France, 1962
"Jack! What have I told you about running and jumping on tops of the buildings?" Rhoda said exasperatedly. She glanced at him at the rearview mirror.
"I can't help it, Maman. I'm part-rabbit!" Jack said, throwing up his arms. The car roof sounded with a thump but no one minded it. They're all used to him forgetting he's in an enclosed space –until he hit something, that is. "I need space to run in this city! T'sais?"
Rose sighed. Jack and their mother seemed to have their voice volume stuck on loud. If she wasn't a rabbit, she would have wondered if she's adopted.
"You're part-humanoid too! You're not as resilient if you jumped to the sky and fall 12 floors below!" their mother answered back, there was a "thwack" when her free hand hit the side door. Even if she's chastising, her voice still has that cute, squeaky pitch that Jack was tempted to mimic.
A soft touch in his arm made him look up to see Rose shook her head. It's funny how different his twin sister could be but still able to read his mind.
Grumbling, Jack folded his arms and sullenly looked at the car window. While he looked like a humanoid with rabbit ears, Rose was an anthropomorph rabbit through and through.
He glanced at the driver's seat. While their mom and his sister were anthropomorphic rabbits, the similarities stop there. Rose looked like pearls and gowns were made for her while their mother could be at home with a circus. Their mother was loud and cheery while Rose could come off as almost cold.
"I think we're going to be late," Rose remarked quietly.
Their mother sighed. Jack's ears perked up that it bent further against the car roof.
"I have an idea."
It was not a good idea.
"WOOO-HOOOOO!"
A flash of red jumped off the building and into the nothingness. The roof of a lower building rushed up to meet him and Jack landed with a concrete tremor. Before the dust could fall back again, he was off and running on the roof of another building.
"Jack, slow down!" Rhoda yelled; her arms around his shoulders.
The grin on Jack's face was invigorated as he slid down a tiled slant and bounced off. His grip on his mother and sister became a bit firmer as his blue eyes crinkled.
"No can do, Ma! Once we go down, it's momentum!"
"So is gravity!"
Rose said nothing on her sitting place which is Jack's forearm. Since she and her mother weren't that tall and Jack was all long limbs, they were quite okay being carried together on each of his arm.
Jack rushed through a fire escape and leaped, red jacket flapping. His rabbit ear gave a salute.
"Hello, ladies!"
Her emerald eyes passively glanced at the women in the balcony they have passed. Her ears cocked at the faint twitters and giggles that followed his heels.
"I think they like you," she murmured, craning to look over his shoulder.
She wouldn't deny that her brother is handsome for a humanoid –even his rabbit ears are debonair, which were sleek and streamlined like a pair of alert antennas.
Jack gave her a confused expression as he bounced off an installed flagpole like a trampoline.
"Who? Oh them?" he barked out a carefree laugh, "I already got two women in my life!"
Rose hummed in reply, but couldn't help looking down to veil the smile in her lips. Even if Jack was younger, he still felt like he had to be the "man of the house". She and their mother rarely asked him to do anything for them because they know he'd go overboard. They never let him fix another leaky pipe again when he managed to flood the house. Then there was the time the gas stove-
A familiar tune caused her brows to crease.
"Jack? Will you stop humming that nursery rhyme already?"
"What?" He hurtled the gap between two buildings.
Rose was about to elaborate on his immaturity when they both hear singing.
"-be nimble, Jack be quick-"
"Maman!" she protested.
Their mother shrugged with a sheepish grin, "Sorry, dear."
Rose suddenly felt herself cajoled. "Loosen up, Roses-'r-red," Jack laughed, bouncing off a tented balcony.
His bunny ears suddenly blocked an icy glare.
"Hey!" he yelled, shaking off the shards.
"I told you not to call me that," she answered calmly.
Hollywood, 1947
When scared, the rabbit's first instinct is to run. But this wasn't instinct. She was scared but she had a plan.
It's been a day and Jesse hadn't come home yet.
Rhoda sighed, staring at the door.
She put the letter on the dining table. A few minutes later, she opened the door. Giving the living room one last look, she stepped outside with a suitcase in hand.
France, 1962
Rose watched her brother through the mirror to see his eyes trained to a book –a rarity. Although looking at the title of the book would make it less surreal. Tooning 101 it simply says.
