Chapter 6
Sporting her traffic-enforcement hat and a bright-orange vest, Judy climbed into her parking cart, buckled up, and put on her shades. She pressed the gas pedal down and took off...very slowly.
Judy’s ears twisted and turned as she used her excellent hearing skills to listen for expired parking meters. Each time one dinged, she dashed over and wrote a ticket. She ticketed dozens of cars of every size—moose cars, mouse cars, and everything in between.
“Boom! Two hundred tickets before noon,” she said proudly.
She turned to see her traffic cart parked at an expired meter. “Two hundred and one,” she said with a self-satisfied smile as she wrote herself a ticket.
Then the sound of a car horn and an angry sheep yelling out his window interrupted her moment. “Watch where you’re going, fox!” the sheep yelled.
Judy saw a red fox across the street and eyed him suspiciously. Then she shook her head and scolded herself for being suspicious without a real reason. But when she saw him look around before slinking into Jumbeaux’s Café, she crossed the road and peeked in through the window. He was nowhere to be seen.
Now completely suspicious, Judy unsnapped the pink can of fox repellent from her holster and headed inside.
The café was an elephant ice cream parlor. Elephants used their trunks to scoop ice cream into bowls and decorate sundaes with nuts, whipped cream, and cherries. Judy spotted the fox at the front of the line. Jerry Jumbeaux, Jr., the elephant working behind the counter, yelled at the fox. “Listen, I don’t know what you’re doing skulking around during daylight hours, but I don’t want any trouble here. So hit the road!”
“I’m not looking for any trouble either, sir, I simply want to buy a Jumbo-pop,” said the fox innocently, reaching behind him, “for my little boy. You want the red or the blue, pal?”
When Judy noticed the little toddler clinging to the fox’s leg, she felt awful for jumping to conclusions. “I’m such a...,” Judy muttered to herself as she turned to leave.
“Listen, buddy. There aren’t any fox ice cream joints in your part of town?”
“There are. It’s just, my boy—” The fox tousled the boy’s fur. “This goofy little stinker—he loves all things elephant. Wants to be one when he grows up. Who the heck am I to crush the little guy’s dreams?”
The boy pulled up the hood of his elephant costume and made a cute little toot-toot sound with his toy elephant trunk. Judy smiled. Realizing she still had it out, she quickly tucked her fox repellent back into its holster.
“Look, you probably can’t read, fox, but the sign says”—Jerry pointed to the sign as he read it slowly— “WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO REFUSE SERVICE TO ANYONE. So beat it.”
“You’re holding up the line,” said an annoyed elephant, waiting behind them.
The little toddler looked as if he was about to cry. Judy marched up to the counter and flashed her badge at Jerry.
“Hello? Excuse me?” said Judy.
“You’re gonna have to wait your turn like everyone else, meter maid,” said Jerry.
“Actually...I’m an officer. Just had a quick question. Are your customers aware that they’re getting snot and mucous with their cookies and cream?”
“What are you talking about?” asked Jerry, annoyed.
“Well, I don’t want to cause you any trouble, but I believe scooping ice cream with an ungloved trunk is a class-three health-code violation. Which is kind of a big deal. Of course, I could let you off with a warning if you were to glove those trunks and—I don’t know—finish selling this nice dad and his son a...what was it?” Judy smiled at the fox.
“A Jumbo-pop,” said the fox.
“A Jumbo-pop,” said Judy firmly.
Jerry stared for a moment, then said, “Fifteen dollars.”
The fox turned to Judy. “Thank you so much. Thank you.” He dug through his pockets before stopping in disbelief. “Are you kidding me? I don’t have my wallet. I’m sorry, pal, worst birthday ever.” The fox leaned down to give the toddler a kiss, then turned to Judy. “Thanks anyway.”
Judy slapped some cash on the counter. “Keep the change,” she said.
Once Jerry gave them the Jumbo-pop, Judy held the door as the fox and his little boy exited Jumbeaux’s.
“Officer, I can’t thank you enough,” said the fox. “So kind, really. Can I pay you back?”
“Oh no, my treat. It just—you know, it burns me up to see folks with such backward attitudes toward foxes,” Judy said. “Well, I just wanna say, you’re a great dad and just a...a real articulate fellow.”
“Ah, well, that is high praise. It’s rare that I find someone so non-patronizing...Officer...”
“Hopps. Mr...,” Judy said, not catching the sarcasm that was evident in the fox’s tone.
“Wilde. Nick Wilde.”
Judy bent down toward the little fox. “And you, little guy, you want to be an elephant when you grow up...you be an elephant—because this is Zootopia, and anyone can be anything.” She placed a ZPD badge sticker on the boy’s chest.
“All right, here you go—” Nick said, handing him the huge Jumbo-pop. “Two paws. Yeah. Aw, look at that smile, that’s a happy birthday smile! Give her a little bye-bye toot-toot.”
The adorable little fox tooted his trunk.
“Toot-toot!” said Judy happily. Then she walked off with a spring in her step. It felt great to help somebody in need!
