The Rabbit and Hedgehog
In the garden of an old married
couple, there lives a handsome young rabbit with a heartbroken past. He lives
with his loving parents and old brother. Rabbit is very sweet, friendly and
kindhearted. He is the most eligible bachelor in the whole neighborhood. All the
young female bunnies, squirrels and ferrets would swoon when Rabbit hops by.
Some would walk up to him and flirtatiously greet him, but Rabbit would reply
politely and smile. He does not seem to be interested in any of these girls.
One day, as Rabbit was hopping
around the neighborhood, he came across a beautiful hedgehog who was minding
her own business in a nearby hedge. Smitten by her beauty, Rabbit hopped to a
bush to get a closer look. Hedgehog noticed this so she turned to look at him
and smiled. Rabbit almost died. He was so nervous that he forgot to smile back
and regretted it so much. By then, Hedgehog was already back to sniffing around
looking for food. Disappointed, Rabbit decided to go home. The whole night, all
he could think of was Hedgehog. He was never seen anyone like her. She is
different from the others.
The next day, Rabbit woke up with a
mission to be accomplished; he is going to smile at Hedgehog. As he was hopping
to the hedge garden where Hedgehog lives, he had to pass squirrel, ferret and
bunny who were giggling and whispering girlishly into each other’s’ ears. When
he finally reached the hedge garden, Hedgehog was nowhere to be found. Saddened
by her absence, he sadly turned around to leave when suddenly he heard the
rustling of leaves coming from a distant bush. It was Hedgehog and she seemed a
little preoccupied. He hoped towards her and when he was close enough, he
cleared his throat. As she turned her head, he sheepishly smiled at her.
Hedgehog looked plainly at Rabbit and continued with her work. Rabbit was slightly
taken aback by this. He is so used to the neighborhood girls swooning at his
feet. But there is something mysteriously interesting about this girl. He is
starting to like her. He is adamant on getting to know her better and becoming
her friend.
Every day without fail, Rabbit
would go to the Hedge garden just to see Hedgehog. He even changed his diet so
that he can forage at the same garden. Most of the time, Hedgehog would pretend
as if he was not there. She is very quiet and shy, with very little friends.
None of the neighborhood girls like her. A couple of days ago, when squirrel
was inquired by Rabbit about Hedgehog, squirrel replied, “You mean Hedgie Hodg, the girl from the hedge garden? She is so prickly
and weird. She has no friends. You better be careful of her, Rabbit. She might
also stab you with her quills.” But Rabbit did not believe a word that came
out of squirrels’ mouth. “Girls will always
be girls,” he thought to himself. So he continued visiting Hedgie Hodge at
the hedge garden. As the days go by, Rabbit enjoys more and more the feeling he
gets when he goes there simply because she is there. It is obvious that he
likes her a lot now but little does he know that Hedgie Hodge secretly likes
him too.
One fine morning, as Rabbit, who is
on a newly acquired diet of insects and Hedgie Hodge was busy sniffing for food
at the hedge garden, they accidentally bumped their heads into each other. Out
of natural reflexes, he spikes on her forehead erected and poked Rabbits’
forehead. She immediately ran into hiding afraid that he might shout at her, or
worse, hate her for life. It all happened so fast. Rabbit was still trying to
make sense of what had happened. He tried searching for Hedgie Hodge but he
could not find her. She disappeared before he could say anything. The poke did
not hurt him at all thanks to his thick fluffy coat.
A few days went by and Hedgie Hodge
is nowhere to be seen. Undeterred, Rabbit continued looking for insects, hoping
that she would come. While he was searching for insects, he came across a
peculiar looking thing. It smells like an insect but this curious thing seems
to be lifeless. He decided to try it out.
It is crunchy and tastes like an insect too. Rabbit does not know that
it is actually cat food but he enjoyed it, nonetheless.
It has been a week since that
incident happened and that was the last time Rabbit saw her. By now, Rabbit is
already feeling dejected and disheartened. He misses Hedgie Hodge. So he went
home to Mother Rabbit and told her everything that happened. Mother Rabbit did
not like what she heard. In her motherly way, she said, “Son, stop looking for Hedgie Hodge and don’t go to the hedge garden
anymore. The Hedgehogs are dangerous kind. You better be thankful that her
quills did not hurt you. You cannot be friends with her. They are an outcast of
society. No good can ever come out of this.” Rabbit tried to defend Hedgie
Hodge, “but mother she is ….” before he
could finish, Mother Rabbit interrupted, “Son,
I am your mother. Just listen to me or your father is going to hear about this.”
All Rabbit could do was to be quiet and respectfully obey his mother.
Out of respect for his mother’s
decision, Rabbit avoided the hedge garden. But once in a blue moon, he would go
near the garden just to see Hedgie hodge from afar. Sadly, she is seldom there
and this is crushing his little heart in pieces. On the contrary, the
neighborhood girls are delighted with this turn of events. Now they can try to win
his heart over.
Life went back to normal for
Rabbit. Hedgie Hodge is nothing but a memory in the back of his mind. He has
stopped going to the hedge garden, therefore there was nothing that reminded
him of her. However, on one sunny afternoon, as he was resting under the shade
of an oak tree, he thought he saw a very familiar figure up ahead near the pots
of flowers. He rubbed his eyes to get a more focused image of that figure. To
his disbelieve, it was Hedgie Hodge. She was just wondering around the
neighborhood. She had just noticed Rabbit too. They held each other’s gazes for
a while, and just like that, they both knew. Not friends, not enemies, just
some strangers with some memories.
