More Family to Love

The next morning, everyone woke up to find Sly making breakfast. He had prepared homemade French toast with powdered sugar, toast with a side of preserves, scrambled eggs and bacon.

"Morning everyone," Sly said as he set down a bunch of glasses of orange juice on the table.

"You did all this?" Maria said.

"Yeah!" Sly answered, heading back into the kitchen. "How do you like your coffee?"

"Carm, you hit the jackpot here," Maria enthusiastically muttered to Carmelita. "I'll take mine decaf!"

"Black with cream!" Juan said.

"Regular with sugar!" Carmelita said.

The group had just finished breakfast and Sly had just settled down for a nap in the guest bedroom when the doorbell rang.

"I'll get it!" Carmelita said as she went for the front door.

There was a scream. Sly was startled and turned around to see the foyer filling up with more foxes!

"What are you doing here?" Carmelita said in a surprised but gleeful expression.

"I invited them!" Maria said as she entered the living room. "When I heard you were coming down for a visit, I figured why not have a family reunion for this special occasion!"

"MOM!" Carmelita wined. "But still…"

"So what's the surprise?" One of the foxes said, he was a male.

Carmelita held up her hand to flash off her engagement ring. Everyone suddenly went into shock.

"No way!" a female fox said. "Who's the lucky man?"

"Hold on, I'll go get him," Carmelita said, heading for the bedroom.

Sly, finding out there was company, quickly pulled on a dress shirt and coat, but wore it in a casual way. He then headed for the landing, jumped up on the rail, and rail slid down into the foyer and into Carmelita, who then straitened his collar.

"Everyone, I want you meet my future husband, Sly Cooper," Carmelita said, leading Sly into the living room.

Everyone was just in shock. Carmelita was going to marry the Sly Cooper? He was a legend as both a criminal and as a cop!

"Hello everyone!" Sly said.

Carmelita then began introducing everyone. Her oldest brother Julio, chief of the Interpol Headquarters in Madrid, then her older sister Eliza, who was CEO of Tech Essentials Inc., an international technical company that, ironically, unknowingly supplies some of the latest in electronic hardware ranging from computer chips to super computers with mainframes the size of laptops, and finally there was the youngest son, Carmelita's younger brother, Enrique, who was division manager of Tech Essentials Inc.

"So who owns the Lotus?" said Julio. "I'm guessing you Cooper?"

"Yeah, that's my car," Sly bragged. "Had some friends tune it up for me. They stuck in a smaller engine with more power and made room for a backseat."

After an informal lunch, Sly announced that he needed to some errands in town.

"Here, why don't we come," Carmelita said.

"All right," Sly said. "I just hope none of your get carsick."

Everyone buckled up, Sly and Carmelita were in the front seats, and everyone crammed into the back.

"Okay, you might want to hold on to something," Sly said with enthusiasm.

"What are you talking…?" Eliza scoffed. But she didn't finish her sentence.

Because right then and there, Sly hit the gas and the car sailed at high speed in reverse down the driveway. As soon as they reached the end, everyone realized they were driving backwards facing a semi! It went on like this until they reached town, where then, Sly steered the car though the space underneath a passing semi trailer, did a one-eighty and parked.

Julio right afterwards spent the next couple of minutes driving the porcelain bus into a trashcan.

"What are we doing parked in front of the Thunder Beak Nightclub?" Eliza asked.

"Because Eliza," Sly commented, heading to the front doors. "I have to talk with an old pal, who happens to own the joint."

"NO WAY!" Enrique said; his face filled with joy. "You mean to tell me that you are friends with the owner of THE hottest nightclub in all of southern Spain!"

"That's right!" Sly said, opening the doors. "I'll meet you guys here at two, okay?"

"So Carmelita, we have about an hour and a half to kill, what should we do?" Eliza said, looking at her younger sister.

"Well, if I know Sly," Carmelita said. "He's probably making arrangements for when he forces us to come here. So I suggest we go shopping for a new dress! The guys can, do whatever they want." She looked towards Julio and Enrique.

"We might get something done if he'd just stop upchucking!" Enrique said, looking at Julio who was once again launching his lunch into the trashcan.

And then finally, the four siblings split into two groups and went separate ways.