Now Comes the End of this Rabbit Tale

Szerykl had hurry-hopped and caught up with Beamish and the Rabbit Prince. The prince edged near a dark hole, and Beamish perched nearby amidst weeds and grass. Szerykl watched from atop a rock that sheltered the hole, which she knew to be not just any old hole. This hole was a gateway that led to the world’s largest rabbit warren, hidden under the village called Królik Polski: Polish Rabbit.

She tightened her grip on the amber drops she held. Szerykl noticed that the amber had started to pulse with inner light, as if the drops themselves were eager to fulfill their role in the prophecy.

For Poland’s Rabbit Prince

to become its Rabbit King

requires the help of a magic thing.

Under the Bunny, twitch then hop,

then to gather the amber drops

from dragon, from knight, from dwarves and mice.

If prince will become king, here is the price.

“Down we go!” said the prince. “Onward to my home, the Great Bunny Burrow!”

He disappeared into the hole as if swallowed up. Beamish followed. Then Szerykl, too, plunged into the warm, cozy dark, chasing the panting of the speedy prince and hurtling Beamish. Down and down the trio rushed, yet Szerykl felt more as if she were rising. This was not like descending into the crusty Salt Mine or the dank, rough-edged dragon lair. Here, her whole self soared.

And then, the run ended. The tunnel opened into a space that startled the rabbits to a statue-still halt.

“Whoa,” whispered Szerykl.

“Brillig!” said Beamish.

The Rabbit Prince had led them to a great chamber unlike anything Szerykl had ever seen, unlike anything you, dear reader, have ever seen. Because here, far under the earth, lay an entire rabbit metropolis. Rabbit hutches large enough to house hundreds of bunnies rose up and up, their towers built in the shape of rabbit ears. Barns with open doors held sheaves of grasses stacked to their ceilings. Rabbits queued up for retail. A shop that sold clover in bulk. A salon for grooming and tail fluffing. A stand where rabbits ordered lettuce and carrot smoothies. A rabbit movie theater that showed round-the-clock Bugs Bunny cartoons. So many rabbits! Rabbits milling and nudging and racing just for fun. Big rabbits and small, tawny and albino, warrior rabbits with scuffed ears and sharp claws, bucks and does tending to kittens. The village light glowed dimly, as if here it was always dawn or dusk–which made sense because rabbits see best at dusk and dawn. And above, higher than any rabbit could hop, that light’s source: roots dangling from the chamber’s dirt ceiling–roots that glowed!

“Witamy,” said the Rabbit Prince, then translated his Polish word into English for Beamish (because, remember, Szerykl understands all languages).

“Welcome, magic rabbits, to the Great Bunny Burrow.”

All three kept silent a moment: Beamish in astonishment, Szerykl with reverence, and the Rabbit Prince with all the wonder of coming home.

Then Szerykl realized something. All these rabbits and not a one behaved as if Szerykl or Beamish were anything special. Here, magic rabbits were just other rabbits, because, you know, each in its own way, every rabbit is magical.

Well, that felt good to Szerykl! To be just another rabbit! Sometimes she liked being magical, but then “Hey, Magic Rabbit,” people would say, “show us your magic!” Sometimes performing was exhilarating and sometimes it was exhausting. Now, here, in a rabbit colony, Szerykl began to get an inkling of how nice it was to just be yourself.

Of course, that wasn’t going to last. Because right then, Beamish held out the amber drop that had been concealed in his fur. “What do we do with these?” he asked.

“We take them to the Royal Rabbit Palace,” said the Rabbit Prince. “But let’s stop on the way for a carrot and lettuce smoothie. I’ve missed those.”

•••

They slurped their smoothies as they made their way to the center of the Great Bunny Burrow and its royal palace.

“I like that you use paper straws here,” said Szerykl.

“My father decided that years ago,” said the Rabbit Prince.

“Is he the Rabbit King now?” asked Beamish.

