Chapter 104: The Great Pumpkin Festival


Freddie joins a polka band and Nicky grows a really large pumpkin for his Uncle Finn.


"It's the school!" Susie loudly squeaked out from her small desk in front of the raccoon's office. "They want to talk to you about your son."

"We do have an intercom," the raccoon in the blue business suit sighed as he looked up from his laptop. He gave an embarrassed glance towards his secretary when the game he was playing online gave a musical beeping noise. So much for pretending that he was busy with work he realized, but then again he did own the company.

"I know!" the petite mouse answered as she knowingly rolled her eyes before she went back to shorting the pile of invoices on her desk. "Why don't you just answer the phone instead of playing games on your computer, boss?"

"What has Nicky done this time?" Jake whispered to himself as he gave an apprehensive look towards the buzzing phone sitting on his desk. Tentatively he reached down and picked up the receiver. "Hello, this is Jake Runnel."

"Ah Mister Runnel," the voice of the music teacher was on the other end of the call much to the raccoon's surprise. "It is so good to talk with you again, I was calling about Freddie."

"Did he do something wrong? Usually, it's the principal who is calling me about Nicky."

"Oh no, it is just that I understand Freddie has taken up the accordion and we were wondering how his lessons were going?"

"Good, I guess?" the puzzled raccoon answered. "May I ask why you are so interested, the school band doesn't use accordions?"

"Well one of the accordion players in the local polka band broke his arm and they need a new musician for the upcoming pumpkin festival."

"I don't think he is ready yet, I mean it has been just about a month."

"Mister Runnel, Freddie has incredible musical talent, unlike anyone I've ever seen or heard before!" the music teacher replied. "Last week he brought the ukulele you brought him from Pawaii to school for show and tell and I was expecting him to strum a few cords on it since he has not had any formal lessons."

"I've heard him play a few songs on it, simple stuff like the song Somewhere over the Rainbow. He has a good ear for notes."

"Mister Runnel, you are underestimating his talent. He stood in front of the class and played the entire song Free Bird by Lynnyard Skyward. Never in all my born days did I think that I would ever hear someone do that on ukulele and make it work. He said he learned it by watching a tutorial on Ewe-tube."

"Huh?"

"Then for an encore, he gave that mandolin he has to Cheri and they played an old folk tune called Whiskey in the Jar. It was amazing!"

"I didn't even know he knew that song? I don't even know that song."

"So if he learns to play enough of the songs, will you let him join the band on stage at the Pumpkin Festival? He told me that he wants to do it."

"I guess we can let him practice with the band and see how things go."

"Good, they met tonight in the gymnasium after school."

"Tonight? Marie and I have a gala to attend downtown, can he do it tomorrow?"

"He needs as much practice as he can get."

"I'll ask my friend Nick if he can take him."


Fifteen Minutes Later

"Don't you think Freddie is a little young for playing in a band?" the fox said as he leaned back and balanced a straw on the end of his paw. The café around them was busy with patrons, most of them in blue police uniforms.

"He is eleven," Jake defensively answered. "Or are the boys twelve?"

"Geeze coon, you don't even know your kits ages!" Nick scoffed as sat the straw down upon the table. "Nicky and Freddie are now ten years old."

"Sometimes they seem like they've been around at least thirty years," Jake snickered as he pushed his plate aside. "Especially Nicky, how can a raccoon be so hard-headed and not listen to his father?"

"Somehow I think your father said the same thing about you!"

"Ha…ha…ha…not funny fox!"

"So, a polka band?"

"Yep."

"This might lead to a future of being a professional musician."

"Maybe?"

"Like Johnny Canid in Home Alone? He was Gus Pawlinski, the 'Polka King of the Midwest', in the movie."

"I wonder how much money a professional polka band member makes in a year?"

"I would wager it is not that much."

The raccoon stared at his glass of tea and gave out a long sigh.

"You do know that he will be practicing on his accordion more at home?" the fox added as he gave his best friend a smirk.

The raccoon gave out an even longer sigh.

"That includes everyone's favorite party song."

The sigh turned out into a groan.

