Redd was standing in the pouring rain outside the train station. Now he'd done it. He had taken too long delivering today's items and now the last train had left the town. He'd missed it. And now he was stuck here for the night. This had happened before, of course. In moments like this he'd happily sleep underneath the stars in whatever town he visited at the moment. That didn't, however, seem like an option at the time.
The rain was getting worse and started to soak the fox's fur. His backpack weighed down his shoulders. It was almost bigger than him, already packed to point of bursting with his tent, food supplies and art utensils and grew heavier by every second because of the rain. After staring at the station clock for a fair amount of time he decided not to take shelter inside of the station.
"I can't crash in there all night", he told himself. "It would be much too awkward, with the monkey staring at me".
After looking around for a minute he decided that it was unwise to get too far from the station; the town's trees grew closely to each other, for an outsider it was easy to mistake the area for a forest. Redd was in no mood of getting lost. Although he knew the way to the town plaza he knew little else of the small village and had absolutely no knowledge of where to go for shelter. The rain was now so heavy he could barely see past his whiskers, but by following a small, flickering light he managed to find an old bus stop at the edge of the forest-like town, very close to the station.
It was obvious that it was no longer in use, the roof was leaking terribly, the wood was rotting and there was no place to sit down, but for Redd it was a blessing. He took off his backpack and put it down with a thud. He cracked his shoulders back into place and let out a loud sigh. After he had made a quick but thorough inspection of the backpacks condition he let out another sigh, this one in relief. None of his equipment had been damaged. When he had placed the backpack in the driest corner of the shed he could finally relax.
A bunch of bugs had also taken shelter at the same place. Besides a few grasshoppers and a lone ant that had not made it home before the rain started, there were mostly spiders and moths. While the other bugs were somewhat content with the situation the moths were in a life-or-death struggle, having to choose between being a easy meal for the spiders or leaving the shelter only to instantly being struck to the ground by heavy raindrops. The fox peacefully observed this struggle while repeating the same phrase over and over in his head: "What to do now?"
He could not afford this. He had to paint. His usual routine involved arriving at a new town early each morning and taking his time to paint so he could have the art ready in time for when the costumers woke up. But at this rate, he would not have time for painting. He could not paint now, and he could not paint later. The art would not be ready in time tomorrow. So what would he do? His nose twitched and then he sneezed suddenly, causing several moths to flee the shed in shock and meeting their fate in the rain.
A snooty-looking ostrich that happened to pass by noticed the sneezing fox, gave him a suspicious look and hurried along, holding tightly to her umbrella. A few other of the town's residents passed by during the period of time he stood there: A cranky tiger was cursing at the rain while walking by, soaking wet due to his umbrella being way to small and a frog, that Redd thought of as a bit smug, didn't seem to mind the rain at all and was skipping past the bus stop while happily humming the official town tune.
Redd would have called out to them, asked them to help or even engaged in small talk with them if it weren't for his reputation. He had sold countless of paintings to them, assured them that they were famous works of art, masterpieces and at a really good price too. They had all been fake, of course. He had painted them all himself. The villagers here were so, so very gullible and cut off from the outside world that he could return here each week and put on the same charade. He felt kind of bad about it, but it was his living and the only thing he ever succeeded at.
He was once really determined to become a real artist, as a pup he frequently visited art museums after school and even snuck out at night after bedtime and got in real trouble for it. He made hundreds of paintings and sketches and became quite secure with his ability and eventually made it into an art school. But that's where things started to go downhill. Although creative, his paintings lacked the originality needed to succeed as an artist. But he couldn't let it go; he still wanted to create art. Because of this, he started painting some of the greatest works of art known to mankind... even if none of them were his own original creation.
He quite enjoyed this line of work, and it was quite well-paid too. Or, it was as well paid as he made it. Greed easily overtook the fox's actions, he always wanted the latest equipment and the long trips he had to take each day were not of the cheap kind. And even though his prices were high, he was still homeless and could not afford an actual art gallery of his own. Even if he did... he sighed again at the thought of it, this time much heavier than the last. "Not even this town would be stupid enough to let me have a real business here." he murmured towards the ground. He was a sly fox, a lying con artist and he knew his place. And it wasn't here.
"Redd?" A familiar voice snapped him out of his thoughts and he looked up in a sudden movement. The town's mayor was standing in front of him in the rain. She was wearing a yellow raincoat and rain boots. She didn't seem to have socks on and the hood on the coat was down causing her hair to be drenched, completely defeating the purpose of the coat. She was also holding a watering can. This left the fox speechless. Was she really... watering? Watering what?
"What are you still doing here?" she asked while staring confused at him.
"Um... I missed the train." he answered and started to feel a bit awkward. "You, um... Are you watering the flowers?" Wow. He actually asked her that.
"Yeah, I know it's late but it's been a busy day: we had a ceremony for the new garbage can and a seagull washed up on the beach and he was, you know, a little bit confused." she whispered the last part while doing a circular motion with her finger towards her head.
Yeah, the mayor had always struck him as a bit weird. She would always buy a painting from him when he was in town. In fact, she was his most regular costumer. To entertain himself he had started conducting an experiment of a sort. Since she was the only person in this town that seemed to know anything about art, he had started making small changes in the paintings he sold. He always had four paintings for sale each time he visited this town, and three of them had small but obvious changes from the original paintings. The only one that was an exact copy of the original was the one the mayor always bought. For about a year he had done this and it had yet to fail once.
Again, he felt really bad for fooling her, especially since she had an obvious interest in art. But he was not unaware of the rumors spreading about him and his forgeries. He felt like the mayor and this "experiment" was the only things stopping the other townspeople from chasing him out of town forever.
"So... What are you going to do now?" The mayor said, looking worried. Redd thought for a second, but didn't answer. He didn't really have an answer.
