Child

The Rabbit

After a while you wonder if running away was the right decision. Maybe you could have talked it out with Ramona. Maybe you wouldn't be able to find a better place to wait for Mama to find you. Could Mama even find you when you're away from home? Well, Ramona's home.

It's too late now. You're further from home than you've ever been. All the streets in the city look the same to you. You try all the unconventional directions to try and get out of the scene. You stop to look in a dusty window. Nobody's inside the building and you can only just see some pieces of paper on the ground inside. The street is lighter than inside the window, so you can see your reflection. A mascot costume of a scared rabbit with an old scarf around its neck. Warm clothes, but not warm enough.

You find your way out of the wind, between two tall buildings with pipes dripping down onto the mossy concrete ground.

Someone with a beer bottle in their hand calls out to you. "It's a bunny. Bunny bunny bunny!" You speed up.

"Run, Rabbit, Run!" says another person drinking with them.

You keep running until you run out of breath and then you walk. The scenery starts to change which comforts you. That means it's not just this life for ever and ever.

You take shelter in a train station. Take off your gas mask and lie it beside you. It's too big and hard to lie down in, but it's comforting to look at. The train station is eerily similar to the train station Ramona found you at. You wonder if it's the same one. You wonder what happened to you when you lost your memory. Your memory is usually really clear. Why you're so unlike the other kids? 

You didn't know when you were younger, that when Ramona took you home, she was giving up her day's wages. And eventually her job as a detective. That's why she's a bounty hunter now. She didn't start off that way. She's done everything for you. She doesn't dye her hair red anymore. She let it go black and then grey. Her face has sunken and she's not as strong as she used to be. Has she changed that much in six years, or has she only seemed to change? Maybe she was always a little bit feeble. You never asked her how old she was.

You're not sure if you've slept when you see someone wearing a half face gas mask and some aviator goggles stealing the wheels from under a train.

"Don't steal!" you cry out. Orso looks up. He puts his finger to their lips. You squint. They leave the train wheelless on the track. Then he carries the piece of train out of your field of vision and you go back to sleep.

You wake up again and then you really wake up. Orso is driving past you in a sort of go-cart-bike-train vehicle. Again, they put their finger to their lips. You shut your mouth. You're quiet, but you follow Orso this time. Dragging your bunny mask with you.

At the further side of the train station, there's a gravelly road with no cars on it. A group of teenagers are gathered around waiting for Orso. When Orso arrives on his train-parts-crocodile bike, they all cheer and climb aboard it. You follow after Orso and someone yells out to you.

"Hey! It's that weird kid with no hair. I used to go to the same school as them."

Orso looks around at you. "Yeah, they were sleeping at the train station."

"Hey, Rabbit Kid!" Idowu calls out to you. "Come with us. You'll be okay."

"No they can't." Billie glares at Idowu. "Come on, Idowu."

Nirmal disappears into the shadows.

"No, you come on, Billie." Idowu looks back at Billie. "Why not?"

Now this is awkward for you. Orso gestures to you that you're all good. Idowu continues to argues with Billie. Billie says they can't afford to look after a little kid as well as themselves. I'm sixteen! you think, but you don't say it.

"I can do things." you tell them. "Things no one else can do." you've never told anyone this before. The group look at you. Nirmal comes out from the shadows. "What kind of things?" Nirmal asks.

You look around. "I can do a lot of things..." you rub your earlobe. "With a lot of accuracy, but not much force." your confidence fails you. "I'm really good at whispering."

Billie looks at the others.

"Please?" Nirmal raises his eyebrows at Billie. Billie gives in.

"Fine. But they'd better be quiet."

"They'll be quiet, Billie," Idowu sneers. "rabbits are great at that." 

Orso puts on a bicycle helmet, which barely fits on his head with their gas mask and goggles, but it does work. The others all have cool gas masks. Billie's is quite clearly made out of used cans and other discarded objects. Idowu's covers their whole face but is open at the back for her hair. Nirmal's gas mask is the creepiest. It's a full hood with two eye holes, but it's not tight like the ones you've seen in your city. It's shaped like a big thumb with a cartridge.

You put your rabbit mask back on and climb aboard. You have no idea where you're going, but you know you're not travelling with Ramona and that makes you feel good. You'd rather be out stealing trains with a bunch of teenagers than back home with Ramona where it's light and warm and there's food every day, but you're trapped.

Orso's crocodile bike machine works better than you expected. You're pretty sure they're all older than you, except Nirmal might be younger or the same age.

You get comfortable with these people pretty quickly. You relate to their lack of formality. You're only as weird as them. Your rabbit mask becomes an essential part of you. Billie's the clever one, who can make her own gadgets, Idowu is the one with the great hair, Orso is the one who doesn't know how to moderate his head gear, Nirmal is the scary one, and you are the runaway rabbit.