Done Adulting Vol. 1 Ch. 9

Eric saw a rabbit and held still. He wanted this rabbit to be his friend and slowly crouched down and held out his hand and chirped in the best imitation of a rabbit he knew.

The rabbit stood perfectly still thinking its mottled brown coat hid it against the earth but it was summer and the earth was at its most vivid green and the speckled fur did nothing to hide its outline or its perfectly round black eyes or the twitch of its nose or the glint of sunlight off the ends of its whiskers. The rabbit only thought it was still, but Eric could see its heart beat three times a second through thin, delicate skin.

Having no patience for this game, Eric’s right hip moved forward just enough to begin a step and the rabbit saw and took off and Eric bounded after him as fast he could with the rabbit stretching out its hind legs like coils of soft steel springing backward and punching the ground and Eric followed and the rabbit watched each shift of Eric’s hips and went the opposite direction right and left and right again and Eric still followed.

Now Eric was the rabbit and never had a whole view of the boy but knew he was being pursued and punched his steel legs against the ground and his thin claws caught at the dirt under the grass and he bounded three times the length of his body with each stride but every way he went the boy followed and Eric watched the boy’s hips and so went right and left and right and the boy still followed and Eric went from flight to panic until he didn’t mean to move right or left or right but just moved as fast and as far as he could with his tired steel legs.

The boy stopped pursuing Eric and Eric stopped running right and left and right and bounded straight as fast as the dwindling energy in his body would move him across the green earth until he reached the cover of a wall of boxwood and crouched low under the branches sure he was hidden. Eric’s heart beat five and then four and three and then two times a second and he was as tired as he had ever been and he knew he would need to find and eat more food to replenish himself to survive until tomorrow when he would go out to find more food and when he may well need to run again.

Eric wasn’t afraid of the boy. He didn’t know the boy. He didn’t know what a boy was. He only knew the boy was many times his size and many times his strength. But Eric was fast so he could run, and small so he could hide, so he ran and he hid and he got away, but there might be more boys tomorrow when Eric had to go find the day’s food and he couldn’t stay always safe in his den.

Eric wasn’t afraid of boys. He didn’t know what a boy was or what a boy wanted. He was afraid of what a boy could do to him.