She fought the urge to roll her eyes. Humanoids, especially those drawn from rotograph, weren't capable of hammerspace. Yet Jack argues he's part-rabbit. He could run faster and jump higher than any humanoids, he'd argue, he'd still has the potential to have one if he trains properly.
Plus, they were never sure if their father was drawn from real-life (those that were so realistic, they don't defy physics) or was a toonier version of a humanoid.
"Jack?"
Sky blue eyes looked up and caught her eye through the mirror. "Hm?"
"Have you ever wondered who our father is?"
Jack rolled to his back, squishing the objects his been trying to hide in his hammerspace to no avail. "Sometimes."
"And?"
One rabbit ear swiped his ginger bangs off his eyes. "And what?"
"Don't you want to know who he is?" She turned her back to the mirror to face him, her back straight and hands clasped on her lap.
He shrugged while lying down. "That would be nice, yeah. But Maman doesn't look like she wants to talk about it," he replied.
They went silent for a moment, remembering the one time they asked if they have a father. Their mom just said "He lives far, far away" then she laughed, suddenly snapping the thick carrot stick in her hands. The resounding crack and the eerie silence after prevented them from asking further.
"Anyway, why wonder?" Jack sat up, pulling his tanned cheek. "I think I got his face."
"And I, his green eyes," she murmured, turning back to the mirror.
His rabbit ears twitched. "Is that why you've been staring at the mirror lately? I've been wondering when did you get so vain."
A light, chastising slap hit him in the bicep before she turned her attention to their reflection again.
"It's just that… sometimes; she'd look at us as if she's seeing somebody else."
Same rabbit cheeks, same white fur. But her ginger hair was redder and a bit wavy unlike their mom. Then there's her humanoid twin brother…
"We're a bit like her. But we're nothing like her. It's like there's a missing piece in the puzzle."
He gave her a sidelong smirk, reading her mind.
"So what are we going to do about it?…" he asked, already knowing the answer.
"I think it's time we meet our father."
Hollywood, Valiant and Valiant Private Investigators Office, 1947
Edna wasn't told she was one of the most wonderful people in the world, but she did have a better side.
It just doesn't show up in the mornings. Particularly, early mornings.
"What are you doing here?" she growled blearily. She stiffly rose up from her office desk, wiping dry spit across her cheek. She was grimy; her mouth taste like sawdust bourbon and good lawd, her hangover's not helping.
The rabbit placed a glass of water beside the detective. "I just wanna thank you."
Edna eyed the glass then glanced back at her. "For what?"
"For slapping the photos of my husband having an affair across my face –several times."
"That makes sense," Edna grunted, cricking her spine as she stood up. The room spun for a moment and Rhoda must have noticed because she steadied her arm.
"You should lie down," the rabbit remarked.
The words seem to echo and Edna remembered someone once taking care of her when she's drunk.
Terrie…
She savagely yanked her arm out of the rabbit's grasp.
"You thanked me already, you can go."
She turned her back on the rabbit to find the foldable bed already set down. Edna sat down heavily on the bed, deciding a bath could be done later.
"Bye," the rabbit said in an audible whisper, closing the door.
"Why are you doing this?"
The rabbit stopped.
"I'm the gal who took pictures of your husband," the detective continued.
The toon nodded as though she completely understand the whole situation. "But you're the one who also snapped me out of my worst."
What wasn't calloused inside Edna's chest, twinged. But just the tiniest. Maybe if Terrie hadn't died…
"Silly rabbit," she finally muttered.
The door finally clicked close and Edna nodded off, unaware that she'd be last one to see her again.
US/France, 1962
Rhoda did not take it well.
Baby Hermina patiently stood there with the phone on her ear as her ex-co-star and good friend talked in one stream of a monologue. There was a padding sound on the background like rabbit feet restlessly walking from one side of the room to the other.
"What am I going to do? Dinner was supposed to be a normal evening but then they have to say that they want to meet him! Then I told them he lives there in America but Rose pointed out they can go there this summer! –C'est n'importe quoi! Like I'm going to let them go alone!"
Mina sighed at the strange phrases the rabbit would habitually interject here and there after 15 years of living in France. There were suddenly some thumping sounds like a forehead against the wall.
