Chapter 10: Felicity can be Found
Author's Notes: The two new characters in this chapter belongs to Donutsforlife of Deviantart. She edited parts of this chapter and the next. Checkout her out in Google or just click the link in my Author's Profile.
"Are you sure you're alright?"
Rhoda stretched, taking in the sunlight streaming down the window. "I'm fine, Jesse. You got nothin' to worry about."
She could feel Jesse frown behind her. Turning around, she flashed him a sheepish smile.
It had been a week since the event with Edna. When she had woken up as a rabbit again, Rhoda felt relief. When she saw that she was sleeping next to Jesse, Rhoda only knew horror.
"Aaaugh!"
There was a shuddering thud when she fell off the bed.
"Ow, jeepers!" she muttered straightening up. Only to stumble again at the protest of her right foot. Instinctively, she tried to shake off the persistent twinge.
"OW!"
"Rhoda?"
She froze.
Jesse was rubbing his eyes. His brows furrowed. "What's wrong with your foot?" he asked, getting up from the bed.
That was when Rhoda had to explain that her tooning had been unpredictable for months. She couldn't put a finger in his expression after. But he might've been remembering the time she fell through a roof. Or helped stop a crime. Or had been caught in the middle of a storm.
When she had mentioned working on her cottage again, Jesse reasoned with her. By putting his hands on her shoulders and looking at her with an intensity of a crescendo.
Needless to say, she opted to rest for a week until her foot got better. At least, Ronnie got more playtime after.
Rhoda snapped out of her thoughts, showing her foot to him.
"I'm fine now, see?" she said, rotating her ankle.
Jesse knelt down in one knee and caught her foot. In her surprise, she clutched his shoulders for support.
He moved her ankle, watching her face. "Does it hurt?"
It took every ounce of her acting skills to maintain a placid face. Yet she could feel her ears burn.
She startled upon hearing a familiar voice sing outside.
"Is you is or is you ain't my baby."
She hopped out of Jesse's hold and looked out of the window. Curious, Jesse peeked out too.
A black-and-white toon little girl skipped down the sidewalk. She was carrying a stack of wooden boards over her shoulder.
"Maybe baby's found somebody new," she warbled.
A monocrhome clown boy "carried" the other end of the stack. Or at least he made an effort. The little girl was so strong, the clown boy's feet was dangling in the air.
Rhoda beamed. Then just as it had appeared, her smile slid vanished as she slumped below the window frame.
"You know those two?" Jesse asked.
Her hands fretted with her ears. "They're kind of like my niece and nephew. They're the Fleischer kids."
"Bertie has a kid?" he asked. He remembered Bertie Boop working in the "Paint-and-Ink" club before. But then Bertie retired. The last thing Jesse heard about him was that he became a teacher for tooning.
"The little girl is his and Poppy's. You know, Poppy the sailorwoman?"
Jesse nodded in understanding. That would explain the little girl's tremendous strength.
She peeked in the window beside him. The little girl and boy had stopped by her cottage.
"Aww… they're here to visit me!" she smiled. Then she stopped. "Nooo..." she groaned, sliding back into hiding.
He touched her shoulder. "Aren't you happy to see them?"
"I am!" she exclaimed, surprised by the question. Her ears wilted. "I'm just not exactly the perfect model for good life decisions!" she exclaimed, gesturing at herself. "What if I contaminate them? Jeepers, I should wear gloves!"
"You are wearing gloves."
They could hear the little girl call out.
"Aunt Rhooooodddaaaaa!"
Rhoda practically jumped out of her fur. She sighed, getting up. "I should've known they'd find me. They're very smart for their age."
Jesse couldn't help but hear the pride in her voice.
With a deep breath, she put on a smile before opening the door.
XOXOXOXO
"I bet Aunt Rhoda's gonna pop her top when she sees us!" Penny Boop said, who wanted to believe in the best in people.
"Yeah, sure she will," Coco the Pierrot replied, who knew better.
At the young age of eleven, Coco had stopped believing that grownups knew what they were doing. Aunt Rhoda going steady with that creep was one example.
He and Penny had met him once when he was eight and Penny was nine. It was on the drawnday of his mother, Koko the Clown. Coco hated him already. What's-his-name barely interacted with his and Penny's parents.
So when news spread that their Aunt Rhoda was unhitched, Penny wanted to visit her. Coco wanted to wait. So they had a compromise and went to visit Aunt Rhoda.
Coco rolled his eyes. He and Penny were cousins by the same inkwell, their parents being the major stars of Fleischer studios. Penny meant well. But it wasn't like they could console Aunt Rhoda. He didn't even know how to comfort a grown rabbit.
"Aunt Rhoooddaaa!" Penny called out again.
