Zootopia – Springtime Circumstances

Chapter 65 – The small-town boy made it far (POV Nick)

I´ve just had another one of those horrible nightmares. I dreamt about running away from an out of control polar bear, fletching his teeth, destroying everything in his path. He had blood all over his paws and over his maw and no matter what I tried, he always caught up with me and killed everybody on his way. And like it often is with those weird dreams that feel so very realistic somehow, I couldn´t steer it into a better direction at all. It just got worse and worse with every minute, until I finally woke up.

I didn´t remember falling asleep on the floor. I had Judy in my arms and we were laying on a sofa earlier. I must have rolled off of it in my sleep, because Judy was still peacefully sleeping on the old but comfortable couch besides me. I was a little puzzled that she didn't end up on the floor with me, because we usually slept very close together, but I was glad I didn't wake her up as well. Rico and Anita were still arm in arm, laying on the other sofa in the room and deeply asleep as well.

The big clock on the wall of the living room showed half to seven in the morning, and the first rays of sunlight already illuminated the room through the jalousie a little.

My throat felt dry and my mind was by far too messed up to go back to sleep again. So I got onto my feet carefully and made my way through the living room as quiet as possible. I was hoping to find a kitchen or a bathroom, any place with running water, and luckily I soon found something. I opened the door carefully, which hadn´t been all the way closed anyway, and took a look into the morning-light flooded kitchen. It turned out I wasn´t the only one who couldn't sleep anymore.

"Good morning" Gillian greeted me lowly but with a happy little smile. She was sitting on a chair, one leg over the other, and had a copy of the newspaper laying before her.

"Good morning Mrs. Capaldi" I greeted her back lowly but with a little smile as well.

"Couldn´t sleep any longer?" she asked.

I nodded.

"Bad dream?"

I was a little confused that she guessed it correctly, but then I nodded again.

"I noticed your very nervous slumber just a couple of minutes ago" she explained, "But it seemed like I was too late to stop you from falling off the sofa…you were laying on the floor already…"

"Yeah…" I waved it off with a little sigh, "…not too bad, I´ve survived worse things before…"

She nodded with a warm little smirk.

"I was in search for a glass of water" I told her lowly, "Could I…"

"Yes, of course!" she affirmed, pointing at the fridge, "There is some drinkable water in the fridge, I wouldn´t bother to try the tap. Glasses are in the shelf to your left."

"Thank you very much…" I stopped her from getting off her chair, "I got it."

She watched me while I helped myself to one of the glasses and filled it up with the nicely chilled water I found in the fridge.

"Those scars on your back…" she suddenly asked with great interest, "Are those from the fights you had with those clan-people?"

I nodded silently, now just realizing that I was still just in boxer shorts.

"I believe I have an Idea what could be triggering those nightmares…"

I nodded again. "Just because I´ve won all those fights in the end doesn´t mean I won´t ever lose one…"

"I gotta say though: they weren´t lying about your appearance in the articles I´ve read…" she said with a mischievous little grin.

"Well…" I sighed, "…thanks…I guess. Sorry for coming in here just in boxers by the way, it just happened out of routine…"

"Just says you feel like at home" she chuckled in amusement, "Back in our day, Rico´s dad and I never wore any clothes at home. It´s the most beautiful thing about having a private place just to yourselves…"

"It really is" I agreed to her way of thinking, "Judy and I really enjoy that as well. And having privacy really is a rare thing for us nowadays…"

"I was thinking about that as well. When you´re all over the news…in a city as big as Zootopia…"

"Yeah, it gets pretty annoying very quickly. Rico and I even got our fur painted with different colors so people wouldn´t recognize us that easily…"

"Really?" she asked with a big smile, "I would have loved to see that!"

"Yeah…and it actually worked for a little while…"

I leaned myself against the kitchen isle for a moment and drank more of the water contentedly. Then I took a look at the newspaper she had laying before her and noticed that I was not anywhere but just in the middle of the front page once again. I didn´t want to talk about myself once again though. So I tried to change the topic smoothly.