"Then they began to barter that this can be their birthday gifts and Christmas gifts for 10 years straight when they worried over the money! But that's not the point! Then they began to tell me their English is fluent, they can go! But that's not the point! They've never asked before, why do they have to ask now?"
A rapid swishing sound was heard like Rhoda shaking off the bump in her head.
"How will I even tell him?!" Then her voice snapped from panic ranting to casual ease as though writing a letter. "Hey, you probably forgot about me but you once married a rabbit. By the way you have kids and they want to see you. Cheers, Rhoda."
There was suddenly a frantic laugh and Mina could almost envision Rhoda clutching her ginger hair.
"What would I even say? Would he even be interested to meet them? What would I even tell them when they'll find out WHAT REALLY HAPPENED!?"
The line went dead for several minutes.
"Are you done?" Mina asked monotonously.
The line crackled as Rhoda sighed. "Yeah, thanks. I needed that."
"Tell them the truth."
"What?!"
"What, you expect me to tell you not to?" Mina hooked the phone against her other ear. "After what he did? They'll be turned off from meeting him, much less, hear more about him."
She could hear Rhoda exhale out of her nose.
"Ouais, enfin…."
"English, please."
"Perhaps. Weeelll…."
"You don't want to tell the story?"
"It's ugly, why tell it? T'sais?"
"It's the truth, why keep it, t-sa-eez?"
There was another large thump and Mina knew Rhoda had agreed to her side.
France, 1948
Baby Hermina did not take it well.
"ARE YOU CRAZY!?"
Rhoda sighed at the ranting toon envelope before her. The thing was up in the air, flapping it's cover like a mouth with Mina's voice.
It's funny how toons have developed their telegrams.
"You broke your contract with Maroon Cartoon Studios and moved to France?! And without telling me either!"
She wrapped her arms around herself. She couldn't. Despite being her gag partner and close friend for years, she didn't think Mina would understand.
"You just off and left! I have to hire a human to hire that damn detective to get some info! That Edna Valiant doesn't take toon cases anymore, ya know!"
She could just leave the room. But didn't she deserve this in a sense?
"Everybody got worried! We all thought it had something to do with Jesse but he just said you left! If Edna hadn't tracked down your migration papers and that marshal in charge of migrating toons, we all would have thought Jesse did something horrible-"
That made her looked up. Did she make all of them worried? Mina, Buggy and everybody that she had left behind? Did she just make everything worse? Including –she gulped- him?
"-everybody knows about that gossip column, Rhoda. If the rumors were true, I could have hired someone to dig up some dirt about him-"
Rhoda closed her eyes. No, she didn't want revenge. She opened her eyes when she realized everything had become silent. Then Mina spoke again, this time her heart sank, making Rhoda wished she was still hearing her angry tone.
"Why did you just write now after all these months, Rhoda? Why just now?" the enveloped asked tiredly. This was the closest Mina allowed herself to sound vulnerable. The envelope flopped back to the ground.
An infant's cry could suddenly be heard in another room and then followed by another. Rhoda zipped to the other room to hush the twins. She walked back to the room, with Jack and Rose in each of her arms. She was about to pass by the table when the envelope flew up again, the flap opening and closing.
"P.S., now that I know your address, I'm going in there. See ya."
Before Rhoda could comprehend what she heard, the door opened with a mighty slam, filling the room with foreboding light. A silhouette of a small figure stood on the doorway before Mina strode inside. Wearing her travel clothes, she tossed her furry boa over her shoulder.
"I DEMAND A FULL-" she stopped, staring at the baby bunny in Rhoda's arm. Then to the humanoid baby with rabbit ears over a patch of red hair.
Realization hit her. Her boa dropped to the floor along with her jaw.
"Fuck."
France, 1962
Sometimes, he wondered if his sister should have been the humanoid toon.
He looked at the mirror, cocking his head to the side. He'd been trying to project his emotions to no avail. Rose could do it, she just didn't want to. He just wanted to do it too, because… it's cool.
His mother told him that thoughts led to the focus of emotions. He snorted, he'd been trying but there wasn't so much as a tweeting bird when he intentionally hit himself in the head. Hard. She was their small community teacher in tooning but maybe it's just not in his abilities to project.
He looked at his hands, bare of fur and large like a human. Too angled to be toony. What's more, he got five fingers in each hand. Realism, one artist had said.