Coco dropped down from the wood boards that he had been hanging on and glanced at the cottage. Their parents knew the folks who were the middlemen of Acme delivery. When he and Penny found out that one of their clients were Rhoda Rabbit, they took their chance.
"Is this really the place?" Coco wondered, glancing at the cottage in front of them. The house was small and rundown. With a giant hole on the roof like something fell through it.
Penny checked the receipt in her hand. "As eggs in coffee, junyah."
"What're we even gonna say? "Sorry for your loss?" Cos' I ain't sorry at all."
The door next to the cottage opened.
"Kids?"
Penny screeched in glee upon seeing Aunt Rhoda, throwing up the wooden boards. Coco caught them, collapsing under the weight.
"Aunt Rhoda! Good ta see ya, I missed ya so much!" she screamed, tackling her into a hug.
Coco struggled with one end of the boards, cursing. He dragged the wooden boards toward them.
"Not so hard, dearie," Aunt Rhoda laughed.
"WOOF!"
Coco screamed when a giant black dog came gallumphing towards him. His knees buckled under the weight of his paws on his shoulders.
"Ah think he's taken a slight shine on ya, junyah," Penny giggled as the dog slobbered all over him.
"Geroff me!" he yelled in his deep voice, summoning a ghost out of the ground.
The dog nipped after the floating spirit as it groaned away.
"You have a pretty kitty," Penny said conversationally, her arms cuddling a fluffy white feline.
"She's not actually mine," Rhoda chuckled, scratching the cat behind the ears.
"Then who-"
Sensual jazz music filled the air. A humanoid toon of elegant lines and smooth red hair came outside the house that their aunt had been from.
"Hello," he said in a deep, velvety rumble that Coco had often heard from his favorite records.
Penny put her hands on her cheeks with a long, happy shriek reserved for seeing Hollywood stars. Coco's hands slacked and the wooden beams crunched down on his foot.
Jacques barked, running around Coco as he howled, clutching his toes.
"Right. Jesse, meet Penny and Coco," Rhoda introduced. "Coco's one of your biggest fans."
Coco's pierrot hat deflated over his face in embarrassment. First impressions, Coco.
He lifted his hat away to see Penny looking at Aunt Rhoda. Then to the Jesse Krupnick (just one of the greatest vocalists who ever improved the classics with a touch of his soulful melody). Then to the house where they both came out of.
Her eyes sparkled with the intensity of a thousand stars.
"I am SO happy for you, Aunt Rhoda!" she squealed, clutching their aunt's arm.
Coco hid under his hat. So much for second impressions.
XOXOXOXO
He and Penny sat in the living room. Jesse Krupnick's living room. Mr. Krupnick and their Aunt Rhoda were both in the kitchen, preparing snacks. Coco took the opportunity to turn to Penny who was still doing a prolonged happy squee.
"Listen, Penny. Do not embarrass us. I repeat. Do NOT embarrass us," he whispered. Knowing Penny, she could be as much of a romantic sap as uncle Bertie.
Penny simply looked at the kitchen with dreamy eyes.
"Don'cha think autumn weddings are lovely, junyah?" she sighed.
Coco slapped a hand over his eyes.
In the kitchen, Aunt Rhoda was on the tip of her toes on the counter. She was trying to reach for a tin of biscuits on a high shelf. Instead of getting it for her, Jesse Krupnick came by and lifted her up by the waist. Her hands grabbed the tin and he set her down on the counter again.
Coco practically fell to the side when Penny happily melted on top of him.
"Ain't they just perfect? Don't cha think, junyah?" she asked, monochrome hearts popping all over the room.
He firmly set her to sit up straight. "Aunt Rhoda said they're just housemates," he grounded.
Her eyes twinkled with that mischievous glee that had led him flat on his face too many times.
"Penny, no."
"Penny, yes."
She put on an innocent smile when the grownups came back.
"I'm so glad to see you two, you've grown!" Rhoda said, setting down two glasses of milk.
"Yeah, and I can't believe Mr. Krupnick's your neighbor!" Penny said with a winning grin to Mr. Krupnick's direction.
"Please, call me Jesse."
Penny turned to Coco. "Y'hear that, junyah?" she teased with a wink.
Coco knew exactly what Penny was trying to do. His thoughts were getting too jumbled up from the idea of being first-name basis with his idol to stop her.
"Aunt Rhoda always bought your records for his birthday," Penny continued. "They enjoy listening to your covers."
He was dimly reminded of a master chess player moving the pieces across the chess board.
It was true Aunt Rhoda would listen with him as she would tell him stories of Jesse Krupnick. Once, out of Penny's earshot, he had asked Aunt Rhoda how to act more social. She only glanced at the record player where Mr. Krupnik's song could be heard. With a fond smile, she said that he reminded her of someone. Mr. Krupnick wasn't also the most outgoing person and that was fine.
