Chapter 13: Lunch

Kody didn't really pay any attention to his parents after Willa left. He was more interested in expressing his artistic abilities. His young paws dragged one crayon over the page after the other as his mind completely focused on creating his magnum opus.

Jo and Hubert, on the other hand, were busy discussing the important topic of the day; Hubert's family. It was a subject that the two had never really delved into before. Jo's family wasn't exactly large by any stretch of the imagination, especially since she hadn't married into Chris Rowans equally small family. The wolf had nearly the opposite problem.

"Well," her boyfriend began, "There's mama'n'daddy, my two brudders, Bart'n'Wilbur, and I told ya bout my lil sis, Ti… I means Bertha." The grey furred canine's face blushed as he almost used the nickname instead of her real name. It took him a second to recover before continuing, "Course, daddy had two brudders; Tim and Eric. Tim lives over in Holstetten, and Eric moved t' Doo-wham-ish, so we don't sees'em much, but Tim's boy Frank moved back, s'he lives in town with his two boys; Bardy and Rudy. Course, mama's got two brudders, Uncle Ollie'n Uncle Willy, and a lil sister, Aunt Millie. Ollie'n Willy own the flight school down at the airport. Aunt Millie's th'only one that don't live in town. She gots married'n moved t' Z'topia. Her eldest is one uh them pro-fessers at the big college there."

The vixen perked her ears at that last statement. She might have taken a course from him during her short stint as a university student. "Really," Jo asked, indulging her curiosity, "What's he teach?"

"Last I heard, Cousin Ee-gun was teaching Grad-gee-ate level Thee-oh-retical Physics er somethin' like that. Course, I also heard he gots his self fired. Sumthin' bout wastin' university money on some spearmints that weren't showin' no re-sults. We ain't seen'im in s'long that, well, we kinda lost touch."

Jo blinked a few times. She'd remembered hearing something about a professor being fired from the physics department. Come to think of it, Z.U. had fired three professors while she was there; one from the physics department, one from the psychology department, and another from the engineering department. The vixen shook her head as she pushed the memory away. "Any other kin I should know about, Hubert?"

The wolf leaned back in his seat, tapping his chin with a finger. "Well, Uncle Ollie had two pups; Bradford'n'Bill. Bradford is in th' Aero Force, and Bill's a Deputy Sheriff here. Uncle Willy's pup Larry's still here. He's bout Bertha's age, course, he's been talkin' bout going inta th'Army, so I don't thinks he'll be round more than another year er two."

"Ya sure do have a big famly, Hubert," the reddish-yellow fox said as she took a sip from her soda. Her words just made the large lupine let out a chuckle. "Sure do. We gots a big ol' pack," her boyfriend laughed, one massive hand reaching out to wrap around the dew covered glass of cola in front of him, bringing it up to his lips for a long sip.

"I thinks they're gonna love you, Jo-sef-een," Hubert added after pulling his soda from his lips.

Jo just nodded her head, her ears flitting about a bit nervously. She deeply hoped that he was right. The vixen was just about to say something when she felt a tug on her sleeve. Slowly, the reddish-yellow fox turned her head to look down at her grinning son. He had a happy smile on his face, the kind of smile that only a fox could ever make as he held up his drawing.

His mother's ears perked up as she took the page from her son, looking it over. It was a simple drawing, mostly using stick figures, but then again, Jo wasn't expecting the Mona Lisa from a six year old. There were a bunch of black boxes on a white field with green grass under four stick figures. It was easy to tell that three of the figures were obviously foxes. Two were drawn in red and one drawn in orange. The fourth figure was drawn in black, like the buildings. The figures were lined up holding hands, but the oddest part of the picture was a yellow ring around the head of the first red fox.

Jo didn't really need an explanation of the picture she was holding. It was clear to see that her son had drawn his father, himself, his mother, and Hubert all happy and holding hands in Wolfsberg. The reddish-yellow vixen smiled warmly, a small tear forming in her eye as she leaned in to give her son a kiss on the top of his head, something that the kit didn't mind so much.

"Thank you, sugar fox," Jo said sweetly before folding up the paper and putting it in her purse. "I'll put it up on the fridge."

"Thank ya, mama," her son chirped. He was about to say something else, when Willa returned holding a tray.

"Strips fer tha kit," the stout badger woman said as she placed a large white dish stacked with French fries and four breaded strips of chicken in front of the young tod.

"Chicken Salad sammich on sour fer the miss," she continued as she set down a half-foot tall sandwich and a heaping mess of fries in front of Jo just before turning to Hubert. "And here's yer special, honey."

The hamburger that the sow badger set down in front of the wolf was the largest burger either fox had ever seen. The patty was a good pound of minced, well cooked turkey with what looked like half a wheel of cheese melted to it. On top of that, there were at least six strips of dripping turkey bacon, just under two large pieces of lettuce, ripe tomato, thick sliced Vidalia onion, and pickles. And that didn't even include the three inch tall sesame seed bun everything was resting between, nor the foot high stack of fries.

The two foxes stared in amazement while the wolf just beamed at his favorite burger. His massive jaws opened wide and his tongue flopped out as drool pooled on that slimy pink appendage. "Thank ya, Willa," Hubert said in a hungry voice, but the badger was too busy chuckling at the expressions of shock and amazement on Jo and Kody's faces.

"Enjoy, honey," Willa said before turning about and heading back towards the kitchen.