Chapter 138: Bubbles

Jake not only repairs Nick's newly purchased used hot tub, but he also improves its performance.

The raccoon in the green sports shirt and well-ironed khaki pants watched while two large elephants carried a huge empty hot tub into the fox's backyard and rather roughly dropped it onto the hastily built low wooden platform which he and Nick had built. "Where did you get this…this…this thing from?" Jake asked while he shook his head at the tub with its fake plastic wooden-looking façade and light blue plastic interior. It looked familiar, but he couldn't place exactly where he had seen it before.

"I bought it from the guys pulling down the old Terwilliger Mansion near Hyenahurst. They were going to tear it apart and toss it in a dumpster so I got it for a steal."

"The Terwilliger Mansion? Wait, I remember something in the news about Harry Terwilliger dying in his hot tub!"

"The tub didn't kill him, he overdosed," Nick replied in a defensive tone.

"Didn't he die from doing drugs and guzzling booze during one of his wild parties?" Jake said while he took a closer look at the hot tub's motor and plumbing. "Are you sure that this old thing still works? Terwilliger croaked several years ago, they say that the old stag had a young doe under each arm and was drinking Champaign from a funnel when he went."

"I'm sure that he left no cooties behind," Nick scoffed as the fox began to unravel his garden hose.

"Why does this hot tub look so familiar?" the raccoon asked as he looked inside.

"Terwilliger bought the hot tub used in the movie Hot Tub Time Machine."

"This is THAT hot tub?"

"Yep, but I am pretty sure that it doesn't do that time travel stuff."

"That's too bad. You could have used it to go back into the past and beat up those jerks who bullied you when you wanted to be a scout."

"An adult beating up a bunch of kits, that doesn't seem right. Besides if they hadn't treated me so bad, I wouldn't have ended up being the charming and dashing police detective you see today."

"You mean the sleazy street hustler that Judy saved?"

"Yep!" Nick chuckled. "Besides I forgave those guys."

"Well they did shove me in a dumpster on Halloween Night when I was eight years old and stole my candy," the raccoon grumbled.

"Yeah, I pulled you out and cleaned you up enough to finish trick-or-treating. Even back then I was watching out for you and we didn't even know each other." The fox had turned on the water and put the hose into the hot tub.

"Surely you didn't forgive Chucky," Jake grumbled. "He turned into a real arrogant sleaze bag, a stockbroker! Always belittling others, running his illegal pump and dump stock schemes, flapping his big mouth, flashing his cash in an attempt to feel superior…."

"Okay…okay, I didn't exactly forgive him," Nick laughed as he held his paw up for the raccoon to stop ranting. "It sounds like you haven't either."

"I didn't forgive him. Nope, I just kind of got even!" Jake mysteriously replied.

"Let me guess, what you did is something that this charming and dashing police detective really doesn't want to know about?"

The grin which the raccoon gave the fox confirmed the detective's suspicion. Unbeknownst to Nick, many years ago, before he went to jail for burglary charges, Jake had broken into the woodchuck's downtown penthouse and robbed him of not only some of the ill-gotten cash from the rather cheap and pathetic wall safe but since it was the night before Halloween, he also stole all of Chucky's candy.

"Yeah, I didn't think so," the fox chuckled.

"You might want to at least change the filter," the raccoon warned but the excited fox was not paying attention. It seemed like it took hours for the small hose to finally fill the large tub with water and the fox went to plug the electrical cord into one of the house's backyard receptacles. A few minutes he returned looking disappointed. "The cord won't fit."

"I should have told you that you can't just plug this into a standard 110 outlet. You need to have a 240 volts outlet and with a 50 amp circuit."

"Shoot, I guess I will have to call an electrician?"

"Dude, I have a degree in Electrical Engineering and I own a company that installs state-of-the-art security systems!" Jake snapped.

"That still does not make you a licensed electrician," Nick sadly sighed while he slowly reached for his cell phone. With his ears flat upon his head, he added, "I'm sure this is going to cost me a bundle and you know how badly the city pays us cops." The fox was giving the raccoon his best version of his sad mournful eyes and Jake had to admit he was almost as good as Judy, but no one beats a rabbit when giving that cute 'manipulative look'.

"Okay…Okay, I will call Tails and he can come over and do the work, he has his license," the raccoon said before digging his own phone out of his back pocket.

"Thanks!" the fox cheerfully said.

The raccoon hesitated for a moment and raised an eyebrow at his now smiling friend, "You know you didn't have to try to con me into doing this, you could have just asked."

"I was afraid that I was losing my magical touch for hustling," the fox replied with a smirk.

