The Christmas Bunny Page #4

Miss McPherson,

but she was not on it

when it got to our stop...

Yes, I checked every seat...

Well, she has to be somewhere...

Wait, somebody's here.

I'll call you back...

Mrs. Ross! What...

She wanted to see the animal.

She what?

Julia, did you get off the bus

at Mrs. Ross's house?

I told her not to do that no more.

- Not without permission.

- Thank you.

Julia, please go inside the house

right now.

Thank you so much, I am so sorry

to put you to all this trouble...

- She gonna keep it?

- What?

- The animal.

- Well, yes. I guess so.

I mean, as long as nobody else claims it.

Well, she's gotta learn

how to take care of it.

Yes, of course.

We'll make sure that she does.

Did you... bring it with you?

She can come by my house after school,

get off the bus, like she did today.

There's another bus

that comes by at 5 o'clock.

- Well, yes, but..

- I'll teach her, she can get back on the bus.

Look, she can't have a rabbit

if she don't know how to take care of it.

That's that.

That's the craziest thing I've ever heard.

What, she's going to hold the rabbit hostage

unless Julia goes to Bunny School?

Julia wants to do it. She told me so.

- She spoke again?

- Yes.

I think we should let her.

I'll go with her next time,

make sure everything's okay,

but, Scott,

that little bunny is opening her up,

and if Mrs. Ross

can help her make a connection...

okay, okay.

Whatever, whatever you think...

- okay.

- Okay.

- So?

- So?

The interview? How'd it go?

They want me to come back next week.

The V.P. of Engineering

is flying in from Dallas.

Scott, that's wonderful.

It pays eighty thousand dollars a year,

with benefits,

and...

...stocks up another four bucks today.

- Oh, Scott!

- It's just a second interview, okay?

It's not a job. Not yet.

Oh, yes!

Oh my goodness...

Mrs. Ross, may I ask you?

Where did they all come from?

- Kids.

- Kids?

Yeah, yeah, they get'em for presents,

birthdays, Easter.

Then they get bored of 'em and

they don't want to be bothered anymore.

Neither do the parents.

You take care of them all yourself?

I used to have a helper.

No more.

Never helped that much anyway.

Goodness, how many are there?

Enough to keep me busy, I guess.

...only Timothy.

That or oat, brome, maybe Bermuda.

No alfalfa.

Clover neither. Makes 'em fat.

No alfalfa.

What about rabbit pellets?

The pet store said that

the pellets provide all the nutrients that...

Pellets! Ha, waste of money.

Just another way for

the feed companies to rob you blind.

Oh, pellets! Puh!

Hey. You.

Are you listening? This is your animal.

What's that it's eating?

Oh. Oh, thems cecotropes.

Their first droppings.

Rabbits can't digest everything

in their food first time through,

so they, ah, they eat 'em again.

- Ceco...?

- Cecotropes.

Yeah. My helper used to

catted them... poopsicies.

Good night, Rumpie.

You been here long enough...

It's time to meet the special ones.

Now.

Over here?

This here's old Fred.

Fred is eighteen years old.

You know Fred is the oldest rabbit

in the state of Michigan?

Probabiy in the whole USA.

Sounds like he's purring, don't it?

That's his teeth rubbing together.

Did you know that rabbits'

teeth never stop growing?

Yeah, that's why they always have to have

something to chew on, to wear 'em down.

Over here, over here is Gabby...

Yeah, Gabby's back legs don't work.

Somebody dropped her off one night,

at my back door.

I guess they thought

I'd put her out of her misery.

Well, three years later,

still going strong.

See these little guys over here?

They just love to lay all over her at night.

Yep. I guess cause she can't go nowhere.

You know, everything has a purpose.

Even things that seem too broke down

or too hurt to do anybody any good.

Well. That goes for people, too.

Come on. We got work to do.

Hey.

Are you paying attention to where you are?

What if I dropped dead right here?

How you gonna get back?

You can lost in a Michigan woods faster

than green grass through a goose.

Happened to me once, right up near ionia.

Yeah, me and my Dad,

we were out pickin' wild blueberries.

Whew. I wasn't much older than you,

I guess.

We found a big blueberry patch,

and then another one, and then one more.

Finally, my bag was full.

Well, I looked up, and my dad was gone.

Well I yeiied and I yeiied,

but he wasn't anywhere.

See this here?

This here's ida Red.

The books'll teii you to get Jonathan,

but the rabbits like these better.

Here. I'll cut, you hold the sack.

I must have wandered in circies

for hours and hours.

You know what I finally did?

I looked around and I found the tallest tree,

and I, I started ciimbing.

Maybe thirty or forty feet.

Scared the pants off me.

Well, I got to the top

and I looked out way in the distance,

and there was the top of

the ionia Methodist Church.

Well, I climbed back down

and I started walking.

And there was the road.

A Bissell Sweeper man picked me up.

He catted my dad.

Oh, was my dad mad.

Yup, he whooped me good.

But I didn't even care.

I was so happy to see him.

Well, I guess we don't really know

how we feel about our family til,

til we think we're never gonna see'm again.

What's the matter with you?

Are you crying?

I swear, girls're always crying

about something.

alright, that's enough.

Now, next Monday.

Old Freds birthday.

I think we ought

to do something special for him.

Are you gonna help me?

Okay, then.

Here's a good one...

- Hi.

- Hi.

Is Dr. DeVos in?

- I just wanted to speak to him for just a moment.

- Yeah.

- Well, hi there.

- Hi.

- How's your little bunny?

- Great.

Mrs. Ross has him.

And he's getting well, I think.

Uhm, I just wanted to thank you

for your kindness...

it's a business card holder.

It's great.

You don't have to use it,

it just reminded me of our visit.

No, it's perfect. It can live right here.

Dr. DeVos, I wanted to ask you a question.

Julia's been going over

to Mrs. Ross' farm almost every day now,

and she really seems to love it,

but... she is okay, isn't she?

I mean Mrs. Ross.

Living out there on that big farm,

all by herself...

Yeah, that's kind of a sad story.

Betsy lost her husband a long time ago.

But she had a daughter.

Her name was Sarah.

And she used to help Betsy around the farm,

they were pretty close.

And then one day apparently

they had a big argument,

Betsy can be a little difficult, you know,

and Sarah left

and she never came back.

She refuses to have anything

to do with her mother.

That was almost twenty years ago.

But I don't think that makes

Betsy dangerous or anything.

No.

Just lonely, I guess.

Yeah, I'm afraid that that's a condition

that even cute little rabbits can't cure.

Just then Nana caught sight of him.

"How about this old Bunny?,"

she asked.

"That?" said the doctor.

Why it's a mass of scarlet fever germs.

Burn it at once. What?

Nonsense.Get him a new one...

oh, man, not again.

alright, when are you gonna be done?

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