There is a knock at the door. Thomas turns on the stereo on the way to answer it and the tuba starts playing again.
“Thomas McGregor? Sign here, please.” It’s the mailman. “From the Land Registry in Windermere. Looks like you sold that place you inherited. Congratulations.”
McGregor signs.
“It’s official, then. And with the price you fetched, you will be able to install tempered-glass shelving in your new store. And seasonal window decorations.”
“Don’t know if I’ve got it in me anymore,” says McGregor, looking down at the envelope. “And I should really stop telling strangers my business.”
“Sorry I didn’t report back sooner, but you’ve been away. I watered your plants,” says the mailman, pointing to a potted plant in the hall outside McGregor’s front door.
And in the Windermere countryside, Bea has finally finished packing up her cottage. Flopsy and Mopsy are watching from outside, trying to figure out a way to stall Bea until Peter gets back from London. The sisters look at each other and both seem to have the same idea at the same time. They race off to find Mrs. Tiggy-winkle and get the hedgehog to shower them with her spines. This should keep Bea occupied for a while.
Moments later, the two bunnies present themselves to Bea, quills sticking out of their fur.
“Babies!” cries Bea as she bends down to pluck them out. “What are you going to do without me?”
The bunnies look down at the ground, their ears drooping at their sides. Mrs. Tiggy-winkle looks on sadly.
Back in London, McGregor has returned to his old job at Harrods. He inspects the toy department as a trail of nervous employees follows behind him.
“Well done all round,” says McGregor.
One of the workers staggers back in surprise at the compliment and accidentally knocks over a display.
The employees all hold their breath, waiting for McGregor to explode. But he doesn’t. He just stares all around him.
“Was it always so dark in here? There doesn’t seem to be very much natural light,” says McGregor.
“There’s no natural light at all, sir. We’re inside,” explains one of the employees, Siobhan.
“How can you live like this?” McGregor shakes his head.
Meanwhile, Peter and Benjamin are being shown the sights of London by Johnny Town-mouse. Johnny loves playing tour guide. They jump onto the back of a black cab as it trundles down Oxford Street, and past the theaters of the West End. Then it’s down on to the Tube, a quick whizz along, and back up to street level. On a particularly crowded sidewalk, Peter looks up to see what everyone is staring at.
“Big Ben,” he says.
“Yeah?” replies Benjamin.
“No, Big Ben!” Peter repeats himself.
“Yes, what? I’m right here!”
“Big Ben!” says Peter, getting more than a little frustrated at his clueless cousin.
“Big Ben, Little Peter, Annoying Mouse, what?” Benjamin says, getting more than a little frustrated at his clueless cousin and turns around to see . . . Big Ben.
“Whoa! Much larger than I thought. Much larger.” Benjamin stares at the impressive clock tower until Peter grabs him and they head off again. They are against the clock after all! Peter, Benjamin, and Johnny Town-mouse ride through the streets on the backs of garbage trucks and hop from one building top to the other. They dodge traffic, people, and dogs until, finally, they stop outside Harrods.
“Thanks, Johnny. We owe you one,” says Peter as the bunnies cross the street.
“If you ever do decide to throw another blowout, hook a brother up,” Johnny calls out from the curb.
“Don’t think there’s going to be another!” Peter yells back.
“Holler at me if there is!”
“There won’t be one!” insists Peter.
“But hit me if one pops up!” Johnny Town-mouse insists even more.
“Not going to pop up!”
“Just don’t forget me when you’re making your list!”
“No list will be made!”
“Well, be sure to reach out when—”
Finally, Johnny is silenced when a car comes and sprays a puddle of water all over him. The rabbits escape into the department store.
Chapter Fifteen
THE GREAT ESCAPE
The rabbits scamper through Harrods, making sure they are not seen by any of the shoppers. Finally, they reach the toy department and scan the aisles for any sign of the man they came for. But McGregor is nowhere to be found. Benjamin jumps up onto a doll’s house to get a better look. He surveys the entire department, stopping when he comes eye-to-eye with a girl.
