Chapter 37: A Shooting at Wilde Times
"There was a spree of time-travel in the 1960s. It caused issues all over the continuum! So we imprisoned its handler, Obadiah Price and had it wiped out completely." - Agent O in MIB 3
After a brief rest, Nick and Judy go back to Wilde Times with Richard. Some of Catpone's gangsters show up looking for Reverend Piberius.
1925
Judy leaned against Nick and they both struggled to get as comfortable as possible while they sat on the formal couch in his great-grandparent's front parlor. The back of the couch was made of hard dark oak wood which had been carved with elaborate shapes of leaves and vines. Rich crimson and gold silk damask cloth covered the pile of overstuffed pillows and their plush softness gave Nick the feeling that he was slowly sinking into their very depths. "I don't think your great-grandmother likes me?" Judy whispered as she reveled in the feeling of the fox's left paw lazily rubbing her ears. "But, she can really cook great pancakes."
"You think she doesn't like you now, just wait a few more years," Nick softly chuckled. "She going to blame almost every prey mammal she meets for the riot and it's aftermath. I was told that she becomes a very bitter old fox."
"What are you going to do Nick? Are you going to warn you great-grandfather about the riot?"
"I haven't yet decided. In just about every time travel movie or story, the heroes are always warned not to change the past. What would happen to my future if I told him, is it possible that we might never meet?"
"Maybe we already have changed the future?"
"I shudder when it think about that! Look, we already know that the other Judy is proof that something is going to change the future. The problem is that I have no idea about what caused that change and why my future self sent the watch to her, along with a letter, begging her to stop us from doing whatever it was that we did or will do?"
"We will figure it out!"
The fox closed his eyes as he listened to the sound of the vixen humming to her babies in the upper bedroom. His great-grandmother was softly singing his toddler grandfather and aunt to sleep. He too relaxed to the soothing sound of her voice and drifted off to sleep.
"Hey, wake up you two!" a voice called to him in his dream. "Nick…Judy…It's time to get going. I've got to go and open up the hall." Nick blinked a few times as he awoke and looked up into a pair of matching emerald colored eyes. "Sorry, but I don't think you should stay here without me," Richard apologetically added. "If you're still sleepy, there's a couch in the office."
"Yeah, yeah, we're awake," Nick muttered as he sat up and rubbed his eyes. Judy was already standing and looking out the window.
"Then let's go," Richard said as he opened the door. "Come on, we've got a bit of a walk ahead of us."
Nick followed Richard and Judy out of the house and together they walked down the sidewalk. The sky was a bright blue above them and the birds were singing in the trees, it was a scene of domestic tranquility. This was the kind of place which Nick had once dreamt of living in, instead of the bridge he once huddled under or the damp old basement apartment where he now lived. I'd like to live someplace with trees and green soft grass, he thought to himself. He glanced towards Judy and blushed as he imagined coming home to her arms and kisses after a hard day's work.
They didn't speak much as they walked along, but Richard was warmly greeted by many of the other mammals they met. He seemed to be popular and well-liked by everyone. Finally, they arrived at the billiards hall and the fox pulled out his set of keys to unlock the door. "About time Wilde!" a deep voice called out to them as a fennec fox in a brown suit came across the street from the park. "You're late again!"
"Benny, I own the place, so I'm always on time!" Richard laughed as he nodded to the small fox. "You remember Nick and this is Judy."
"Yeah, the skirt who got herself kitnapped. You caused quite a fuss sweetheart!" Benny chuckled as he nodded a greeting towards her. His eyes swept over her and he grinned. "You're a looker, nice pins!"
"It wasn't anything I couldn't have handled," Judy replied. She chose to ignore his comment about her legs as she tied to pull the short sequenced black dress down to cover a bit more of her exposed thighs.
"Sure babe," the small fox snickered as he passed by her and entered into the building. "Let's get this joint open boss! The morning shift should be getting off of work about now and will stopping by for a game or two, along with a few shots of gin or shine."
