Chapter 4

Incident at Zootopia School for the Deaf

The clock struck 12 o'clock as Judy and Nick took a break from the interviewing with the students. They had interviewed 8 more students since Maria Bunhill. They just finished the interview few minutes before 12 and they told Miss Redtail that they will resume the interview after lunch.

Since it was not a good idea to eat lunch in the school's cafeteria, they decided to eat out at one of the nearby restaurants. Miss Manor had brought her own lunch so it was just the two of them to eat. They found Cha-Hua restaurant. Nick ordered chicken taco while Judy ordered bean and carrot burrito. It was a bit awkward for them as they have not eaten together for a week since their big argument.

As they waited for the food, Nick broke the ice, saying, "Since Maria brought up the subject at the beginning of her interview. I have been thinking about it for a bit… How the bunnies in your hometown, outside of your family, reacted when they found out about us?"

Judy choked a bit on her carrot soda as she did not expect that kind of talk from him. She pondered a bit before answering, "Well, as in it's in a rural area, it's a pretty conservative small town so the interspecies relationship is viewed more negatively in a rural area as opposed to big cities such as Zootopia, Los Angelzoos, and Zouston. Remember that fox spray I had?" Nick nodded, as she resumed, "many rural bunnies still considered foxes as untrustworthy and 'dangerous'. My parents thought that way so that's why they gave me that spray just to shut them up about 'safety around foxes' which is better than Fox Taser they tried to give me. Some are more accepting than others. The Bunhill family, for example, are more accepting to interspecies friendship or relationship than my own parents until after I joined the ZPD. Gideon Grey, remember what I mentioned about him? He was a bully when we were young but as we got older, he realized his errors and had apologized to me for his youth behavior. His parents still don't approve of interspecies relationships but accepted the friendship only. So, it depends on the family as well as experiences with other species, especially predator species. As for our relationship, in the beginning, only the Bunhill family and my family have accepted it, however, for other families… well, that depending on their views as well as time will tell."

"Well," Nick said, "From what Maria said about her time last night and her relationship with the foxes and others that are a relief to hear that. By the way, I sure am glad that she has proven herself to be innocent so you don't have to worry about facing her family. I like that kid. I have never met a deaf kid like that. But I am a bit confused about something."

"What is confusing?" Judy asked.

"Maria is deaf, right?" Nick said, "So, from what I hear, most bunnies have more sensitive and better hearing than some species. So, how some bunnies become deaf despite bunnies' superior hearing?"

"Good question," Judy smiled, "but you forgot something too."

"What?"

"Bunnies, like any other species, are prone to any diseases, health issues, disabilities. So, it is not uncommon for any species, especially those with better hearing, to have deafness. Some are genes and some are from severe illness. Maria was born hearing but she had a bad illness when she was about 4 or 5 years old. Her parent took her to the doctor and found out that she had lost her hearing. It wasn't easy for the parents and it took them awhile to accept her deafness. Most people considered deafness as inferior mental intelligent but Maria had shown me and my family that deafness does not cause any intelligence deterioration at all. From what my parents had heard from her parents, she has had excellent grade reports at school. Got mostly 'A' on most of her subjects. Her parents said that she is always a happy girl despite her shyness. She is shy especially around strangers mainly because of communication barriers as most people don't know signs. She knows me from the festivals and other events gatherings that our families got together so she wasn't shy with me even though I know very little sign language that I learned from her."

"Oh you do, Carrots?" Nick smiled, "What signs do you know?"

"Well," Judy pondered for a bit, "I know the signs for 'Hello', 'Goodbye', 'yes', 'no', 'sorry', and um… Oh! 'I love you,'" while demonstrating each sign.

"W-what… wait…," Nick stammered, "What's that last one?"

Judy opened her mouth as she begins to show the sign before stopping herself, realizing the situation they were currently in. She pondered a bit before speaking. "W-well, it's a sign for 'I love you' but um… I want to to say something too, Nick. I want to say that I am sorry for what happened last week too. I – I understand that it was not easy for both of us lately but I do miss you, Nick."

"Well," Nick pondered, "Let's wait until this case is over so we can focus on the case. You always told me to focus on cases so I am returning that 'nagging' favor to you."

Judy blushed a bit. "Of course, Officer Sly Fox."

"All righty, Officer Dumb Bunny," Nick smiled. "That being said. So, who is next on our list?"

"Well," Judy said as she took out the list, looked it down, "That would be Julie Jackbenny."

"Jackbenny?" Nick said, "That name sounds familiar but it has been awhile or something since I heard that name."

"I think you must be thinking of that famous comedian, Jack Bunny," Judy answered, "You know…. That '39 years old' thing."