His heart sank. The more realistic a humanoid was drawn, the less are the toon abilities. What's more, humanoid grawns (toons that are born and grow, not drawn) inherit that trait of realism.
How realistic was their father drawn?
But their mother could defy physics. Could stretch like rubber, bounce like a ball and project flashbacks like a movie screen. Rose could probably do it, but she wasn't that expressive. But there were times…
Their mother rarely got angry, and when she does, she'd literally fire up. Rose didn't even have to get mad. All she needed to do was get mildly annoyed and she could project coldness. Like that icy glare she'd freeze him with whenever he'd tease her.
He sighed, shrugging. Maybe it's not in his paint to project.
"Jack! Rose!"
His ears perked up at the sound of his mother's voice. The door creaked to reveal his sister. Now Rose was usually a pokerface but he could feel the excitement radiating from her when she opened the door.
"Maman has something to tell about our father."
Hollywood, 1947
CHEATED DEATH: MARTHA ACME SURVIVES HOMICIDE
ToonTown Judge Arrested
Founder and CEO of ACME Corporation, Martha Acme, survived an attempted murder by Lady Doom, ToonTown Judge. Judge Doom attempted to let a piano fall on top of Acme's head in one of her warehouses at 11:00 PM. Fortunately, Acme was able to dodge and escape her and Toon Patrol.
"The judge always had an eye on the land where ToonTown is," Acme commented, "I intend not to sell it to her." Acme also remarked that the toons will inherit the land of ToonTown upon her will. "ToonTown belongs to toons. I don't intend it any other way."
Judge Doom and the Toon Patrol will be put under trial for homicide-
Maroon didn't bother to read the rest of the news. Briskly, she strode toward her office. The press were really knocking themselves out, she thought, glancing at the second smaller headline with the Judge Doom's wild eyes. Even with the black and white photo, the headline screams its surprise that the judge's eyes were red. Who knew she was a toon in disguise?
Well, that's that, she told herself. Life goes on, there's business to run. No business like show business.
Maroon felt her lips grin wryly at the thought, entering her office. Hollywood gains you millions… and enemies. It was lucky Martha survi-
"Is this why you twisted my arm behind my back?"
Maroon froze. Slowly she turned around to see a humanoid toon sitting calmly beside the door. In his hand he held a copy of the newspaper. His tone was calm, devoid of any emotion. But his emerald eye that wasn't hidden by his auburn hair, bore into her that seemed to pierce her soul.
"Hello, Jesse." She continued to her table, as smoothly as a swan in a lake.
"I would have looked over the fact that you threatened me into obtaining your little blackmail," he continued as though she hadn't spoken. "But I never thought you'd hide the truth by getting rid of me thru my wife."
The last word was edged with ice and something dark that seemed to make the room bleak.
Maroon offered him a sympathetic smile.
"It had to be done, Jesse. It's for the good of ToonTown," she walked towards him, ignoring the air around them that became more and more stifling.
His face was a devoid smooth stone but his eyes would have burned a hole thru her if she was a toon. The studio's CEO opened her arms in a truthful gesture.
"I'm in toon's side, Jesse. I've worked with them all my life."
She was suddenly stopped when she saw herself staring at the pictures in his hand. Jesse had risen abruptly, staring her down. Maroon blinked, realizing it were the pictures Edna Valiant took of Jesse and Acme. Of course, he rummaged for them in her office. That fink.
"You never were."
With a flick of a lighter, he burned all of them in his hand. She froze, watching them turn into embers, her mind analyzing the costs and gains, the pros and cons at the turn of the situation.
When the flames was about to reach his hand, he opened his palm and crumpled the last bits of the photos.
"It was all for naught. Anyway, you didn't lose anything, did you?"
He turned his back and strode outside the door.
Maroon finally allowed herself to breath; her exhale went out in one long whoosh.
Yes, Hollywood could gain you more than just millions.
France, 1962
"What on earth did you told them?!" Mina asked.
"Well..." Rhoda began sheepishly.
"Okay kids, there are a few things you need to know about your father. We had been happy but then he wasn't, I decided to let him go. So I moved here in France!"
"You made it sound like you two had a well-adjusted separation!" Mina yelled, gesturing her cigarette holder at her end of the line. "All you have to do is tell them Jesse's a cheating ba-"
"I think I want to give them a chance to know their father," Rhoda interrupted. "Yeah, he had been unfaithful but..."
