Bunnies

by Justin Cawthorne

Brendan stared at Katarina, not knowing what to say. In the end he just said: "Hello."

  She stood there with a little smile on her face and didn't say anything back. In her arms she was cradling a box, it was brightly coloured and looked big enough to hold a football inside. Brendan didn't think there would be a football inside, he really didn't want to know what was inside.

  Katarina carried on looking at him and not saying anything.

  "Um, we're having dinner in a minute..." Brendan eventually managed.

  "No, thank you," she said lightly. "I need to go home now anyway. I just came here to give you a gift. It's Easter."

  Brendan stared at the box. "Oh, I didn't get you anything..."

  "Yes, you did. You gave me a book, don't you remember?"

  Brendan remembered the book, and he remembered the kiss. Now his breath was starting to come too fast for him to speak properly. He just wanted her to go away so she wouldn't know.

  "Okay," he whispered.

  "Here is your present," Katarina told him, holding out the box.

  Brendan looked at the box, at the funny wrapping paper all over it, at the way Katarina's arms were struggling a little to keep it held out to him. He didn't want to take it, but he knew that Katrina wouldn't go away unless he did.

  He reached out and took the box.

  "Don't open it until Easter," she warned him.

  Brendan shook his head. "I won't."

  She stood there another moment. Finally she turned and started skipping away down the path. "Bye Brendan," she called to him as she left.

  Brendan watched her go, wondering if he should go straight to the dustbin and throw the box in with the rubbish.

  Then he heard a voice from inside the house: "Who was that? It sounded like Katarina."

  Before he could even move his mother was next to him, peering out of the door. "Has she gone already? You should have asked her in. She could have had supper with us."

  Brendan pushed the door shut. "No, she didn't want to stay, she had to go home, she told me."

  His mother looked at the box in his hands. "What's that?"

  "It's a... " Brendan started, but he couldn't think of anything to say that would stop her from wanting to look inside. "It's a school project we were working on."

  "Can I see?"

  Brendan shook his head. "No. No - it's wrapped up, see? It's not finished yet anyway."

  "Why is it wrapped up if it's not finished?" she asked, studying the box.

  "It's, um -"

  "Oh look, it's got a lid!" she pointed out, and before Brendan could stop her she was lifting it off. "Just a quick look..."

  "No!" Brendan shouted, and wrenched the box away.

  He realised straight away he'd done the wrong thing. He could tell by the look on his mother's face, it was the look he hated the most, the one that made him feel as though she didn't even know him, as if he wasn't her son any more. It only lasted a second, long enough for him to notice, after that she just looked upset.

  "I only.... I like to see what you do at school, that's all, you know that, don't you?" she said pleadingly.

  Brendan didn't say anything. He was angry. He didn't understand why Katarina had given him a present, and that made him angry. He didn't understand why his mother wanted to look in the box, and that made him angry. But more than any of that, he didn't like that he'd upset his mother, and that made him angrier than anything else.

  She reached down and picked up the lid from the floor. As she put it back on the box they both saw what was inside.

  "Ohhh," his mother sighed.

  Brendan looked down.

  "It's gorgeous," she carried on.

  The box contained an egg, larger than a normal Easter egg, wrapped carefully in a brightly patterned linen cloth and tied all around with ribbons. Underneath it was a square egg carton, painted red, and a handful of what looked like straw. Brendan put the lid back on.

  "Did you give her the book?" his mother asked.

  "Yes, of course I gave her the book!" he answered crossly.

  She ignored him. "I think we should go round on Sunday and give Katarina something else for Easter... a book's not really enough of a present... let me think of something else we can give her..." As she talked she wandered off into the kitchen, lost in her thoughts.

  Brendan watched her to make sure she was gone, then hurried away upstairs, still holding the box.

  He wished he had never given Katarina that stupid book. He hated her so much. His mother had found it two days ago while shopping and made him give it to her as a present. So he'd taken it to school like he was supposed to and given it to Katarina. After that she'd done the worst thing ever: she had kissed him. Then Anna had told him he was going to go mad, just like Katarina, because he had let her kiss him.

  He didn't want to go mad. He didn't want Anna to not like him because he was mad.

  He had been nice to Katarina when she first came to their school. His mother had told him to to be nice to her because she worked with Katarina's mother. He had tried, he even liked her for a little while, but Katarina had made it so hard. At first he had thought she was telling the truth about her bunnies, that they really did talk; today he had realised that she was just making it all up. He had waited for her bunny to say something to him, but it was just a stupid rabbit in the end.

  Anna told him that Katarina didn't have any real friends, so she pretended that the bunnies were her friends. Anna had also told him that anyone who was friends with Katarina couldn't have any other friends, not any real friends.

  She should never have kissed him.

  He realised now he should have pushed her away, but the kiss hadn't felt horrible at first, he hadn't wanted to push her away. But afterwards Anna told him that he probably had the pox now and she couldn't be friends with him any more. It was so unfair!

  So he had gone round to Katarina's house after school. He'd seen her go to the park so he knew she wouldn't be at home and, because his mother would still be at work, he knew that Katarina's mother wouldn't be at home either. He rode all the way there on his bike and climbed over the back fence to get into their garden.

  He was after the bunnies.

  He didn't really know what he was going to do. He thought he'd take one of the bunnies, maybe let it go in the park, or maybe just hide it somewhere for a couple of days. He was angry at Katarina; she'd made him angry, and she'd made Anna hate him, so he wanted to make her hurt. He also thought that it might help her, that if he got rid of all the bunnies people might start to think she was normal again. If people started to think that Katarina was normal then they'd know he was normal as well. It would be good for everyone.

  He opened the hutch and the three bunnies inside stuck their heads up and looked at him. Two of them quickly hopped away to the back of the hutch, but the third one just sat there. He went to grab it. It turned and bit him. Brendan screeched, but the bunny didn't let go. He pulled his hand out of the hutch and the bunny came too, its teeth still clamped over the side of his thumb. He grabbed it around the throat, trying to prise its mouth open, but it didn't work. Then he tried hitting it against the side of the hutch, the bunny made a funny noise but it kept biting his hand. Finally he picked up a piece of brick and starting smashing it down on the bunny's head.

  He didn't realise what he was doing until he stopped.

  The bunny had let go of his hand. Its grey and white fur was starting to go all red. There was a big broken wet patch around its ears. It didn't look that much like a bunny any more. It twitched once, then again, then lay still. Dead.

  Brendan felt the tears coming, he didn't know what had happened, so he ran back to his bike and cycled away as quickly as he could. When he got home he realised the bite wasn't even as bad as he'd thought, there was only a little bit of blood. If his mother asked about it he could just tell her that he'd fallen off his bike.

  When he'd seen Katarina standing on the doorstep he
was sure she'd come round because she knew what he'd done, but she hadn't even realised. Maybe she hadn't been home, or maybe she thought that someone else had done it. Anyway, tomorrow morning he was going to go round to Anna's house and tell her what he'd done. He knew she'd be impressed.

  Yes, that's what he was going to do in the morning.