“Aaaahh!” cries Benjamin.
“Talking bunny doll!” says the girl, delighted with what she has just found among the rows and rows of toys. She squeezes Benjamin with all her might.
“I am a rabbit,” says Benjamin, speaking in a robot voice. “I like carrots.”
The small girl giggles and grabs some plastic food from the doll’s house. She then shoves it down poor Benjamin’s throat.
“Aaahh!” Benjamin gags and sprays the plastic food everywhere, the robot voice gone.
“Aaahh!” cries the little girl.
“Aaaahhh!” cries yet another voice. Only this one belongs to McGregor himself. He has seen everything that has just happened. How can Benjamin be in his department store? He should be in Windermere! Far, far away! All the shoppers stop and stare at the commotion.
“This isn’t happening. You’re an illusion. Deep breaths,” McGregor says, more to himself than anyone else. Peter and Benjamin take all this in before scurrying over to him.
“Hey, friend,” says Peter, keeping his voice calm.
McGregor swats at the rabbits with his clipboard. This causes even more of a commotion, just as the General Manager walks by.
“We just want to talk!” says Peter.
“Rabbits don’t talk!” says McGregor. “I knew you could talk. Wait, are you talking or am I just hallucinating?”
Unseen by McGregor, Peter makes his way to the top shelf of a nearby display case and sticks his head out upside down.
“You tell me,” says Peter.
McGregor sweeps all the stuffed animals off the display case. It is impossible that rabbits can talk. Impossible.
“McGregor?” says the General Manager, her face a mixture of concern and surprise.
“Help me swat these vermin!” says McGregor, trying to see where Peter is hiding.
“Call Security,” says the General Manager with a big sigh. “He’s gone crackers again.”
McGregor sets off on a rampage through the store, lunging at Peter and Benjamin as they run and duck around the toys. Stuffed animals are scattered everywhere. To the security guards watching through the security cameras, it looks like McGregor is chasing after toys. The shoppers continue to stare, mesmerized by the spectacle. This type of thing never usually happens at Harrods.
McGregor picks up a toy golf club and swings it wildly.
“You’ve ruined my life!” he screams toward the scampering rabbits.
Peter skids across the floor as the club just misses him. He glides through a swinging door marked “employees only,” with Benjamin hurling himself in after him. They find themselves in a silent, dark storage room. The shelves are crammed full of dolls, games, and row upon row of stuffed animals. All is quiet for a moment before McGregor explodes into the small room.
“I will end you, rah-bbit!” he says menacingly.
Benjamin quickly bars the door with a toy tractor. This stops the security guards from getting in behind McGregor. The rabbits need time alone with Thomas, to convince him to come back to Windermere. For Bea.
“You’ve got to come back with us!” says Peter from somewhere in the room. McGregor looks around, trying
to see where the voice is coming from. But Peter is well hidden. “Back to Bea! She’s about to leave! Give up painting and go back home!” Peter tries to explain while moving between the stuffed animals.
“No. She can’t do that,” says McGregor.
“I know! That’s why you have to stop her.”
“Wait. Are you talking?” McGregor asks again, knowing full well humans and rabbits can’t talk to each other. They just can’t.
“I don’t know, am I?” says Peter, being most unhelpful.
McGregor’s anger is back. He swings the toy golf club in the direction of the voice.
“She wants nothing to do with me!” Another swing. Another miss.
“That’s because she thinks this was all your fault! But we both know I had a little, tiny something to do with it,” says Peter, regret in his voice. Bea can’t leave because of what he has done. She just can’t.
“‘Little, tiny’?” says McGregor, swinging again, missing again.
“Let’s not put a percentage on it. Just don’t give up on her.”
“But I broke her heart! I deserve no happiness,” says McGregor, shaking his head sadly.