Mina facepalmed. Rhoda, after all these years, was too good for her own good.
"Fine, have it your way," the old toon said. "What makes you think he'd want to see them?"
There was a crackle of silence before Rhoda finally replied.
"I dunno… ask him?"
Skepticism flew thru the line. "And how will you do that?"
"Well, I thought I'd ask him to meet me somewhere and-" there was suddenly a groan from Mina's end.
"Mina, I'd rather not have a letter get into the wrong hands! He needs to know about them first," Rhoda exclaimed. "And it would be less awkward than putting it in writing."
"Even less awkward than finally facing him?"
Mina could almost smell the nervousness coming from the rabbit's line.
"You're not going to meet with him because of what I'm thinking, are you?" she asked suspiciously.
The line burst with Rhoda's voice. "NO! I mean, he chose Acme when he cheated, Mina. End of story. This is about Jack and Rose."
Mina snorted. "Good luck with that. Anyway, if you're coming back, I think I got a spare room in my house. Or three."
She could sense the rabbit smile before her voice went thru the phone. "Aww, Mina, you don't have to-"
"Shut up and just take it, rabbit," she said with a grin although Rhoda couldn't see it.
There was a laugh. "All right, Mina. Thank you."
Mina's voice suddenly became serious.
"There is something you need to know about Jesse."
Hollywood, 1950
The ill wind bloweth no man good.
Maroon watched the last of boxes be carried by the movers. There was a movement on the corner of her eye and a humorless laugh escaped her.
"I guess you know better than anyone on what happened," she said.
The toon in red didn't reply but watched as her office was slowly emptied.
"I never thought you'd sink this low," she continued. Her own board of directors firing her on the pinnacle of her success. Their "leader" calmly explaining someone was willing to buy the studios with an offer that they couldn't refuse. The casual, placid expectation of her to resign in 30 days.
Her nails dug into her palms. Everything she had worked for. Everything she had sacrificed. For what? Why was she so surprised by this? Backstabbing was as common as handshakes in the business world.
She stared ahead fixedly. She would not give this toon manwhore the satisfaction of seeing her lose. He had his hand in this, she just knew.
"I guess that one little night in Charcoal Groove had worked on your favor, huh? You finally revealed your true colors."
The toon stood still as a post but Maroon didn't get to the top by being stupid.
"Congrats, you're now one of the board directors of ACME studios. I can only imagine how you earned that."
She walked out, relishing her final words. Vengeance is swee-
"Congratulations too, with your 9th month with Richard."
She froze.
"I'm sure your husband is enjoying the lovely photos of you and your 26-year old boyfriend in that special suite."
Train travelling across Nevada, 1962
"I got rabbit ears for non-sexy reasons, you jerk!" a red-faced Jack yelled.
Before he could teach the guy a lesson, someone yanked him at the back of his collar. He instantly knew who it was when the yank made him crash on his butt and was dragged away.
"Temper," Rhoda said.
Jack sighed. Even if his mother's ears didn't brush his shoulder standing up, she got one hell of an arm.
Something blocked his vision and Jack grumbled, adjusting the newsboy cap over his head.
"People aren't used to humanoid toons with rabbit ears, Jack," their mother patiently explained. "That's why I insist you wear them."
"I know," Jack said crossly, "but this hat isn't made for these ears."
The scenery suddenly changed in the window and Jack perked, forgetting his bad mood instantly. Rose, who was reading a magazine, shook her head when he had quieted down.
Rhoda smiled. With her children preoccupied, she went back to her own musings.
"Many of the toons were sad to see Maroon go," Mina said. "She had always been pro-toon."
Rhoda internally nodded. Maroon Cartoon Studios was famous for hiring toons instead of making their own. It gave opportunities to toons who are no longer wanted by artists or were toons that were born from other toons and not made.
"After Acme took over the studio, she appointed Jesse as one of the board directors- the first toon ever," Mina snorted. "He's a piece of trash, Rhoda. I'm actually glad you're off without him."
She wished Mina would stop mentioning about him and how she's better off without him. Ripping old wounds is meaningless and the feeling wasn't very nice. What Mina said after surprised her.