"Anyway" I waved it off, although she had noticed that I saw the front-page of her newspaper, "…how was Rico´s dad? From what I was told he must have been a man I really would have liked to meet in my life."

"Well…as it turned out, Rico inherited quite a lot from him" she began after thinking about it for a while.

I took my glass and grabbed myself one of the other chairs at the kitchen table.

"He always wanted to make the people around him happy. He wasn´t that much of a musician, but he always knew how to tell good stories…"

She sighed a little but swallowed her tears.

"…James was the only one for me. And without Rico, I wouldn´t have had anything left."

I nodded understandingly.

"I grew up without my father as well" I told her after an uncomfortable little pause.

"What happened to him?" she wanted to know.

"He was an alcoholic" I sighed, "My mom left him with me when he started beating her for no reason…"

She seemed to be genuinely shocked about that for a moment. I nodded with a little sigh.

"But look what you two made out of yourselves" she said lowly.

"Yeah…" I agreed with a shrug off my shoulders.

The door to the kitchen got opened slowly but steadily and somebody else joined us now. It actually was Rico who came in lowly and greeted us with a tired little smile.

"Good morning, sunshine" Gillian greeted him, "Have you slept well?"

He nodded with a little yawn and stretched himself a little. He was just in boxer shorts as well, but he wasn´t too bothered about that either.

"Why are you guys up so early?" he wanted to know, as he helped himself to a glass as well.

He went for the third and last chair by the table and helped himself to the same water-bottle I got from the fridge earlier.

"I had a really weird and scary dream and rolled off the couch apparently" I let him know.

"I´m just getting up as usual" his mom answered his question then.

"Still not used to sleeping longer?"

She shook her head with a little smile. "Don't you have to get up early for your job as the head of an orchestra?"

"Well…sometimes. But I took some time off lately, we´re finished with that production for now."

"So why did you wake up so early today?"

"A ray of sunshine fell right into my eye" he sighed with a little smile, "And when I tried to turn away from it, I fell of the couch."

That made us chuckle for a moment.

"…I guess I have to get myself some new sofas" Gillian chuckled with a big grin, "If everybody keeps falling off of them…"

"We´ll get you the biggest and most comfortable couches ever…" Rico explained, "By the way: Have you thought about what we discussed yesterday?"

"I have" she affirmed confidently, "And I think you´re right: There are more pretty spots in this town."

Rico nodded contentedly.

"…I want something smaller and more comfortable. And I want a view over the coastline."

"Then that´s our first stop today" he announced, "Let´s see what´s for sale."

That made her chuckle a little more. "You say that as if it´s as easy as grocery shopping…" she said, before she added: "…standing here just in boxers."

"What if it is?" he smiled back, looking down his own body for a second, "…we´re going to look at the interesting ones, and the one you like the most we simply buy. And then we´re going to search for a few nice things we could fill that place with."

That made her speechless for another moment.

"And I´m the one they call a show off all the time" I grinned at him.

"Yeah, true words" Gillian commented, "…talking about money like it grows on trees."

"Well…I actually got one of those as well in my new garden" he sighed ironically, "They go into blossom once a year and then the big dollar bills just fall onto the ground and you can collect them…"

"Well that sounds quite convenient, doesn´t it?" Judy giggled from the door to the living room Rico had closed just a minute ago.

"Good morning, Judy" Rico greeted her with a little smirk.

"Morning guys!" she smiled while slowly joining us at the table.

"I´m really beginning to worry" Gillian chuckled, "You all got up so extra early I´m beginning to think you were not feeling well here."

"No no, not at all!" Judy told her smoothly, "just woke up because I heard somebody falling onto the floor quite uncomfortably."

"Oh, so when Rico falls of the couch you notice?" I told her with a big grin, "But when I do it you just turn over and keep on sleeping peacefully.

"You both fell off the couch tonight?" she asked with a happy giggle, "Oh I wish somebody took a video of that!"

"Yeah yeah, Carrots" I chuckled while lifting her up and putting her onto my lap, "I love you too, cottontail."

