Awaiting Change
When Shifty woke up the next morning, he was surprised to see that his brother was no longer lying on the bottom bunk. For as long as he knew, the raccoon with the fedora had been an incurable insomniac with the habit of lying awake in his bed until the sun rose. Lifty was another story. The moment his head touched the pillow he was out. Even the fact that his face had been bleeding the night before hadn't stopped him from falling asleep right away. Shifty was usually the first of the two to get up while his brother would sleep all day if nobody stopped him. That was why it was strange that his partner was gone.
Turning his head around on his pillow, Shifty saw a piece of paper with his brother's handwriting lying near the ladder. Picking it up and rubbing his eyes, he started to read:
S-
Left early to go get breakfast. Didn't want to wake you. Cut still hurts. Don't know if I should go buy something at the pharmacy for it. Too many questions. I'll be uptown if you're looking for me.
-L
Yawning and crumbling up the note, he grabbed his fedora hanging at the bedpost and put it on his head. Climbing down the ladder, his mood elevated when he realized that it was the weekend. Not just the weekend, but Saturday. Saturdays were special to Shifty. Instead of going to a school of strangers where he had to put up an act just to fit in, he could sleep in and get up when he felt like it.
Walking out into the living room of their apartment, the first thing he noticed was that his father had thankfully fallen asleep on the couch. The television was now static, and by the looks of it, he'd passed out watching late-night shows after striking Lifty. His mother was nowhere to be seen. Working three jobs to support her family, she left at the crack of the dawn and didn't return until early in the evening. His father had apparently had a job once, but after his anger management had resulted in a fight with co-worker, he'd been fired. He'd given up looking for a new career soon after.
Walking past the couch, Shifty didn't mind the lack of any feeling he felt for his father. All of the anger had melted away long ago, leaving him with plain indifference. He just plaintively couldn't care less about anyone but himself. Sure, things hadn't always been that way, but it didn't matter. He was happy, wasn't he?
Pushing through the front door, he looked out onto the stairwell of apartments. With the sky hazy from the early spring weather, the high-rise was flooded with fog and clothes-lines. Stepping out onto the rickety stairwell, he took vague notice of the different apartments. Most of them were abandoned, but the majority of them were inhabited by criminals. For some it may have been frightening, but for Shifty, it was a close sense of home. Then again, that wasn't to say that their apartment building didn't have its share of nutcases
Climbing down onto the third story, he couldn't help but cringe at the door next to their apartment. Boarded up and covered with enough caution tape to wrap the entire neighborhood, the green bear that lived inside was a recluse who hardly ever went out. Having spent some time in Vietnam, the rumors that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder kept people away. The occasional screaming coming from inside helped to.
"Things are crazy around here", the raccoon thought as he reached the ground floor. "How does a building like this even get built?"
Walking out into the street and down the sidewalk to the stop, Shifty waited five minutes until the bus came. Taking a seat in the back, he tried to relax as the bus crossed the street and headed north.
And if he looked back into the sky in the south, he would have seen the hint of an orange cloud approaching in the distance.
Shifty found his brother at Happy Burger.
Along with the school, a few scattered woodland houses, and a local amusement park, uptown Happy Tree was also home to everyone's favorite awful burger chain: Happy Burger. Specializing in half-decent food and a supposed family-friendly atmosphere, it was more of a hang-out than a place to eat. There'd apparently been a freak accident there awhile ago where a skunk working behind the counter had her face slammed into the grill by a maniac, and then there were all of the health violations that had nearly shut it down, but all in all, it was a typical fast-food restaurant.
Walking in through the doors, Shifty's eyes found his brother right away. Sitting alone in one of the far booths, he was snacking on a plate of fries. The cut on his face had dried overnight, but the lack of any kind of treatment didn't go unnoticed. People kept staring at him and whispering as they passed his table.
Walking over, he noticed a leather object in his brother's hands: a wallet. Sliding into the booth, grabbing a fry, and getting an acknowledging nod from his brother, Shifty smirked at him.
"Where'd you get that?"
"Some fat lady", Lifty replied. "She was too busy yelling about her kid's order at the counter to notice she left all of her cash out in the open. People should really be more careful with their things". Counting the money, his eyes gleamed. "There's got to be at least five-hundred in here. Maybe more".
"Any chance of splitting our profits?"
"I stole it", Lifty said. "Not you".
"Since when has that meant anything before?"