"I would have left but what other studio takes outside toons? Jesse didn't become popular after getting that position. After you disappearing and Acme pulling the strings for him, he's ToonTown's least favorite person."
Rhoda stared at the window. She never thought about the consequences of her actions to others. But she doubt she had that much effect in ToonTown. A lot had happened while she was gone.
"But surprisingly, a toon in the same power of humans makes a good spokesperson for toons," Mina said begrudgingly. "But he's still an asshole."
The times she and Mina communicated, she never asked about him and Mina never told any. Her times with him were a closed chapter and it feels better to her to just move on.
"What?"
She looked up to see that her daughter had spoken, sounding somewhat annoyed. Jack was looking at the inside of the magazine then back at Rose several times.
"I never noticed it," her son said. He flipped the inside of the magazine to them to show models filling both pages.
He pointed to their faces, their eyes half-lidded seductively. "But you always look like you're trying to smolder."
He suddenly lifted the magazine to his face, the glossy pages frosted by an icy glare.
"It's true!" he laughed.
"This," Rose said pointing at her face devoid of emotion, "is how I always look like."
"Yeah," Jack chirped, placing the magazine beside her for better comparison, "see?"
"Children," Rhoda chastised, but none of them heard her.
"At least I don't look like this," Rose said. Her face suddenly morphed into an enthusiastic expression of someone who had too much espresso. "Unlike some people," she remarked pointedly.
Jack stared at her, awe making his mouth agape. "Do that again."
Her face transformed back to glacial glare. "No."
"Oh c'mooooon, that was fantastic!"
"Go jump out of the window."
"But you'll miss me!"
"I'll throw a party to cheer myself up."
"Haha! You?"
There was suddenly an indignant glint in her eyes. "Why you..."
He shook his head morosely. "It is so sad that my dear sister doesn't have a silly bone in her body."
"It's so sad my dear brother of mine doesn't have a miniscule of age in maturity," she replied back with equal solemnity.
Rhoda looked back and forth between them before sitting back and just letting them bicker.
France, 1947
Rhoda crashed into her bed, head fuzzy with French phases.
The room she rented was bleak and worn. It was what she could afford while living on her savings.
Her head turned to the stack of English-French translation books on the other side of the room.
What was she thinking?
Would she even survive in this small toon community? Would she even find a job while she got buns in her oven?
She closed her eyes, remembering, of all things, the story of Vikings.
The Vikings once traveled across the sea and into the land of the enemy. The chief then ordered all of the boats to be burned. As the soldiers watched the whole fleet burn, the chief said:
"Now, the only choice we have is to win."
Her hand roamed to her abdomen.
Hollywood, Valiant and Valiant Private Investigators Office, 1962
Diamonds may be a girl's best friend but vodka was one hell of a lover.
Edna Valiant longingly looked at the empty bottle of vodka. Her relationship with vodka was like with Doris –on and off with headaches and warm kisses in between. Dysfunctional but functional.
She sighed tossing it to the nearby bin, unmindful of the tinkling glass. Doris deserved more than a lady detective with an alcohol problem. He deserved a woman who's meant to be a wife.
She was not and never meant to be that woman.
In one heave, she dumped a drawer of files on her table. Enough about that, she needed to take an inventory.
It's been more than 30 years, she's nearing retirement. For anyone involved with her work, it meant massive information she had collected and kept from them as bribe, threat or leverage.
Her nose wrinkled at the smell of mildew and lingering dust. Some of them were solved cases of more than a decade.
Half an hour later, she now had a Keep pile and a Burn pile. She went through all of them. By the time she was on 1931-39, her fingers were itchy from dust.
"Never thought toons would have so many issues, eh Terrie?" she asked the empty air.
It had been painful before. It was still painful now, but the pain was duller. She gripped a paper a little too tightly.
The ex-judge Doom was traced to the Toon Bank robbery back in 1946. As far as she knew, the psycho was locked up in a mental facility.
There was a grinding sound only she could hear when her teeth sheared against each other.
As far as she was concerned, they should have dunked her in her own invention: The Dip.
She sighed, shaking her head. Damn the jury to hell.
A photo fell off. Her hands stilled from flipping folder after folder and she glanced at it.
It was a photo R.K. Maroon told her take of the humanoid toon and Martha Acme.
She picked it up, examining the black and white photo. Oh the secrets she could write into a book.
