Chapter 116: The Holiday Decorating War
Both Nick and Jake have always been a tad too competitive.
"So Jake, you were putting up the Winter's Eve lights all by yourself and lost the ladder?" the fox in blue sportcoat asked as he looked up at the raccoon dangling from the old Victorian house's rain gutter. "Why didn't you ask me for help? As both a police officer and your son's scoutmaster, I feel compelled to remind you about the motto of safety first. Did you know that on page twenty of the Junior Ranger Scouts Handbook, it says to always have someone hold the ladder when you are on one?"
"Stop messing around Nick and get the ladder!" the raccoon in the tan jacket yelled as he desperately clung to the gutter.
"I thought you were a master burglar?" Nick said with a smirk on his muzzle. "Don't tell me that you've lost your nimble skills in your old age?"
"I swear fox that if I fall off of this roof, I'm going to land on your head!"
Picking up the fallen aluminum ladder, the fox slowly inched it closer to the raccoon but still kept just it slightly out of his reach.
"That isn't funny Nick!" the raccoon protested. Finally, the ladder was within reach and he grasped it before pulling himself over until he firmly gripped the rungs. "I might have fallen."
"I thought about, but then I saw that there is an old rhododendron below you which would have broken your fall."
"Of course it would have, but I didn't want to damage any of the branches. I spent hours pruning it so that it has the right shape," Jake said in a rather unconvincing tone as he began to climb up the ladder.
The fox watched Jake while the raccoon crawled onto the roof and began to unwind several strands of white lights. "So I guess that you've already tested those to make sure all the bulbs are working?" he finally asked.
"You are talking to a guy who has a degree in electrical engineering, so of course I did," Jake lied as he glanced down at the strands of lights piled around him.
"Are you only going to use white lights again this year?" Nick asked as he gave a grin towards this best friend who was now draping the lights from the eves. "That isn't very original."
"It's traditional!" Jake snapped back as he worked. "It is certainly much better than the way you decorate your house. Oh wait, a lonely cheap plastic wreath on the front door is not much of a real decoration now is it?"
"You know that Carrots and I work almost every holiday, it is one of the many joys of being cops," Nick sarcastically replied.
"That is a cope out, fox! I think that you just lack the necessary imagination to really decorate for the holidays," Jake laughed as he continued to work.
"I lack the necessary imagination?" Nick huffed out and then he grinned when he saw movement behind the raccoon. "Oh, I will show you how to decorate a house!"
There was a clanking sound and the raccoon looked down to see that the fox had removed the ladder and set it down on the front lawn. "Hey, Nick come back here!" Jake yelled as he watched the fox walking away. "How am I going to get down?
"Hi, Pop!" a familiar youthful voice said from behind him, which caused Jake to give a startled jump, and he quickly turned around to see that Nicky was standing there.
"Just how did you get up here?" the older raccoon asked as he looked around in confusion for a rope or another ladder.
"I climbed out of my bedroom's window," the younger raccoon answered.
"Oh yeah, why didn't I think of that?" Jake mumbled to himself.
By the time evening rolled around, the raccoon had hung all the lights from the eaves and a green pine garland, along with even more lights, on the porch. Jake had Marie and the boys gathered out front while he pulled out his cell phone and pushed the digital button on the app he had installed. Suddenly the white lights lit up the old house's front. "Very pretty, Sugar!" Marie proclaimed.
"Hey Poppa," Freddie called out. "Why is there a strand of the lights not working?"
The older raccoon gave out a long groan.
Two days later Jake hesitated before he exited the taxi that he had ridden home from work in when he saw what was happening. The sides of the street were packed with pickup trucks and cars, while the yard and roof next door were swarming with rabbits and they all seemed to be stringing lights on the fox's roof. "What is going on?" the raccoon yelled over to Nick, who was standing outside on the street talking to a handsome looking buck in a pair of blue denim overalls.
"I took up your challenge and I am decorating my house for the holidays!" the fox smugly answered. "I think you know Judy's older brother Jerry?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure we met before, she has so many brothers that I can't keep up with who is who," Jake answered as he shook the rabbit's paw before the raccoon picked up a strand of the lights. They had large multicolored bulbs. "Where did you get all of these old fashioned decorations? I didn't think they made these anymore?"
