Chapter 16: Nick's Fishy Story

Here in the USA, it is Memorial Day weekend and the unofficial start of SUMMER! Families are heading to the beaches for fun in the sand, surf, and sun. Stoney spends some time with his father, Finnick, and his father's best friend, Nick.

Please take time to remember and honor those who sacrificed themselves for our freedom on Monday.

This chapter's song is "Where the Boat Leaves From" by the Zac Brown Band. It makes me want to hop in the pickup truck head to the coast right now.

Nick eagerly licked his chops and declared, "You're right, Stone, these fish tacos from Binnie's Food Truck look delicious!" The red fox, dressed in a green sports shirt, was seated at a picnic table in a small park with two fennec foxes. The park wasn't much, just a couple of old wooden tables, a few tall palm trees, and an overflowing trash can that appeared to have been raided by seagulls. The trio had been observing a fishing boat that had just docked at the nearby wharf. Apart from the walrus running the food truck, along with a beefy-looking rhino who was his new assistant, and the boat's crew, there was only a she-tiger who was fishing nearby.

"Thanks for buying us lunch. It isn't like you to be so generous, Wilde," Finnick, the older fennec fox, said in a suspicious manner while he was busy tucking his paper napkin into the collar of his red bowling shirt. He glanced over at the red fox and noticed that Nick was now surreptitiously watching the boat's crew. The larger fox had set the shopping bag he had been carrying on the table next to him. "I wonder what they've been catching?" he added.

"I believe those are snook, I'm pretty sure they are currently in season. It's strange because some of them appear bloated or swollen, as if they are starting to go bad or something. I have seen that boat dock here multiple times before, but the crew is not very friendly and they don't ever talk with the locals," explained the young fennec fox. He used his napkin to clean up some salsa that had spilled on his light yellow sleeveless shirt, which bore the logo of a popular surfboard wax company on the back. "You should see how busy this place gets when the shad run. I often come here with some of the other surfers to eat," he added. After a brief pause, he lifted his shirt and began licking off the stain.

"Stone, don't do that!" scolded Finnick.

"But it will stain my shirt!"

"Still that isn't something you should do in public."

The younger fox just pulled off his shirt and stuck the stained part into his cup of water before he returned to rubbing.

"Stone!"

"What? I walk around without a shirt on all the time, this is a beach town."

The older fennec fox looked like he was going to object but just shook his head instead.

The red fox rolled his eyes at the two fennec foxes. He then turned his attention back to the seals aboard the ship who were throwing some fish into crates onshore. "Do you guys know if a snook is a type of fish that looks a bit weird and has eyes on both sides of its head? I remember going on a party boat with some of the guys from the ZPD and Jackson caught one," he asked.

"No, you might have seen something like a halibut, flounder, or sole," Stone mumbled while he chewed a muzzle full of taco. His now wet shirt was spread out on the end of the table to dry.

Finnick threw his arm around the younger fennec fox's shoulder and teased, "So my son is an expert at fishing!"

"Dad, I know a thing or two about fish and fishing since I grew up around here."

"That also explains your poor sense of fashion."

"So says the fox who wears bowling shirts almost all the time."

"I bought these at a sporting good store liquidation sale, they were..." Finnick began to explain.

"Cheap?" Stone interrupted.

"And just where do you get all those tee shirts and swim shorts with surfing company logos?" the older fennic fox scoffed as he pointed at the drying tee shirt.

"I'm a professional surfer and those are my sponsors."

"In other words they pay you to wear them."

"Yes!"

"That's my boy, always working the angle," Finnick laughed before he ruffled the fur between Stone's large ears.

Nick smiled while he watched the two fennec foxes. It was hard to believe that his best friend had only recently discovered he had a son. Then he slightly frowned when he remembered that Finnick had another son, Stone's litter mate Storm, who was in jail. "Hey, speaking of working the angle, did I ever tell you about the guy with the pet fish?" he suddenly asked.

Finnick sighed and groaned, "I hope this isn't another one of your cockamamie stories, Wilde."

"No, seriously, this really happened a few months ago."

"Sure it did!"

"I want to hear about the pet fish," Stone exclaimed.

Nick leaned forward as he told his story. "I was assigned to patrol a few of the parks in the Marshland District and I saw a big brown bear walking down a fishing pier carrying two large fish in a bucket. When he saw me, he appeared to be in a state of panic. So, I got out of the patrol car and asked him to show me his fishing license. 'I don't have a fishing license,' he replied. I pulled out my ticket book while I warned him that it is illegal to fish without a license."

"Sure, everyone knows that," the younger fennec fox commented.

Nick replied with a grin, "He did too and quickly looked around before he protested, 'I wasn't fishing, officer. These fish are my pets.' I skeptically asked him what he meant that the fish were his pets."

"Pets? Ha!" Finnick laughed.

"So he looked down at me, just as innocently as he could, before he answered, 'Yes, officer. They like a little exercise, so when the weather's fine, I take them to the water and let them swim around. Once they're done, I give them a whistle and they jump back into my bucket and we head home.' He could tell that I wasn't buying a word of it, so he added, 'Don't believe me? Watch!' and he threw the fish into the water."

Nick stopped and took another bite from his taco.

"Come on, Mister Wilde, and tell us what happened," Stone pleaded. The small fox's ears were erect and he was leaning forward.

The red fox, after slowly chewing his food for a few moments while he observed a beat up old van park by the boat and then as two brutish looking hyenas began loading the crates of fish into the truck, continued his story. "I watched the fish swim away and then asked him to whistle and call them back. He smiled at me before he replied, 'Call who back?' I was momentarily dumbfounded before I reminded him of the fish. He picked up his now empty bucket, shrugged, and asked, 'What fish?'"

"Did you give him a ticket?" the younger fennec fox asked.

Nick answered with a straight face, "For what? He didn't have any fish. Now, if you two will excuse me, I have something to do." The red fox pulled a taser from the shopping bag, stood up, and began walking toward the boat while showing his badge, "POLICE! Stay where you are!" he loudly commanded. The tiger had dropped her fishing pole and rushed down the wharf to join him, she was now armed with a taser rifle. The piercing sounds of sirens filled the air when police cruisers, with their blue and red lights flashing, pulled onto the end of the wharf. Several orcas with the harbor patrol surfaced, hemming in the boat and thwarting any attempt by the crew of seals to flee by diving overboard.

"Well, that explains the bloated looking fish," Finnick laughed.

"Huh?" Stone said, the younger fox's head was cocked in that unique confused vulpine manner. His eyes widened with surprise while he watched one of the hyenas make a break for it, only to be tackled and cuffed by the rhino from the food truck.

"They are stuffed with drugs or something."

"Oh!"

The wharf was now teeming with police officers and the arrested criminals were all sitting in a row on the wooden planks in pawcuffs while the boat and van were searched. Stone noticed Judy wrapping crime scene tape around the van and when the rabbit saw Stone and Finnick, she shook her head. Not sure how to respond, Stone gave her a small wave. She then glowered at Nick, who just grinned and shrugged. The fennec fox's ears drooped slightly when a massive water buffalo with four gold stars on each collar of his uniform walked by and glanced over at them.

"Look, that's Chief Bogo," Finnick chuckled and raised his taco as if to salute the police chief. "This explains why Wilde paid for our lunch, the ZPD will reimburse him for the meal. The boat crew has seen you and your friends eating here regularly, so Nick must have thought that if he was with you, the crooks wouldn't be suspicious of him. So let's just relax and enjoy our tacos while we watch all the action."

I cannot take credit for the pet fish joke, it has been around for years, and I have rewritten it as a "Nick story".