By: RedSwift
Chapter 13
The group arrived at the park. Darice and Støy set out a blanket and got the picnic Darice had made out. Linda ran off to see which of her friends were around. Tommy went to hang out with some friends he saw leaning against the fountain.
Darice and Støy sat down, each eating a sandwich as they talked to each other. “Nice day, huh?” Støy said around the butterflies in his stomach.
“Yeah, it is.” Darice said, taking another bite of her sandwich.
“So, um, how’s stuff with your mom going?”
“Pretty good I guess. We haven’t talked about much of the future, she pretty much just said how proud of me she was. I’m just glad to have her back. Hopefully she’ll finally kick her habit.”
“You mean she still has it?”
“Yeah, but she says she’s down to once a month or so. Whether I believe that is another story.”
“True, you can never believe an addict.”
“I know, I’ve seen plenty through the music store.”
“Yup.”
They continued eating in silence. After they’d finished, Darice went up on the lip of the fountain and sunbathed for awhile, leaving Støy alone with his thoughts. As he laid back and watched the clouds move across the sky, he heard someone approach.
“Hey Linda, what’s up,” he said without looking at her.
“How’d ya know it was me?” she asked, disappointed she hadn’t scared Uncle Støy.
“Well, I just have great ears and can pinpoint someone just by their sound.”
“Like a bat?”
“Not quite that good, but yeah, like a bat.”
“Cool! I wish I could do that!”
“Well, its taken years and years of practice.”
“I can’t wait that long!”
“You have all the time in the world little one.”
“I still want to be able to do it,” she pouted, crossing her arms over her chest.
Støy sat up and waved her over to him. He sat her on his lap, and looked down into her deep, innocent, brown eyes, “If you practice at it, it’ll come to you. You just have to be patient. If you want, I can help you with it.”
“That sounds fun, but maybe later. The reason I came over was to tell Darice I was going off with Bink and Tammy.”
“Well, she went off to the fountain, go look for her there.”
“OK, I will,” and with that she jumped off and ran towards the fountain.
Støy laid back down, staring off into the blue nothingness above him…
Tommy and two of his friends had been thinking of things to do all afternoon while Støy and Darice sat on the blanket. Tommy saw Darice begin walking their way and tried to get his friends away before they saw her.
“Hey Tommy, here comes your sister! Boy she looks as hot as ever!” Jason, a chipmunk, cat-called at him.
*There went my plan of them not seeing her.* “Hey man, she’s my sister, OK?”
“Hey, we can still look, can’t we, it’s still a free country.”
“Yeah, well you guys better cool it, Støy is pining for her hard now, and he’d beat the snot out of the lot of you.”
“You mean the freak, he’s probably a wuss, just wears all that stuff to look tough.”
“You can try Jason,” Tommy said to the chipmunk.
“Nah, I’m not in for a fight today.”
“Hey, why don’t we go play some B-ball,” Tommy said, trying to get their attention elsewhere. He really hated it when they went all googly-eyed over his sister.
“Don’t try to change the subject Tommy,” Reese yelled.
Tommy looked down at the shorter mouse, “How would you like it if you had to hear us talking about your sister?”
“You know I don’t have a sister.”
“You know what I mean,” Tommy said, slapping Reese aside the head.
At this point Darice walked up to them, “Tommy, quit hitting your friends,” she scolded.
Tommy’s face got red, “You’re not my mother!”
“No, she’s back at my place, you know that. For now I’m to watch you.”
“Well, I don’t need watching,” and with that he stomped off.
Darice watched after him and shrugged, then climbed up the fountain.
A few minutes later Tommy’s friends joined him where he sat fuming.
“What took you guys so long?” he snarled at them.
“Uh… well, we kinda got distracted,” Reese answered hesitantly.
“By what?” he asked, knowing he wouldn’t like the answer.
“Uh, your sister in her bikini.”
Tommy kept his anger in check, barely, “Well, are you sacks of raging hormones done ogling my sister?”
“Yeah, we are,” Jason answered, “you know, basketball does sound good.”
Tommy got up and followed his two friends in silence to the courts, thinking a good game would calm him down…
Tommy and his friends had been playing some three on three for awhile when a scream came from beyond the woods the court was secreted in. Everyone went off running towards the shout as a few more came from someone else.
Tommy was the first to burst from the bushes, seeing his little sister’s friend Bink cradling her unconscious sister’s bleeding head. He rushed over with everyone else following him. Together they picked Tammy up, carrying her towards the only place they could think of, the tree of the Rescue Rangers. Tommy let his friends carry Tammy as he bent down and picked up Bink, trying to calm her down like he did with Linda.
