Dinner ended on a surprisingly good note. Apart from the fact that Judy was a little disgruntled of her Dad disclosing the video to the expansively large rabbit family of hers, the rest of us were satisfied with the meal. I did find the pair casting short sporadic stares at me when I was chewing on the greens, which to be honest, I did not care any lesser. Soon it would become a common sight once they have bored their eyes out on my peculiar diet.
Looking at Nick, I could not help but feel anxious about being that close to him in person. Out there in my former world where I supposedly belonged to, there were many Disney fans out there wishing to be in this world of mammals such that they could be friends with the two stars of the movie. I guess I could count myself as a lucky individual. However, as exciting and exhilarating, as it all seemed, I was not sure of how I would interact with him. From one fellow fox to another, what topics do they usually converse about? Not to mention that I was merely a human trapped in the body of a fox – I knew nothing of being one.
Bonnie was clearing the dinner plates from the table. "Say Judy, would you mind doing a favour for Richard? He could definitely use a ride back to the city in your police cruiser instead of jostling into a train packed full of mammals like canned carrots," she asked.
"Sure! We need to head back to city centre anyway," Judy responded, smiling. She locked eyes with me for a brief moment, giving a positive thumbs-up. Her grouchiness from before had completely vanished from existence; she was back to her uppity self once more. Where did all of that negativity went? That was certainly a mystery by itself.
"That would be wonderful of you, Sweetie. In that case, I shall leave Richard with you two now; I have to check on the little ones right after I am done with all the dishwashing," Bonnie noted, carrying the stacked dishes with both paws.
"Do you need help with that, Mrs. Hopps?" Nick offered as Judy's Mum was teetering left and right; balancing the rather unstable mountain of piled tableware. Stu instantly rushed to her aid, halving her load.
Bonnie chuckled. "It's fine! Stu is enough for the job. It is really getting dark out; you three should head back to the city."
"You heard what she said; we will be A-Okay by ourselves!" Stu agreed, his head hidden behind the dishes he was carrying, only the ears managed to poke out from the heap.
As soon as Stu and Bonnie disappeared behind the confinements of the kitchen, I did not take me long to realize I was left to the police pair again. Just from the looks of their faces when they glanced at me simultaneously, I could tell that I was in for serious personal interrogation when we head back to the city.
"So Richard, My buddy Carrots here has quite an awful lot of questions for you," Nick finally spoke, displaying his signature smirk.
He pulls on this demeanour so frequently that sometimes I wondered whether it was possible for a face to freeze in a particular expression from over usage. It was one of the many well-known myths I knew of; commonly told in children's books and fairy tales by many authors. I did not count myself as an avid reader like all those bookworms in the library, but I do like some good old fiction stories when I am bored.
It was then which I noticed Nick's paw waving right in front of my face. Apparently, I had been caught up in my train of thought that I had forgotten about them being right next to me on the couch.
"Seen a ghost, kid?" Nick asked as I snapped back to reality.
"Sorry, was caught up with something in my mind," I replied meekly.
The fox then turned to the bunny beside him, gesturing a finger towards me as he nudged her playfully by the side. "No wonder he was dazed, you really are scaring him with your high 'spirit'."
Judy smacked her face, slightly irritated from Nick's wit. "Sometimes you really are intolerable," She noted to him dryly before looking back at my direction. "Come on Richard, we are going back to the city now."
Nick pretended to have misheard her. "I am what - Adorable? Gee Whiskers; I did not expect that coming from you," he mused, making the bunny's ears shoot straight up.
I watched as Judy re-joined the sarcastic banter between herself and the fox, following closely behind as they were heading outside. Their trades were of mainly cynical remarks or clever retorts; trying to outwit one another. It was quite amusing and peculiarly entertaining to observe them perform their typical routinely squabble – I did share some laughs with them in between some hilarious lines. Nevertheless, they refocused their attention back at me once more after we left the farmhouse.
"Richard, I have been wondering – How did you get to know of my parents?" Judy questioned.
"I know everybody," I answered back cheekily, earning a snicker of approval from Nick as Judy's face fell from my reply. It was a quote taken from none other than the famous red fox standing right beside me. The three words, which he had used to not only, boast about his knowledge of other mammals; but also to act as a bridge for him to sculpt a quirky insult to Judy during the days where they were yet to be close pals.