"You sell liquor here?" Judy asked. "That's illegal, I'm surprised!"
"This is Happy Town, so Prohibition doesn't exist around here," Richard replied with a shrug. "If you don't serve, then you won't have customers. I don't like breaking the law, but a fox has got to live and it's a stupid law anyways. The coppers get their share of the sales, they come in every night to pick up their bribes…ah, I mean bonuses."
"Do you buy from Catpone?" Nick asked as he looked around the room. There were several green felt covered pool tables of various sizes, a long counter with bottles of what they tried to pass off as "soft drinks" lined up behind it, and a few dart boards. The place was nice, but it was not anything that special and certainly not as magical as he had imagined was, based on his grandfather's stories. He then realized that his grandfather was too young to remember what Wilde Times really looked like and probably had made up most of the stores about the place.
"Nope, this is Snapper Territory and we get it from them!" the fennec fox answered. "You should taste the new stuff! It's got a sweet honey flavor and is made by a farmer just outside of town."
"What about Clawhauser?" Richard asked as he looked down at the smaller fox. "Has anyone seen the cheetah?"
"Nope, not a soul. At least none who would talk," Benny sighed. "The boys are still looking for him."
Nick and Judy followed Richard into the back room, past a long table which had some playing cards and few poker chips on it and another table with some dice. "Gambling too?" Judy sighed.
"Like I said, a fox has to make a living," Richard answered in an apologetic manner.
The office wasn't very grand either, there were crates of supplies in the corner and an old beaten up desk in the room's center, it was covered with ledger books and bills. A very large sofa sat along a wall with a cotton blanket draped over it. "Take a seat," Richard called out as he sat at the desk. "We'll wait to see if any of the boys come by with word on Clawhauser."
Across town, despite all his scheming, Al Catpone hadn't forgotten about his early morning order to rough up Piberius and reminded Lucky, Bugsy, and a thin tiger named Larry to take care of that particular business.
Wilde Times Billiards Hall was mostly empty when the gangster's arrived and Bugsy shoved the door open only to be confronted by the fennec fox in a brown suit sitting on a stool with a small newspaper in his paws. "What the hell are you clowns doing here?" Benny barked out. "You know that this place is off limits to you goons!"
"Where's Piberius?" Bugsy demanded as he glared around at the paw full of foxes that were standing by the pool tables and then at a portly grey vixen in a blue dress, who was slowly sweeping the floor. The vixen was seemingly not paying any attention to anyone as she steadily worked.
"Do you droppers really expect to find a mammal of the cloth in this place?" Benny scoffed as he lit up a cigarette and after taking a puff, sent a cloud of smoke drifting lazily towards the ceiling. "Nope, there ain't no one but us sinners around this place." His comments were greeted by laughter from the other foxes.
"Come on you little shrimp, everyone knows he hangs around here when he ain't on the streets causing trouble," Bugsy snarled and then he threw his paws up in agitation. "Why am I trying to talk to you idiots anyways, get me Wilde! I want to talk to someone who knows where that damn preacher is hiding!"
"Well Wilde ain't here!" Benny answered with a shrug of his small shoulders. "If I was you, I'd hightail it out of here before the Snappers find out that you're in their territory."
"Fine, have it your way!" the ocelot answered as he gave them an evil grin while he pulled the front door open. "Lucky get in here and convince them to talk!"
The tall lion entered the building cradling a large black metallic submachine gun with its lovingly polished brown wooden stock and a huge circular magazine of bullets attached. "You don't want to talk to us, so I'm going to let Tommy do the talking!" he called out as he lowered the gun.
"Shit!" the small fox barked out as he jumped off the stool and scurried behind the counter. The other foxes dove under the pool tables as the gun fired.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat!
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat!
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat!