POV Rico (some time later)

While we were waiting for our appointment with the real estate agent, my mom and I decided to go to a store that always brought a smile to my face when I visited it as a kid. It fascinated me so much, and I was there so often, they eventually employed me when I was a teenager and wanted to earn a few extra bucks. It was a music store of course, and it still was located in the same place as it was thirty years ago already. The throwback I had when I walked through the door was imminent. They had renovated and redecorated it over the years of course, but it still had the same cozy and inviting atmosphere. Most of the employers I didn´t recognize when I spotted them, but the owner, a sometimes quite grumpy but in a talk very helpful and interested ram called Rudolf, still stood behind the counter with the cashbox like he has back when I worked there. I was excited to find out if he would still recognize me after all these years, and just out of interest I didn´t walk right up to him when we entered the store. It wouldn´t be that easy for him to find out that it´s actually me anyway, because Nick and I went with our undercover fur-painting once again.

To distract him even further, my mom immediately went towards the isle with the electric guitars to try them out, and like the old gentleman he was, he immediately came towards a nice lady to ask if she needed help.

She didn´t need help of course, she was by far the best musician in the whole store right now, but I liked the situation nevertheless. My mom had accidentally told me she always wanted to buy herself a nice electric guitar with a nice amp, and then she couldn´t talk me out of visiting this store with me anymore. I told her she would get whatever she liked, and after quite a bit of work I finally convinced her.

She immediately began testing the ones she liked at first glance and it was obvious to him that she had held a guitar in her hands before.

I spotted something even more interesting after a little while though: There were two young wolf girls, I guessed about 15 or 16 years old, and they were looking for an acoustic guitar as it seemed like. One of the employees, a ram a bit older than 20 I guessed, stood right beside him and showed off some of his music skills with a great amount of confidence in his voice. He talked about how much he plays at home and how long it took him to where he is today, and then he tried to impress them with playing "Smoke on the water", which is literally the easiest song to learn on the guitar.

Then he thought that knowing the four different chords you need to play "Knocking on heaven's door" would basically make him a rock star. So he played it three times in a row, not knowing how to continue after the one famous part he knew how to play.

People like him annoyed me the most. His mouth was a lot bigger than his actual musical, and he didn´t even realize that the guitar he was trying to sell was totally out of tune right now. I guessed he was just employed here because he was related to the owner, because if I would have pulled off something like that back then, Rudolf would have fired me without even thinking twice about it.

"I mean…" the young ram said with a cool smirk, "…for you as a total beginner, this guitar would just do nicely…"

He played a few more chords as if he had lots of experience for himself, "…but you could also try some of the more advanced guitars over there…"

The girls looked at him with a mixture of doubt and disillusionment of their own musical ability, and that literally was exactly the opposite of what he was supposed to do. He should motivate people to learn an instrument and not scare them away from it. I couldn´t watch this any longer, this hurt my heart too much.

I looked at this for a couple more moments, then I decided to do something about it.

I went towards him without further ado and asked: "Hey, can I ask? Are you somehow related to the owner of this place?"

"Does that matter? He´s my uncle, why would you ask?"

"Well…I was just wondering, because I actually know Rudolf for quite a while, and I´m pretty certain if you weren´t family, you wouldn´t be working here right now."

"Excuse me?" he asked in pure confusion about my bold statement.

"As a musician you´re supposed to motivate people to learn an instrument, not scare them away from it. That´s the way I know it from your uncle. And although he is a little complicated sometimes, he is just plain right about that."

"When did I scare them away from it?" he asked, "I just wanted to show them what´s possible to play on this guitar…"

"Anything is possible if you know how to do it…" I sighed, "…and the guitar is not the matter. What you were doing is showing off and bragging about stuff you don't even understand for yourself."

I just noticed that I really got a little mean there for a second. But then I thought maybe it would teach him a valuable lesson that way.

"Dude!" he said, now a little louder, "What did I do to you?"

"You were bragging and confusing instead of helping them. And you sold the three songs you´ve learned in YouTube-videos as if you have lots of experience. And as a real musician, that´s a real punch in the face to look at."