It took the tailless rat, with the raccoon's assistance, less than an hour to run the wiring and install the outlet. Carefully he plugged the cord into the outlet and actually looked impressed that the motor hummed to life. "You have inspected the line and the filter?" Tails asked the fox.

"Everything should be just fine!" Nick replied with confidence when he realized that the water was slowly warming up and that there were small bubbles blowing into the tub.

The next morning, the lanky red fox in a pair of lime green swim trunks walked out onto his back porch and looked at the hot tub. Putting his paw into the water, he smiled when he felt it had reached the temperature that he wanted. Slowly he slipped into the warm, cozy water and reached over to turn on the bubbles. Almost giddy with happiness he leaned back while he felt the stream of water caressing his furry back and with a content sigh, he reached for his mug of coffee.

CLUNK! FITTTTZZZZ! CLUNK!

There was a terrible noise, sparks, and then black smoke rose from the engine. The bubbles stopped even as the tod agilely dove from the tub and onto the grass. Panting, he pulled the plug before finally peering into the engine compartment. The hot tub was dead!

Hours later, Jake had pulled apart the motor and laid the parts on a nearby picnic table. "You fried out the motor, it looks like you had a blockage in the lines and that caused it to overheat," the raccoon announced.

"Can it be fixed?" the sad-looking fox asked while he peered over his best friend's shoulder.

"Sure, I think I can get the parts from a store in Tundratown. You know how they love their hot tubs and Jacuzzis over in the cold part of the city. Lounging around in the warm water as you watch the snowflakes falling around you while holding your loved one so tight…" the raccoon seemed to be reminiscing.

"Where did you and Marie do that in Tundratown? I happen to know that Mister Big's mansion does not have an outdoor hot tub so you don't do that when you stay there sometimes," Nick asked. The raccoon grew quiet for a few moments and looked rather embarrassed, causing the fox to grin before he continued. "You were not thinking of Marie, were you? Wait, didn't your old girlfriend Melinda Velt have a place up in Tundratown?"

"Yes, Diamonds had an apartment in Tundratown!" Jake grumbled, it had been years since he had last thought about the sexy cape jackal that he had once dated before he met Marie, but the hot tub had brought up memories of several romantic evenings at her place. Their brief, but intense, romance had ended when she had to return to her homeland overseas. "Now shut up!"

"My lips are sealed!" the fox chuckled as he seemed to pull on an imaginary zipper across his muzzle. "So can you fix it?"

"Sure, no problem."

It seemed like it took forever for the raccoon to repair the motor and it actually took Jake almost a full week, but he was working on it during his spare time. Finally, he installed everything and stood back with a grin while he showed his work off to Nick. "The control panel is different looking, I see the normal dial but what is that green button?" Nick asked.

"I improved on the original motor," Jake excitedly replied as he turned the nob and the usual bubbles shot out into the water. "Just like you had before but I figured if someone like Benny comes over, you might need some more…ah, oomph!"

"Why would Clawhauser need more…what did you say? Oh yeah, more oomph?"

"He is rather large all the way around," the raccoon answered before he pushed the green button. The water began to agitate more and soon the hot tub became a seething cauldron of bubbles. "It might be too much for you and Judy, but it is perfect for your larger friends."

It was a beautiful summer morning and Judy smiled while she set her mug of carrot tea on the edge of the hot tub and reached in to check the water's temperature, it was perfect. Slipping off her robe, she adjusted the straps of her swimsuit and slipped into the water. The rabbit had at first admonished her husband when he told her that he had purchased the tub and then she felt sorry for him when it broke, at least their dear friend Jake seemed to have repaired the motor. It was too late to test the hot tub herself when she finally got home from a busy late-night shift at the police station, but she knew from her still sleeping fox that it was working. "Now how do you turn the jets on?" she muttered to herself while she enjoyed soaking in the warm water. "Ah, the green button must turn them on!" She pushed the large green button and…

WHOOOSH...WHOOSH….WHOOSH!

The rush of water from the jets hit her with great force, propelling her backward into the center of the tub where the bubbles engulfed her as they bounced her around. She was baffled by the torrent of bubbles and spray while the roiling water tossed her head over heels. Struggling in the agitated water, she gasped for air before being dragged back under and then pushed once again to the surface where she gasped again while screaming…"JAKE"…under she went again before rolling back to the surface…"RUNNNNNELLL!"

Thank the gods that the boys were lounging in their nearby treehouse and upon hearing the screams Judy made, the two young raccoons scrambled down the ladder. Nicky quickly did the only thing he could think of, which was to unplug the hot tub's electric cord and as the water grew calm, Freddie helped pull the disheveled-looking rabbit out of the tub. Panting, Judy collapsed onto the nearby grass. "WHERE IS YOUR FATHER?" she finally wheezed out.