Back in 1947, hotshot Maroon convinced her to take pictures of a philandering husband to wisen up the rabbit. Three years later, the humanoid toon came into her office wanting to buy her copies saying Maroon arranged the whole thing.
"Good intentions are paved to hell," Edna muttered, flicking the photo back to the correct folder.
Jesse, the humanoid, said Maroon meant it to be blackmail material. Now that Acme had no intention of selling the land where ToonTownwas, the photos have lost their intention.
The toon had paid good money of it but Edna kept one for safekeeping. A few years later, Maroon, kicked out of her own studios, was willing to pay whatever price for a copy of the scandalous picture. In fact, Maroon went back a couple of times for several months to cajole her into doing so.
Edna could have and Edna would have.
But Jesse was a good spokesperson for toons. The detective didn't give a damn about toons anymore but she understood people who were fair.
Jesse was fair. Cold but fair.
Edna flop the folder to the Keep pile.
Just in case.
France, 1949
"Sshhh… " Rhoda hushed desperately.
But her little boy continued to wail. Rhoda didn't bother to look at the clock as she rocked him. She knew she's going to be late for work. The other twin began to cry.
She lifted her other child in her available arm. There was an ache on her shoulders and neck that she couldn't shake off –an allegorical form of her sadness that she was still wrestling with. She couldn't remember the last time she had more than two hours of sleep. She couldn't even look at herself in the mirror. It took an effort to perk up her ears and she couldn't shake the gray that's coloring her fur.
As she rocked them, the back of her mind was screaming of the bills that needed to be paid, what her employer would think about her fifth day to be late, the sitter she hired had still not shown up, the sink and the roof were leaking again and the landlord was getting nastier-
There was a banging on the door amidst the wailing of her twins.
"Rent!" an accented voiced yelled.
Rhoda groaned. It was probably one of the few English words her landlord knew.
The twins on her arms screamed louder. The clock ticked. The landlord kept banging her door. The voices inside her head grew louder with worry.
The kettle screamed a high-pitch whistle and began to overflow with steam.
Rhoda snapped.
And took charge.
Months after Mina finally saw her again, she wondered if she still knew the rabbit that she met before.
ToonTown, Mina's Manor, 1962
"How come you don't have pictures of our father?"
Mina leaned out of the stroller Rhoda was pushing. She regarded the young man with a dry smirk.
"Let's just say yer father and I don't get along very well."
His rabbit ear slapped a fly out of the way and Mina relished how the twins had their attention to her.
"When yer mama left, I have zero reasons to see him, much less, talk."
It's strange to be called "Aunt Mina" and stranger to see the lean and lanky young man and the elegant rabbit girl were Rhoda's kids.
Rose moved with an elegant grace instead of a rabbit's bounce. Jack was the ball of energy. It was kind of disturbing seeing a young man with Jesse's face whooping and sliding down the banister.
And Rose.
Mina shook her head. Rhoda's doe daughter had an element of seduction that could not be denied.
"Say, kids, wanna watch yer mother's cartoon shorts?"
Rhoda's face became horrified. "No!"
"Yes!" Jack yelled. Rose's brows rose pleasantly and she nodded in assent.
Rhoda suddenly popped upside down over the roof of the pram. "Mina, you've got to show us around ToonTown!" she exclaimed, "It's been a long time since I've been here."
Mina looked at her as though it's normal to talk to people who hang upside down.
"I dunno, Rhoda. There are paparazzi festering that place like a pneumonia. I don't think you'd like the attention."
Rabbit ears waved off-handedly. "Naah, I don't think anyone would recognize me by now."
Rhoda yelped when Mina yanked her roughly into the pram.
"'Scuse me, kids," she said to the twins before shutting down the roof of the pram.
Rhoda blinked, realizing Mina had pushed them inside the pram's hammerspace.
"You don't get it."
Mina stood there in the dark, her hands on her hips.
"You suddenly left, Rhoda. An A-list toon star who turned her back on Hollywood and disappeared. Toons live too long not to forget. Sooner or later, someone's going to recognize the 'rabbit who ran away'."
She poked Rhoda hard on the chest.
"And when they realize that Acme's 'ho has long-lost kids with the runaway rabbit, hell will break lose."
France, 1948
"I can't raise them there, Mina."