Rolling his eyes, Lifty pulled a few fifties out of the wallet and tossed it across the table. Quickly folding the money, Shifty's ears perked when he realized that a small group of people were sitting in the booth behind them. In the mood for eavesdropping, he glanced over and took quick notice of how it was. Cuddles, Giggles, Toothy and Flaky. A rabbit, a chipmunk, a beaver and a porcupine respectively, they were a tight circle of friends who all went to school with the raccoon brothers. Lifty and Shifty weren't close to them at all for the plain fact that they'd robbed each of them at least once.
"So your skateboard's still missing a wheel?" Cuddles's voice asked.
"I tried a bunch of repair shops last night", Toothy said. "I didn't get an answer back from any of them".
"There's no way their lists were all filled up".
"No", Toothy said. His voice clouded over. "You didn't let me get to the weird part. I tried seven repair shops last night from the phonebook last night. Seven. For every single one I tried, the signal was disconnected. Just to make sure it wasn't just a faulty line on my phone or something, I called my neighbor and the call got through fine. It wasn't me".
"That's weird", Giggles said as she took a sip from her drink. "I guess we'll have to do something else today".
"But it's not fair", Cuddles complained. "I mean, we've been planning on skating to the beach for two weeks now. Last week it was the weather and now it's the broken skateboard".
"Well, maybe it's better that way, Cuddles", said Flaky. She gave a nervous laugh. "I mean, who knows what could happen on the way to the beach. There's a lot of traffic on the highway. Those cars go really fast. Who knows if they'll even look at us when we're crossing? And I heard that ten people already drowned at lakes this season since they opened up. And then…
No longer interested, Shifty turned back to see his brother counting the stolen money. Realizing that he hadn't eaten breakfast, he eyed the half-eaten plate of french fries in the table. He reached out and grabbed one covered in ketchup.
Lifty raised an eyebrow as he watched his watched his brother snack on the fry. "Do you know what they really do to that stuff?"
"Cook it?"
"They also soak them in a vat of grease and genetically alter the potatoes so they don't break down in your stomach. Then they package them by the whole and ship them all across the country so people like us can munch on them. It's like how they say chewing gum stays in your stomach for seven years".
"You're the one that stole the money to buy it in the first place", Shifty said. "Why the hell are you telling me all of this?"
"I don't know", Lifty sighed. "People never really know what they're eating. It's weird when you think about it. If people are cramming stuff into their bodies, they should take the time to figure out what it actually is. I just like to take the time to know".
"Has anyone ever told you how damn weird you are?" Shifty asked.
Lifty glared and help himself to another fry. The cut on his face looked even more swollen now, and by the looks of it, the blood had completely caked over.
"I'm not going to the doctor", Lifty said, almost answering his brother's question when he noticed he was staring. "If I go in there with a cut this big on my face, they're going to ask me how something like this happened. Then I'll have to make up some cover-up story, and before we know it, the child services will be at our door ready to whisk us ten miles away".
"That thing's going to get infected though, man", Shifty said. "In fact, it probably already has. You really should get it checked out".
"I'm not going".
"Then what the hell are you going to do? Wait until it gets so swollen they have to take you to the emergency room? There sure won't be a lot of questions there!"
Lifty rolled his eyes. "Remember in biology at school last week?"
"I skipped biology last week", Shifty responded. "I've skipped biology for a month".
"Yeah, well, I show up sometimes. When infection comes in, the body defends itself in every way it can. It pushes itself to the point where it reaches its breaking point. It's full potential. After that, everything cools down and two things can happen. You either become a medical miracle and heal or you die".
"Do you really like being a statistic?' Shifty asked.
Lifty shrugged. "I like taking risks. Anyway, let's get out of here".
Picking up the tray with a few greasy fries still on it, Shifty slid out of his chair to throw his garbage away. It turned out to be the worst timing possible. In the booth next to them, Cuddles ended up getting at that exact same time to throw out his half-eaten salad. Each one unprepared to face the other when they got up, the raccoon and the rabbit collided and were both knocked to the ground. Cuddles threw out his tray as a reaction, splattering Shifty's fur with croutons and ranch dressing. The fries went flying into the air and decorated them both.
Most people would be embarrassed by the entire restaurant looking at them, but Shifty had grown used to eyes staring at him. Picking a crouton out of his fur, he smiled darkly at Cuddles.
"Any reason you decided to do that?'
