By: David He

“Why is school so boring?” Jack muttered, kicking the ground while he was walking home from school.

He was twelve years old and the only son of a farmer and his wife living out in the country. It was Monday, and Jack was already tired of school.

Suddenly, Jack saw a rabbit hop toward an oak tree. It was holding a carrot, and when it got to the tree, it set down the carrot. The rabbit then stared at Jack for three seconds and hopped away.

“Weird,” Jack thought aloud. However, he thought nothing of it, and he continued walking home.

The next day when Jack was walking to school, he saw the carrot that the rabbit was holding yesterday was still there. Yet, he had other things on his mind, such as his book report that was due today, so he didn’t think about the rabbit for very long and continued to walk to school.

When he was walking home from school, he saw the rabbit again. It did the same thing as it did yesterday; however, this time, it brought two carrots. However, Jack still didn’t think much of it and continued to walk home.

Because Jack thought that this was no big deal, he didn’t tell anyone about his encounters with the rabbit, not even his parents.

This happened three more times that week, on each weekday when Jack was coming home from school. On Wednesday, it carried three carrots that were much smaller than the previous ones. On Thursday, it carried four even smaller carrots, and on Friday, it brought five very small carrots.

On Saturday, when Jack was playing basketball in his backyard, he suddenly thought of the rabbit. It was around three o’clock, the time when Jack was starting to head home from school on the weekdays, so he decided to check out the tree to see if the rabbit was still doing its odd routine.

The moment he got there, he saw the rabbit again, doing the same thing that it did for the past five days, carrying and setting down six tiny carrots. When the rabbit left, Jack saw that there were now 21 carrots there, meaning the rabbit never took a carrot away from the tree.

At this time, Jack was feeling hungry because he still hadn’t eaten lunch yet. He waited until the rabbit was out of his eyesight, and then he grabbed a carrot, planning to steal it. He put it in his pocket and then ran home.

When he was running, though, thoughts began to creep inside his mind, making him feel guilty.

“What if the rabbit was storing carrots for the winter?” Jack thought. However, it was spring, so winter was a long way off.

The next day, Sunday, at around three o’clock, Jack decided to check out that tree again. When he got there, he was surprised to see that the rabbit was not there yet and there were still only 21 carrots there.

“The rabbit should be here by now, “ Jack thought nervously was starting to get attached to that rabbit. “Does it know that I stole a carrot yesterday? Is that why it’s not coming?”

He waited and waited until it was around four o’clock when he decided the rabbit was not going to come today. Jack was hungry again, so he took another carrot and ran home.

From that day, Jack never saw the rabbit again. Every single weekday when he was walking home from school and every weekend at three o’clock, he would check the tree to see if the rabbit was there and if any new additions had been made to the carrots, but nothing changed. Jack didn’t steal a single carrot after he stole his second one, in the hope that the rabbit would come back, but it seems like the rabbit has moved on.