"The dreaded Chicken Dance, you know how it goes."

The groan turned into a creative curse.

"Da…da…da, da, da, da…da…da" Nick hummed and he softly tapped the table with his right paw.

Jake sat up and ran one of his paws through the fur on his head. "There is only one thing to do!" the raccoon proclaimed in a determined tone.

"You're not really going to tell Freddie he can't do this?" the fox asked in concern as leaned back in his own chair. "It would break his little heart."

"Nope!" Jake said with a small grin. "He is just going to have to move out."

"You can't toss a ten-year-old raccoon kit and his accordion out onto the street!" Nick scoffed.

"Who said I was tossing him out?" Jake chuckled. "I was just thinking that you and Judy have a spare bedroom…"

"Oh no, you don't!"

"Why not?"

"Judy would kill us both," Nick laughed.

"Then she can move in with us. When Freddie moves out we will have a spare bedroom," Jake snickered.

"Shut up coon!"


The Next Day

"That pumpkin is huge!" the skinny coyote in a pair of worn overalls proclaimed as he stood next to the young raccoon in a green tee shirt and jeans, they were standing in the garden behind the quint old restored Victorian house. Around them, the summer crops were beginning to die off from the cool nights and the raccoon had set down his trowel from where he had planted several rows of spinach seedlings. "I wonder how many pumpkin pies that will make?"

"Billy, this one is not for pie making," Nicky said as he walked over and gently patted the huge orange gourd. The pumpkin was larger than he was.

"Are you going to make a jack-o-lantern from that?" the young coyote asked as he tilted his head in confusion. "I thought we were going to carve those other four by the gate?"

"No, this one is for Uncle Finn!"

"He's a fennec fox and he is so small that he could almost live in that thing."

"Nope, he is going to use it for a boat."

"A boat?"

"Uncle Finn has entered the Zootopia Pumpkin Regatta Race, he wants to win the big cash prize."

"Well, Mister Wilde says that your Uncle Finn is like a sailor," the coyote began to say, but then he paused and scratched his left ear before he corrected himself. "That's not right, I think it was that he cusses like a sailor?"


Twelve Days Later

"You have to admit that Freddie is really good with that accordion," Nick said as he handed the raccoon next to him a mug of pumpkin-spiced ale.

"What I can't believe is that Marie and Judy dragged us out onto the dance floor so we could make fools of ourselves doing the Chicken Dance!" Jake replied before he took a gulp from the mug.

"Well it is the Pumpkin Festival, so a little dancing to a polka or two is part of the fun."

"I haven't seen Finnick since he, Nicky, Billy, and Tails went down to the river with that pumpkin of theirs."

"The small fox has had enough excitement for the day after what happened to him during the race."

"Yeah, I missed it because Marie and I were up here with Freddie."

"You do know that they entered their pumpkin in the motorized boat race?" Nick asked with a grin before he sipped his brew.

"So they actually figured out how to attach a trolling motor or something to that hollowed out shell?" Jake replied as he found a seat at one of the long tables.

"No, Trails was a bit more creative than that," the fox snickered as he sat down next to the raccoon.

"I don't like the way this is going, what happened?"

"Tails figured out how to hook a small rocket engine up to the pumpkin."

"Now, I know I don't like the way this is going."

"Finn got into the pumpkin and when the starting whistle was blown he turned the rocket on."

"Don't tell me it blew up?"

"No, he went skimming across the water," Nick chuckled as he made a launching motion with his paws. "Finn zoomed down the river past the finish line at a record pace. He looked hilarious with his tongue hanging out and his large ears plastered back as they flapped in the wind."

"So, Finn won?" the raccoon asked in surprise.

"Then he hit a wave," Nick continued trying not to bust out in laughter. "Finn and the pumpkin soared up into the air like an orange meteor and then flew at least twenty five feet towards the distant shore before landing in a tree. Thank goodness your son Nicky was able to climb up and lower the small guy to safety."

"Then Finn did win?"

"Nope, the judges disqualified him for using excessive foul language at a family event. When that little fox was stuck in the tree, he was yelling curse words which even I have never heard before!"