Chapter 33: Fennec Ball
Like the protagonist of this story, Stone Kole, I dislike winter weather. Living in the Deep South, I don't care for snow at all! Since it's bitterly cold outside and Old Man Winter is threatening to dump some of that white stuff on the farm, I think it's time for another story about a nice warm beach. Enjoy!
Stone tells Cooper and Billy about meeting dolphins.
How about some Indie surf music for this chapter? "Slow Down" by Basement Sweet.
The two muscular bulls were at it again, bellowing and pushing each other as they argued. "I'm betting on Red this time," scoffed Billy. The small wallaby, dressed in a black-and-white-striped employee's smock and black slacks, twirled a red plastic ring while casually leaning against the Grand Carnival's ring-toss game booth where he was assigned to work.
"Nah, mate, Salty is his older brother and tougher. Besides, we both know that Red is really just a softy, despite how he acts in public," Cooper said with a grin as he snatched the ring from his boyfriend's paw and flicked it toward the game. To his surprise, it landed perfectly around a bottle top. "Blimey, I got the ring over a bloody bottle! What did I win?"
"Nothing, you have to pay to play the game," Billy answered.
"That's not fair!"
"Okay, I'll give you a prize after I get off of work."
"Promises…promises…" Cooper teased as he lovingly caressed the other wallaby's muzzle. "I'll hold you to that promise."
"Stoney, someone needs to do something before those two start fighting again," Billy remarked after one of the bulls shoved the other even harder then before. The fennec fox stood on a nearby bench, trying to get a better view of the two brothers.
"Don't look at me, brah, the last time I got in Salty's way, he threw me off a boat," Stone replied, leaning against the bench's back as he watched.
"THIS IS A BEACH, NOT A WRESTLING RING!" a commanding voice boomed. Both bulls turned to see a very muscular hippopotamus standing there in a two-piece business suit. "If you two want to fight, go somewhere else where families are not trying to enjoy themselves at the beach."
Both Salty and Red took a step back, as the much older hippo was not the type of animal either of them wanted to confront. Mister Mvubu, a retired professional wrestler known as Mvubu the Mangler, had a bit of a paunch around his waist, but he still exuded a menacing presence.
"It's over for now," Stone commented as he jumped off the bench and walked toward the two wallabies.
"So, Stoney, why did Salty toss you overboard?" Billy asked.
"He didn't just toss me...he threw me!" the fox explained. "I was much younger when it happened. Storm and I had sneaked aboard one of his family's sunset tour boat cruises. Salty caught us, and when Storm said something obnoxious, it made him mad. I just happened to get in the way and before I knew what was happening, he grabbed me and threw me through the air. I landed with a splash several yards from the boat."
"Imagine that, Storm got someone angry and you ended up paying the price," Cooper interjected.
"It was a good thing that I landed next to a pod of dolphins since I didn't know how to swim."
"You didn't know how to swim?"
Brah, like most fennec foxes, I had always avoided water until then. After I landed in the drink, I frantically struggled until one of the dolphins saved me by letting me ride on his back toward shore.
"Did you tell anyone? Surely someone else on the boat saw what he did. You can't just throw someone overboard because you're angry."
"Nope, we kept quiet because we were stowaways and Storm saw that I was safe."
"You still should have told someone," Billy interjected.
"Well, we didn't, but that was when I first met Sandy," Stone continued.
"The champion wave dancer?"
"Yup, I was just a kit and he was a calf. After that, sometimes I'd paddle out on an inflatable raft to meet him and he taught me how to swim."
"Ah, two little nippers in the big blue sea," Cooper scoffed.
"That was the year when he and I also invented fennec ball."
"You did what?" the wallaby exclaimed.
"I would sit on his older brother's tail, and he would flip me into the air while Sandy bounced a beach ball for me to try and catch. We had a great time most of that summer, at least until the shark thingy happened," the fennec fox said with a smirk over his shoulder as he began to walk away.
"Hey, wait! Stoney, you can't leave us hanging. What shark thingy?" Billy called out.
"He tossed me in the air and I splashed down right in front of a sand shark," Stone answered.
"Blimey!" Cooper exclaimed.
"I about crapped in my swimsuit when we came nose to nose."
"What happened, mate?"
"Sandy and his brothers swam by and drove the shark away."
"You were lucky!" Billy added.
"Yeah! You know, sharks may not be smart, but I swear this one actually screamed when he saw me. I thought I was going to be his dinner, and I even tried to scream underwater too, which I definitely do not recommend because you might drown. Sandy helped me to the surface, where I gasped for air. That was the end of fennec ball because his dad shut down the game after that."
"Imagine that," Billy said while he now gave the fox a skeptical look.
"What? You don't believe me."
"Fennec ball? You really think that I am so gullible as to believe that story?"
"No seriously, it almost became an Olympic sport."
"Rrrright!" the wallaby laughed. "You're pulling my leg."
"Believe it or not, either way it's no fur off of my back," Stone shrugged as he walked away.
A couple of days later, the fennec fox soared through the air just above the blue sea and snatched the yellow, red, white, and blue striped beach ball that was heading toward him. With a splash, he landed in the water and popped up, holding the ball above his head.
"Hey, look!" a girl called out to her friend as the excited zebra colt rushed down the beach to where a small crowd was gathering to watch the fox and the dolphins frolicking in the water.
"What are they doing?" her friend asked.
"It's called fennec ball!" someone else answered.
"It looks like fun!"
The small wallaby, wearing a black and white striped smock, stood with his ears flattened and mouth agape in surprise as he watched from the Boardwalk. "It seems you owe Stoney an apology, mate," another wallaby remarked, giving his boyfriend a knowing grin.
Salty is the leader of a local surfers gang, first introduced in Chapter 8, titled "It's Not Our Way," of the story Zootopia: Stone Kole in Hang Ten. His brother, Red, who is one of Stone's friends, was introduced in Chapter 1 of this story, "Surfers of the Big Z."
I named Stone's dolphin friend Sandy as a tribute to the classic television series "Flipper." In the show, Sandy was the 15-year-old human companion of the dolphin named Flipper, who was known for always saving the day.
Wave Dancing is a competitive sport among the aquatic animals of Zootopia, similar to surfing. This idea was inspired by Jim Russi's video of dolphins playing among surfers off of Rincon Point in California.