It is nine o'clock at Sunset Arms and Arnold is in his room studying for a math test by solving algebraic equations involving fractions. He just completed his studies a short time later and is walking downstairs to feed his pig, Abner, some carrots, when he suddenly thinks about how the carrot relates to the Easter bunny. He can imagine watching Bugs Bunny on TV eating a carrot and he can flashback to the time when he walked out the door with kids making fun of him…while wearing bunny pajamas. So he has an idea about what he is going to wear for Sunday. Bunny pajamas? Why not a bunny suit? Yet he is not sure about dressing up as a bunny this year.
Arnold's grandpa vacuums the carpet of the living room floor. Arnold is sitting on the couch, reading an article from the newspaper lying on the glass table. Some of the words are difficult for him to understand. It is an article concerning a church robbery near Dino Spumoni's old recording studio on the west side of town. But this is no concern to Arnold.
Meanwhile the doorbell rings.
"Hey Shortman!" Grandpa says. "Can you get that?"
Arnold's friend, Gerald, arrives at the door with a basket of eggs without yolk.
"What's up, Arnold?" Gerald asks. The boys wiggle their thumbs, like they normally do to greet each other.
"Oh," Arnold answers. "Things are going very well."
"Are your grandparents doing okay?" Gerald asks. "Can I come in?"
"Oh sure." says Arnold.
What the two boys are about to do now is dip the eggs into bowls of food coloring, carefully. In the kitchen, Arnold takes out four small, glass containers of food coloring. One of them is red, and the others are yellow, blue, and green. Then he grabs from the kitchen cabinet several bowls. He then dumps the food coloring into the bowls.
"Grandpa had surgery yesterday." Arnold tells Gerald. "He was having a heart problem."
Gerald says, "Really? I mean that's…terrible."
"Don't' worry. At least he's okay. My family has a long history of heart problems." Arnold switches the subject. "By the way you can help me dip the eggs in."
"Sure."
Meanwhile, the telephone rings. Grandpa hears it, walks into the room and holds it to his ear.
"Hello?" He answers.
"This is Phoebe Heyerdahl. How are you doing?" The voice kindly asks.
"I'm doing okay" Arnold says. "Gerald and I are at my house right now."
"Hey Arnold!"
"What?"
"There's an Easter party going on at Central Park."
"Oh really."
"Yes really, Arnold. They've got colorful eggs and all kinds of games at the party. There's also going to be an Easter bunny! Check it out!"
"When's mass?"
"There's an eleven o' clock mass at the church. Uh…Saint Francis…I think that's what it's called."
"About every year, Gerald's family goes to church."
"Would you like to meet me at the park earlier and we can go to church together? My mom is part Catholic."
"Yeah, but what time would you like to meet me?"
"Quarter to eleven."
Gerald interrupts and says "I would like to go."
Arnold tells Phoebe, "Gerald says he would like to go."
"Okay." Phoebe says. "Bye!"
Phoebe hangs up on him while he is trying to talk. Oskar Kokoschka, one of the neighbors living in Arnold's multiracial boardinghouse, walks into the kitchen area. While Grandpa continues to vacuum the floor in the other room, he walks into the kitchen and checks on the boys.
"Mr. Shortman" Gerald tells him. "The Heyerdahls invited me, and Arnold, to Sunday mass."
Arnold explains, while dipping Gerald's eggs into food coloring, "And after that, there's going to be an Easter party in the park."
Grandpa suggests "But…well…my brother-in-law and his family are having a picnic up in Canada. But it's not that far."
Grandma Gertrude enters.
"Hi Grandma!" says Arnold. He then turns to Gerald. "My grandparents and I are taking a cruise ship to Canada. And I'm assuming you're free to come with us if you like."
"Maybe I should let my dad know." Gerald says.
"Good idea" says Arnold.
"And you're the Easter bunny this year. Not Ernie." Grandpa says.
"Grandpa" Arnold complains. "I get humiliated dressing up as a bunny every year! You see I was made fun of dressing up as a bunny last Halloween. Can we just hire another Easter bunny?"
The party is at 2:00, but in Gerald's mind he is thinking about skipping the party and hanging out with the other children in the neighborhood. Arnold has a watch and knows that he does not have much time. Gerald persuades Arnold to attend a special church mass at Sampson Drive and Forty-Second Street, the location of St. Francis church. Arnold has an interest in going to mass, but he is concerned that they will not be able to hang out with the other kids for very long.