Just be kind, that's it, she had told him.
"Funny, I always watch your Aunt Rhoda's shorts when it's in theaters."
Penny's eyes glimmered a thousandfold. "You do?!"
"You do?" Aunt Rhoda asked, stunned. Much to Coco's surprise, a blush spread under her whiskers.
"Just a friend supporting another friend," Jesse replied with a warm smile to their aunt.
Coco clamped his ears when Penny shrilled in happiness while shaking him. He wasn't worried about Aunt Rhoda's reaction. She was almost the same when it comes to random loudness. At least, Mr. Krupnick looked like he was used to the same levels of exuberant energy.
Penny happily leaned on the table. "Tell us! What's your favorite short? What was Aunt Rhoda like when you two were working together? If you have a kid, what will you name them?"
Coco shrinked several inches in embarrassment.
"Uh… Veronica if they're a girl and Mozart if they're a boy?" Jesse supplied.
"Mozart?" Rhoda echoed. "I like the name Jack. Rose is good too."
"Rose," he tested in his tongue before nodding. "I like that."
Penny clutched her cheeks in delight, probably imagining what Aunt Rhoda and Mr. Krupnick's kids would look like. A girl, perhaps, as elegant as Mr. Krupnick and as cute as Aunt Rhoda.
Coco could only imagine a kid that was supposed to be as classically suave as Mr. Krupnick, only to have Aunt Rhoda's same goofy expression.
His brain immediately rejected the image.
Coco slapped a hand over his eyes as Penny continued to interview him. They weren't even this stringent when Aunt Rhoda was with that nogoodnik plugged nickel.
Aunt Rhoda chuckled beside him. "Don't worry, Coco. It's fine."
"-Aunt Rhoda got whacked so hard, she couldn't shake it off for a while," Penny gushed. "Then she saw you on TV and tried to hug the screen-"
"Okay!" Aunt Rhoda exclaimed. "Who wants to take the pets out for a walk?"
XOXOXOXO
They returned shortly. It turned out Jacques wasn't used to being on a leash and Ronnie was too used to being on a leash. While they were choosing a spot to rest, no one had noticed that Ronnie had walked in circles, creating loops around their feet. Penny accidentally let his toy ball loose and Jacques tried to chase after it. The ball rolled around them and in the chaos, both leashes coiled tight around Rhoda and Jesse's legs. Because Rhoda was just 3-4 heads tall, she grabbed him by the hips to keep them from slamming together. It was a good thing the kids were too preoccupied with retrieving the ball.
Jesse actually found the whole thing amusing. Rhoda's face looked like it was now the permanent shade of red.
"Jacques," she said a little too firmly when they were back in his lawn, "will need some practice being in a leash." She whipped out a brush, a determined gleam in his eye. "For now, he needs some brushin'."
As she wrestled her dog to the ground, Jesse took off the leash from Ronnie's.
"I'll go get some lemonade," he said, entering the house.
In the kitchen, he could hear Rhoda outside physically negotiating with Jacques. He could also hear the door creaked before hushed whispers ensued. Jesse took his time taking out the pitcher and glasses.
When he turned around, Coco and Penny were in the kitchen.
"Thank you for taking care of our auntie," Penny said.
Jesse smiled. Rhoda was right. They were sweet kids.
"We're really glad it's over with that guy," Coco continued.
"Is she really boop-oop-a-doop?" she asked, her eyes shimmering.
Jesse internally nodded in understanding. The solemnity in Coco's eyes demanded to be levelled with. Penny's face was coaxing for an honest talk.
"She is." He knelt down to their eye level. "Penny, I know you just want your aunt to be happy. But I think we should stop embarrassing her for a while. She still isn't over your Uncle Jared."
He remembered the weeks of Rhoda being sad because of Jared. Crying because of Jared. Always looking back because of Jared.
In a flash of insight, it hit him. Rhoda is still in love with Jared.
Author's Notes:
If you want to see how Penny and Coco look like, just google for Donutsforlife of Deviantart. Or just ask me in the review for the links since ffnet doesn't allow links here.
Why is Bertie Boop (man Betty Boop) married to Poppy (woman Popeye)? That story is also in Donutsforlife's gallery. But I can send you the link.
Who is Koko the Clown (girl Koko the Clown)? Man, you're missing out from true classics, you can watch him in Youtube. Once again, I can send you the link if you want.
If you don't know Jack and Rose, they're present in my other fics. In this universe, they don't exist. Ever wondered what would happen if "The Rabbit Returns to ToonTown" Rhoda and "The Old Pieces and The New" Rhoda would meet?
Hope you're all having an energized midweek.