To his surprise, the rabbit didn't seem to be intimidated by him. Cuddles gave an angry glare as he picked himself up from Happy Burger's waxed floor.
"Leave me alone, Shifty", he said. "I'm not in the mood".
"What did you say to me?" Shifty snapped
Glancing up, he watched as Giggles sighed and slammed her Coke onto the counter. A pretty girl, Shifty probably would have had a crush on her if she wasn't just a bubbly ditz. Shaking her head, she got up from her seat and put a reassuring hand on Cuddle's shoulder.
"Just leave him alone, Cuddles", Giggles said. "it's not worth it. And Shifty, stop looking for a fight wherever you go. He didn't bother you. C'mon, let's get out of here".
With one last scowl at the raccoon brothers, Giggles practically dragged Cuddles out of Happy Burger before he had a chance to say anything. Following them shortly afterwards, Toothy slid out of his seat with his drink and gave them a weak smile before walking after his friends. It looked to Shifty that he just didn't want to get involved.
"You have ranch dressing on your hat", Lifty noted. He was standing behind him.
With a glare, Shifty quickly ran his fingers over the brim of his hat and stood up from the ground. Sensing that whatever happened was over, most of the customers that had been watching them went back to eating their breakfast.
"Sorry about that", a quiet voice said.
The two turned to see that Flaky was still sitting in the booth. A red porcupine who suffered from dandruff, it was often hard to start a conversation with her before she became paranoid and hurried away. But she was talking now. Glancing at them with weary eyes, she stood up from the table and gave them a small smile.
"Cuddles is just upset about some stupid thing we were planning to do today", Flaky said. "It's no big deal. Besides, there's other things he should be worrying about instead of trips to the beach".
Lifty stared. "What do you mean?"
"It's nothing really. It's just these weird feelings I get sometimes. I wake up in the morning and think of all of the things that can go wrong in the day. I'm a coward, I guess. This morning was different though. I got up and I had this feeling that by the end of today, everything is going to change. We're all going to go through something that's going to change us, but in the meantime, it's going to tear the world apart".
"What are you talking about?' Shifty asked blankly.
"Nothing", Flaky sighed. "Sorry I even brought it up. Just remember. I get feelings a lot, and most of the time, I turn out to be right". She sighed. "Watch your backs".
Turning away from them, Flaky filed in her friends' direction toward the exit, leaving the two raccoons alone. Then she vanished through the glass door.
"Weird girl", Lifty laughed.
"Forget about her", he said. "She's just trying to scare us. What do you want to do today?"
"I don't know", Lifty replied. "I'm kind of bored".
Shifty grinned. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?'
The uptown jewelry store was a favorite target of the raccoon brothers. Along with the fact that the moose who worked behind the counter was an idiot, the lack of any security system made it incredibly easy to pocket anything and walk out with it. Whenever he stole something, even just for the hell of it, Shifty always felt a rush of excitement. The feeling of his hands touching something valuable had always given him a rush of adrenaline. Sometimes he wondered if he had serious mental issues, but after awhile, he just decided it was best not to care.
"How much do you think all the jewelry in there could go for?" Lifty asked as they walked into the parking lot. Both of them had rummaged through the dumpsters until they'd found pillow cases to hide their loot in.
"A lot", Shifty replied. "That's nothing compared to what other people are going to pay for it when we sell it to them though".
Lifty glared. "We're splitting the profits though, right?"
"Yeah", Shifty replied not really listening. "Yeah whatever".
He glanced out across the parking lot at the strip mall in front of him. The store was there, nestled between a local candy store and a dry cleaner's. The glass display window was filled with enough gold to make his eyes water.
"How are we going to get him out of the way?' Lifty asked.
"Hold-up?" Shifty said sarcastically.
"No way man. They take you straight to the county prison for stuff like that! Even worse if something goes wrong! There's no way I'm going in a cell agai-
"I was joking, idiot", Shifty sighed. "We'll just have to come up with something else".
Almost like answering their question, a bicycle rode into the parking lot of the strip mall. Glancing around, the two raccoons watched as Nutty parked his bike into the rack with his jittery hands. Fumbling with the lock, he finally closed it and laughed his strange laugh for no reason. A squirrel with an unhealthy obsession with sugar, most people tended to avoid him because they were either scared or thought he was weird. In fact, some thought it was more than that. There were stories that Nutty took about ten different bedside pills to calm down his hyperactivity. Usually viewing people as pawns instead of judging them on character, Shifty wouldn't have even cared if he had two heads. All that mattered was that he was willing to help them out.