“Yes, you do! You both do!” Peter jumps as the club comes for him again.
“Why am I navigating my feelings with a talking rabbit?!” McGregor can’t quite believe how his day is panning out.
“Am I talking?” asks Peter.
Benjamin is trying his best to keep track of the conversation while holding the door closed against the security guards on the other side. Suddenly, Peter scampers down from the shelves and appears in front of McGregor.
Thomas gasps and reaches for a new weapon— two Slinkys. He deftly unsheathes them from their boxes and waves them high. He does not trust Peter Rabbit.
“I just wanted you gone. I didn’t think of anyone but myself,” Peter starts to explain. “I’m sorry I electrocuted you. I’m sorry I put traps on your head. I’m sorry I tried to kill you with blackberries. I’m sorry I rubbed my bottom on your hairbrush. I’m sorry—”
“Wait, what?” asks McGregor, incredulously.
Peter’s last confession prompts McGregor to interrupt.
“Nothing. Stay focused. You can kill me if you want, but you have to go after Bea. She’s much more important than me and you,” says Peter. It’s the best he can do. He hopes it’s enough.
“How do I know this isn’t a trick?” says McGregor, giving Peter a side-eyed glance.
“You don’t. You’ll just have to trust me.” Peter walks right up to McGregor, unprotected. He’s giving himself up to his sworn enemy. If McGregor wants to end it right here, right now, now is the time. “This is for Bea.”
McGregor releases the Slinkys.
“I like her so much.”
“So do I,” says Peter.
Rabbit and human turn to look at each other. They have found common ground. Then, McGregor gives Peter a slight nod. Peter nods back.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
The door nearly bounces out of its frame.
“McGregor! Unlock this door!” yells a security guard from the other side.
McGregor moves to the edge of the room and starts manically clearing the top shelf of stuffed rabbits, throwing them on the ground. Peter and Benjamin look at each other. Has McGregor gone crazy again? No. They can now see he is clearing the area near a small window.
Moments later and McGregor manages to get this head, then his torso, then his waist and finally his legs, through the small opening, all with the help of Peter and Benjamin, who follow closely behind. Unfortunately, the small window leads to a ledge, five stories high. McGregor peers over the side.
“McGregor!”
Thomas and the rabbits turn to see the General Manager and two security guards poking their heads out the window. Peter and Benjamin shove McGregor over the side into a truck below. Thankfully, it’s filled with cardboard boxes.
The security guards climb out onto the ledge. The rabbits leap to freedom after McGregor. First Peter. Then Benjamin.
McGregor, Peter, and Benjamin race through the crowded London streets before jumping on a train and then a bus and then any other form of transport to get them back to the beautiful Windermere countryside.
And so the two former enemies (and Benjamin) set out across the country, their loved one waiting. Happiness in the balance. It is dangerous, gutsy, exciting, and in a story like this, pretty much a journey guaranteed to succeed.
Chapter Sixteen
TELLING BEA THE TRUTH
Outside Bea’s cottage, Betty pulls up with her taxi, ready to take Bea away. Cotton-tail comes up with an idea to stall Bea’s plans. She stuffs carrots into the taxi’s tail pipe just as Bea gets in. Betty starts up the car and it conks out immediately.
Just then Mrs. Tiggy-winkle scurries up, unseen by Betty or Bea, and backs her quilled behind up to the tire.
The tire lets out a sad noise as it deflates. This taxi isn’t going anywhere. The animals share smiles with each other.
“This is starting to feel a bit cartoony,” says Bea with a sigh.
Eventually, Betty manages to get the taxi up and running. She pulls the car away from the cottage toward the gate. But the animals are ready for this.
“Now!” yells Pigling Bland.
Tommy Brock gives Felix D’Eer a little shove.
Felix stops just in front of the taxi. He looks into the . . .
“Headlights,” Felix says, in a trance.
