Chapter 2: History from a Fox's Perspective

In the previous chapter, Nick laid out some of the problems that he has to face as he struggles to get respect from others not only in the community, but also among his brothers in blue. Now he reflects on history from his family's point of view.

"All the back of the watch had engraved on it was To Tom From Lizzy With Love and the date of May 10th of 1922," Judy said to the two officers who were sitting with her at the breakroom table. Her nose was slightly twitching and her right paw drummed on the table like she usually did when she was frustrated. "Who was Tom and who was Lizzy?"

"Not much to go on," Nick replied as he casually poked at his salad, spearing the one of the roasted crickets and chomping upon it with a satisfying crunch. "Good salad!"

"I don't know how you can eat that stuff?" Benjamin Clawhauser chuckled. The large overweight cheetah had carefully arranged a layer of sliced dill pickles on top of his tuna fish sandwich and licked his muzzle with anticipation. Picking up the sandwich, he hesitated before taking a big bite and looked over at the rabbit who was now picking at her salad. "You know my great-grandfather was named Tom and my great-grandmother was named Elizabeth, weird huh?"

Judy's ears shot up as sat her fork down and looked over at the large cat, watching as he bit down with gusto on his sandwich. "Your great grandfather Tom, how did he die?" she asked in a curious tone.

The cheetah sat his sandwich down and leaned back as he looked at the ceiling, thinking for a few minutes. "I don't know?" he finally answered. "My grandfather said that he ran away and abandoned his family, but I don't think anyone really believed that. Aunt Betsy always claimed he was killed by either the cops or the mob."

"Figures, it was probably the cops," Nick snapped out. The fox had set his salad aside since he had eaten all the crickets, along with the dried silkworm pupae, and was staring at the remainder with a look of distaste. "They did things like that all the time."

"Nick what a terrible thing to say!" Judy objected. Her ears were erect again and her nose twitched faster with frustration as she stared at her best friend and partner with surprise.

"Of course they did Carrots!" the fox replied, he almost growled at the rabbit and then sighed. "Look Fluff, back then your family was probably safe and sound living on their hick farm in the middle of nowhere. My family tried to make a living here in the city, it was better than being sharecroppers for some damn rich landowner like your old buddy Gideon Grey's family was probably doing back then."

"Gideon's family has their own farm!" Judy scoffed back at the fox before she took another bite of salad. "I can remember my father saying they bought it from the O'Thumpers back during the sixties."

"Oh my poor naive little bunny, I bet before that they were sharecroppers," Nick stated without any of his usual teasing. Judy's ears twitched at the sarcastic and bitter tone in his voice. "We foxes rarely owned land."

"So Nick, what did your family do for a living back then?" Clawhauser asked as he wiped the crumbs of his now eaten sandwich from his dark blue uniform shirt and reached over towards a box of donuts.

Nick leaned back and shoved his uneaten salad further from where he was sitting and it was quite evident that he was upset over the conversation because his ears were flat and he was frowning. After a few moments, he quietly answered the question, "My great-grandfather owned a billiards hall, one of the nicest in the town where they were living at the time."

"A pool hall! That might explain why you became a hustler Slick," Judy laughed out until she saw the sad look he gave her.

"Have either of you heard of the Happy Town riot of 1926?" he asked as he slouched further down in the chair. Without waiting for an answer, he continued his story. "The union workers were trying to organize the huge woolen mills and the owners were dead set against it. It started with a lock out and then the protests turned to violence when the cops were called in to clear the streets. My great-grandfather was rather successful, with a nice place called Wilde Times Billiards over in the pred district. He was also an outspoken critic against the infamous Purity Laws which were used to keep us preds in their place. Who really believed that the city would provide separate but equal facilities? Even today we are always short changed in everything, including fair justice. When the violence spilled into the neighborhood, his place was torched and burned to the ground."

"That's terrible!" Judy cried out and reached to put a paw on her friend's arm.