Shifty grinned. "Hey Nutty!"
The squirrel grinned back. "Hi Shifty!"
"Enough with the small talk. Do you want to make twenty bucks?'
"I can't right now", Nutty said. He was smiling again for no particular reason. "I want the chocolate. I'm going to buy it". His grin widened. "I'm going to buy it all".
"Tell you what", Lifty said as he reached into the stolen wallet. "Get the moose behind that counter over there away and we'll give you twenty whole dollars so you can buy all of the candy that you want".
The squirrel's eyes lit up like he'd just struck gold. He didn't seem to care that he was being talked to like a young child who was being bribed into doing something. Snatching the wad of cash out of Lifty's hands, he dashed off toward the jewelry store. Vanishing through the swaying, glass doors, he suddenly looked like he was frantic and out of breathe. What he said to the moose was unclear, but in a matter of seconds, they both ended up running out of the store. With a look of dignified stupidity on his face, the moose ran blindly out of the parking lot while Nutty screamed something about, "the accident being just up the road!"
"Ready when you are", Lifty whispered with a smile.
With their problem out of the way, the two walked onward toward the store. The moment they opened the door, Shifty felt his heart gave a leap. All of the shimmering gold in one place was almost enough to make him pass out. There were aisles of bracelets, a display case of earrings by the counter, a whole section of necklaces and several other knick-knacks that he thought looked too expensive for him to know the name of. It was there equivalent to heaven.
"I call the bracelets", Lifty said quickly.
As his brother dashed down the aisle, Shifty quickly opened the brim on his pillowcase and ran down the columns of jewelry. Swiping whatever he could get his hands on, he listened to the sound of the gold jingling inside the bag. To some it was theft, but to Shifty with his pillowcase, he treated it like trick-or-treating for criminals. Grabbing a pair of earrings from the display case and dumping them in, he was just wondering when the moose would be coming back when he saw it.
The diamond.
It was the biggest thing in the entire store. In the center of the whole complex like a mantelpiece, it was shining obsidian and lighting up the entire room with different reflections of glass. It was surrounded by a glass box, but the hinges not being locked only elevated his dreams. Not needing anyone to tell him to strike, Shifty rushed forward and grinned at his reflection in the glass. Swinging open the case, he made a snatch for the diamond.
It was just rotten luck that the store had installed an alarm.
The moment his hands touched it, the alarms in the store blared on and everything flashed into red. Hidden heat-sensing security cameras suddenly extended out of their panels on the wall, turning to face them in a second. Feeling his heart skip a beat, Shifty glanced around the store. Security camera's by the counter. Definitely saw us by now. God, there's thousands of dollars worth of stuff in here, isn't there? You can go to jail for stuff like that.
Lifty didn't need to talk to his brother to strategize what to do next. Giving him a short nod, he dashed toward the front door with his head bowed to the security camera. With the room still flashing in lights from the counter, he quickly vanished out into the street.
"SPLIT UP!" he called back. "I'LL MEET YOU BACK HOME!"
Not needing his brother to tell him this, Shifty grabbed the golden bracelet and quickly shoved it onto his wrist. Running toward the front door after his brother, he bowed his head under his fedora and prayed that they wouldn't be able to identify him. Rushing down the aisles of jewelry, the urge in his hands was too tempting. He snatched a row of golden necklaces, followed by a cushion with several silver earrings laying on it. However, when he was at the door, he froze.
There hadn't been many times in Shifty's lives when he'd had an epiphany. Usually going from one heist to the next, he'd never really had time to reflect on anything. On the other hand, what he suddenly felt at the edge of the jewelry store wasn't exactly an epiphany. If anything, it was a feeling. A strange feeling that for no good reason, things were going to change. Maybe it was just confusion over Flaky's warning or maybe it was just him finally crashing from all of the pressure that had been on him lately, but whatever the cause, the feeling was there. Things were going to change. He couldn't tell if it was going to be for good or bad, but in the end, it would be like how a pebble into a lake affected every ripple in a tide. Nothing was going to be the same.
In the back of his mind, Flaky's words crept up to him.
"I get feelings sometimes", the porcupine had said. "and most of the time, I turn out to be right".
Hearing the sound of cop sirens in the distance, reality kicked back in and the raccoon ran for it.