"Oh yeah?" he asked in a challenging way, "So what makes you think all that?"

"You didn´t even noticed that that guitar is totally out of tune" I sighed with a tired little smirk. I really didn´t want to fight with him, but I simply wanted to bring my point across. I would have been fired immediately back in the day when I worked in this store.

"How can you tell, smartass?" he asked rather aggressively all over sudden.

"Well…I do have ears you know."

He looked at the guitar he was holding in his paws for a second and then at me once again.

"Alright, genius! What exactly did I do wrong here?"

"The top string is as far away from an E as you are from being a solid guitarist. The next one in line is the only one that's vaguely right, the others are totally out of tune as well. I rarely have seen any guitar as out of tune as this one. I bet you even changed the position of the tuners yourself to make it look like you know what you´re doing."

I…I.." he stuttered, "…what? What the are you talking about?"

The two wolf-girls giggled about it a little bit in the meanwhile, but he still seemed to be quite confident.

I signalized him to hand the guitar over to me and he gave it to me after a short moment of hesitation.

I played the top string once and let them listen to it very closely.

"Doesn´t sound right, does it?" I asked them, "Seems a little bit off and not very harmonic, right?"

The girls nodded in agreement, the young ram rather shrugged his shoulders in an unbothered pose.

I adjusted quickly and pretty much immediately got the sound I wanted out of it. Then I played it again.

"See, that´s what it´s supposed to sound like."

They nodded with great interest.

Then I played the A string. "Nearly alright" I commented, before I adjusted it as well.

The same I did to all the other strings until I arrived at the low E string and then I played the very chords from "Smoke on the water" he played earlier, only that I build some much more complicated little notes into it that made it sound much richer and much nice as well. The girls stared at me in pure fascination now, but that other bloke still was too proud to give in.

"Wow" one of the girls commented, "That sounded really nice! You´re good at that!"

"Well, thank you" I chuckled.

Then just for fun I played "knocking on heaven's door" just like he did before, but I continued after the famous part and played the more difficult stuff as well.

That really made them laugh now.

"Ok, fine, dude" the ram complained now, "I get it, you know how to play guitar, seems like you´ve been doing it for a hundred years…but I cannot just focus on one instrument…"

"So…what else do you play?" I asked, trying not to sound too provoking.

"The piano for example" he said, "And I´m a lot better at that then at playing the guitar anyways…"

I just nodded at that weird flex of his and handed the guitar back over to him.

"You want me to prove it?" he asked, still in quite a challenging spirit.

I just shrugged my shoulders and took a look over to the girls with a puzzled little smirk.

"I wanna see it" one of them giggled, "I´m curious now."

"Alright, let´s go" I chuckled, before I followed them towards the section of the store that featured all different sorts of pianos.

The employee immediately chose one of the electric ones and took a seat.

"At least you can´t get that one out of tune" I chuckled with an amuses grin, and that made the girls laugh loudly as well.

"Haha, very funny" he chuckled, before he actually surprised me a little.

He started playing the chords to my own song "Someone you loved" very smoothly, and it really didn´t sound too bad at first.
"Oh!" one of the girls giggled, "I love that song so much!"

Her sister immediately began singing to it, and then she joined in as well.

"I´m going under and this time I fear there´s no one to save me…

This all or nothing really got away of driving me crazy…"

They sang in unison, and I honestly was a little touched by their confidence and also their talent. It really sounded enjoyable, until the ram messed it up after the third time he repeated the chords, staying an octave too high sadly. But I still was rather impressed by all of them.

Then I quickly took a seat at one of the other pianos and continued playing where the other guy had messed it up earlier. To help the girls find their lines again I played the melody of the song on the keys as well and they actually were able to continue.

"And now the day bleeds

Into nightfall

And you´re not here

To get me through it all"

They sang the song all the way until the end, and I could tell that they really had fun during that. I just noticed that Rudolf and also my mom had joined us here in the meanwhile. When we were done with our performance, they all began clapping with happy little smiles on their faces.

"I love that song so much" one of the wolf girls giggled with big eyes.

