Author's Note: After Boris Yeltsin telling me about some strange 911 calls he heard about, it gave me the idea to do this short little one-shot. I hope you enjoy!
For Emergencies Only
Summary: When Cynthia goes missing, Angelica decides to call 911 to report her missing, but will soon learn when it's appropriate to call that number and when it's not. Idea was inspired by Boris Yeltsin, I hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own the original Rugrats characters, they're the property of their original creaters. I do own the Police officer who shows up in this story.
Start of Story
It was a typical Saturday in the Pickles household. Drew and Charlotte were busy working, and Angelica didn't have preschool on this particular day, leaving her to her own devices. She was also quite happy that she wouldn't be seeing any of the babies, because her cousins, uncle and aunt had other plans, same with the Finsters, Devilles, Peter Albany, as well as the Barrows and the Wehrenbergs. However, later that day, after Angelica had been made to pick up the living room the previous evening before bed, because her toys were scattered everywhere, she was looking everywhere for her beloved doll Cynthia, because she wanted to play beauty parlor, and couldn't find her.
The four-year-old blond thought about going to get help from her parents, but when she peaked into their study, as usual, she found her father typing away at his computer, and her mother on her cell phone with Jonathan. Then, she considered screaming for her parents, like something was wrong, as she'd typically do at a time like this, and did just that a while back when Cynthia had gone missing in the backyard, only to learn later on that Tommy and Chuckie had taken her off to use as a captain for their boat, but with how busy her parents were at the moment, she knew that screaming would only get her in trouble. Then, a brilliant beyond brilliant idea hit her. Recently in preschool, Miss Weamer had been teaching the kids about calling 911, and how one should call this number in a real emergency. To Angelica, losing Cynthia was a real emergency, so being extra quiet, so her working parents wouldn't notice, she snuck back downstairs to the telephone in the kitchen, picked it up, and remembering where the numbers nine and one were on the telephone keypad, she made the call. It rang twice, before an operator answered.
"Nine-one-one Emergency, what's your emergency?" The operater asked.
"Yes! My best friend in the whole wide world Cynthia Pickles, is missing!" Angelica cried in a panic into the phone.
"Ok, let me get some information. May I have your name please?" The operater asked.
"Angelica Pickles." Angelica replied.
"And what's your address and phone number?" The operater asked.
Angelica thought for a minute, and then, she remembered another lesson she had learned earlier that same week when Miss Weamer had taught them about this emergency stuff. They would need to be able to give these pieces of information to the person they spoke to over the phone, so that the 911 emergency people, could better assist them, where their address was where they lived, including the number of their house and or apartment, and the name of the street they lived on, and their phone number, a seven-digit number, that when dialed on the telephone, would make the phone ring at their house. Once she remembered what pieces of information the operater was looking for, she gave her answer.
"I live at 53 Briarcliff Lane, and my phone number is 555-2936." Angelica told the operater.
"Ok man, would you describe to us what this missing Cynthia Pickles looks like?" The operater asked.
"She's beautiful, and only the bestest friend in the whole wide world! She's gots blond hair and wears an orange and red striped dress." Angelica explained.
"Ok, we'll be sending a Police officer by your house shortly to investigate this missing person further." The operater said, before a click was heard.
Once there was nothing but silence in Angelica's ear, she gulped, realizing what she had done. She only hoped that missing dolls fell under emergencies, as she put the phone back on the hook, and out of anger and frustration, she ran back into the living room, where she had a huge pile of toys stacked in the corner, from when she cleaned up the previous night. Angry over her missing Cynthia doll, she started tossing the pile of toys everywhere, covering the four corners of the living room, hoping her parents were too engrossed in their work upstairs to notice all of the commotion she was making, until she heard the doorbell ring. By this time, she had hirled all of her toys around the room, except for what lay at the bottom of the pile, her Cynthia doll, but didn't get a chance to look, as she had to go answer the door. Making her way through the mess of toys she had made on the floor, she got over to the door, where she looked through the mail slot.