Mass usually lasts for an hour long, but today the church is celebrating an Easter vigil, which, in the Roman Catholic faith, celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Everyone present at mass receives candles lit from the Paschal candle. And the darkness is decreased through the "Light of Christ". The liturgy of word consists of several readings from the gospel, followed by baptismal vows and the Holy Eucharist.
Arnold, Gerald, Phoebe, and her parents are in the back of this newly-renovated church. During one of the readings, Arnold accidentally gets sidetracked and spots a folded piece of thinly-furred white clothing.
"Is this your coat?" Arnold asks Phoebe.
"Ssh!" says Phoebe.
Richard "Richie" Harris, who is with his family of four, is sitting on the pews right in front of him. This short-haired kid, in his white shirt and tie, turns around and says, "Arnold, that bunny suit is for you. I'm not kidding."
Arnold thinks he just got teased again. He wants to give the folded clothing back to Richie. He is wondering who would ever want it, so he passes the suit back to the Harris'. But they ended up passing it back to him.
"They're not playing." Phoebe says.
"You mean they don't want it?" Arnold asks.
"Of course not."
Arnold then finds a note written on a loose leaf of paper that said:
TO: ARNOLD
FROM: RICHIE
Maggie, Richie's ten-year-old, red-eyed sister, turns around and giggles at him. Arnold gets frustrated but he does the appropriate thing to keep the situation to himself for now. Worse than that, the resurrection of the Lord does not mean the end of situations where living beings suffer from their own personal struggles in hell, like the sharp-clawed bunny, with a chained locket, that has just sneaked quietly from the church door and spots two kids with weird hair-dos, kneeling down and praying to God.
This bunny with one eyebrow and beautiful eyelashes happens to know the blonde kid's name. "Arnold! The lover of my dreams!"
She then looks at her locket, similar to Helga Pataki's in which it has a picture of Arnold. The bunny's monologue is powerful. Her words are very passionate in her deepest feelings toward Arnold. Oh, she admires him. Oh, she despises him. She even wonders what would happen if Arnold were a bunny, that they would maintain a perfect bond. The only problem is that she will end up being nasty towards him, so that he will be nasty towards her. Oh, how heartfelt she is, holding the locket tightly around her arms. What her thoughts add up to is love, love, LOVE!
After mass, the bunny hides behind a rose bush. Not knowing where she is going, she accidentally breaks into a colorfully fancy, stained-glass window of what is inferred to be the men's restroom, where Arnold is pressured to put on his white rabbit costume. The glass shatters on the white, marble floor, where all of Arnold's clothes are lying. His socks and street shoes are also on the floor. The only thing he is wearing is his sci-fi, space-like, Rich Sac. This is what Richie Harris calls a zentai suit. It has a face-lining hood and two invisible zippers in the back. This tight piece of cloth covers and adds pressure to his entire body and is made from a combination of latex, nylon, and spandex and from soft, natural, skin-tight rabbit fur on the outside. An invisible armor that cannot be seen at all protects him from stickiness, discomfort, and bodily injury. The costume also includes bendable bunny ears, a natural, bushy bunny tail, and a hair and face-lining hood with brushed, white hair extending to his blushing cheeks, and toed feet and attached gloves with claws giving him a grip.
Arnold does not have his hood on just yet nor does he have the make-up on his face. Gerald spots the rabbit that just broke in from the window when he tells Arnold to put his hood up so that he can zip his back up for him. Why does Arnold have to zip all the way? Well, there is a bunny in the room, one who really likes him and wants to play with him. Arnold looks in the mirror and tries to hide his hair and adjust his face to make him look foxy, but the hood has already been adjusted. But also the suit makes him look skinnier so he looks great. When the girl bunny laughs at him, he gives a scornful glance at her and walks out the door. The door is propped open.
"I'm going to fold these clothes of yours. I'll be there in just one moment" says Gerald.
"Okay Gerald" says Arnold.
While Gerald folds Arnold's clothes, keeping them away from the broken glass, he turns to the rabbit and asks "Are you okay?"
BUNNIES are usually quiet, and this one is no exception. A mime who uses what turns out to be sign language. Her response to Gerald would be thumbs up. When Gerald walks out of the bathroom, the girl bunny hides her locket under the glass to keep it secure.
Richard Ebenezer Harris thinks he left his comic book on one of the pews of the church, so he leaves his mom, dad, and other sister hanging and rushes into the church, with the sound of the stream of holy water being heard throughout the quiet sanctuary. He does not notice the sounds of footsteps behind him, and he is very confused. When he left the church, he had the book while it was still in his hands. He assumes that he might have dropped it on the floor. Arnold and Gerald enter.
"Richard!" Gerald taps his shoulder.