“Um. Not really. He’s dead. You’ll see when you meet him.”

Szerykl’s spit-take left carrot and lettuce smoothie all over her forepaws.

“What really? Who dead? How meet? When?!?!?” She’d lost her words.

“My father. Now. Right there,” and the Rabbit Prince motioned with his nose toward yet another stunning sight. This was the Royal Rabbit Palace.

Its facade looked like an ancient, massive tree trunk. Yet all over its exterior, as if chewed into shape by little rabbit teeth, were hundreds of small details: windows and lintels, arches shaped from mosses and vines, clock faces with branches for hands, and carvings of rabbits wearing crowns of stars and crowns of flower blossoms. But also carved nearby: looming and hungry foxes and cats.

“The jaws that bite, the claws that catch,” said Beamish.

“All our rabbit tales,” said the Rabbit Prince, “can be found depicted on the facade of the Royal Rabbit Palace. Peter and his sisters Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cotton-Tail. Roger Rabbit. Lepus the Constellation. Bigwig, Hazel, and Fiver. And there: see Aesop’s sleeping hare, and way ahead is the tortoise.”

“I love it here,” said Szerykl, and she really did. When she said that, she forgot all about the Neighborhood Grandparents and E. All the warmth and coziness and dim, rich light of the burrow washed over her. She felt herself to be part of time, all those millennia of rabbits huddled together, fur and twitching noses, and ease. “Can we go in?” she asked.

The Rabbit Prince didn’t answer. He moved toward the palace, his hops short and hesitant, his ears back as if in fear or respect–Szerykl couldn’t tell. But she lowered her ears, too. Just in case.

Up ahead, she noticed a tall gray-white rabbit, tall as a bear, taller than any rabbit she’d ever seen. Though white, it was not albino, because its eyes weren’t pink. It sat with regal rigidity, shadows playing across its dark face, and this rabbit frightened her, because it seemed not at all cuddly. Its nose didn’t twitch. It didn’t even seem to breathe. When it spoke, its echo-y voice seemed to come from inside Szerykl’s own head, though it seemed to only address the Rabbit Prince.

“Tu czeka duch twojego ojca,” said the gray-white rabbit.

“Here waits the ghost of thy father, once king

of rabbits, who faced fox, dog, and owl–

whom thou must now confront. Hast thou amber

as prophecy demands? O Prince, trouble

me not with thy living breath til thou hold

the pulsing drops that rabbits will honor

with song. Risk not my haunting self’s return

to remind thee of thy failure.”

The Ghost Rabbit King

Could Szerykl’s ears lie any lower? She could sense Beamish all a-tremble beside her.

“No poofing!” she whispered. “You stay right here!”

“Father,” said the Rabbit Prince. “King. Sir. I’ve brought friends. Together, we carry the necessary amber. May I please present Szerykl and Beamish.”

“Hello,” squeaked Beamish.

“Hello,” squeaked Szerykl. She held out her two amber drops.

The ghost rabbit king’s head turned, and he stared at her.

“You smell of dragon and dwarf,” he said. “And courage.”

One of Szerykl’s ears lifted a millimeter.

“Wszystkie króliki ci dziękują,” said the ghost rabbit king.

“All rabbits give you thanks. When inside, lay

thine amber at the prince’s paws, lucky

rabbit’s feet–then watch as floral tattoos

vanish and royal collar appears, swirls

of green and blue, turning ever turning.

Fare thee well, prince–praise-worthy child. Good bye.

I will miss you.”

And with that, the ghost shimmered and faded, and Szerykl felt something crinkly in her eyes so that she had to blink several times to clear her vision. When at last she could see again, she noticed that the palace doors had swung open. The Rabbit Prince, ears upright, looked sad, and a little scared, but also confident. He motioned with his head, said, “Friends,” with a note of invitation, and together the trio hopped, as one, into the palace.

