FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The old fox stood in front of the flower shop with a disappointed look on his face. "Looks like I won't be getting any treats today. She was so popular, I wonder what happened. ... I hope she's okay. ... Funny, me, living so long at the hub of information, and now I'm so out of touch."

The rabbit beside him put a paw on his arm, "We could ask inside, they might know."

Crandall put his paw on Janice's, "No, I'll just ask Ginger. Then I'll know it isn't just rumor. Come along, only a couple more blocks to the Green Briar." He wrapped his arm in hers and continued down the street, leaving Jake staring at the flowers for a moment.

They reminded him of all the plans he had made for the day that were now being pushed aside. He sighed and hurried to catch up. At the restaurant, The old fox was treated like a celebrity, but he knew each one that recognized him and asked about details of their lives. Jake sat quietly, feeling out of place. Most of the staff and customers in the restaurant were morphs. He could pick out a young fox couple, a hamster and a rat, a trio of bovines of some sort, two canines, a kangaroo and a tiger just in their section. The waitstaff consisted of two mice and a cat, the host was a horse and the manager was a raccoon. He was feeling very self-conscious of being a human. Especially with the dark secret that was eating at his conscience. He hoped he could get through dinner with the Harstleins without them finding out that he raped their daughter before she disappeared.

Just as he thought of them, the real celebrities walked in. The raccoon greeted them personally and led the fox couple straight to Jake's table. He got up as Crandall did and waited for them to finish their hugs hello.

The old fox whispered something in Mrs Harstlein's ear that made her eyes go wide, then he turned to them, "And these are the students I was telling you about. Janice, here, is the one that hunted me down and this is her friend that is interested in the G-Mall, Jake."

The vixen shook the rabbit's paw, then extended her paw to Jake, "Cohen, with the reservation? I'm sorry we're intruding like this. You probably had a nice evening planned with this lovely lady, but Cranberry can be quite insistent. I've learned to just trust his judgment and he hasn't disappointed me, yet."

Jake was hesitant to shake her paw as he saw a lot of Christy in her mother's face, but he didn't want to be rude and forced himself to be polite. "It's nice to meet you."

"Relax, I won't bite."

"Don't listen to her, she bites me all the time." The fox behind her extended his paw as he leaned around his smirking wife. "I'm Alfred Harstlein."

Jake shook his paw with less hesitation and tried to smile as he thought of their teeth tearing him to shreds when they found out his secret.

"Only because you like it." Ginger leaned her head back and nipped at her husband's jaw. He responded by wrapping his arms around her and kissing her lips. "Why don't we sit down, so we're not disturbing everyone else's dinner."

They sat and ordered. Jake had already picked out something for Janice and she was impressed by his choice, as was Mrs Harstlein. While Mr Harstlein and Mr Griffin started catching up, Ginger leaned over to talk to Janice.

"You should stick with this one, Janice. A mate that pays attention to you and tries to please you with the little things is important for a good relationship."

"Oh, we're not in a relationship."

"You haven't told him that, have you? It's pretty obvious that he thinks pretty highly of you. You're not part of those Rules rabbits, are you?"

She glanced at Jake as he tried to pretend he wasn't listening, then turned back to her new friend, "Well, they are important."

Mrs Harstlein took the rabbit's paws and gave her a stern look, "Forget the rules. There is no such thing as a pure morph. We all came from humans, one way or another. You've got a good man here; don't throw him away because of some ridiculous concept of purity."

"But you married a fox."

"Well, I didn't have much choice there. If you didn't notice, he's rather infatuated with me and unfortunately, I fell in love with the crazy tod."

"Unfortunately?"

She put her paw on the rabbit's back, "I was making a joke, sweetheart. I suppose I shouldn't. I am very fortunate to have him and happy to be stuck with him. You should take any opportunity you can to be happy and don't let some pervert tell you who you can spend the rest of your life with."

Janice knew the history of the rules, but she had always tried to separate them from their creator because they made so much sense.

The food started to arrive and the conversation waned as they ate, mostly reminiscing about Dr Twinnings and memorable events from the Library with Jake and Janice listening and occasionally asking questions about how things worked.

As the table was cleared and Jake was only partly paying attention to the two male foxes laughing about a tennis game that turned into a foot race that turned into a steeple chase of other spontaneous competitions, Mrs Harstlein leaned close and spoke quietly in his ear, catching him by surprise, "So, how serious are you?"

"Huh?" He shifted in his seat and the other foxes noticed, "Um, about what?"

Ginger smiled slyly, making him even more uncomfortable, "The G-Mall, public service, this rabbit over here, anything at all?"

