Chapter 52: The Car
He ran his paw down the hood of the white convertible and even though his wife no longer drove the car, he could not bring himself to sell it. The now sightless raccoon smiled at the memories he had of this car and its driver.
"Why did you buy an old car like this?" his wife Marie had chided him when she first saw it in the backyard. "You don't even have a driver's license!"
"It's a classic and after Nick and I get it running again, it will be the envy of the town," Jake replied. Before him was a rusted old fashioned gasoline car, a product of a bygone era. The seats were rotted and the roof long gone, but this wouldn't be the frist time the raccoon bought something others would turn their backs on. The shadow of the old Victorian house was proof of that, it was once a derelict shell and haunted ruin which now was the pride of the neighborhood.
Nick and I get it running, Marie wanted to laugh, he was not interested in cars, but Nick was fascinated in the old classics. She knew her husband well enough to know that he had bought it for Nick to play with, along with the father of little Nicky's friend Billy Two Ears, who was a talented mechanic.
Judy always felt that the ownership of a automobile was a waste of money, after all both she and Nick had unmarked police cruisers for work and when they went to the farm in Bunnyburrows they always took the train. Nick on the other paw, loved old classic cars and when Jake told him about this old convertible he found in the junkyard he chuckled and asked, "What is it about you raccoons and trash?"
"I swear, she called to me!" the raccoon replied with a shrug. "She called me to save her."
"Well she's not in too bad shape," Gary Two Ears said a few hours later as the coyote mechanic closed the hood and wiped his paws on his stained denim overalls. "You said you want her restored, so we're going to have to do some searching for parts. Tires will be the hardest things to find, we may have to buy reproductions."
Their search took months as the raccoon, fox, and coyote traveled from Outback Island to the south and the Green Mountains to the north.
Later that month, they had a lead on some parts in Tundratown and Jake called Tudratown Limousine to drive them to the dump.
"These new cars are taking all the fun out of driving," Kevin grumbled as he swung the limo's driver's chair around to face his passengers. "Self driving cars are replacing my drivers." Like the passengers, the polar bear was beginning to show his age since he was now in his mid forties and was chunkier around the waist. He had taken to wearing a light grey dress shirt and dark grey tie with his black suit. Reaching over with a paw, he pressed a few buttons on the dashboard of the computer driven black limousine.
Nick looked up at the massive polar bear. The red fox in his tacky off green jacket looked little compared to the bear and smiled before replying, "It took the meter ticketing duties away too. Not to mention a substantial decrease in traffic accidents, of course this meant the city could layoff more cops."
"Retired the dreaded Red Menace," Jake chuckled as the raccoon adjusted the sleeves of his dark grey wool overcoat. "So what is Chief Fangmeyer doing to punish newbies now?"
"Red Menace?" the polar bear scowled. "Nick, you were the infamous Red Menace? Rumor has it you once wrote a thousand tickets by noon."
"Naw, only two hundred and two," the fox replied with a grin. "I only did that to piss off Judy."
"Imagine that?" the raccoon chuckled. "So do you think this guy has five good steel walled tires?"
Kevin groaned and rolled his eyes, as Nick just laughed. "I doubt that, so it's a good thing we're looking for white walled, steel belted tires."
"That's what I meant to say," the raccoon huffed. He smiled when the fox ruffled the fur between his ears.
"Now Jake when we get to the salvage yard, let me do the talking!" Nick said. "Don't just pull out your credit card like you did last time."
"Why not, it just seems the easiest thing to do?" the raccoon replied as he spread his paws. "I mean we are showing up in a limo, so you can't argue we can't afford to pay full price."
"It's the principle," Nick sighed. "The back and forth, the challenge, or the game of negotiating."
"Don't look at me!" the bear said to the raccoon. "I'm a polar bear, I make an offer and you can either agree or disagree. After I stick your head into a snow bank, sooner or later you're going to agree with me."
When they arrived, Jake hopped onto the limo's trunk and he and Kevin watched the fox haggle with the moose who owned the salvage yard. The two seemed animated in their negotiations as back and forth they went, making a offer and then a counter offer.