"And the guy who made it" her sister added with a dirty little giggle.

"Oh, as if you´re not in love with him!" she grinned back at her.

I really was glad I had the brown and red colors on me today, otherwise I would have gotten exactly nowhere today.

"This guy really is a musical genius" the young ram sitting at the other piano agreed, "He just came out of nowhere and now keeps on sitting on the top of the charts. And that for good reason."

I just nodded with a little smile, trying not to look to suspicious, which really was hard work with my mom around.

"Alright" the ram finally sighed in defeat, "You´re also better at piano than me."

"I´m sorry for playing with you there" I told him with a friendly little wink, "I´m the head of a twenty-head orchestra, I´ve been doing music for my entire live. I can play anything you ask me for."
He nodded understandingly. Now it seemed like he didn't want to prove himself anymore.

"How long did it take you until you got as good as you are today?" one of the girls wanted to know.

"I got my first guitar when I was six" I told her with a little smirk, "But that doesn´t mean you can't still learn it anymore. Not at all."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I mean it. You never know until you try. And you´re both quite talented at singing already I would say. Just find the right instrument for you and let´s go!"

"Aww, Thanks you so much!" one of the girls told me, being a little flattered.

"You´re welcome!"

"Man, I wish we could have a piano at home" her sister said lowly.

"But that´s too expensive, you´ve heard our dad!" her sister reminded her.

"But I think a piano sounds way better than a guitar…"

"All tastes are different" I told them, "Some songs work for guitar better than for the piano."

"Oh!" one of them asked suddenly, "Do you know that other RC song as well? The first one he did, with officers Hopps and Wilde in the video? Pyro Heart?"

"Sure, just a second" I chuckled with a little smile, then I went back towards the place with the guitars quickly and got myself a nice one.

I took a seat on the piano bank from earlier once again and right away started the chords of the song she was talking about.

At first they just stared dumbfounded because I was able to play that as well, but then they began singing again.

While we performed "Pyro heart", everybody around started supporting the beat I created with my feet by clapping their hands, and over all we really enjoyed that as well.

"God, I love that so much! This is so much fun!"

"Yeah, thank you, mister!" her sister giggled, "You´re awesome!"

"Thank you" I chuckled with a little smile, "You two are pretty good as well! You even knew all the lyrics correctly!"

"Oh we´ve watched that video so often" they told us with a mischievous little grin, "We´re really obsessed with that guy. You look quite a bit like him even…"

"No joke" the young ram agreed, "That guy just came out of nowhere! How can you hide so much raw talent for so long?"

"Did you know that he actually worked in this very store few years ago?" I asked them with an amused chuckle. I was a little surprised that my mom didn't blow my cover at this point already, but it seemed like she had just as much fun watching this as I had.

"Really?" they asked excitedly.

"Oh yeah, that´s right" Rudolf remembered, "That old rascal was one of the best employees I ever had. Hey lived for the music. Went off to Zootopia to study music…but now we all know where that got him in the end, right?"

"Rico Capaldi has worked in this very store?" one of them asked in total shock.

"That´s right" Rudolf affirmed once more, "I still sometimes wonder if he will ever show up here again, just for old time´s sake…"

"Has he had that sexy voice back then already?" one of the sisters wanted to know with a little giggle.

"I never heard him singing before" the store owner said with a shrug of his shoulders, "He´s quite a nice and calm fella as I remember him. Never was one to brag or prove himself."

"Well…he did get himself into some trouble with another musician once. You nearly kicked him out therefore, remember…"

"Yeah…" Rudolph agreed, "…he almost made the guy punch him in the face cause he disagreed with him so much…wait…where do you know that from, Mister?"

Now I just smiled a little, took a seat in front of the piano again and began playing the chords from "someone you loved" once again. Then I sang to it for myself.

"…I let my guard down

And then you pulled the rug

I was kinda getting used to being someone you loved."

They all stared at me dumbfounded for quite a while.

"And I still think I was right about what I did back then. That guy kept on messing up all the guitar´s tunes, had no idea what he was doing and told people loudly that the employees were bad at their jobs."