The "Baby" grunted, looking at the sleeping infants inside the crib. The place was clean but a rundown eyesore as far as Mina was concerned.
"Mrs. Maroon hired a detective to spy on Jesse. Turns out, he's been having an affair."
Rhoda's voice was neutral but she looked very focused on chopping vegetables.
"So you decided to put the Atlantic Ocean between you two?"
The slicing rhythm suddenly stopped. Mina felt her insides freeze when Rhoda looked up with an expression she never saw on her before.
The knife glinted in the light.
"This isn't about him and me, Mina. This is about them."
They were in a standstill for a moment before Mina looked away. There was a firm finality in Rhoda's voice that was new in Mina's ears.
"Word travels fast in ToonTown. I don't want him to come back to me for the wrong reasons."
"Ma..ma..."
They both gaped at each other before Rhoda rushed to the crib.
"Did you hear that?" Rhoda asked incredulously.
The little white kit yawned, opening her eyes into emerald gleams.
"Ma... ma..."
Rhoda did a hop-py, happy little dance; covering her mouth against a silent, happy squeal. She then scooped the kit up, cooing and a bit teary-eyed.
"My baby's first word! Jeepers!" she whispered in joyful wonder. "Oh Rose, my sweet little carrot cake-"
Mina felt herself relaxed... and relieved, feeling the familiar happy glow that Rhoda had always exuded.
Now there's the rabbit she knew and (which she will only admit above an open vat of Dip) loved.
ToonTown, The Nut Bar, 1962
The only thing that was gluing Rhoda to her seat was her love for her children.
Thirty minutes. That was all she was willing to wait, then she'd go. Mina had recommended The Nut Bar for being secluded. She could do this.
She could face him.
Mina wanted to come with her but this is between him and her, right? She raised two children alone, she could handle this.
Right?
She told Jack and Rose that she would need to contact their father first –ask if he wanted to meet them.
Rhoda always thought her let-you-go-letter fifteen years ago would be the last letter she would ever write to him.
She'd never thought she would be writing a letter asking him to meet her again.
Her chest rose with a breath more necessary for her soul than her body. She could do this. She knew she could.
Then someone smoothly slid to the chair across her table. Emerald eyes regarded her stoically under wine red bangs.
"Hello, Rhoda," Jesse said.
No, she couldn't-
Years of weathered self-will was the only thing that stomped her thought of timidity.
Yet her throat instantly dried. Emotions and memories burst raging, it nearly overwhelmed her. It was true what they said about past lovers. Her hands clenched into her purse.
"Hello, Jesse."
Even when sitting, Jesse was tall and imposing with his marble expression. He looked the same but…
"How are you?"
Rhoda jumped at the sound of his voice and she instantly pulled herself together. Twenty seconds with him and she already felt like fleeing.
"Good," she replied. She stared at the part between his eyebrows, silently coaxing herself to smile. "How are you?"
"Good."
Silence stretched across the table; stiff, uncomfortable and guarded –at least on her side. Jesse's face looked more and more like a mask.
Would he hold it against her if she jumped out of the window?
It didn't help that Mina's voice was echoing "Acme's 'ho" inside her head.
"What do you want?"
She startled again at his forward statement. But what was small talk between them when she couldn't even look at him in the eye?
"Your kids want to meet you."
He blinked. His entire form remained unmoved.
"Kids?"
She nodded, "Yes."
"Kids?"
Rhoda slid a photo across the table.
"They're twins. Their names are Jack and Rose, they're fifteen years old."
She instantly retracted her hand when his hand came to pick it up.
His eyes scanned the photo. A humanoid teenager with bunny ears had his arm around a beautiful young doe. The boy's blue eyes were smirking and alight with mischief while the young rabbit girl was smiling with her hands clasped femininely in front of her.
He blinked again, his mind suddenly frozen at sight.
How…
Fifteen years ago, Maroon congratulated him to getting Acme closer to him. She was going to hire a detective tomorrow to get "evidence."
It was repulsive. It was wrong. But it was for Rhoda.
His mind suddenly flew to the night before he "staged" the evidence.
Oh.
That one night of veiled apology. That night when he hold on to her like he'd never let her go while he-
Rhoda's voice broke him out of those memories.
"You can meet them… only if you want to."
End of Chapter 1