Introduction[]
(Pepe the flea sits in Pal’s fur and plays the concertina with tears in his eyes. Pal sits in kitchen and scratches himself with his teeth and hind leg. He gets his hind leg stuck behind his ear.)
Pal: Rrrr! Oh, phooey! Kate! Kate!
(Kate crawls in.)
Kate: Pal, what happened?
Pal: I've got this terrible itch in the middle of my back. I was trying to scratch it, but I sort of got stuck.
Kate: So I see. Here. Let me help.
(She frees his leg and scratches him.)
Pal: A little to the left. Oh, oh, no, to the right. Down. Down. Yes! Perfect. (Pepe jumps to the ground. There it goes again. Mrs. Read and Arthur look in.)
Mrs. Read: There you are, Kate.
Arthur: Hey, Mom, have you noticed Pal?
Pal: Huh?
Arthur: Blah-blah blah-blah blah blah itching.
Mrs. Read: Bleep bloo-bloo bloo-bloo bath!
(Pal looks horrified. He runs out of the room through Arthur’s legs.)
Title Card: Pal Searches[]
(In the Reads’ yard, Mrs. Read does gardening while Kate plays with grass and Pal talks to Amigo in the open garage.)
Amigo: I'm telling you, Pal, try rubbing up against the Herlihys' wood pile. It's heaven!
Kate: What are you doing in here, Pal?
Pal: You heard them. Unless I get rid of this itch...it's shampoo city!
(Kate takes a magnifying glass out of a tool box.)
Kate: Let me have a look.
(She sees Pepe jumping over Pal’s body.)
Pepe: Whoo, hoo-hoo, hoo-oo-oo!
(Pepe bites Pal. Kate flicks him away.)
Pal: (sighs) That's better.
Amigo: Pal, it's a flea.
Pepe: (In an italian accent speaking like Maria from "The Dick Van Dyke Show Turtles Ties and Toradores" and Rosalita from "The Goonies") Buongiorno, signora e signori. A pleasure to meet you.
Amigo: You know, there's only one way to get rid of a flea.
(He is about to step on Pepe.)
Pepe: No, wait! I beg of you. I have been through too much to be squished now.
Pal: Hmm. Maybe you shouldn't, Amigo.
Amigo: These fleas - they travel in packs. You let him go, we'll all be scratching till our fur falls out.
Pepe: Please. If you will only hear how I have suffered, then I know you will find the space for mercy in your canine heart.
Amigo: Sorry, but a flea is a flea.
(He presses his paw down on Pepe.)
Kate: No! Let him speak.
(Amigo lets Pepe go.)
Pepe: Er, grazie, signorina. My name is Pepe. The famous Pepe. One half of the great Pepe and Sale, stars of Italy's most acclaimed flea circus.
Amigo: I told you they travelled in packs. This Sale is probably eating your tail at this very moment.
Pepe: Alas, no. You see, I have lost him. Sale, my co-star, my partner, my brother. He is gone.
(He starts crying.)
Kate: Oh, how sad. What happened to him?
Pepe: We used to perform every afternoon at the Piazza Navona in Rome...
***
(Flashback: People walk and talk on the Piazza Navona.)
People: (all talk at once)
(Pepe and Sale stand in a flea circus arena pulling little chariots.)
Dottore Pulce: Come and see Sale and Pepe the strongest, smartest, most agile fleas on earth!
People: (Bravo! Bravissimo!)
(Pepe and Sale lift a dumbbell together.)
Dottore Pulce: Watch them lift 160,000 times their own weight. I ask you, sir, can you lift 11 million kilos?
Pepe and Sale jump on a trampoline.
Dottore Pulce: Watch these fleas jump over 150 times their own height.
(Pepe and Sale perform on the flying trapeze.)
Pepe (narrator): At that moment, a sudden gust of wind changed my life forever.
(Pepe is blown away before Sale can catch him.)
Pepe: (Screaming like Carla Tortelli from Cheers Coach in Love Part 2) Aaa-aargh! (He falls into the Fountain of the Four Rivers. He gets out and dodges people’s feet.) Oh! Sale! Sale! Sale, my brother, where are you?
(He meets a rat.)
Alessio: Look out! This is no time for someone as small as you to be out. Hop aboard.
(Pepe jumps on the rat’s head and he runs away.)
Pepe: Thanks. My name is Pepe.
Alessio: Alessio. What were you thinking, coming out during passeggiata?
Pepe: Er, passe...whatever you said?
Alessio: Passegiatta is the time when Romans take their evening walk and look at the shop windows, and at each other. It's a dangerous time for small creatures.