"Richard?" Rudolf asked me in total shock, "Is that you?"

"Yeah" I grinned, "Just coming for a visit for ´old times' sake´. Those colors in my fur are police grade undercover colors by the way. I have a few friends at the ZPD."

"Dude!" Rudolfs nephew said in total disbelief, "I´ve just tried challenging Rico freaking Capaldi?"

I just smiled at him with a little wink.

"Oh my fucking god! I´m sorry for everything I said! Really, I´m honestly sorry and I shall never do it again!"

I just nodded with a little smile.

"I can´t believe it!" Rudolf yelled in happy excitement, "It´s been like ten years since you´ve left the store! I always knew you would make it one day!"

"Haha, thanks Rudolf" I chuckled while hugging him back, "I´m so glad this place still exists and you´re still to be found here!"

The two wolf girls still weren´t able to close their mouth yet I just noticed. I winked them shortly, and that just made them giggle and laugh in unbelievable excitement.

"This is…I…this…I" one of them stuttered, "I cannot believe this!"

"Do believe it" I smiled at her, "And I still think you two are really talented. Thanks for not being shy and singing with me!"

They still remained giggling and laughing in total excitement for a little while.

I decided to quickly turn towards my mom shortly. "Have you found something you like already?"

"I´ve found quite a lot of things I like" she chuckled in amusement, "But I wanted your opinion on it as well, I´m unable to choose between two of them…"

"Just take both of them" I waved it off, "You´re going to have to experiment with both of them a little…"

Now she shook her head in disbelief as well.

"Mom" I chuckled, "I mean it. You need to fill that new home with something…"

"So I was right in thinking that you really are Mrs. Gillian Capaldi" Rudolph commented, "I wasn´t entirely sure. Have seen you live in a bar a couple of years ago…"

She nodded with a warm little smile.

"The one and only" I told him with a little smile.

"That explains a lot where all that talent comes from…"

"Still the same old sycophant, aren´t you?" I grinned.

"You know, some things never change luckily" he chuckled with a little wink.

"M-Mister Ca…Capaldi?" one of the wolf girls now asked me shyly, "Could we p-please get a selfie with you? Nobody will ever believe us!"

"Yeah of course you can" I told them with a warm little smile, "Come here, let´s do some selfies."

POV Nick

While Rico and his mom went on a little shopping tour through the city, Judy, Anita and I just went along the coastline and enjoyed the silence and the fresh air. It was just beautiful out here. We weren't stopped by fans or reporters all the time, it was much less crowded and the noises from the waves were just relaxing. Some of the people recognized Judy and I even though my fur was completely painted once again, but word had spread that we were in town and the trick with the re-coloring was quite well-known on social media as well by now.

We walked alongside the water, the waves went around our ankles and the wind crossed our fur.

"I want to come here more often" Judy said suddenly. "I don´t want to be a celebrity every day. I want to be myself."

I nodded in agreement. She was just so right about that. I enjoyed it so much being just some normal guy on rare occasions like this one.

"We could come here every summer" Anita suggested, "I wouldn´t mind it either…and I think Rico would like it too…"

Judy and I nodded in agreement.

"You think they´ll find a new home for her today?" Anita asked.

"If they don´t get stuck in the old music store he wanted to visit…" I chuckled.

"Music store?" Judy asked.

"He worked there as a kid" I explained what he told me earlier, "He just wanted to visit his old boss and maybe get his mom some more new guitars…"

"Oh god" Anita chuckled, "That could take a while…especially if he gets noticed…"

"Not easy to hide talent like that" I grinned.

"We´re here on vacation, aren't we?" Judy asked with a chuckle, "We have all the time in the world. Let him have his fun, will you?"

"Don´t tell me what to do little bunny!" I grinned at her, before I lifted her up onto my shoulders, "…you better tell me what we should get to eat for lunch right now! I´m starving!"

"Alright, let´s go!" she told us with a little smile, pointing into the direction where we came from, "Let´s get something to eat! It´s all on Nick today!"

