Windfall

Chapter II

Discovery

"Our treasure! What happened to our treasure?" Shifty shouted as soon as he opened the lights of his cave.

The raccoons only returned to their cave about ten in the evening—about eight hours after they left. They were carrying a bag full of stolen items and they were going to stash it in the cave before going to their house just at the edge of the forest. Never did they imagine that all their hard earned loot would disappear.

"It's gone! We've been robbed! I tell you Shifty, we've been robbed!" Lifty cried, completely missing the irony of the situation. "Call the police! Call 911!"

"We're thieves, you idiot!" Shifty scolded. "All our hard earned loot. Gone! Just Gone! What is the world coming to when an honest thief couldn't protect his stolen goods from robbers?"

They sat on two of the chairs in the cave. They were dejected, angry, disappointed, fearful. After a few minutes of silence, Lifty spoke.

"So what do we do now?"

"We find out who the thief was. Then we take our treasure back," Shifty replied.

"How?"

"Wait here," Shifty said. He went out, and after a few minutes, came back holding a digital camera. "You forget. I've put a hidden camera that would snap a picture whenever someone would use the branch to open our cave. Come and look."

Lifty went to where Shifty was standing. They navigated the picture screen of the camera. Most of the pictures would be of Shifty and Lifty operating the branch. Finally, on the second to the last picture, they found out who had opened their cave.

"Giggles," Lifty said as she saw the pink chipmunk with the red bow on the camera.

"So she's the thief who made off with our loot," Shifty concurred.

Two days later…

It was about six in the evening, and a van was parked about two blocks away from Giggles' hollowed out tree house. Shifty and Lifty were in a stakeout, eyeing the house using binoculars.

"Are you sure she's not at home?" asked Lifty.

"Yes. Giggles is working as a nurse today. Her shift begins at about five in the afternoon, and she won't be back until at least eleven tonight, which would give us about five hours to search."

The raccoons snickered, and parked their van at the back of the chipmunk's house. Although locked, they easily broke in, and began to search her house.


"Sniffles, you should rest and let that wound heal," the nurse, Giggles, advised as she read Sniffles' medical chart. "You should really be more careful in conducting your experiments."

Sniffles had a huge gash on his body as a result of a mishap regarding his new invention—an electronic knife. "But I'm so close to perfecting it!" he said.

"Well, you won't be doing any experiments until you're healed," she chided. "Or until you die and come back. You've lost so much blood it's a miracle you're still alive. What does an electronic knife do?"

"Well instead of moving your hands to chop your food, you just hold it still, and it would do the chopping for you!"

"Wouldn't it be simpler to just use your hands to chop things?" Giggles wondered aloud, though she knew that the anteater who invented a time machine just to fixed spilled milk could sometimes lack practicality and common sense.

Sniffles groaned. Giggles sighed as he put the medical chart back at the foot of Sniffles' hospital bed and went to the main office of the hospital.

"So, how's Sniffles doing?" asked Dr. Lumpy, her boss, and one of the few doctors in town.

"He wants to go back and resume his experiments," Giggles said. "At that rate, well, I don't want to say anything bad, but he's liable to get himself killed because of his inventions—again."

"Just like when he shrunk himself to cure your cold," Lumpy concurred. "He ended up killing not only himself, but you and I too."

Giggles laughed at the memory. "Well, in this town, death cures all disease."

"How very true. If I were cold blooded, I would have deliberately killed all my patients, seeing as they're all suddenly cured when they return to life. Well, I think I better have a look on the other patients," Dr. Lumpy decided. He was wearing a white coat, a white shirt, a red tie, and a stethoscope wrapped around his neck. "Giggles, could you describe to me their condition?"

Giggles briefed Lumpy while they were walking by the patients.

"Nutty. Affliction—he nearly choked to death because of too much candy. He is a candidate for diabetes."

"Same ole' Nutty," the moose commented.

Nutty was looking dejected and sick as he lay on the hospital bed. He was moaning pathetically as he saw Lumpy and Giggles. Lumpy moved besides the squirrel and put his stethoscope on his chest. "Heart beat a little quick but nothing too serious. May I see the blood test chart Giggles? Thanks. Hmm. Blood pressure higher than normal. Blood content normal. So how are you feeling?"

"Candy! Sugar! Give me sweets!" the green squirrel shouted. He then did his trademark laugh, then sighed.

"Oh no you don't. You won't eat sugar anytime soon!" Lumpy said as he strapped Nutty tightly to the bed.

"Doctor, why did you strap him like that? He can't get out on his own?" Giggles asked.

"He's a security risk if left alone. Remember when I put that eye on Toothy? He stole the hospital bed with Toothy on it! He caused Toothy's death just because of a jawbreaker!" Lumpy thundered. "Who's next?"

"Russell," Giggles said. "He was attacked by a jellyfish while oyster diving. I'm afraid he won't last the night."

"How are you, old friend," Lumpy greeted. Russell's body was bloated as he shivered uncontrollably from chills. "Looks like you'll die tonight."

"Avast ye matey! Yarr! Ye not worry. I be at Davy Jones' locker only for a few hours. I be back tomorrow," Russell said even as he shivered and his body bloated. "I shouldn't have chased that last oyster."

"I know. You looked terrible. Too bad you lost your eye and hand and legs before moving to Happy Tree Town," Lumpy commented. "How do you feel?"

"Yarr! I be feelin' terrible. I wish I be dead right now so I be livin' in full health again!"

"Well, good luck," Lumpy said as he gave back the medical chart to Giggles. "Who's next?"

Giggles and Lumpy then went and inspected the rest of the patients.

After about an hour…

"Well, that takes care of that. And look at the time! Only nine! And your work for the day is done," Dr. Lumpy informed Giggles. "Tell you what. Why don't you go home early? Don't worry! You'll still be paid for the hours you didn't work."

"But doctor, there's still so much to do! I've got to—" Giggles protested.

"Say no more," the moose interrupted. "Most of those jobs are tomorrow's jobs, not today. No, I insist, in fact, as your boss, I'm saying that you go home now. You've already worked too hard! Now go!"

Giggles have no choice but to comply. "Okay. Thanks," she said before she left.

Shifty and Lifty were ransacking Giggles' house for over two hours, and they found nothing. Sure, they found small amounts of cash, a few pieces of jewelry, a valuable painting, and expensive appliances, but they found no trace of the treasure, and the kryptonut, that they were looking for.

"Where did she hide it?" Shifty groaned as he sifted through the piles of scattered clothes on Giggles closet.

"Yeah! You think she won't have that many places to hide that much gold," Lifty grumbled as opened every cabinet he could find.

"Shifty, I hear something. A car! Somebody's coming!" Lifty whispered to his brother as he heard a car.

"I know. I heard. Come. Let's see who it is," Shifty beckoned his brother through the window. He can see clearly, through the car window, who was arriving. "It's Giggles."

"I thought she won't be home for at least two hours?" Lifty questioned.

"I thought so too," Shifty replied.

"Should we go? I mean, we can't be caught," Lifty cautioned.

"If it was Splendid, Lumpy, or Flippy, or even Cuddles, I say run. But it's only Giggles. We can handle her."

Lifty nodded as the raccoons positioned themselves on either side of the door.

After a tense few minutes, the door opened, and Giggles entered the room. She switched on the light, but before she could do anything, she was grabbed.