A Bunny's Tale

Easter was around the corner, but according to Daniel, the doorstep was the only acceptable place for it to be. He was not prepared to wait another week, day or for that matter hour!

“Mommy, when’s Easter?” he would ask, at least three times a day. “Lots of sleeps still!” would be his mother’s repetitive response.

At the very big and bright age of four, Daniels world consisted of play-time, story-time, cuddle-time, bath-time, supper-time and of course, chocolate time! You must understand though, that chocolate time had no boundaries and overlapped with every other time, often taking precedence over them.

Don’t be mistaken though in picturing him as a round, chubby little boy with chocolate covered, rosy cheeks. Daniel was an active, agile little boy, with blond hair and beautiful chocolate brown eyes, who made use of every ounce of energy gained from his beloved chocolate to get up to allsorts of mischief and devilment.

With a love of chocolate, came a love of Easter. The thought of a chocolate carrying bunny appealed to everything in the mind of this little boy. It was almost like another Christmas, except on this occasion, the bright wrappings contained sweet, yummy chocolate!

This particular Easter, Daniel was determined to catch the fabled bunny in the act of delivering his basket of goodies. This year the hunt would be for the bunny, not the chocolate eggs.

One Saturday afternoon, a couple of weeks before his daring escapade, while out shopping with his Mother, Daniel saw from the corner of his eye, a large fluffy creature that seemed to be hurriedly hopping toward the exit of the shopping centre. Before he could get a better look, it had disappeared. One thing did seem strange about the creature though. It was missing something very important. It was missing its tail!

Just then, Daniel spotted something fluffy that confirmed his original sighting. The missing tail was lying just outside the door of a sweet shop. “The Easter Bunny, Mommy! His tail fell off and it’s on the floor!” he yelled as he dragged his mother towards the sweet shop, so that he could lay claim to his find. Daniel was over the moon. Now he knew how he would catch the furry critter. He would hold his tail for a handsome ransom of chocolate eggs, to be delivered by the tail-less bunny himself.

Slowly but surely the weeks inched passed. Daniels dreams were filled with chocolate covered tail-less bunnies. Eventually Easter weekend arrived and Daniel could put his plan into action.

Daniel had not been idle during the weeks leading up to Easter. He had carefully drawn a ransom note - he couldn’t write as yet. It showed the Easter Bunny getting his tail in return for a very large basket of chocolate eggs. He had also been hiding away carrots that he had insisted his mother buy for him. Each day he would take one or two out of the refrigerator pretending he was eating them and hid them in a box under his bed. When the packet was empty, he would call to his mother, “Mommy, please buy me carrots. They’re finished.” His Mother was understandably confused by Daniels sudden interest in carrots. It was a little odd for him to be eating so many of them but she wasn’t going to argue. “They are much healthier than all that chocolate he usually eats” she thought as she picked up her car keys and headed off to the shop, again.

The day before Easter, Daniel quietly snuck the box of carrots and the ransom picture outside and hid them under a tree. That night he went happily to bed without complaint. He waited patiently for everyone to fall asleep and silently crept to the kitchen door and out into the garden. From his pocket he pulled a torch and the last item he needed to make his plan work, a long piece of string. He emptied the box of carrots into a neat pile on the grass and set to work arranging them into a line leading from the front gate to the big tree in the middle of the garden. At the end of the line of carrots, he placed the picture on the ground with a large stone to keep it from blowing away. He then tied the string to the tail and climbed into the tree to await the arrival of the bunny.

It was a long night for such a little boy to stay awake, and it wasn’t long before he fell asleep on the biggest branch of the tree. The tail attached to the string fell out of Daniels pocket and dangled down until it hung just above the ransom picture. He must have been very tired, as he slept very well the entire night and not even the soft paws of an overgrown bunny lifting him out of the tree was enough to wake him.

When he eventually woke up, still sleepy and rubbing his tired eyes, he was more than a little surprised to find himself sleeping back in his own bed. It couldn’t however compare to the surprise of finding a rather large bunny sitting patiently next to the bed waiting for the mischievous little boy to wake up.

“Sthow, here we are, bunny, tail and boy.” Said the bunny very matter-of-factly, lisping slightly around his two big bunny teeth. “I apprethiate the carrots you left for me. I don’t underthstand why you went to all the trouble of holding my tail for ranthom.” The Easter bunny paused and nibbled thoughtfully on the end of one of Daniels carrots, “I would gladly have given you the chocolate eggs in return for my tail without you going to all the trouble of laying your sstrange trap. I would have given them to you anyway! I don’t want them. They’re not very good for bunnies or for your teeth either. I prefer carrots! Lotsth and lotsth of them. See how big and sstrong they make you.” The bunny briefly stood, displaying his enormous height and big bunny arms.

Through all of this, Daniel sat, bum glued to his bed, eyes glued to the bunny. Despite all his plans, he really hadn’t expected to be face to face with a big, talking, carrot crunching bunny! He now realized that he didn’t even know what he would have done to catch the bunny if he had not fallen asleep. “I, uhh, umm, I’m sssorry Mr Bunny” he stammered. “I, I love chocolate, it’s my fffavourite thing, and, and I wanted to see you.”

It took Daniel a short while to get used to having the Easter Bunny around but eventually he was talking non-stop. Daniel was telling the bunny all about school, his friends, his mommy, daddy and little brother Connor. The bunny listened carefully. He didn’t have such big ears for nothing!

Breakfast time arrived and Daniels Mother called him to come and eat. Daniel pleaded with the Easter Bunny to come and meet his Mommy, but the bunny refused. “Big people don’t really believe I'm real. I don’t want to give your Mom a big fright.” Daniel wasn’t going to be put off that easily, “Oh, pleeease come with me, we have more carrots in the fridge.” “I think those are for you to sstart eating.” the bunny said, hopping out the window. “I will thee you next year. Don’t forget to eat your carrotss!” With that, he was gone. Daniel was disappointed that the bunny wouldn’t stay, but he couldn’t wait to tell his Mommy about his Easter morning with the Easter Bunny.

From then on, Daniel ate carrots everyday. No, no, he didn’t stop eating chocolate! Daniel still loved chocolate. That would never change. The Easter Bunny had taught him that he shouldn’t eat too much chocolate, but he must eat his carrots. He didn’t want the Bunny to be disappointed when they saw each other again next year.