by
Max Elliot Anderson
A
young rabbit stood outside his home, looked down at the ground and mumbled,
“Willy the wrong way rabbit.” He shook his head and repeated, “Willy the wrong
way rabbit.” He took a deep breath. “That’s what they call me, Willy the wrong
way rabbit.”
Willy
wasn’t worse than other rabbits. His ears stood up straight like theirs, he had
the same color of fur, and his bushy tail looked just as nice as any other
rabbit’s in the woods. But poor Willy really did have a big problem. No matter
what he was supposed to do, Willy always did it the wrong way. For example,
most rabbits take off running with a hop, skip, and a jump. But not Willy. He
started out with a jump, skip, and then a hop.
His
mother had nearly given up trying to teach Willy the right ways. That’s because
two days ago, she asked him to take out the garbage. Instead, Willy brought
trash into the house and stacked it
neatly in the hallway. “One of these days,” his mother scolded, “something very
bad could happen to you if you don’t stop, look, and listen.” In fact, earlier on
that day, she had taken him down to the railroad tracks where a sign with those
very words of warning stood guard at the crossing. But Willy didn’t stop, he
didn’t look, and he didn’t listen. He charged right toward the tracks just as a
fast-moving passenger train roared through. Lucky for Willy, his mother grabbed
his little coat just before that monster streaked only inches in front of his
twitching nose. He held his breath and closed his eyes tight.
For
nearly a minute after the train had passed, his mother couldn’t speak. But when
she did, Willy knew he was in trouble. “Willy the wrong way rabbit,” she said
in a trembling voice. “Whatever shall become of you?” And that was the last
time she had tried to teach him.
When
Willy’s friends teased him about being the wrong way rabbit, they weren’t
simply being unkind. Willy always did things the wrong way. Like whenever he
ate dinner with his family. If all the other rabbits at the table passed
serving bowls from the left to the right, Willy tried to pass them in the
opposite direction, which was wrong. If he were told to turn right, he went
left. It was no use telling Willy to go up the path because he’d turn and go
down. To Willy, left was right, black was white, day was night, up was down,
hot was cold, in was out, under was over, and fast was slow.
Willy
hopped out into the woods where he could think about his problems. He stayed
out there for a long time. Later he wandered down by Webster’s Creek where he
spoke quietly. “I’ve always been a happy rabbit. Having fun is just a habit. If
there’s a carrot, I will grab it. I can’t help it I’m a wrong way rabbit.”
After sitting on the bank for a while longer, he heard a familiar voice.
“Hey
Willy! Where’ve you been?”
He
looked up at his friend Wilbur.
“We
haven’t seen hide nor hair of you?”
Willy
blinked. “Huh?”
His
friend laughed. “It’s a rabbit joke, Willy.”
Willy
rubbed his nose. “I’ve been around. What about you?”
“We
hopped past where the watermelons grow.”
Willy
smacked his lips. “Watermelons. What a wonderful taste. Who was guarding them?”
“Old
Man Woodman, why?”
Willy’s
ears stood up a little straighter. “What was he doing?”
“Whistling.”
“Why
was he whistling?”
Wilbur
sat next to his friend. “Whenever he knows we aren’t around, he whistles.”
Willy
turned to Wilbur. “Where was his dog, King?”
“Whining
in the bushes at the end of a strong rope.”
Willy
shook his head. “Wonder why?”
“Who
knows?”
Willy
stood up. “Wow, wouldn’t a watermelon be delicious on a hot day like this?”
Wilbur
stood next to him. “What are you thinking?”
“Well,
Wilbur, why don’t we get all of our friends, hop on over to Woodman’s yard and
go through his fence tonight?”
“What
if King whines?” Wilbur asked in alarm.
“Who
cares? That dog can’t catch all of us. Besides, Old Man Woodman doesn’t hear
very well anymore.”
So,
after dark that night, Willy, Wilbur, Wyatt, Weldon, Walt, and Warren headed
for the back fence behind Old Man Woodman’s property. A full moon shined its
light on their path. Willy had been warned many times, by his mother, “Stay out
of gardens. We have plenty of our own food. A rabbit can go into a garden and
never come out.”
Mr.
Woodman’s fence hadn’t been repaired for many years. Several of the boards had
loosened so that, if a rabbit wanted to, he could easily push them to one side
and have all the fresh carrots, lettuce, radishes, and other vegetables he
wanted. And right now, Willy wanted all of them; even though he knew it was
wrong. He and his friends pushed their way through the fence. They stopped on
the other side, right in front of the straightest garden rows any rabbit has
ever seen.
Willy
looked closer. “Not a weed anywhere,” he told the others. Then, as if they were
in their own, personal produce department at the grocery store, each rabbit
began picking and eating nearly everything in sight. Before long, they
completely forgot about Old Man Woodman, his dog King, or anything else. And
that was a big mistake.
On
their very first visit to this garden, Willy and his friends made sure to know
where the dog had been tied and the length of his rope. Willy may have been the
first to hear it tonight, he wasn’t really sure. But one thing he was sure of is a low growl cut through
the night air, just to his left, or was it his right? No matter which one it
was, Willy knew he and his friends were in danger.
Good thing that hound is still tied up,
he thought. Willy slowly opened one eye. What he saw made him squeeze his eyes
shut and wait. The next thing he felt was the hot breath from Mr. Woodman’s
dog. Willy noticed that Old Man Woodman had tied an extra length into King’s
rope. Now he could chase rabbits two times farther than before. Right then
Willy knew he was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, doing the wrong thing,
and he hadn’t even made it to the watermelon patch yet.
Willy opened his
other eye. That’s when he noticed his friends eating lettuce in the row next to
where he hid. He had two choices. Willy could stay hidden, or he could warn his
friends and put himself in danger. He thought for only a second or two. Then he
stood up, took a big bunny breath, and called out in his loudest voice, “Run
for your lives!”
His friends
dropped what they were eating and dashed for the fence. The growling hound
turned around toward Willy and cut off his path of escape. And that’s when
Willy noticed something. In an instant, he dove under King, ran through his
four legs, and streaked toward the iron stake at the other end of the rope.
Well, King had no choice. He spun around and followed as fast as he could. When
he reached the stake, Willy ran around and around and around as King chased
only inches behind him until something surprising happened. The dog had wound
his rope around that stake until he could run no more.
Next, Willy did
the right thing for only the second time in his life. He didn’t run the wrong
way. Instead, he raced straight for the fence, burst through, and tumbled into
the grass on the other side where his friends met him. They all cheered and
hopped around as they shouted, “Willy, Willy, the right way rabbit!”
From that day on,
Willy listened to his mother, and even though he made mistakes from time to
time, Willy tried his best to do the right thing so no one could call him Willy
the wrong way rabbit ever again.
-
The End -
Max Elliot Anderson writes adventures and mysteries for middle grade readers. An additional 23 books are contracted for publishing over the next several months!
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