RABBITS by CAM VILLANUEVA

It was about 3am and the snow was coming down in loads. My little yellow Toyota Corolla wasn’t built for this.

“Come on baby,” I said out loud, my hands clutching the steering wheel so tightly, sitting up close to be able to see better. 

“Are you ok?” Lil kept asking me.

“I can’t see in this snow, love.”

I needed some air to keep my eyes open so I rolled down the window. Plus, the car stank to hell of alcohol.

“I’m not too old, don’t worry.”

“It’s cold, Mrs. Johnson.” 

Lil was the mother of the sick baby in my backseat and the wife of the drunk guy locked in the trunk.

“The baby, she’s still hot Mrs. Johnson. Can’t you drive a little faster?”

“Hold on.”

I drove a little faster but soon hit the breaks.

“Watch out!”

A rabbit crossed the road, luckily running faster than I was driving.

“Did you see it?”

I told her I saw it. Lil was sitting there in the passenger seat with these little short-shorts. It was 20 degrees outside, a freaking blizzard, and she was dressed for the Mojave. Women these days, they had no shame, I thought. I didn’t know I was mumbling.

“What?”

“Nothing, dear.”

“Thank you for driving us to the hospital, Mrs. Johnson.”

“Please call me Edna.”

“Ok. Edna.” She cleared her throat. She lowered her voice. “So, how do you know Eddie?”

“Oh, Eddie. We go long back. He never told you?” I wasn’t sure how much the little tart knew so I had to play it safe.

“Actually he never mentioned you.”

“Really?” I let slip. I gripped the steering wheel a little tighter. The snow was unrelenting.

“Edward was my student at St. Paul’s.” 

“When was that?”

“Let’s see, it must have been before you were born.”

Lil turned on the stereo. Some loud noise started blasting. She sat up in her seat. 

“Oh, I love this song. It’s by Nirvana.”

I needed to drive faster, but wasn’t sure music was the answer. Nirvana. I thought what a great name for a band.

“The baby,” I said. 

Lil was gyrating in the passenger seat. I turned around quickly to see the baby sleeping. 

“Who’s that?” I was trying to be nice.

“It’s grunge music, Mrs. Johnson.” She paused. “Edna.” She sat back in her seat but after the song she started looking for another beer. 

“They are all gone,” I lied. 

We still had a few more under my seat. I could feel them rolling around. 

“Could you turn that off, love?” I had no more patience left to ask more about grunge music.

“I was born in 1970.” Her voice grew more somber. “I grew up in the country and had nothing to do but play my mom’s music all day. She had Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Bee Gees.” She opens a can of beer. She found one. 

“You can’t do that dear. What if the police stop us?”

“Don’t worry, Edna. I’ll tell them it’s mine.”

I look in the rear view mirror and start to worry about Edward.

“I know those bands. I loved the Rolling Stones but Earl hated them. He called everybody hippies. Even the mailman. One day the mailman was whistling before he handed us the mail, we had just returned home from shopping, or something. And Edward screamed, Hippy!” 

“What a sorry fuck, if you don’t mind me saying so.”

“Dear, do you think your husband is alright back there?”

“He’s drunk. I’m sorry he swung at me. He’s not normally like that.”

I didn’t say anything. I wondered if I should have gone to the police first, the hospital second. But, the baby.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t talk to you much at the party.” 

“You were drunk at the party, dear. You are drunk now.”

Lil wiped her face with the back of her hand. “Yes, that I am.”

I see the snow beginning to let up. 

“I need another drink. All this drama is stressing me out.” Lil has finished the beer and begins looking for another under my seat. The horror.

“Can’t you wait till we get to Percy? There’s bound to be some place we can stop there. I can drop you off at a place that’s still open.”

“I don’t wanna do that.”

“And maybe your husband there can finally be calm and I can let him out. Besides, one of you needs to take this baby to the hospital. I’m an old woman. I’m just going to drive you to the door.”

“I don’t think I want to let Eddie out. He’s gone a little too far tonight. About the doctor, I should talk to him. Eddie doesn’t know the first thing about kids.” She reached under the seat again. She comes up with something. My god, this woman.

Seeing Edward at the party was a little awkward. I’m so happy for him getting his chapbook published. Don’t get me wrong. After running into him a month ago at the restaurant, after all these years, I just found I couldn’t stop thinking about him. He drove me home that night. He was my former student, my family knew, so they were ok about it. We talked and talked. Then he walked me to the door. Kissed me on my lips but it wasn’t a passionate kiss. And a week later he called to invite me to his party. Of course I said yes. Even though he was married, I just thought, well, I was, too. I wasn’t counting on these feelings coming back. And it goes without saying, nothing would ever come of this. But this poor little baby. Maybe they had no babysitter. He could have asked me?

“Edna. It sounds funny to say that. Edna, can you give me some advice.”

Oh no, I thought.

“What do you want to know?”

“I’m thinking of leaving.”

The baby started to cry.

“What should I do?”

“Can you take her temperature again?”

“Oh, yeah.”

I was 50 with two young daughters, one about to start college and the other high school, when Earl lost interest in me. I sacrificed my life, my career, to raise these kids. Finally I got the new job in Percy when he tells me he’s sleeping with a graduate assistant and they are planning on living together. It was later, after he moved out, that Edward told me the girl was pregnant. Edward was actually Earl’s undergraduate advisee, but he had also taken my Freshman composition class a year earlier. I didn’t mean for it to happen, but Edward told me that it wasn’t about me getting revenge, it was about me finally being happy. It was more than a boy and girl affair, he said. It was love. It lasted just a few months until I moved to Percy. He wrote me a letter claiming he was heartbroken but I never wrote back. I wondered what happened to him, and seeing his story in print, realizing he had written about me, I thought I knew what happened to him.

“Can you pull over, Edna? I need to go pee.”

“There’s nowhere to pull over, dear.”

“Just the side of the road. Maybe here.”

“The baby.”

“What about the baby?”

“She’s hot. Don’t you think we should try to hurry?”

“I’m doing my best. I need to go pee.”

So I pulled over and she went behind the car to pee. I saw her head in the rear view mirror. Her wavy blonde hair. Her goofy eyes. Why did I offer to drive these people to the hospital. The baby, I thought. Her head bobbed up and down a few times and then she ran back to the car.

“I saw something,” she said.

I said nothing but drove off slowly.

“Something was in the woods looking at me pee.”

I still didn’t say anything.

Later at the hospital, everyone was sleeping so I went downstairs to the lobby to sit and relax. On the TV there was a show about rabbits. There was no sound so I asked the night receptionist for the remote. She told me to keep it down. 

I learned about a place in Japan called Okunoshima. It is called the island of rabbits, and no one knows how they got there, but they’ve been there since World War 2 and have been multiplying since. At some point I must have fallen asleep in the lobby and dreamt that I got a rabbit statue for a present from Eddie and Lil for saving the baby’s life. I told them that I would keep it in my living room. In my dream, my dream living room. I told them it was beautiful. It was beautiful in my dream. It was beautiful and motionless.

A lady grabbed my arm. She wore a nurse’s uniform. 

“The baby,” she said.