Shifty finally stopped walking in the outskirts of town. He saw a very small, very unhappy neighborhood. His old neighborhood.
Shifty stopped at a bar, seeing Lumpy cleaning the last off the glasses. A brown, female fox and Flippy were there, Flippy being surprisingly drunk. The brown fox only had two shots, maybe. Shifty took a seat next to the fox.
"Bloody Mary. Don't forget the cherries, punk," Shifty growled. Lumpy nodded and served the drink in no time at all.
"Bloody Mary at 3:00 in the morning? What's your problem?" the fox asked.
"Family problems. You and Flippy had a drink or two. What happened?" Shifty asked.
"Just got out of prison. The old bastard's drinking his anger away. His girlfriend and kid left him," The fox replied. Shifty shrugged.
"That…doesn't surprise me, really. I'm surprised Flaky didn't leave sooner," Shifty said as he took a sip.
"Fuck the red sonofa…" Flippy called out like some drunken sailor. Shifty shrugged.
"Y'know, you're pretty tight. Name's Paula." The fox introduced herself.
"Shifty." Shifty replied. Paula looked a bit confused.
"Funny…You don't have the fedora…" Paula murmured.
"Gave it to my son. Don't need it anymore. I'm just as soft as my brother, why not just throw it away and look like him?" Shifty growled. Paula smiled and wrote something down on a piece of paper. She passed it to him, afterward.
"You know, I'm getting lonely…You're getting soft…come over when you need to…" she purred in his ear. She paid for the drinks and left, leaving Shifty alone with Lumpy and Flippy.
That was around the time Lifty came in.