POV Gillian Capaldi

He really bought both guitars without thinking about it twice, just like he said me he would. I just couldn´t talk him out of it. After he did a few "selfies" with those two wolf girls who really seemed to adore him, we quickly hurried to get to our appointment we had with the real estate agent this afternoon. It would take a few days until the new guitars would arrive at the store anyway, so we didn´t have to carry them through the whole City right now. But leaving the music-store wasn´t that easy anymore as it turned out. The whole place was really crowded all over sudden and the general excitement was just as overwhelming as it was in the bar last night. Because so many people asked for it, he ended up playing both of his famous songs for them once more and they all sang to it and recorded it with their phones. It still seemed like he had a lot of fun in there, but when we finally managed to leave the place and got a moment to ourselves, I noticed how exhausting this life was for him also.

Now we stood in front of the real-estate agency again and waited for our appointment. Nobody seemed to notice him in his disguise right now and he seemed to be pretty glad about that.

"Those wolves really seemed to like you" I chuckled at him with a big grin.

He just nodded with a little smile and waved it off.

"Must be a pretty crazy feeling…"

"You can´t even imagine" he said, "People get so crazy sometimes. They kept waiting in front of our house every single day, they were offering us anything you could ever want…"

"What about your female fans?" I asked, still not being able to stop myself grinning about this, "Did they offer you too…"

He nodded hesitantly but with a mischievous little smile.

"My, my, little Rico!" I told him ironically.

"Yeah…" he sighed, "…it´s pretty much like all the famous people tell you in interviews all the time. But it also get really complicated and really ugly with some of the obsessed fans…"

"I´ve heard of this…" I told him, "…people even threatened to kill themselves if they wouldn´t get any attention from their big idol. Read it in the paper, some fans go way too far…"

He nodded.

"…I get fan-mail all the time" he explained, "Sarah and Ivonne really enjoy opening them when they find the time for it. But they are by far too many, I would be reading all day if I opened all of them myself. But people really write their heart and soul out, telling me how me and my music inspired them or helped them through tough times…it has it´s positive sides too…"

"…all apart from the financial aspect…" I grinned ironically.

I had a feeling he needed a change of topic right now.

"Still not believing me?" he asked back with a little chuckle, searching for something in his pocket. It was his phone, and after searching something on his device for a little while, he showed me the website of a Zootopian banking institution. It was a little different from the one I used on my Laptop at home, but I figured it worked just the same. It said his name in the account details and then showed three different depots. And the total amount of all the three combined. It showed a little over 2,3 million dollars. That number really made me swallow right now.

"That…that is a lot of money, Rico…"

"I also paid a little over three million for that house and the studio equipment I bought recently…" he explained with a little sigh, "…like I said, I don´t really know what to do with it…it already feels like all that is way too much…way more than I ever could need…and it keeps getting more and more every day…"

I still shook my head in total disbelief. Now I understood why he was so unbothered about all the expensive things.

"Rico…I still think you should try to stay humble about it. Go give something to charity or-"

"…didn´t you always want a grand piano as well?" he interrupted with an ironic little grin, "…we could get one for your new place!"

"You really are a little douchebag sometimes" I grinned while nudging my elbow into his side.

"Heh, sorry" he chuckled, "…I´m just so happy to see you again…"

"Oh, I think I know where that´s coming from" a female voice from behind us told us suddenly, "He´s been spending too much time with this douchebag…"

It was Judy behind us, who pointed at the other well-known, today black and grey painted police officer who carried her. Nick had a basket of strawberries in his paws and continued eating them with great pleasure.

"Oh there you are" Rico told them before giving his girlfriend a deep loving kiss, "How´s the country-life?"

"My disguise worked quite well here so far" Nick told him with an amused chuckled, "What about you, Rock-Star?"

"I guess the music-store is doing quite some business today…" he replied with a little sigh.

"Mostly because of you" I reminded him, "Buying guitars and amps for nearly six-thousand dollars…"

"She refuses to let me get a grand piano for her new house!" Rico told them while pointing at me.

They all chuckled about it in amusement while I just shook my head about it with a little smile.