"Oh! That must be it," Nick exclaimed as he hit his forehead with his paw. "Duh me! He died before I was born. My parents told me about him and had watched some old movies on TV with them when I was young. Funny guy. He's one of the reasons why my family and I had no problem being friends with preys such as rabbits as well as my wanting to join that scout group. It has been awhile since I heard that name."

"Really?" Judy perked, "He was very popular among us bunnies but I never knew that foxes like him too."

"Of course, we foxes love him," Nick said as the waitress brought the foods. "Well, the food's here and let's finish it and we need to get back to the grind of solving this case without getting sidetracked."

"Of course," Judy agreed as she took a bite of her burrito. She took out the case file from her bag. Reviewing some notes they had written down during the interview.

"Did Miss Manor say if she notices any tail being bend on any of the students we had interviewed?" Judy asked.

"Nope," Nick took some notes from Judy to look in some notes. "Let's see… We noticed five of them have short or bobbed tails. Since Miss Manor did not report any bended tail, we will still consider those 5 as possible suspects."

"Right."

"Oh, my," Nick exclaimed, "There are few kids with the same name. All rabbits."

"Oh, yeah," Judy said, "Some are littermates so they share deafness because of mother's illness or genes. Other 'single' deaf rabbits became deaf due to illness or accident during their youth. So, it's not surprising to see some littermates who are deaf. That's why there are many deaf rabbits here. A lot to interview. Just be glad that we only focus on high school kids, not elementary kids unless they witness or heard something as the campus are split into two groups – elementary and high school as well as the size of animals. About a quarter of 256 students are rabbits and most are in elementary now so…"

"Oh, yeah," Nick remarked as he finishing up his lunch. "I remember visiting your family farm and getting 'attacked' by a swarm of your young siblings, asking me all kind of questions and such. You were laughing that time when I asked for your help. Remember?"

Judy laughed at the memory. "Oooooh, yeah! You were annoyed that time when I kept laughing. Don't worry, we won't bring all siblings in at the same time for questioning during our investigation. We never know if one of those are guilty or not."

"Of course, so, first up is Julie, then, Alex Hearttail and then three littermates – Dan, George, and Robert. Oh, maybe you have a deaf relation, Edward Hopps?"

"Really?" Judy grabbed the list from Nick. "Interesting. I don't have any deaf in my family… oh, and look at his address, that's different town so I don't think that he's related to my family, however, could be a farther down the family tree from our ancestor. Could be a distant cousin? I will find out later after the case with help from my dad, if possible. He's a single deaf rabbit so he probably become deaf from sickness or accident so no genetic cause."

"If he is, then you better get Maria to teach you some more signs, Carrot," Nick smirked.

"Oh, sweet cheese and crackers!" Judy moaned as Nick laughed. "It's complicated to learn a new language while we are busy with our police workloads," she said. Nick laughed again and said, "Complicated? Is that so? We do know some few signs already so that should be easy, Carrot." Judy looked at him, puzzled, "Oh, we do? Such as?" she folded her arms as she sat back. Nick smiled and flipped the bird at her. Judy groaned and playfully hit Nick on his arm, hissed, "Nick!" while looked around the restaurant and, fortunately, no one saw Nick's gesture but she laughed as well. He laughed so hard that caused some other customers to look at him. Judy playfully hit him again. "Enough!" while having a hard time preventing herself from giggling.

The couple calmed down from giggles and finished their lunch and returned to the school. Miss Manor was already sitting at the table when they entered the conference room.

"How's lunch?" Kate asked as Nick took a seat while Judy went out to get Miss Redtail to retrieve some students to interviews.

"Illuminating," Nick propped up his arm and rest on his paw. "Very illuminating. Found out that there many deaf rabbits who are littermates."

"Of course," Kate said, "I had done some interpreting job for some littermates sometimes so I'm not surprised at this."

"Ah. True," Nick pondered a bit and asked, "Can you tell a difference from each person to determine if the person is guilty of something such as prank and such even though they are alike?"

"Yes, you just look at the way each behaves in a certain way to know that something is up such as giggling or guilty looks or whatever – depending on personality."

"Great, since we are not too familiar with deaf so we need your help with this but be discreet and let us know after each interview. Ah… Here they are!" Nick stood up while Kate followed as Judy got in the room with a young bunny behind her. "Good afternoon," Nick said to the young bunny, motioning her to the seat opposite from them. "I am Officer Wilde and this is the interpreter, Kate Manor. Thanks for coming."

Judy sat next to Nick while the young bunny sat the said chair. Nick motioned to Judy to start the progress. She nodded.

"Okay, can we call you Julie?" Judy asked while Kate interpreted. The bunny nodded. "Great. Can you tell us what happened and where were you last night, Julie?"