“Th-th-they ttttoooook herrrrrr!!!!” Bink sobbed into his shoulder over and over again.
“Shhhh, its OK Bink, who did they take?”
“Li-li-lindaaaa!!!” she wailed.
Tommy stopped dead in his tracks at this. Once he recovered himself, he caught up with Reese and Jason, “Guys, we need to hurry up, someone took my little sister!” and without another word to them ran off ahead of them, carrying a wailing squirrel child with him.
Reese and Jason looked at each, shrugged a little with their burden, and hurried off after their distressed friend…
Chip sat on the couch reading his book. Gadget was of course up in her shop, Dale and Foxglove who knew where, and Monty and Zipper were getting started on dinner.
As he sat there reading, unconsciously picking at the bandages covering his shoulder, the door suddenly burst open, showing a tall, lanky, haggard looking mouse, carrying Bink, the little squirrel the Rangers had to baby-sit once. Bink was wailing up a storm, which brought Gadget sliding down her tire-slide and Monty and Zipper from the kitchen. As Monty went and took the burden from Tommy, Reese and Jason came in looking even more tired than Tommy, carrying Tammy between them. Seeing her state, Gadget ran over and directed them to put her on the couch. Chip rushed over to call Mrs. Chesnutt to get her over.
Gadget attended to Tammy’s head wound while Monty tried to comfort Bink as best he could. Chip took the three teens into the kitchen, promising them a glass of water. They followed him, and he filled each a glass and had them sit down at the table.
As they greedily drank down their glasses, he began, “So what happened?”
Before his friends could answer, Tommy said, barely taking a breath or pausing, “We were playin’ some basketball and heard a scream, so we went to check it out. We found Tammy and Bink there, and began bringing them here. Along the way Bink told me whoever did it took my baby sister!”
As Chip tried to understand everything Tommy had just said, Gadget came into the kitchen, “Well, she’ll be fine, I think we should let Mrs. Chesnutt know she’s over here, she knows more about this stuff than me anyways.”
“Already done,” Chip said to her.
“Oh, OK, what happened anyways?”
“From what he told me,” Chip said, pointing to Tommy, “someone attacked them and kidnapped his little sister.”
Gadget looked at Tommy and he nodded his head in confirmation, “Its true Ma’am, maybe Tammy will be able to help when she wakes up.”
“That may not be for awhile,” Gadget sighed, “she got quite a nasty hit to the back of her head.”
“Guess all we can do is wait,” Chip said, just as a frantic knocking was heard at the door. Gadget rushed off to answer it, and let in a very distraught looking Mrs. Chesnutt. She rushed in to Tammy’s side, crying on her chest.
Chip came out from the kitchen and looked around. He saw Gadget trying to console Mrs. Chesnutt as she laid her arms over her daughter’s chest, Monty sat in a chair, cradling a now sleeping Bink in his arms with Zipper on his shoulder. Chip ran everything over and his mind, and looked over his shoulder at the three youths sitting at the kitchen table.
“There’s nothing else you can tell me?” he asked them.
“No sir, that’s all we know,” Jason answered to him.
“Well, you two can probably go, but you’ll have to stay,” he said, pointing to Tommy.
“We’ll stay if you want to Tommy,” Reese said to him.
“No, you guys can go, I don’t want to burden you guys with this.”
“OK,” Reese said hesitantly, and he and Jason got up and left.
Chip went over behind Tommy and laid his paw on his shoulder, “It’ll be OK, we’ll find her, trust me, we’ll find her.”
“Thanks, I should’ve been there with her, I feel like I’ve let her down.”
“No you didn’t,” Chip said, sitting himself down next to Tommy, “no one could have planned on something like this happening.”
“I know, it’s just so hard.”
“Well, we’ll find her,” and with that Chip left him to go check on Mrs. Chesnutt and Tammy. Seeing no change, he sat down in an empty chair and began going over everything in his mind.
Disclaimer: The Rangers, Foxglove, Tammy, Bink, and Mrs. Chesnutt are Copyright Disney. Used without permission but with the utmost respect. Darice, Støy, Linda, Tommy, Reese, and Jason are figments of my imagination trying to get out. You may post this story in any way, so long as you don’t modify my words or gain profit from it. (Boy, isn’t all this legal mumbo jumbo fun?)