Nick signalled at Judy with his eyebrow. "Seems like he has hustled you good, Carrots."
"How did you know about what Nick said to me?" Judy was dumbfounded. Nick's ears drooped flat on his head the second she said that.
I was beginning to regret trying to come across to them like a magical mind reading gypsy. I definitely could not inform them that I saw it all in a movie, not that they would believe in that sort of hogwash even if I did tell them the truth. I mean; if someone told me that he knew everything about me because he had some form of twenty four hour surveillance tracking what I was doing everywhere, I would be placing the local mental hospital's hotline on speed dial right away. I smiled weakly as Nick shifted his gaze at me.
He eyed at me in suspicion. "Got to agree with Judes there; How do you know of that?"
Crap. Why did I dig myself deeper into this mess?
"I honestly did not know about that; was just trying to crack a lame joke – I do apologize if that got you startled. I swear," I responded, raising my paw with all three fingers lined up in attention. It was just a simple misunderstanding… a coincidence!
Once again, I felt the pair studying me with scepticism. Attempting to pull off a white lie against two of the best officers in the city was nerve wrecking; perhaps that was what "dealing with the devil" felt like – being scrutinized by the eyes of the wiser was definitely not comforting.
Nick finally shrugged. The pressuring weight that burdened my back vaporized in an instant. "Maybe I am just that influential," he suggested.
"Yeah, right, Slick Nick," Judy retorted, resisting a chuckle.
We made our way down the dirt road, traces of tractor tracks were visible on the passage from the way wild grass was sprouting alongside it. To our right were the market booths; all of them were vacant and some were draped with rags for protection from weathers. Each had its own unique colour painted on the wood for the sake of differentiation. The bunny farmers who were tending them were already long gone, most likely back at their own hobbit houses and counting their earnings from the sold produce.
I looked up at the sky. It was already dark out; a solid gradient of dark blue accentuated by a spray of glimmering specks. The moon was its centrepiece; shining brilliantly like a magical marble up in space. I would have never thought that a world conceptualized by Disney was a thing of beauty viewing it from the perspective of the people living in it.
"Quite a pretty sight, don't you think?" Judy noticed me stargazing as we approached the police cruiser, which was parked alongside the main road where the path abruptly ends. Holy mackerel, that vehicle was a giant compared to me.
"It is impressive," I exclaimed.
Nick chuckled, opening the front door of the cruiser. "If you think that is impressive, you obviously have yet to experience Sahara square during night hours – You must really be new to the city."
"I guess I am," I confessed, struggling a tiny bit to get the back door open. "Isn't this… car a tad oversized for you guys?"
"Oh. About that, we have to wait a while for the ZPD to get cars of our sizes manufactured. For now, we would have to stick with this; it's the smallest one that they could offer," Judy explained, entering the driver's seat. She jammed the keys into the ignition switch right after she had buckled up. The car began to move the second I closed the door shut from the backseat.
"Do you mind classical music?" Nick asked, sliding a disc into the radio's feed.
"Not at all. Just as long as it is not severely distracting."
"That is great! Another thing we have in common," Nick contemplated with a grin. He sighed wearily. "Finnick would never stop blasting his French raps and aggressive metals all day; I mean, who likes their eardrums getting torn to shreds? Seriously."
The soft humming of the car's engines transitioned into the gradual build-up of the music that was playing from the radio. It did not take a genius to realize that it was composed by none other than the famous rat pack band. I did not come from that era of music but work of legends live on forever. Even though the lyrics were partially different from the original human version of the talented quintet, the song still pertained the identical style.
"Rat pack, an old classic," I commented.
Nick's ear flicked up. "You know of them?" he asked.
"Listened to a couple of their works, they are very gifted," I noted.
Judy smirked. "You two sure have a lot in common; Maybe I could even get answers from Nick about you," she joked. "And that's another one agreeing that you are old."
"Nah-ah, Carrots. I have absolutely no clue whatsoever. Besides, you would have been aging like a fine egg as a jobless bunny living in the tiny confinements of a "Grand" apartment if I had not provided you with the lead to crack Otterton's case." Nick stated, returning the smirk.
"Maybe that's why fox repellents exist," Judy exclaimed resignedly.