Inside was even more dramatic. The ceiling was painted with stars, and gilt-framed windows allowed soft light to bathe the space. Everything was wood or stone, polished as if licked shiny by the tongues of generations of rabbits. Up above was a balcony crowded with rabbits, and rabbits waited, too, along the walls. They shared whispers of excitement until the Rabbit Prince found a perch from which they could all see him, and he could see them. Then he nodded to Beamish and Szerykl, who knew to leave their amber drops at his feet. The amber glowed, and the Rabbit Prince glowed, too, a lovely orange beginning in his chest like dusky sun, and then he disappeared into the light, or the light engulfed him–Szerykl couldn’t tell. She closed her eyes against the brightness, and when she opened them again, the Rabbit Prince was transformed.

The new Rabbit King!

Now his white fur showed blue dots, and his neck was collared with blue and green swirls. Now, he wore the royal rabbit collar and had become the new Rabbit King.

Then, the rabbits in the palace began to sing. What a sound! If dawn had a sound, it was this. If spring had a sound, it was this. If cuddling had sound, this was it. The rabbits sang and sang–long lasting notes that carried on until Szerykl thought the notes had to end but they kept on. The singing filled the space, and it stayed with her, and it would stay with her, for all of her life.

 

 

•••

The time had come for the Neighborhood Grandparents to leave Poland for the United States. They had spent weeks preparing, sending clothes home and giving away a chair and rug. They’d packed books and gifts for E. They’d helped Szerykl change into new traveling clothes: a smock with pink flowers and a yellow ribbon. Now, they waited for the taxi to the airport.

Dressed for travel across the Atlantic!

“But what if I want to stay here?” said Szerykl to the Rabbit King. “Beamish decided to live in the Great Bunny Burrow. Why can’t I?”

“That’s why I’m here,” said the King. “It’s why I’ve always been here. Long ago, E found me. It was your job to bring home the Neighborhood Grandparents, she told me. Well, she said it was my job to make sure you went home. Why do you think I just randomly showed up here one day?”

“Magic?”

The Rabbit King winked. “E has talents.”

“I will miss Poland,” said Szerykl. She looked out the window with its view of the building called Under the Spider. “Charley Bear. The dragon. All the parks and trams. Chopin music. Dancing dwarves. Królik Polski. Beamish! And, of course, Gummy the Spider.”

“We’ll miss you, too,” slurped Gummy in that wet-spinach voice. He scrambled across the green filaments of his web. “It’s been a good time.”

It had been. A good time.

Back in Baltimore, E welcomed the Neighborhood Grandparents with hugs. Sheri and Michael both got teary. E had grown up so much in just a few months (well, she’d been nine and now was almost ten). “You see,” Sheri said, “of course we were going to come home.”

“Did you want to stay?”

“We loved it there,” said Michael. And Sheri added, “The world is full of places and people to love. You can start and never stop.”

“What about Szerykl?” said E. “Did she come home, too?”

That was when the Rabbit King and Szerykl both leaped from Michael’s shirt pocket into E’s arms. She cradled them against her, gently. They all three cuddled, until the rabbits twitched a bit. “We’re hungry,” said Szerykl.

So E brought them into her backyard and set them in the grass, careful to choose a spot without much dog poop. (Her old dog Charley was still around, and there was a rude, sweet new puppy, too, named Rudy). Rudy was maybe a little too interested in the rabbits, and E kept telling him, “Go away, Rudy. Rudy! Be nice.”

Between bites of grass, Szerykl told E about all their adventures, and about the Great Bunny Burrow under Królik Polski, and how the Rabbit King would return soon to make sure life there remained fair and comfy.

“It felt good,” Szerykl said, “to live for a while among so many rabbits.” She looked at E a little sideways, not knowing how E would react to her next idea. “Maybe I’ll go back to Poland,” she said, quietly.

“Maybe when you do,” E said, “I’ll go on the adventure with you.”

E with her Magic Rabbit friends