"Don´t worry Mama Capaldi" Nick told me in amusement, "You´ll get used to it as well."

"Oh for sure she will" Rico grinned, "I´ll get her on stage with me in September, the world finally needs to know about her…"

"What´s in September?" I wanted to know.

"A…little concert…" Rico tried to make me believe, "My orchestra and I already signed the contract…"

"Yeah, Rico…" Judy chuckled, "Twenty-two thousand people is your definition of ´little´?"

"Twenty-tw-" his mum stuttered, "No way. That´s crazy, I can´t do that!"

"Come on" he chuckled with a motivating little wink, "It´s just two evenings on a weekend…"

"You´re playing twice?" I Nick asked in surprise.

"Yeah" he sighed, "The first day was completely sold out in about seven Minutes…so we agreed to a second performance on the following day."

All this information was just too much to handle for me right now. I didn´t want to decide about that right here right now.

Nick just nodded understandingly while eating more strawberries. He really seemed to be enjoying them.

"Can I try one as well please?" I asked him, not only because I really actually wanted one right now.

"Yeah, sure" he chuckled, offering me the basket while Rico grinned at me in amusement.

"You´re not getting around that, mom" he said, "When you enjoy playing in pubs, you´re really going to enjoy the big stage. I promise!"

"Rico…" she sighed, "I´m not quite sure-"

"Hello! I´m sorry I´m late!" the ant-eater in the black suit interrupted us suddenly, who came rushing out of the glass door behind us hastily, "You must be Mrs. Capaldi?"

"That´s right" I affirmed while shaking his paw, "Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you! So…you were here to look at some of our objects?"

We nodded affirmingly.

He introduced himself to Rico and the others quickly, then he immediately showed us the different sheets of paper with the pre-selected objects he had prepared for us. The fotos really showed us some beautiful houses with gardens, some nice views over the oceans and most importantly in some really nice locations, but they also had some pretty high price tags.

"Wow that´s a lot of money" I commented lowly when I looked at the six to seven figure prices that were listed under the photos.

"Well" the agent said, "Since you asked for the most-pretty spots in town…"

"Don´t worry about it" Rico told me once again, "Just say what suits you and we take a look at it."

While we looked at the pictures, I noticed how the ant-eater examined our group quickly.

"Can I ask…is it ´Capaldi´ like…Rico Capaldi? The musician on the radio?" he asked in a friendly way.

"Yes" Rico commented it dryly but with a little smirk, "She´s my mom."

"What really?" he asked in total shock.

"There we go again" Nick chuckled, "The small-town boy comes back home and turns it completely upside-down…"

"Couldn´t have said it better" I agreed with him.

"Oh my…" the agent said, "I´m so sorry, I had no idea! Such an honor to meet you!"

"Don't worry" Rico told him with a little smile, offering to shake his paw again, "Nice to meet you."

Then he pointed at one of the offers on the paper. "I really like the view on the ocean on this one. What do you say mom, wanna take a look?"

"I was just about to say" Anita agreed, "That really looks nice."

"Just came in this morning" the agent told us, "I can go get the keys if you want, it´s just five minutes to walk from here…"

"Alright…" I agreed with the others, "…let´s go see it."

While the real-estate agent went to get the keys, I grabbed myself some more of Nick´s strawberries and ate them contentedly. They just tasted fantastic.

My life had a pretty wild turn since last evening, but it really felt like something I needed since quite a while. Although all this was a little ridiculous in my opinion, it really was exciting as well. I always just lived in the moment, I never really planned anything ahead, but I always was ready for what else my life would surprise me with. "You only live once!" I reminded myself once again, "Playing on a big stage with my son? Becoming a grandmother? Moving to a new house? Bring it on!"


Ok guys, little announcement: This will be the last chapter to this story for a little while. I wanna concentrate on my new "beastars" project a little more now, and it gets really confusing writing two different stories at once, all apart from the german novel I´m also working on. Hope you can understand me a little there.

Anyway, maybe I´ll find some inspiration for this story again in a little bit.

Hope you enjoyed it so far. I surely did.

See you later ;)

~furr