks and black shoes and Penelope wore a simple gypsy dress reading a palm of a young girl. Jaelle was being petted by one of the children.

Miss Spider opened the door wearing a chef's hat and an apron.

"James, Penelope, dinner is ready," she said.

The children waved to Miss Spider.

"All right. Nearly finished," said James.

"We'll be there soon Miss Spider," said Penelope.

Miss Spider smiled and closed the door and James kept telling his story.

"And… and then…" James said. "And then the seagulls…"

And since James's and Penelope's visitors begged them again and again… to hear the story of their adventure with the giant peach, they wished for a way to share it with everyone. And that is exactly what you just read.

The old man was none other than the narrator, he caught the three crocodile tongues and put them back in his pouch. He then smiled and winked at the audience and his eye turned into a moon.

The End!