(He runs over a lady’s sandal.)
Lady: Aaargh!
(Her husband calms her.)
Alessio: We must get out of here.
Pepe: Where are we going?
Alessio: To the best restaurant in Europe.
(They reach the now closed open air market. Alessio searches some abandoned crates.)
Alessio: During the day, the open-air market is filled with people selling vegetables, fruit, flowers, and my personal favorite - cheese!
(Pepe and Alessio have dinner together.)
Pepe: But why do they leave behind all the best stuff?
Alessio: Humans! Go figure.
Pepe (narrator): Never had I had such a feast.
(The flashback ends.)
Pepe: For a moment, I even forgot my dear brother, and with my thorax full of complex sugars, I went to sleep.
***
(Flashback: A ship rolls on the ocean.)
Pepe (narrator): When I awoke, something had happened. The whole earth was wobbling. For a moment, I thought I was back flying on the trapeze.
(Pepe and Alessio are in a crate on board the ship.)
Pepe: Alessio, where are we?
Alessio: I have had enough of city life. Humans make things so difficult with their traps, and their poisons and spiky shoes, so I am taking us to Africa.
Pepe: What's Africa?
Alessio: Africa is a vast land of many nations across the sea from Italy. I have always wanted to visit it.
(Pepe jumps on top of the crate and looks around at the sea.)
Pepe (narrator): I realized at once I was further than ever from my brother Sale.
(The flashback ends.)
Kate: Poor Pepe! You must have been so sad.
Amigo: Oh, please! He's making it all up. If he's got a long-lost brother, then I'm an Irish setter.
(Pepe looks insulted.)
Pepe: Hmm!
(A map shows the ship’s journey from Rome to Alexandria, Egypt.)
Pepe (narrator): Alessio meant well, but he could never understand how much I missed my brother. When we landed in Alexandria, I began to search for a way back home to my brother.
(Alessio runs up to a camel in the harbor on which several flies are crawling.)
Pepe: Er, scusi, would any of you by chance be heading for Italy?
Fly: Sorry. Never heard of it. But if you want to ride to the Serengeti, Nasra here sure wouldn't notice one more.
Pepe: So I parted ways with Alessio and took a ride. The sand fleas told me that in some parts of Africa, there are thousands of kilometers which are just for animals.
***
(The map shows the journey from Alexandria to the Serengeti. Several wild animals are seen by a river. Nasra the camel drinks. Meanwhile, Pepe and the fly sit in her hair with two deck chairs.)
Fly: I'm going to find a giraffe to live on. I always wanted to be tall. How about you, Pepe?
(Pepe watches the surroundings through binoculars.)
Pepe: So many beautiful animals, so little time.
Pepe (narrator): My decision was made.
(Pepe sees a hippopotamus and jumps off the camel. The flies wave goodbye.)
(A bird is sitting on the hippopotamus.)
Oxpecker: Oh, no. That won't do. Zala hates anything that itches.
(He pecks at Pepe.)
Pepe: I was just looking. Oh, who is this Zala, anyway?
Oxpecker: Zala is my host, the hippo, and it's my job to keep her free of bugs and wounds. I eat flies, leeches and fleas, so that means you.
Pepe: Wait! Wait! I am not just any flea. I am a circus flea.
Oxpecker: What's a circus?
Pepe: What's a circus? A circus is a place where animals do all kinds of tricks. If you've never seen a circus, you should watch my act before you eat me.
Oxpecker: This better be good.
(Pepe pulls hair out of Zala’s hide. Then he walks across a tightrope made of hairs tied between Zala’s ears. He lifts a giant (to him) flower and juggles while balancing on a berry. Several oxpeckers gather and he finishes his show with some acrobatics.)
Oxpecker: Okay, kid. You can stay.
Pepe (narrator): I thought I had found a home - a place where I could be happy, and even forget how much I missed my brother.
(The flashback ends.)
Amigo: But what...? What happened?
Pepe: Alas, another disaster overcame me.
(Back in the story, Pepe does another show.)
Pepe: If you think that was good, watch this, my friends!
(He lifts two ants on Zala’s nose.)
Zala: Bath time! All clear!
(The birds fly off as Zala dives. A leaf falls in the river. Pepe climbs on it.)
Pepe (narrator): Without Zala I was lost again. Fortunately for me, there are a lot of tourists who come to the Serengeti to look at the animals. I heard them speaking Italian, and, immediately, I knew the perfect way to get home.
(A man watches giraffes through binoculars while another man sits in a jeep. Pepe sits on a tree above them and jumps onto their bag. The jeep drives off.)