“Stupid daytime running lights. Sure, they save lives, but they don’t help get you around a deer when you’re trying to catch a train,” says Betty.
The bunnies gather around the gates. Cotton-tail is on alert. She puts her ear to the ground.
“A man’s coming. On a motorcycle . . . with two tiny men holding on?” Cotton-tail hits her ear, trying to fix her signal. Two tiny men? Surely that can’t be right.
But sure enough, McGregor, Peter, and Benjamin zoom up the road on a motorcycle, the rabbits holding on tight to Thomas.
The taxi is finally free of Felix’s trance and is heading out. McGregor slams on the brakes and slides up to the taxi. The sudden stop launches Peter and Benjamin from the bike. Thomas gets off and runs to Bea, who has watched the dramatic arrival and has clambered out of the taxi.
“Don’t leave! You once said we all have a place in this world. This is your place. You shouldn’t have to leave it because of me.” McGregor chokes a little on the dust kicked up by the motorcycle as his words tumble from his mouth.
“Were they . . . with you?” Bea asks, looking from McGregor to Peter and Benjamin and back to McGregor. She’s trying to get her head around what, exactly, is happening.
“They came to London and talked me into coming back. Well, probably didn’t talk, probably all in my head, not the point,” says McGregor, willing himself to focus. “I love you, Bea. And I’m sorry I did this to you.”
“You tried to kill them. You destroyed their home. You destroyed my home.” Bea crosses her arms.
“I didn’t mean for any of that to happen. We just got caught up in our fight,” says McGregor, not explaining the situation all that well.
“Our fight. You still blame them. Pathetic,” says Bea, shaking her head. “Let’s go, Betty.”
McGregor starts toward Bea but Betty steps between them.
“Let’s try to save what little dignity we have left,” she suggests.
“It was all my doing. I take full responsibility,” surrenders McGregor.
“My hero. Admitting it was you who blew up their burrow. And not, as you claim, a rabbit pushing a detonator button,” says Bea, unconvinced by McGregor and anything he has to say.
Benjamin, fearing all is lost, jabs Peter. He has to do something. Peter grasps for an idea, anything to help
McGregor explain that it was not all his fault. Peter’s got it!
He races off toward the destroyed burrow. They all stop talking and watch Peter as he stops, picks something up, and races back again. He goes to Bea and looks up at her.
“Are you OK, sweetie?” says Bea, kneeling down to Peter’s level.
Peter looks her in the eye. He’s a humbled rabbit but he’s determined to help Bea understand. He takes out the remote control from his pocket and pushes it over and over.
Click, click, click.
“What?” says Bea as she begins to understand.
Click, click, click.
“You were part of this?” she continues.
Peter approaches Bea. Then, he puts his forehead to Bea’s forehead, apologizing. He’s sorry. He’s very, very sorry.
“I can’t believe it,” says Bea. She looks up at McGregor. He was telling the truth. “This is a lot to process.”
“We both love you,” says McGregor, his voice soft, his heart on his sleeve. He walks toward Bea, petting Peter without realizing. He’s too distracted by just how beautiful she is. “Forgive us?”
Peter looks into her eyes. So does McGregor. Bea is at a loss. But before she can answer, a blast of noise breaks the tension in the air. A Range Rover comes tearing up the road at a ridiculous speed. It’s driven by the self-entitled city dwellers, Derek and Sarabeth, that McGregor nearly ran over some time ago.
“Mind moving out the way? Our driveway and all,” says Derek, a grimace stuck to his face.
“Perfect country gem. Look at the sunflowers!” says the woman as she holds up the sales papers McGregor signed, along with the brochure of the manor with rows of sunflowers.
“Sorry, it’s not for sale,” says McGregor, looking quickly at Bea.
“Yeah, ’cause it’s already sold. We bought it,” says the man, looking at McGregor. “Who are you?”
Peter Rabbit, Based on the Movie Page 8
