A Different Rabbit - CornFed (essential reading txt) 📗

earned him the nickname Slow Sam. Sam didn’t seem to mind the nickname and would even walk in slow motion just to amuse the other two rabbits.

While Sam and Sandra were obviously creatures of a certain personality, Becka didn’t really know what to do with everything around her. She spent the first few hours of the second day pacing around the Garden, looking up at the sky, and exploring as much of her surroundings as she could. She would move from one area to another as if in search of something but bored with what she found. Sam and Sandra didn’t want to give her a nickname. They figured she’d do something to make them change it the next day anyways.

Chapter 4 – Life in the Garden

As each day passed, Little Sandra didn’t really find much of the Garden interesting to her and she grew more and more bored with eating the same little portion of food 3 times a day. While Sam was often skipping meals because he napped too long or while Becka was trying to figure out how deep she could dig into the ground, Little Sandra was practicing her food consumption.

“Ok, I have only 10 minutes to eat. I need to focus on what plant I can eat the most of in 10 minutes. It’s not clover but I do so love clover. I bet the broccoli could be bitten off in larger chunks….”

But as she soon became able to consume twice as much in 10 minutes as her rabbit mates, she grew tired of having to stop her enjoyment. She wanted more time to eat a larger variety of food. And by the time The Elders paid their weekly visit to the Garden, Little Sandra had become a Little Bit Bigger Sandra.

The Elders tried to enforce the rules with Sandra, telling her it was against the rules to eat for more than 10 minutes and that her desires for food need to be redirected in other areas of Garden life, such as admiring the beauty of the trees or listening to the birds sing. Sandra did those things on the days The Elders showed up but her ever-increasing size and inability to jump over small rocks became an obvious problem that needed to be dealt with.

Fearing for her livelihood, The Elders placed a rope onto her right leg that would only let her move as far as the edge of one of the clover patches. Existing on nothing but nibbles of food, Sandra learned how to occupy herself with other areas of life and grew quite fond of the bird songs, conversations with her rabbit mates, and the gentle breeze against her nose at certain times of the day.

Sandra took it upon herself to spend many of her days focusing on eating less, enjoying life around her more, having some laughs with her rabbit mates when she could, and being content with the praises from The Elders for mastering her gluttony for food. And Sandra didn’t long for anything more than that. Within a year, she would be able to have a family and spend her time raising little rabbits, just like the Tablets said.

During the visits, The Elders would have to continually search for Slow Sam, finally figuring out he spent his days laying in the thickest part of the Garden where no one would bother him. While seeing Slow Sam raise his head from the middle of the Garden was a funny site at first, eventually The Elders did become concerned with his complete lack of enthusiasm for this wonderful Garden they had built.

They would pry Sam from his slumber, show him the different birds, the different species of trees, and explain to him the magnificence of his dexterious body. Like Sandra, Sam humored the Elders, often faking a laugh as he jumped over small logs and chased butterfles with the utmost of insencere enthusiasm he could muster. The Elders began to call him Sassy Sam and praised his abilities to enjoy the perfection of his rabbit body.

And on the other 6 days when The Elders were not in the Garden, Sassy Sam became Slow Sam again, finding his favorite sleeping place under a large leaf of lettuce, casually looking up at the sky and soaking up the sun’s rays. He knew all he had to do was one day of work in order to slumber the remaining six. And he never wanted nothing more.

But Becka could never be found during most of The Elders visits. Sandra and Sam would often tell them that she had bounded off in “that direction” or “this direction” or she was “busy nursing some wound”. Finally, one day when the Great Elders were visiting, Becka just happened to be sitting in front of the Great Clover Tablets, trying to figure out why she had to follow all those rules. The Elders quizzed her on her most recent adventures, trying to find out why she was missing a patch of fur from her back leg.

“I got nipped by one of those crazy squirrels on the east side of the Garden. I am trying to figure out if the Tablets say it’s ok for me to bite one on the tail if he does it again!”

The Elders immediately reminded Becka that venturing outside the Garden is strictly prohibited. They told her to look at the peaceful glaze on the eyes of Sandra and the wonderful jumping ability of Sam, saying…

“Perhaps you should follow in their footsteps and learn how to enjoy the Garden too. Be sure you are here next week when we visit.”