(The tourists check their luggage in at the airport.)
Pepe (narrator): I was bound for Italy, and my long-lost brother. To this day, I don't know what happened, but, somehow, I ended up on the wrong aeroplane.
(The map shows the journey from Dar es Salaam to Tokyo.)
***
(A Japanese farm house amid rice fields is seen. Pepe meets a group of crickets.)
Pepe (narrator): By chance, or by fate, I ended up in the most serene place in the world: Japan.
Pepe: Signori, I come from a long way away, and I have heard and seen many things, but never have I heard any sound so beautiful to my auditory receptors.
Cricket: I am flattered.
(A glass jar is lowered over Pepe and the cricket.)
Pepe: What is happening?
(A girl carries the jar towards the house.)
Cricket: Here in Japan, crickets are often kept as house pets because our singing is so pleasant.
(The cricket and Pepe sit in the jar in the house. The girl has added some leaves and twigs and closed the lid with a cloth. The cricket eats a piece of cucumber.)
Cricket: I'm afraid, we may be stuck in this jar for some time.
Pepe: What I would give for a whole end of Genoa salami right now.
Cricket: I consider pickled cucumber and ginger to be quite delicious.
Pepe: Ugh! Suit yourself! How about some music to cheer us up?
Cricket: I am sorry. I am afraid, I have lost my will to sing.
Pepe: Lost the will?! Nonsense! Come on. We'll sing together. (sings:) “Figaro! Figaro! Figaro! Figaro! Figaro!”
Cricket: I don't have my chorus. I don't have my conductor. I don't have my view of the rice paddies. All I have is this tiny little jar.
(It is night in the Japanese house.)
Pepe (narrator): I decided something had to be done. The world could not be deprived of this creature's wonderful song. Using my powerful legs, I jumped out of the jar through an air hole, and then...
(While the girl is asleep, Pepe jumps out of the jar and removes the lid. The cricket jumps out onto the window sill.)
Cricket: You... You gave me my freedom. How can I ever repay you?
Pepe: You already have with your beautiful music.
(The cricket jumps out into the garden.)
***
(A dog sits in a workshop and scratches himself, while a man fills bottles of vinegar. Pepe is thrown out of the dog’s ear and lands in a bottle.)
Pepe (narrator): I bummed around for a couple of months on the family's Akita--that's a Japanese breed of dog. But one day he caught me with his hind leg, and I landed kerplunk in a bottle of some funny-smelling water. For some reason, the bottle was sent across the ocean.
(A map shows the journey from Tokyo to North America.)
(A Speedy Express truck drives away from the Read house. Mr. Read stands in the door holding a package.)
Mr. Read: Home-made rice vinegar from my old pen pal Tatsuo.
(In the kitchen, he opens the bottle and sniffs it. Pal sits beside him.)
Mr. Read: You sure can't get this stuff at Save Mart, can you, Pal?
(Pepe falls off the cork into Pal’s fur.)
(The flashback ends.)
Pepe: And that, my friends, is my long and sorry tale.
Kate: You never found Sale?
Pepe: I am afraid not.
Pal: Don't worry, Pepe. We'll help you find him.
Amigo: But how?
Kate: I know. We can mail him to Rome.
Amigo: Yes, yes, I can carry him to the mailbox on my own path.
Pal: No, I'll do it. There's a mailbox on the corner that I've marked with my scent.
Amigo: So?! I've marked that mailbox, too.
Pal: Well, I marked it first!
Kate: Maybe we should e-mail him. It would probably be faster.
Pal: He's my flea!
Amigo: You didn't even know about fleas...
Pal: I'm the one who's been scratching, I should be the one to take him to the mailbox.
Kate: Hey, he's gone!
(Across the road, a squirrel runs over a telephone wire. Pepe sits on its back and waves at the others.)
Pepe: Arrivederci, my friends! Thank you for not squishing me!
Kate: I have a feeling we haven't heard the last of our little friend.
(Mrs. Read walks up to them.)
Mrs. Read: Hey, you're not scratching anymore, Pal. Maybe we were wrong about the fleas. But it's been a while since you had a bath, anyhow.
(She picks him up and carries him away.)
Pal: (whines)
***
(Some weeks later, Mrs. Read stands in the front door and checks the mail while Pal and Kate watch.)
Mrs. Read: Bills, bills, bills, bills. What's this? "Dottore Pulce's Amazing Flea Circus?! Featuring the world-famous Pepe and Sale, reunited at last." I specifically asked the museum not to give our address out...
(Pal and Kate smile at each other.)