第 6 章
朱迪戴着醒目的交通执法帽，穿着亮橙色的马甲，爬上了她的巡逻车，系上安全带，戴上了墨镜。她一脚踩在油门上，车子开动了……异常缓慢。
朱迪的耳朵扭来扭去，她在利用敏锐的听觉本领来留神听着停车计时器超时的声音。只要计时器一响，她就冲过去开罚单。她贴了大大小小几十辆汽车——麋鹿车，老鼠车，还有任何大小介于两者之间的车子。
“生意兴隆!中午之前开了两百张罚单。”她骄傲地说道。
她扭头看了一眼她那辆停在一个超时的计时器旁边的巡逻车。“两百零一。”她一边说，一边沾沾自喜地给自己的车子也开了张罚单。
就在这时，汽车的喇叭声和愤怒的绵羊透过车窗的叫喊声打断了她的美好时光。“看好你的路，狐狸!”那只绵羊大叫道。
朱迪看到一只红色的狐狸穿过大街，就满腹狐疑地盯着他。紧接着，她又摇了摇头，责怪自己不该凭空猜疑。但是当她看到他东张西望后悄悄溜进了江伯克斯咖啡店时，她便穿过马路透过玻璃朝里面偷看了一眼。他不见了。
朱迪现在觉得非常可疑，就从手枪皮套里取出那瓶粉色的防狐液，拧开瓶盖，走了进去。
这家咖啡店是一家大象冰激凌店。大象们用他们的长鼻子将冰激凌舀进碗里，再用坚果、鲜奶油和樱桃来装饰圣代。朱迪在队伍前面发现了那只狐狸。收银员大象小杰瑞·江伯克斯冲着那只狐狸尖声吼道：“听着，我不知道你大白天鬼鬼祟祟地做什么，但是我不想这里有什么麻烦。所以滚吧!”
“我也不想惹麻烦，先生;我只是想买根超级冰棍，”那只狐狸伸出手指向身后，一脸无辜地说道，“给我的小儿子。你想要红色的还是蓝色的，伙计?”
当朱迪看到那个紧紧抓住狐狸的腿蹒跚学步的小家伙时，她为自己妄下结论而感到难过。“我真是……”朱迪转身离开时喃喃自语道。
“听着，伙计，你们那块地方就没有狐狸冰激凌店吗?”
“有。只不过，我的孩子——”那只狐狸弄乱了小家伙的毛。“这个笨笨的小东西——他喜欢一切和大象有关的东西。长大后还想做大象。我怎么忍心粉碎这个小家伙的梦想呢?”
那个小家伙向上拉起他身上那件大象衣服的帽子，用他那个玩具象鼻子吹出了可爱的、微弱的嘟嘟声。朱迪笑了。意识到手里依然拿着防狐液，她赶紧把它塞回了手枪皮套里。
“瞧，可能你不识字，狐狸，这个标志写的是——”杰瑞指着那个标志，慢慢地读了起来——“我们有权拒绝向任何人提供服务。所以走开。”
“你妨碍到后面的人了。”一头排在他们后面的恼怒的大象 说道。
那个小家伙看上去就要哭出来了。朱迪大步流星走到柜台前，冲着杰瑞亮出了自己的徽章。
“您好，打扰了。”朱迪说道。
“你要跟其他人一样排队，女交警。”杰瑞说道。
“实际上……我是一名警官。就问一个小问题。你们的顾客有没有意识到他们吃的曲奇和奶油上沾有鼻涕和黏液?”
“你说什么?”杰瑞恼怒地问道。
“呃，我并不想给您添麻烦，不过我认为用不戴鼻套的象鼻子舀冰激凌违反了三级卫生标准。这可是大事。当然，我也可以给您个警告放您一马，只要您给这些象鼻子戴上鼻套，然后——我不知道——卖给这位和蔼的父亲和他儿子一根……什么?”朱迪冲着那只狐狸微微一笑。
“一根超级冰棍。”那只狐狸说道。
“一根超级冰棍。”朱迪坚定地说道。
杰里盯着他们看了一会儿，然后说道：“15美元。”
那只狐狸转向朱迪说道：“真是谢谢您了。谢谢您。”他在口袋里摸索着，然后失望地停了下来。“开什么玩笑?我没带钱包。真对不起，伙计，史上最糟糕的生日。”那只狐狸弯下身子亲了那个小家伙一下，然后转身对朱迪说：“不管怎样，都要谢谢您。”
朱迪啪的一声把一些现金放到了柜台上。“零钱不用找了。”她说道。
杰瑞刚把超级冰棍给他们，朱迪就为他们扶着门，那只狐狸和他的小孩随即出了江伯克斯的店。
“警官，真不知道该怎么谢谢您，”那只狐狸说道，“您真是大好人。我要还您钱吗?”
“哦，不用，我请客。只不过——要知道，看到有人用这么差的态度对待狐狸，真让我恼火，”朱迪说道，“嗯，我想说，你们是了不起的爸爸和……口齿清楚的小家伙。”
“啊，嗯，这可是很高的评价。我发现很少有人能这么不摆架子……警官……”
“我是霍普斯。您是……”朱迪说道，她并没有捕捉到狐狸语气中那明显的嘲讽意味。
“王尔德。尼克·王尔德。”
朱迪弯腰对着那只小狐狸说道：“还有你，小家伙，你长大了想当大象……你会长成大象——因为这里是动物城，所以我们都无所不能。”说完，她把一枚动物城警察局徽章贴纸贴在了小家伙的胸前。
“好了，拿着吧——”尼克说着，将那根超级冰棍递给了他，“用两只爪子。就这样。哦，看看这个笑容，这是快乐过生日的笑容!跟她轻轻地嘟嘟两声道别。”
那只讨人喜爱的小狐狸吹响了他的象鼻子。
“嘟嘟!”朱迪开心地说道。然后，她一蹦一跳地走开了。帮助遇到了困难的人，感觉棒极了!