While Becka agreed with them to their rabbit faces, over the next several days she managed to procure a nice collection of the ends of squirrel tails by sneaking up on them and biting their tail. While her rabbit mates were careful to be on their best behavior the day of The Elders weekly arrival, Becka had forgotten what the day of the week was and had actually gotten scraped by some briars while avoiding being clawed by a bobcat in the western part of the Garden.

All she wanted to do was see what a bear looked like but now she became intimately knowledgeable of bobcats.

“Bobcats are pretty slow. You should have seen how I cut the corner and had that little booger tumbling down the hill. You’re right. This rabbit body is pretty damned quick!”

The Elders stood there in silence, not knowing what to do with Becka, as she had broken 2 rules in a single sentence; venturing outside the Garden and cussing.

The Elders did try several things to keep Becka at bay. They did tie her leg like Sandra to keep her in close quarters thinking this would prohibit her from moving around so much. But on their next arrival Becka exclaimed…

“Rabbit teeth are very sharp! I gnawed right through that rope in less than 10 nibbles! The Big Rabbit in the Sky did a super job making them!”

And then she described to them how a bear stands on his hind legs when you throw rabbit pellets at it.

But she would ask for forgiveness with each visit from The Elders, recite the creed with them at noon, and spend some time talking with Sandra or jumping over logs with Sam. However, as the weeks went on, The Elders were not pleased with each new adventure Becka’s body showed nor the reports from Sam and Sandra that Becka would often talk about a dream she had each night. It was about a Great Big Glowing Carrot and how she would often wonder around the Garden talking to the Big Rabbit in the Sky about her desire to find a bunch of Great Big Glowing Carrots, like the ones in her dreams.

“You cannot talk to the Big Rabbit in the Sky like that! You cannot dream of carrots! Becka, you must become like the other rabbits or something aweful could happen to you. This is Paradise! This is your Garden! Why cannot you enjoy it?”

And with each scolding, Becka would toe the ground with her rabbit paws, looking down at the circles with fake tears pouring from her eyes, and sincerely apologize yet again.

Things got better for The Elders though. Gradually Becka withdrew more and more into herself and started obeying the rules. Although she was not as peaceful as Sandra and not as active as Sam, she at least didn’t have any new scars or stories when The Elders visited.

Becka would tell them, “I spend my days just loving being a rabbit. I guess that is enough for me.”

And The Elders were pleased.

With each visit, they became more and more confident in the ways of the Garden rabbits. They became so confident, in fact, they quit visiting the Garden altogether, knowing that all was finally well in their Garden Paradise.


Chapter 5 – The Conversation

One night, sitting next to one of the streams in the Garden, Becka decided that she would end her life. She didn’t want to live within their rules and she wasn’t allowed to live outside of them. She remembered the claws of the bobcat and how, if she would just slow down her rabbit legs, he would certainly catch her and end her miserable life without much pain and suffering.

And so, lying on her back, with her rabbit legs folder and staring at the moon, Becka resolved to visit the western side of the Garden one last time and let the bobcat end her life.

“Becka, come here my dear.”

Becka jumped up, recognizing the voice as that of a rabbit but none she had heard before.

And crossing the stream without making any noise and without fur touching the water, a large graying rabbit made his way to Becka.

“My name is Jack Rabbit. I was the first of the rabbits to enter this Garden, and the first of the rabbits who left this Garden. I have been watching you Becka, I have been thinking of you a lot lately, and I want to help you understand what is truly happening. Would you mind if I sit down?”

Becka, unable to say anything, simply laid down on her stomach and welcomed the Stranger.

Jack Rabbit laid down beside her and the two of them simply shared stares for hours, neither one of them willing to speak until the precisely right words were chosen.

Becka chose and spoke:

“Why am I here? Why do I have so much unrest? Why do I keep dreaming these wonderful dreams, hearing these wonderful voices inside me, asking me to live, but yet I am unable to live that life? Why won’t my conditions match what is inside of me? What am I to do?”

Jack Rabbit folded back his ears and chose his words as well:

“Becka, your purpose in life and your meaning of it are Yours. You dream of Glowing Carrots because you are a Glowing Carrot. You hear wonderful voices because you are a Wonderful Voice. You have unrest because you are a Divine Unrest. There is only one way to find the Truth and I’m going to show you.”

With those words, JackRabbit produced something Becka had never seen before. It was shiny, about the size of 4 rabbit ears combined, and it reflected the moon as Jack Rabbit held it in his paws.

“Here, see the Truth for yourself

,” said JackRabbit as he handed her the mirror. Becka stared at it