Zootopia in Love (Illustrated)

4: Lambsong

Judy fumbled with her keys, looking for the one to unlock her door, and finally came home after a seemingly boring day. Amidst her pile of paperwork at her desk at ZPD, a fat envelope was mailed to her. It was addressed from the prison, from Bellwether. She didn't have time to open and read it at work so she brought it home to read at her leisure. After landing home in her dim apartment and changing from her uniform to her evening shirt, she sliced the top of the envelope open, and pulled out a thick stack of paw-written pages on lined yellow paper. This was the most Bellwether had written, most of the time her letters consisted of minor banter, and she and the sheep went back and forth about their days and thoughts. She unfolded the stack, laid down on her bed, and began to read.

"Mother!" Dawn called out as she came through the giant oakwood door. The smaller than average sheep had proudly arrived home on a Friday in the fourth grade. She came home to a large wealthy house standing off the end of a cul-de-sac in the esteemed Hamshire Heights. It was her parents' house where they managed their lives and went on about their business venturing. "Mother!" She called again across the echoing foyer, hoping to hear some acknowledgment in return. Dawn dropped her heavy backpack full of books and pulled her homework out of a folder, adjusting her glasses and seeing the good grade marked at the top of the page. "Mother?" She walked back to the study where her mother sat at an executive cherry wood desk, trimmed with fine brass and ornate filigree. Her mother sat staring at the spreadsheets on the desk's surface, tapping a pen against her nose thinking hard about the problem presenting itself on the page. Her mother had a long way to go to balance the finances of the Bellwether household. "Mother! I got an A-plus on my math homework!" Her mother paid no attention to her good news, she just continued jotting notes and numbers down on a scratch paper trying to find the right figures.

"Ugh, what's fourteen percent of 2,441..." Her mother sighed to herself. Dawn perked up and tipped her nose up over the edge of the desk.

"341.74!" Dawn blurted out the answer. Her mother jotted it down without any acknowledgment of where the answer came from. Dawn flapped her homework down on the desk and her mother finally took notice.

"I'll sign your permission slip in a moment, Dawn. I am very busy right now." Dawn was confused, and was starting to become upset with the negligence happening to her. After the promised moment, her mother extended her arm to sign her name 'Victoria Bellwether' on the homework, writing on a divider line that simply sectioned the multiplication and the division math problems. Dawn took her homework back, disappointed that she received no praise again. All she wanted to do was make her proud, make her notice her achievements, or at least make her happy. "Go have fun with your friends or something, and don't get messy," her mother told her. "your grandmother will be coming to visit this weekend. She'll be here very soon."

Dawn lugged her backpack onto her shoulders and walked upstairs then down another hallway, opening a door into her small bedroom. She sat her backpack in its corner next to a stack of loose books, and slid her A-plus homework into a holder labeled 'good grades' sitting on her shabby dresser. Her walls were mostly bare, aside from a poster of the periodic table, and a picture of a beautiful unknown city in the sunset she took from a magazine. She crawled over her bed with patterned quilts covering it and picked up her only toy. It was a pink plush sheep doll, and she loved her.

"I wish I had friends, Pinky..." She muttered to her little stuffed sheep. "But Baba is coming to visit! She's always so nice to me!" She held Pinky in her paws and felt the soft curly fuzz that covered it, wishing with all of her might that her parents weren't so busy all of the time. She heard the front door open and her father announced to the household.

"We're here!" With the news, Dawn jumped up, taking Pinky with her and running down the hall.

"Baba!" She called out while she ran down the stairs. Her grandmother was a little feeble and a little crooked, time bending her back and adorning her features with the wrinkles of wisdom and smiles. Her clothing was mostly hand-stitched or knitted, the wool of her cheeks that held old spectacles fell into long thick braids, and she always had the sweet scent of green things about her. Holding onto her walking stick made of an old branch, she smiled widely for her granddaughter and held her arms out to hold her. Dawn ran through the foyer to her so filled with joy and excitement that she lost her footing and tripped on her own skirt. She fell hard onto the stone tile floor, crashing her chin and elbow. She was stunned and tried her hardest not to cry, tried to be a big girl for her Baba. Her father and mother walked past her on the floor, her mother was too focused and talked business to the sharp dressed sheep that was Dawn's father, who simply ignored her as well and was more concerned with his business. Her mother rambled on.