"They don't, I got them from Big Bob. He bought these many years ago when they tore down the old Wombat Department Store downtown and he just had them sitting around in his backroom.
"You must have spent a fortune on all of these!"
"No, I told Big Bob that you had challenged me to a decorating contest so he let me borrow them."
"Big Bob just gave you all of these lights?"
"Yep, he said that you need to be knocked down a notch or two. That old possum also said something about how you are getting too big for your own britches."
"You also got some of Judy's brothers to hang the lights and decorations for you too?" the raccoon snapped. "That isn't fair!"
"You challenged a member of the Hopps family and of course we came to help," Jerry answered while giving Jake a grin. "We rabbits take our holiday decorations seriously and we certainly don't want to lose to a predator."
"Nick's not a rabbit and he's a predator too!" the raccoon objected.
"Nick is family and that makes him an honorary rabbit!" the handsome buck chuckled.
"If you can be a member of a coyote pack, then I can be a member of a fluffle of bunnies!" Nick laughed as he gave Jake a smirk.
In less than an hour, the lights covered not only the house's front but also both sides too. There were strings after strings of the multicolored lights, along with dozens of decorative candy canes hung along the eaves and even a larger-than-life inflatable figure of Santa Paws which was mounted by the chimney. In the front yard, there was even a display of cute plastic penguins skating on a fake icy pond.
It was dark when Nick, Judy, Jake, Marie, and the two boys, along with dozens of curious neighbors, had gathered in front of the fox's house. "This is how you decorate!" Nick proclaimed as he threw a switch on the front porch. The colored lights brightly glittered and blinked, the huge inflatable Santa Paws blew up, and the penguins began to spin on the fake ice as the sound of holiday music filled the air. "Ta-da!"
The gathered neighbors applauded much to the fox's delight while the raccoon stood there and scowled.
The next day, Jake added dozens of large animated angels and even more white lights onto his home's roof. After seeing what his neighbor was doing, Nick found more and more plastic figurines to add to his display. Soon even more white lights crisscrossed the raccoon's roof, and tackier, but festive decorations were added to the fox's yard. As the two homes became more outrageously decorated, it drew plenty of traffic as others came to admire the decorations, and soon you couldn't go down the town streets due to cars, vans, and busses trying to drive by the two houses at night. Traffic was backed up all the way onto Main Street, causing a traffic jam much to many of the local townsfolks displeasure.
Several days later, it was dark once again and the raccoon stood in front of his house, Jake grinned at Nick while he pulled out his cell phone. A large group of his employees, led by Tails, Jerry, and Tom, had been there since dawn reworking all of the lights and adding even more pre-assembled displays. With great flourish, the raccoon pressed something on the phone's screen, and immediately a festive holiday tune began to play as the lights and lasers began flashing to the beat of the music. Snow machines mounted on the home's roof began to rumble and spray their powdery ice high into the air while the excited crowd behind them applauded and even others in their cars honked in approval. The stately Victorian house now looked almost like a small colorful Disneyland castle bedecked in all its holiday glory.
Nick frowned as he watched the snow falling and then he noticed that one of his plastic elves had become unplugged, leaning over he pushed the plug into the already overloaded outlet and it lighted up for just a few moments before everything suddenly went dark. "Did I trip a circuit breaker?" Nick asked in surprise.
"No, I don't think so?" Jake answered as he looked back at his now pitch black house and then down the block at all the other dark houses. "I'm pretty sure you overloaded a transformer, someone needs to call the power company."
"Oops!" was all the fox could think of saying.
The next afternoon, a middle-aged coyote in a blue mechanics uniform towered over the raccoon as they watched while more coyotes were removing most of the displays from both the old Victorian house in front of them and the house next door. Nick stood there with his ears drooping and his tail tucked between his legs. "It just got out of control," the alpha of Jake's pack said. "Your little competition has disrupted the whole community and so the town's Council of Packs and Herds met with your wives. Both Judy and Marie agreed with us and so we are taking most of this stuff to the fairgrounds where it will be set up in a safer area for everyone to come to see it."
In the end, Jake was back to his usual display of white lights and Nick got to keep at least one set of multi-colored lights on his house. All had once again returned to normal now that the two best friends had made up.
Peace on Earth had returned to this small slice of Zootopia, that was until Judy and Marie saw the electric bills for their husbands' latest misadventure.