Finally after an hour or so, Kevin yawned and walked over to the moose, the big deer flinched and yelled in protest as the bear grabbed his antlers and dragged him to a snowbank. After a few minutes of having his head stuck in the icy cold snow, he agreed to Kevin's offer.
"I almost had him," the fox grumbled as they loaded the five tires into the limo's trunk. "Ten minutes more and he would have agreed."
"Sure bro," Jake laughed. "He was going back up in price, so Kevin just reminded him of your offer.
The blind raccoon opened the car door and climbed into the passenger's seat, it felt familiar as he fondly remembered the many road trips he took with his best friend. His paw found the steering wheel and he wiped the tears from his eyes as he remembered one such trip.
"Hey Jake are you sure you want to do this?" Nick asked as he wheeled the car onto the freeway. He was wearing another of those tacky tropical shirts of which he seemed to have an inexhaustible supply of within his closet. "I mean you do get seasick really easy, remember that fishing trip?"
"Aw come on!" the raccoon protested as he adjusted his dark green polo shirt and snapped on his sunglasses. "I was only twenty seven or twenty eight back then. Besides, it was the first time I saw Marie in a swimsuit and I had other things on my mind."
"Gross Pop!" Nicky protested from the backseat, the sixteen year old raccoon was wearing shorts and a t-shirt with the logo of a prominent tractor manufacturer on it. His son always seemed to like the shirts he got from his Grandfather Fred or even from Nick's father-in-law, Stu.
His brother Freddie, on the other paw, wore a t-shirt with some grunge band on it. Looking sullenly at his brother, he complained, "I still don't know why Chery couldn't come along!"
"Can't you two be apart for more then a few hours?" Nicky teased his brother.
"We are whitewater rafting," Nick suddenly said. "So Freddie I need you to pay attention to what is going on and not distracted by Chery."
If a teenage raccoon could look even more sullen, Freddie accomplished that and more.
Jake looked over at Nick and shook his head, both of them knew that Freddie had skipped school several weeks ago and had sought out their adopted pack's Alpha to ask his permission to marry Chery. The coyote had denied the raccoon's request and since then Freddie had been caught by his mother kissing the coyfox, his paws on parts of her body where they didn't belong or maybe they did if they were older.
"Pop, have you ever been rafting?" Nicky asked. "Uncle Nick took us scouts once already."
"He did?" Jake asked in a surprised voice. "Why wasn't I invited?"
"You know why," the fox chuckled. "They're still rebuilding parts of the Scout Camp that you and Tails almost burned down. The scouts won't let you anywhere near the pack after that."
"Well then since you've already done rafting, I vote we do a zip line instead!" Jake offered. Both of the boys excitedly sat up and grinned.
"What is it with you raccoons and trees?" the fox chuckled as he flicked on the car's turn signal and took a left down the road that led to the Treeline Zipline Adventure.
The coyfox found the blind raccoon sitting in the car's passenger seat, sniffling. "Hey Pop," she called out softly. "It's time for dinner."
"Promise me that you and Freddie will take care of her when I'm gone," the raccoon said.
"Who? Mom?" Chery replied in confusion. "Of course we will!"
"No!" Jake sighed. "I know you'll take care of Marie, I meant the car."
"Oh?" the coyfox answered. "Of course we will."
"Good, I'll be along in a few minutes," the raccoon sniffled. After his daughter-in-law left, he felt the flow of tears running down his cheeks "Dammit fox why did you have to die, you were only sixty-four! We needed you…I needed you...to stay with us longer! Dammit bro, I miss you!" He sighed as he remembered the last time they took the car out together.
I'm not going to live forever," Nick chided him as they sat on the car's hood and looked out at the city lights illuminating the evening's darkness.
"You're too ornery to die bro!" Jake laughed. "You'll outlive us all, just for spite."
"With my ticker, I doubt that," the fox sighed.
"Aw come on, you know I love Judy like a sister!" Jake replied as he looked at his best friend with concern. "You know she's family and family always takes care of family!"
"I know, but I just wanted to hear you say it," Nick said as he tenderly put a paw on the raccoon's shoulder. Together the two friends sat and watched the city's lights.
A week later in the dark of the night, but in the arms of the rabbit he loved, Nicholas Piberius Wilde passed away and his best friend Jake Runnel still mourns.