"Well, you can't crash here, the roof is leaking. You'll catch a cold." She rested her finger against her lip for a few seconds while in deep thought.
"I would let you stay at my house, but it is under renovation at the moment... You could sleep in the museum, its open around the clock" She looked towards the fox, expecting an answer this time. "What do you think?"
He pricked up his ears. Museum? He didn't even know the town had a museum. He hadn't been to one in years. His little fox heart started to beat a little bit faster, but he also became anxious, like it was a relative he hadn't met in a long, long time.
"Is it really OK for me to stay the night there?" He asked carefully, hiding his excitement. The mayor gave him a large and friendly smile.
"Of course it is OK!" She chuckled a bit and gave him an unexpected jolly look. "After all, it's all thanks to you".
She gave him simple directions to the museum and wished him a good night. He kept thinking about what the mayor had said, that it's "all thanks to him". He had no idea what she meant by it but, again, she was a bit weird. He followed the directions which led him to Main Street, a place in this town he had avoided like the plague since he heard that the raccoon had started a business there. Redd might have been a sly fox that could get himself out of the trickiest situations but he knew better than to get involved with Tom Nook.
He ended up outside a large building that did indeed look like a museum. A familiar feeling struck him, the same feeling he had when standing outside the train station and pondered whether or not to sleep in there. This time he didn't think as long and entered the museum.
It was a strange experience for Redd, the main hall of the building was empty. The only thing that was in the room was an owl. It was standing there, in the middle of the hall, with his beak buried in an old, thick book. When it noticed the fox, it let out a surprised "hoot!" and carefully closed the book.
"Oh, excuse me," The owl exclaimed. "It is not often the museum gets visitors at this of hour!" He cleared his throat and tucked the book underneath his wing. "How can I help you?"
"Ah, well…" the fox begun. "I missed the last train and, um, the mayor said I could crash here. Sorry for the inconvenience and all." He expected the owl to get annoyed with him: a soaking wet fox with a soaking wet backpack coming in and causing trouble in the middle of the night. He usually wasn't welcome to these kinds of places, and he should be even less welcome now. But the owl didn't seem to mind at all.
"Hoot! That is indeed a troublesome situation! We, the museum committee, are happy to have you!" Redd looked around and got the hunch that there only was one person in this committee. "Any friend of the mayor is a friend of ours! I would recommend that you sleep in that section, the aquatic life exhibit; the light is soft and well suitable for sleep. But keep away from that section…" The owl pointed towards the entrance to what seemed like the bug exhibit. "There is nothing but horrors in that place."
Redd was baffled, it almost seemed like this situation was a common one. He was just about to thank the owl and take his leave towards the aquariums when something caught his eye. It was the entrance to the art exhibit. His heart started to beat faster again; there really was one in this town.
"What about that one?" he asked, and pointed towards the exhibit. A faint sparkle appeared in the owls eyes.
"Hoohoot! Do we have a fellow art lover perhaps? We are very proud our art collection, it is truly the town's treasure! Might even be one of the finest in the world! And..:" the owl suddenly stopped and cleared his throat again as he started to blush just a little bit. "Do excuse me; I tend to go on a bit about these things. Anyway, you are free to sleep in the art exhibit if you wish. The lights are a lot brighter than in the aquarium though, so that might make it difficult. Also we have several rare and valuable items in there, so do be careful. But, if the mayor trusts you, so do I."
"Thanks." Said Redd, now even more confused. "I'll be on my way then."
"Would you not like to join me for a cup of tea before you go? We can continue our conversation about art!" the owl suggested. Redd politely declined, he was much too tired for more conversation. The owl did, however, insist on following him into the exhibit to show him the art. Redd's attempt to stop him was in vain.
There was something off with the whole thing. "Finest in the world"? How could that be possible? The owl must be mad. A lot of questions circled around in the fox's head, but as he entered the art exhibit they were all answered.
The walls were filled with paintings. They were organized and framed skillfully along the walls, only a few spots were empty. The owl started to impatiently telling him about the paintings.
"Hoot! As you can see our museum has succeeded in obtaining some of the greatest masterpieces in existence! You can see The Birth of Venus right over there, exquisite painting if I might say so myself, and The Girl with a Pearl Earring is right over there. And don't be shocked now, I knew I was when the mayor came in with it, but if you look over there you can actually see that we have the authentic Mona Lisa in our exhibit, who would have thought, right? Hoothoot! It is truly the jewel of the town! It's a wonder we don't have more tourism…" The owl went on and on, but the fox remained quiet. He would at times respond with "It truly is amazing" or "It is truly a fine collection" but he didn't manage to say any more than that. He mostly just stood there, baffled and barely listening to the owl's blathering. The owl eventually grew exhausted from too much talking and excused himself, leaving the fox alone. Redd didn't move for the longest of time. There was one thing that Redd knew the town's people did not: They were all fake. He had painted them all himself.
He didn't know how to feel. Some of the forgeries he had worked on so hard hung on museum walls and were praised like they were the real thing. He then walked along the walls for a while. It was as he thought; there were all the paintings that the mayor had purchased from him. He felt like laughing. He felt like crying. Instead, he just put down the backpack at the hard, marble floor and lied down with his head resting against it.
"This town is filled with morons" he mumbled under his breath and started to chuckle. He noticed a lump growing in his throat and soon he began to cry with happiness. The mayor, the owl, everyone.
"This town is filled with morons!" He said again, this time while laughing loudly and with tears streaming down his face. He had planned to do some painting so he could sell them in another town tomorrow, but instead he spent about an hour just observing the art on the walls. The fox felt proud for the first time in a very long time and before he fell into deep, deep sleep he thought that maybe, just this once, he could take the next day off.