A Rabbit for us All

By Megan Heinrich, Texas, U.S.

It was so easy at the start, or at least that’s how I remember it.

Stay inside to stay safe. I could do that, no problem. Most of my life had been spent hiding in the comfort of four walls. I’d close my eyes and pretend that these were any other days.

But time dragged on with its endless weight. The walls that once held me close and sheltered me from external threats became strangers that wouldn’t leave me alone. And when loneliness finally arrived, it ate me whole.

So, I left.

Not forever, of course. I was tied down in such a way that throwing off the yoke of my obligations to become a vagabond was unthinkable. No, in the dead of morning, I simply left my apartment to take a walk.

The university campus that I called my temporary home was in mid-transformation to a ghost town. It didn’t help that it was night, or that it was during the unexpected second week of spring break. What mattered is that I felt like the only living being under the cold light of the moon. And boy, was it cold for March! Even bundled up in my scarf and winter coat, I was frozen to the bone as I made my way around the campus perimeter. I don’t remember what I was thinking; I doubt that I was thinking at all.

Then I saw it, nestled underneath one of the towering fir trees: a small, brown rabbit. They’re a dime a dozen around here, so seeing one on its own was an unusual sight. Next thing I knew, I was sitting on the grass still wet with the evening rain. And I sat with that rabbit, and it sat with me, and we were together.