He saw Janice's eyes go wide in embarrassment and tried not to say what he was thinking. He glanced at the other foxes, now watching him, and Crandall nodded encouragingly. "I, uh, I didn't know how possible it was when I started, but, um, Mr Griffin thinks I could start right away."

The vixen didn't flinch, still staring at the young man, waiting for an answer. Mr Harstlein started laughing as he recognized his wife's expression and slapped Crandall's shoulder, "Well, Mr Griffin, it looks like he has one part of the job down. He can answer a question without answering the question."

The other fox smirked, "What was the question?"

Jake glanced at them for a moment, then turned his attention back to the vixen waiting for an answer. This was the moment; he realized that he was now being interviewed for the position and her implications put his relationship with Janice on the line, as well. He needed to choose his words carefully, but he needed to do it quickly. He took a deep breath and looked directly into her eyes, that were so much like her daughter's. He pushed aside the fear of being discovered and spoke freely. "Ma'am. There are people in this world that believe that morphs and humans are different, that one is better than the other. They believe they can use this as a reason to hurt each other. For a while, I was one of those people. I did things that I now wish that I hadn't." He pulled himself off of a train of thought that he knew was the wrong way and pulled together everything he had learned. "The G-Mall isn't just a record of how many morphs there are or where they came from. It is a living connection, not just to the past, but to how we can all live together in the future. With it, we can help people find more than their dead ancestors or a criminal. We can help to build a bond between everyone and change how all species treat each other. Getting to know our similarities has certainly changed how I feel about this rabbit over here. Maybe if everyone could see how much we share, we can prevent things like what happened to her and your daughter." As soon as he said it, he regretted it.

She stared at him for a moment in the silence, then sat up, still looking at him. He could see her eyes watering and felt as if he had just stabbed her in the heart.

Alfred leaned on the table to speak low, "I know some of the media speculated that Christy was taken by some anti-morph, but there was never any proof and we don't want to assume that is what happened. There is no need to stir that up again."

Jake looked at Mr Griffin and Mr Harstlein, "I'm sorry," then turned to Mrs Harstlein, "I'm so, so sorry. I didn't mean to bring her up. I ..."

She held up her paw as she wiped a tear from her cheek, "It's okay. ... You'll do."

He was stunned. He noticed the shocked look on Janice's face behind her and turned to see equally surprised expressions from the other two foxes. Then he noticed how quiet the room was and looked around at all the other customers watching them.

"Pardon me. I think I'll go freshen up." The vixen stood up and made her way past all the staring faces to the bathroom.

Janice stared at him for a moment, then got up, "Excuse me. I think I need to join her."

He watched her walk by with her ears and tail held up, but her expression as she glared at him looked like anger, disgust, pity, frustration, sorrow, pain, disappointment, he couldn't tell.

Crandall grabbed his arm as the chatter around the restaurant resumed, "I warned you not to mention Christy."

"I didn't mean to. It just came out with everything else."

"And you see what it did to her."

Mr Harstlein leaned back in, "I think she'll be okay. There's something we haven't mentioned, yet. A few weeks ago, we decided to have more children. It was a difficult decision and I think she is still struggling with it, even though it was her idea. I think she is a little stressed because it hasn't worked, yet."

Crandall smiled and put his arm around his friend, "Well, I hope it does work soon. The two of you deserve to have some joy back in your lives."

"We haven't exactly been miserable lately."

"Oh, I know, but there is a joy that comes from children like nothing else."

Alfred sighed and smiled sadly, "Yes, there is." He sat back and straightened his clothes, then stared at Jake for a moment that seemed like forever. "You, sir, need some lessons in tact before we let you loose on the unsuspecting population and you say the wrong thing to some poor morph that's not as strong as my wife."

Now Jake was getting confused, "What do you mean?"

Crandall sighed, "You knew you shouldn't have said it, but you said it anyway."

"No, I mean what does he mean let me loose on the population?"

Mr Harstlein started laughing again.

The other fox smirked, "This is a public position we're putting you in."

"You mean I got the job?" He tried to keep his voice low.

Alfred caught his breath, "We're not exactly flooded with applicants. You will need a lot of training, especially in public relations, but you seem adequately enthusiastic about helping people. You're begging for a pile of work that never ends; I hope you stay just as enthusiastic once you discover everything that the job entails and how little money you get from it."

Jake was stunned. Just when he felt that he had screwed everything up, they gave it to him anyway. He would have been happy, but all he could think about was Christy and hoping that he could do enough good to make up for what he did to her and her parents. "I doubt I'll ever want to stop helping people."

Crandall smiled, "That's the right answer and that's why you're the best person for the job."

