Chapter 57: The Spoon Lady
This chapter was inspired by the talented Abby "The Spoon Lady" Roach of Ashville, NC. You can find her music online and I encourage you to watch some of the videos made of her performing.
Several months have passed since Le Rouge was captured and the red panda's warning to Jake was fulfilled. Now, the raccoon and those he loves, are having to adjust to the consequences of his being shot by a modified strain of the dreaded Nighthowler serum and the aftereffects of its cure.
"Aw come on!" Jake protested as he watched a gray furred coyote with an old black colored top hat on his head sitting down upon a chair on the bar's small stage. "You dragged me and Marie all the way across the city to this dive just to make us listen to some hick mountain music?
"I like mountain music," the female raccoon commented as she grabbed the male raccoon's arm and kept him from standing up. "Sit down Sugar and for once in your life, try to be a little more patient. Ever since you got shot with that modified Nighthowler serum you're shorter tempered than usual."
"Yes dear," the raccoon grumbled as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of sunglasses, even though it was relatively dark inside of the bar, he slipped them on. "You do know that ever since you got pregnant, you're a lot more bossy than usual."
"A mother in the making!" Judy laughed. "You should see my mother. She can keep the whole household in line, including my father, with just that special glare of hers."
"Your mother also has a zillion kits," Nick chuckled as he draped his right arm over the back of the chair his wife was sitting in and smiled when she snuggled closer to him.
"Rabbits!" Jake simply stated.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Judy asked as her ears shot up. There was the sound of the coyote tuning up his banjo in the background.
"It's just you rabbits always have huge families," the raccoon continued. "How do you keep up with everyone's names?"
"Bunnies seem to have a real good memory, that's how," Nick snickered. "Trust me, I know because she remembers everything I do wrong."
"That's a lot to remember, you sly old Fox!" Judy said as she pulled on Nick's tie, so she could reach his cheek to give it a kiss.
Sitting back up straight, the fox watched with concern as the raccoon rubbed his eyes before he slipped on the sunglasses again. "Your eyes are hurting?" he softly asked.
"The coyote shamans say it will take some time for me to adjust to the physical changes caused by the flowers," Jake sighed as he looked over at his best friend. Before the attack, the raccoon's eyes were a soft brown, just like Marie's, but now they were a strange pale yellow. "Every time one of them calls it an awakening, I keep thinking of that old movie Highlander."
"Oh gods, what a nightmare!" Nick snickered. "An immortal Jake Runnel!"
"Ha…ha…Not funny fox!" the raccoon chuckled. "You know that's not what is happening, it's just that my senses are on overdrive and I have to learn to adjust to the changes. I see better in the dark then you do and hear things almost as good as Judy can. Let's not get to talking about my sense of smell, I don't know how Wolford and the wolves can handle that every day?"
"You will learn to live with these changes buddy," Nick softly answered as he put a paw on Jake's shoulder. "I'll always be there if you need help."
"Thanks," the raccoon sighed. "I just wish we could figure out who and why I was shot in the first place?"
"They went after Mister Big's associates," Judy answered. "We're positive the chemical was Doug Ramsey's doing again, but we still don't know where he is and who he is working for or with."
Jake was going to continue the conversation, but instead, he stopped while he sniffed the air before he turned to look back at the stage. "I knew I smelled another female raccoon!"
A thin raccoon took a seat next to the banjo player, she was wearing a pair of blue jean overalls and had placed a bell, like one of those which had once been used on the counters at stores to be rung for service, onto the floor next to her foot paw. "You've got to be kidding?" Marie said excitedly as she happily clasped her paws together. "She's a spoon player, I haven't seen anyone play the spoons since Uncle Mort died!"
"What's a spoon player?" Jake asked, his muzzle was slightly scrunched up in confusion and a couple of his lower teeth were showing.
"You are such a city coon!" Marie laughed. "It is an old way of making music! We raccoons are one of the few animals who can play them, it's because we've got five digits on each of our paws."
"They just look like soup spoons to me," Jake scoffed. "Anyone can hit two metal spoons together, that's not music…" Just then the raccoon on the stage stepped down upon the bell, making it go ding as she held the spoons in one paw and began to hit them together against her leg and then the other paw. Jake's mouth dropped open at the tinkling, clacking, clinking tempo she was making with the two teaspoons, he never had heard anything like that before.
The banjo then began to play, the well-worn strings plunking along with the spoon player's beat. Marie was leaning forward with her elbows on the table and her paws clasped together as she stared enthralled at the two musicians. Her right foot paw, however, was tapping to the tune. Suddenly she straightened up with a small gasp.
"What's wrong?" Judy quietly asked as she looked over and watched the raccoon put a paw on her belly.
"I think one of the babies is dancing!" Marie answered with a smile. "He's kicking to the music!"
"Come on honey, I'm sure he's just moving about," Jake scoffed.
"No, feel!" She replied as she grabbed her husband's paw and put it on her stomach. Jake could indeed feel that at least one of the babies was moving.
Little did the two of them know that their son Freddie would be a talented and accomplished musician who could play any instrument which he could get his paws on, including the spoons!
You can find more about Jake's being shot with the new strain of Nighthowlers made from the Midnicampum holicithias in Zootopia: A Raccoon's Redemption, Chapter 33: Raccoon's Don't Howl. He was cured by Mister Walker and Annie, two coyote shamans, who pointed out to the "esteemed" city doctors that the plant, the call the "Savage Flower", had been around for centuries and had been used by the coyote tribes for religious purposes.
The doctors scoffed and one said, " A witch doctor's hocus pocus."
Clearing his throat, the elderly coyote asked, "Would the Great Creator not make one without the other? Everything is balanced, female to male, prey to predator, the night to the day. How long has the blue flower been around and do you not think that others have not felt its ways before now?"