"What?" Richard responds. "I need some help looking for my 'Life in Hell' comic book!"
Arnold finds a magazine on the red-carpeted floor and picks it up. "Are you talking about this?"
"Yes."
Phoebe Heyerdahl re-enters the church, walks into the room, joins in the conversation, and hugs Arnold, noticing how adorable he is.
Richie mentions, "I think I forgot to put make-up on his face. Usually bunnies have white faces and blush cheeks."
"Do you think Arnold needs make-up?" Phoebe asks.
Richard tells her that his sister will brush white make-up all over his face with furred texture and add a little blush to the cheeks. But the nose mask…well…he does not have a mask for the nose to fit a football-shaped head.
"I've been waiting!" Phoebe says. "C'mon you guys."
The four kids walk the Emmaus way of the church, heading for Central Park. Yet the kids do not know how to help Arnold overcome the humiliation of being a bunny rabbit, except to remind him not to reveal himself because revealing gives it all away.
When they walk out of the church, Arnold covers his face with his hands as a means of concealing himself. Maggie Ann Harris is concerned and frustrated about her younger brother.
"Richard?" she says. "Just what do you think you're doing?" She glimpses at the bunny rabbit.
Richard is attempting to speak but Maggie interrupts him.
"Is that you football head?" she asks.
Gerald says, "That's the Easter bunny!"
Phoebe whispers in Maggie's ear and says that Arnold needs make up. Richard tells Maggie that he just found his "Life in Hell" comic book on the floor, in the church.
"Look here punk, our parents are waiting for us!" says Maggie.
But Richie has a proposition for her. "I can tell easily that the bunnies' faces in that book are like the Simpsons."
Maggie is saying that she will go with her suggestions. "Oh really."
She then turns to Arnold. "Come on, Arnold. Show your face." She asks. "I'm not gonna make fun of you. I promise."
But when Arnold tilts his head up and uncovers his eyes, Maggie starts to giggle. "I knew it was you!"
"What's so funny?" Arnold asks.
"Your outfit is so cute!"
She takes out her make-up kit from her pants pocket and tells Arnold to hold still while she applies the make-up. She takes Richard's suggestions that the nose is not necessary for disguise. She then takes out her white make-up paint and applies it to Arnold's face to cover it up. The reddish dust is applied to the cheeks after wards. She then uses her brother's fur texture sample on sandpaper, pressing it on Arnold's face to disguise the skin with fur.
"Why?" Phoebe says. "This is going to be the perfect disguise. You're the real Easter bunny!"
While the others who are with Arnold agree with Phoebe, Gerald tells Arnold, "Mm-Mm-mm. That girl bunny in the church will think you're cool!"
Arnold and Gerald are already finished with coloring eggs. It is 12:35 now and Arnold has his watch on his wrist, over his costume, with his clothes and cap in his arm. He knows he does not have much time. The boys rush back to Sunset Arms.
When they get inside, Grandma Gertrude notices a rabbit and serves him a bowl of salad with freshly-cut carrots. She does not know it is Arnold, but she is surprised to see the real bunny.
Arnold looks at his watch. "It's seven to one and we don't have much time!"
Grandma happens to recognize the voice, but she does not know if it is her grandson.
"This is the Easter Bunny, Mr. Shortman" Gerald lies. "He's not wearing a costume. He's real!"
"It can't be!" Grandpa is surprised.
"This has got to be the biggest bunny I've ever seen!" says Grandma. "You know pets are welcome here anytime."
Gerald asks. "Do you have extra baskets? I'm just wondering."
Arnold is like, "Uh-huh."
"Gosh" says Grandpa, amazed. "This bunny can actually talk!"
"What's in them? You have plastic eggs with candy and cash in them."
"Uh-huh."
"I'm looking at your watch, Arnold. And we still have time to go to the park."
A familiar name came to Grandpa's mind. "Arnold."
"I can't believe this, Pookie!" Grandpa Phil gasps. "It's Arnold! He's been turned into a bunny rabbit by…a magic spell."
"Mm-mm-mm! I told you the Easter bunny was real" says Gerald.
"Where are you going, shortman?" he says while the boys try to sneak away. "Don't forget! The party is at four and we're going to Canada in an hour. You, me, and Pookie."
"Grandpa, can uh…Gerald come with us? He might be free."
"All right, Gerald." Grandpa sighs. "The phone is on the counter whenever you need to…call your folks."
"Don't hang out too long, boys" says Grandma. "You're gonna have lots and lots of fun up in Canada ho!"
"Like I said before, my brother-in-law needs an Easter bunny."
The boys feel kind of frustrated.