Mr Harstlein smirked, "Are you sure this guy isn't just playing us?"

The other fox nodded solemnly, "If he was, he wouldn't have mentioned Christy."

"True, unless he was..." He stopped suddenly and looked past his friend.

Jake turned to see Mrs Harstlein and Janice walking arm in arm back towards the table, both smiling wide.

Crandall smiled, "Well, looks like you two had a nice talk."

Mrs Harstlein looked at Janice, "Yes, we learned some things about each other, like Janice is the daughter of Eilah's youngest sister."

"Oh, our pregnant event coordinator, Eilah?" Mr Harstlein asked with a smile.

"Yes, this is her niece."

"Well, nice to meet you again, Janice," he held out his paw and the rabbit shook it. "And what did you learn about my wife?"

She looked to the fox beside her, "Well, it's something we both learned about her."

Mrs Harstlein tossed a small plastic stick to Crandall.

He caught it while Mr Harstlein looked over his shoulder, then turned it over to find two big plus signs displayed on it.

The fox's eyes went wide and he looked up at his wife, gripping his friend's shoulders, "This is you?" When she nodded, he leapt out of his chair with a shout and dashed around to hug her. "This is wonderful! We need to celebrate!" He kissed her passionately while the other restaurant patrons watched in confusion.

A raccoon in a suit walked up to the table, "Is everything alright, Mr Harstlein?"

"It's better than alright, Gavon; my wife is pregnant!"

"Congratulations." he was interrupted as the restaurant filled with cheers and applause.

The Harstleins smiled around the room, then Alfred turned back to the manager, "We're going to celebrate this. Could you bring us all some or your princess cake?"

Ginger squeezed her husband, "Oh, my favorite."

The raccoon nodded, "Absolutely, for our prinsesstårta selection today, we have raspberry, orange marmalade, and of course lingonberry."

"We'll have all of them." Alfred wasn't interested in making a decision.

"Of course and as my gift to you, they're on the house."

Mr Harstlein scoffed and turned back to the manager, "I can't let you get away with that, she's my wife. I'll buy princess cake for everybody!" He swung his arms wide to emphasize that he meant the entire restaurant and they cheered in response.

"Yes, sir!" Gavon laughed and turned to the mouse beside him to give orders, then shooed him off and followed quickly behind.

Mrs Harstlein whispered in her husband's ear and his whole body smiled, ears to tail, then she licked it and he snapped to alert to shout, "Gavon, I think we'll be taking ours to go!" getting a few laughs from their audience. He brought his wife back to his seat and she lovingly sat in his lap, leaning against him.

Crandall turned around to the table, "Well, it's a night of wishes coming true. Too bad I haven't wished for anything in a while."

Ginger smacked his arm and sat up, "Oh stop, you got someone to reopen the G-Mall. You've been wishing for that since before you left it."

"True. I guess you're right. I did get a wish or two answered." He turned to Jake and patted him on the shoulder. "You'll be keeping me as busy as I'll be keeping you."

"Oh Cranberry, don't scare him off."

He turned back to her with a smile, "I won't, sis. I'm just so happy for you."

The cakes came and the Harstleins took theirs and left, accepting congratulations from other patrons on their way out.

Mr Griffin ate his piece, not saying much else, then got up, "I will contact you when I have things sorted and we can work on where to go from here. You two have a good night and don't get too frisky."

Janice blushed and Jake was speechless as the old fox headed for the door. He was stopped by the tiger, but the answer he gave made the tiger droop and he hugged the big cat before he left.

Not a word was said between them as Jake and Janice finished and left, but he could feel that she was upset with him. Outside, Jake finally opened up, "I thought I had messed everything up, but then they still want me to do it."

The rabbit smacked his arm and glared at him, "You did mess up. Not only did you mention their missing daughter, that you raped, but you told them what happened to me!"

"I didn't! I ... I'm sorry." He quickly realized, just a little too late, that this was not the time to be defensive.

"Ginger isn't stupid. She asked me what you meant and I had to explain."

"You didn't ..."

"No, I didn't tell her everything. Just that you saved me from some anti-morphs trying to rape me."

"What did she say?"

Janice sighed, skipping all the crying and hugging and mutual sympathy, "She said you're a better person than she thought and you're perfect for the position."

"Didn't she care that you were almost raped?"

The rabbit smiled at him, looking into his eyes, "She cared. She..."

The bus arrived and she stopped talking. They climbed aboard and sat together in silence for the ride back to campus. When he couldn't take the forced stoicism any longer, Jake put his hand comfortingly on her thigh. She put her paw on it and looked up at his concerned expression, then fell on him to cry softly on his shoulder while he held her for the rest of the ride.