Nick pulled his arm away and it made her frown. "No, what was terrible was that my great-grandfather was still in the building and that his brother Frank made it out," Nick gave out a shuddering sigh. "They claim that the rioters lynched Frank from an old oak tree along with several other foxes and raccoons, but everyone knows the cops did it and not the union guys."

"I remember reading about that in history," Ben added as he put down his half eaten doughnut. "A hearing was called, but no one was really punished but the union leaders, they even praised the police force for their work restoring order too."

"Of course they did!" the fox snapped as he angrily slapped his fist on the table. "They restored order by shooting everyone they saw!"

"That was the Happy Town Police Force Nick," Judy tried to soothingly say to the fox. "Like the town, they are long gone and now it's part of the city."

"Happy Town failed during the late sixties Fluff," the fox sighed. "Things did get better after the Predator Rights marches and definitely once the courts overturned the Purity Laws in the seventies, but the hatred and prejudice is still out there or did you already forget Bellwether and her cronies?"

"Of course I didn't!" the rabbit sighed. "But things are going to get better and you Nick are an important step towards that better future, so buck up Slick and let's make the world a better place."

Nick didn't answer as he glanced down at her clenched paw and sighed before giving her a fist bump. Clawhauser looked at the two other officers with concern before deciding to change the subject. "Well I heard that Fangmeyer is up for detective," he cheerfully added. "He passed his tests and I saw his paperwork before it went to Chief Bogo. Maybe one day you'll be up for promotion for detective Nick, wouldn't that be really neat?"

The fox shoved his chair back from the table and stood up. "Yeah, sure it would be really...neat ," he muttered almost to himself. "Like they'd really let a fox become a detective, they barely put up with me as a street cop."

Judy frowned as the fox tossed his uneaten salad into the garbage can before he wheeled around and without another word walked out of the breakroom.

"I've never seen him get this depressed over a case before," she sighed as she cleaned up her trash and hopped off her chair. "He gets angry sometimes when others treat him like he's…he's…oh snap! When they treat him like he's only a fox, but he always gets over it and is soon back to his usual charmingly obnoxious self."

"You're not a predator Judy," Clawhauser replied as he closed the half empty doughnut box. "I know you try, but you can never really understand the way we sometimes get treated. Remember when they kicked me downstairs to records because I wasn't the image they wanted to greet someone who came into the building?"

"That was during the Night Howler's case," Judy sighed as she dumped her trash into the garbage. "They put you back up front after it was over."

"It's just, after all the years working with Chief Bogo, I thought he'd go to bat for me more than he did," the fat cheetah sighed. "Instead he just made excuses."

Judy hesitated as she stood in the doorway and turned towards her larger friend. "That wasn't entirely the Chief's fault and you know it," she sniffled with tears in her eyes. "That was mostly my fault Ben, me and my big mouth."

"Judy!" Ben called out to her as she walked down the hallway.

She found her partner slumped over his desk as he looked at the broken and battered watch. "Nick…" she started to say, but he leaned back and gave her a genuine smile and not the usual smirk he did when he was faking.

"I got a little melodramatic back there Carrots, but life moves on!" he cheerfully said as she put her paw on his arm. He didn't pull away this time and even fondly chuckled when she laid her head against his shoulder, her touch and her scent had become somewhat reassuring to him over the past few years. "You know how emotional we foxes can get sometimes."

"Silly fox," she replied with a small giggle.

"So we've got a long dead male cheetah who might be named Tom," the fox continued as he leaned forward again, he smiled when the rabbit refused to let go of his arm. "Gunned down sometime in the Roaring Twenties…hey Carrots, did your farm even have electricity and plumbing back then?"

"I have no idea Slick," she laughed more with relief that her friend was back to being his usual self, than at his question . "Could you imaging two hundred rabbits using an outhouse?"

Nick joined her in laughter as he absentmindedly picked up the watch and wound the crown on top, almost dropping it when he heard it ticking. "Hey Fluff, it still works!" he called out in an amazed voice before looking closer. "But why is it running backwards?"

A tingling feeling shot up his arm and he heard Judy shouting something as suddenly everything began to fade to black.