"Who is it?" Angelica asked.
"The Police." An officer replied from the opposite side of the door.
She opened the door to find a tall, Police officer standing before her, wearing dark clothing and a shiny helmet on his head.
"Are you Angelica Pickles?" The man asked.
"Yes sir." Angelica answered nervously, as this man looked intimidating.
The police officer came into the house and closed the door behind him. Then he removed his helmet and looked down at the young girl.
"I see you called us to report a missing Cynthia Pickles." The police officer stated.
"Yes sir, Cynthia's my bestest friend in the whole wide world and she went missing." Angelica replied.
"And what does she look like again?" The officer asked.
"She has blond hair and wears an orange and red striped dress." Angelica replied.
The officer looked around the living room, at the toys scattered everywhere. Then, he spotted a doll that fit Angelica's description perfectly. Making his way through the mess, he went over to the corner where she had been previously sitting until his arrival, and picked up the doll, showing it to Angelica.
"Young lady, does Cynthia Pickles look similar to that of this doll?" The officer asked, dangling Cynthia in front of her.
"Cynthia! You're alive!" Angelica cried, as she took the doll from the officer's hand.
The police officer looked unimpressed, just as Drew and Charlotte came down the stairs, as they had overheard Angelica's cries and a man talking, and were curious what was going on.
"Angelica, this Cynthia Pickles, is a doll isn't she?" The officer asked in a stirn tone of voice.
"Well, technically, yes, she is sir." Angelica replied.
"Young lady, I understand you may have thought your missing doll was an emergency, but it actually isn't." The officer explained.
"It isn't?" Angelica asked in surprise.
"No. A real emergency is when something happens like you get seriously hurt and can't move, or your house catches on fire, or someone breaks into your house and starts taking things. At that point, it is safe to call us, or if say one of your parents had gone missing, that would be ok to report, but reporting a missing doll is not a real emergency. Do you understand?" The officer asked, placing a hand under Angelica's chin, so she was forced to look into the Police officer's face.
"Yes sir." Angelica replied.
"I'm surprised at you young lady. Calling 911 and reporting an emergency when there really wasn't one." Charlotte scolded.
"Princess if you couldn't find your doll, you should have come and gotten us." Drew added.
Angelica turned her gaze away from the Police officer to see her parents standing inches away.
"Yes mommy and daddy, I didn't come get you because I knew you were busy, and I had learned in preschool about calling 911 because of an emergency, and I honestly thought losing Cynthia was an emergency. I'm so sorry, and I promise I'll never do it again." Angelica cried, as tears started to stream down her face.
"Well, since she's just a little girl, and seems to have learned her lesson, I'll let her off with a warning, but if she should report this doll missing again, I'm afraid I'll have to take the doll from her the next time." The officer said, as he made his way towards the door.
"No worries sir, it won't happen again, will it Angelica." Drew said.
Angelica shook her head, as the officer put on his helmet and left the house.
Feeling guilty about the whole thing, Angelica went off to her room for the rest of the day, and placed Cynthia on her bed, where she couldn't lose her again. And from that day forward, she only called 911 in the event of a life threatening emergency.
The End
Author's Note: I hope you all enjoyed this short little one-shot, and something that I actually think Angelica might have done, and surprised she never did on the series. In fact, there was a season 7 short episode called 'Tall-tale Cell Phone,' where Angelica gets a hold of Charlotte's cell phone, and ends up calling the plumber by accident. However, had that episode been a full eleven minute episode, I could have seen something similar to what happened in this story here, happening. Also, a small reference to 'The Seven Voyages of Cynthia,' from season 2 was made, and thanks to Drew's home address being revealed in the season 3 episode, 'Stu gets a Job,' by Stu, I was able to use that in this story. I'm not sure if their phone number was ever given, so made that part up. To anybody who read it, I hope you enjoyed it, and, there'll be more stories, coming soon.