Bullets zinged through the air, peppering the wall behind the pool tables. There was also the sound of the empty brass cartridges hitting the hard wooden floor. "Who's talking now!" the lion roared over the noise and through the gun smoke.
BOOM!
The loud report of a shotgun answered his question and the door next to the lion was splintered into wooden shreds. He looked down at the portly grey fox, who had traded in her broom for a large single barreled shotgun. He lowered his gun and aimed at her, but when he squeezed the trigger it didn't fire!
"It's Wilde...he's running!" Larry cried out from outside and with a scowl, Lucky stumbled out of the door and into the street.
BOOM!
The shotgun roared again, the round just missing the lion, as it riddled their car and its front tire. Lucky fumbled as he began to draw his pistol. "Forget her, get Wilde!" Bugsy yelled.
Lucky stopped and first looked at the red fox in a blue jacket running one direction down the street and then at the fox in a brown checkered suit sprinting after Judy, as they ran the other way. Both of the foxes looked exactly the same. "Which one is Wilde?" he called back in frustration.
"Just get them both!" the ocelot screamed as he and the tiger ran after Richard. The lion shrugged and took off running down the street chasing after Nick and Judy, all time he was trying to unjam his submachine gun.
The red fox and the rabbit ran for all they were worth, weaving and bobbing as they desperately tried to get away from the big cat who was chasing them. Each was expected a volley of bullets to cut them down at any moment.
"There's a car, Carrots!" the fox cried out when they saw a black sedan idling in front of a shop down the block.
Judy jumped into the passenger's seat, just as Nick slid behind the wheel, but the vehicle didn't move. "What's the matter?" she desperately cried out as the lion drew closer. "Drive!"
"I don't know how?" Nick yelled back. "It's…it's a manual transmission, who drives a stick shift anymore?"
Judy looked at the fox, Nick was staring in panic at the odd assortment of levers and pedals. "Do you know how to drive this thing?" he asked. She looked at everything, but it didn't look anything like her family truck's manual transmission. Judy shook her head no. "Then run!" Nick yelled as he jumped out of the car again.
There was the sound of a horn and both the fox and rabbit looked to see that a black truck had stopped in the road ahead of them. Nick realized there was a familiar looking fox waving at them. "Get to the truck!" Judy yelled out as she ran past Nick and hopped into the arms of one of the foxes. Nick quickly crawled in behind her as the Furred Model TT picked up speed, leaving the angry lion behind them.
"Damn!" Lucky roared as he tossed the large gun down and drew his pistol, but it was too late because the car was now out of range. "Bugsy's gonna skin me!" he growled as he reached for the discarded gun and shook it again as he pulled the trigger.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!
The gun went off, riddling a brick wall across the street. "Sure now you work!" the lion cursed.
By the time Lucky had caught up with the ocelot, Bugsy was alone and he looked really mad. "Where's your fox?" he growled at the lion.
"He got away in a car," Lucky answered with a shrug as he cradled his gun. "Where's yours and where's Larry?"
"That damn fox ran down to the river, jumped into it and then swam away. I shot at him, but missed. So I pushed Larry into the river and told him to swim after the fox, I thought all tigers could swim?"
"All of them can, except for Larry! He never learned. You didn't let the poor guy drown did you?"
"Don't be an idiot, of course I didn't!" the ocelot grumbled as he began walking down the street. "I threw him a plank and he grabbed it as he floated away."
"Ah Bugsy, you do know the wool mills are down river?" Lucky quickly said as he followed the other cat.
"So what?"
"They have those large water wheels to turn their turbines. What if he gets caught in one of those?"
"I'll send some nice flowers to his widow. A nice pretty bouquet, like the one the boss sent to Rico's mother after he had him killed."
"Larry wasn't married."
"I'm sure that someone will fish his tail out before he gets caught up in something. He'll be fine."
The lion just shook his head as he shouldered his gun.
A "dropper" is 1920's slang for a hired killer. "Pins" refers to a female's legs.