On Horseback
Chapter 17: The Pika Bunny
It was always interesting to fall asleep and then to wake up with snow all over your head. When I opened my eyes the next morning, that's exactly what I experienced. Moaning, I crawled out of the igloo and brushed all of the snow out of my hair.
Once I finished that annoying task, Jack climbed out of the igloo and said, "We are never doing this again. Unless we're offered a million bells. Otherwise, this little, um, "adventure" is officially off of my list."
Jack could be strange at certain times. I turned around and looked at him. "What list?" He also always knew the right time to crack a joke. "My list of things to do before I die. What else?" Slapping my forehead, I mumbled, "Give me the power to advance through the darkest hour."
The mountain was packed with snow. More than it was last night, anyway. I wonder if that meant that there would be snow on the ground in the village now. I was hoping that there was, only because if we didn't get any snow now, that would probably indicate that we weren't going to get any snow for the Star Night Festival. That festival was nothing without snow.
"Do you want to leave the igloo here?" Jack asked me. Not caring too much anymore about the pile of snow, I said, "Sure. Unless you want to jump on it. Or, being the nice people that we are, we can just leave it here. Someone else may come along and say, 'Wow! Wow! Look what I found, honey! Come here! NOW!'"
Jack chuckled and we decided to leave the igloo where it was standing.
The two of us decided to walk through the mountains for the remainder of the morning. Since there weren't many places that we could go to in the mountains, we stayed at the foot and walkd through a few acres of land that nothing but a few trees and snow rested upon.
All of a sudden, I saw a bright white thing jump from one tree to the one that was next to it. I gave a small scream, and Jack looked at me saying, "What? What? What? What did you see, Ann?" I turned to looked at him, and then looked back at the trees, pointing. Jack just shook his head, mumbling under his breath, "It was probably just a squirrel or something."
"Let's go, Ann. Don't need to worry!" he exclaimed. I nodded and we continued to walk through the mountains.
At another point in our walk, I spotted another white thing dashing through the trees. This time, I decided to screech, just to show Jack that I thought something really was running around.
"Jack! I saw something in the trees! I know I did! I just know that I did! Come on, we have to go investigate!" Suspiciously, I grabbed Jack's arm and pulled him at least ten centimetres before he fell into the snow and I took off into the trees.
As I was chasing after whatever I was chasing, I fell over something that didn't feel like it belonged in the mountains. I got up and turned around to see a wine cellar. "What?" I asked myself, and decided to open it.
Down below, I saw Cliff sleeping on the floor! Where the hell was I?
"Cliff! Cliff! CLIFF!" I screamed to the sleeping ex-vagabond. My friend quickly awoke from his slumber and looked up at me. "Ann! Hey, what are you doing in the backyard of the vineyard?" I looked around and saw that I was in the backyard of the vineyard. Then I saw the figure that I had been chasing.
It was the legendary Pika Bunny.
I had seen the bunny once before.
Looking down at Cliff, I said, "That's the Pika Bunny! Do you know what it means, Cliff?" My friend climbed out of the cellar and looked over at where the rabbit was standing. "Excuse me? There's nothing there." My eyes widened. Cliff couldn't see the Pika Bunny?
"What do you mean you can't see it? It's right there!" I pointed straight at the bunny, which was now itching itself with its hind leg. "Wait! If you can't see it...that means we're not destined to be together forever!" Cliff was now looking at me like I was some sort of a crazy woman. He scratched his head then said, "Ann, are you feeling alright?"
A second later, Jack came up behind me and said, "Ann! What the heck do you think you're - what the heck is that?!" Jack began walking backwards until he hit a tree and then said, "Is that what you were chasing, Ann? A rabbit?"
Jack saw the rabbit. Cliff couldn't.
"Jack! Do you realize what that rabbit represents?" I asked my friend. Jack shook his head. "Something that ranch girls run after?" Grinning, I punched Jack on the shoulder. "Actually, it represents destiny. If a man and woman ever see the rabbit while they are together, it means that they are destined to be together forever. If a couple doesn't see it, it means that they're not to be together."
Cliff's jaw was hanging now, and Karen came out from the front of her house. "Cliff! It's time to get up! Kai made your - what on?!" I waved to my friend, who was obviously confused by Jack and my presence.
"Did you guys come over for breakfast? Kai made sausages and fried eggs. I popped the toast, heehee," Karen told everyone. Jack and I decided to stay for breakfast, which meant less food for Karen. Her fault for letting us in her house so early in the morning.
I never grew bored of Karen's house everytime I stepped into it. It always smelled of coffee and wine. The wine part was obvious, but I never really understood the coffee part, as neither of her parents, nor her ever drank coffee. I was pretty sure that Kai didn't drink it either.
Karen's room was always so empty, but it had many little knicks and knacks in it. Underneath her bed was a little hole that let Karen sneak out of the house. It led to the roof, and once she got out, she just climbed down the side of her house. I also liked the crack in the ceiling, even though it didn't really lead to any place in the house.
"Come and sit down. Make yourselves comfortable," Karen told us. She placed two extra plates on the table, one for Jack and one for me. "Thanks a bundle," I said to Karen. She smiled at me and went to get some napkins, which she set down on the table.
After Kai finished cooking, he set a big platter of sausages down in front of us, and then another platter of eggs. The toast was set down by Karen, and there was a lot of toast. Twenty-five in counting. Yes, I counted. That's how hungry I was.
Eating with Karen's family was always so stange. Sasha, Kai, Karen and her father constantly talked. They just talked and talked and talked. Even when they were eating, they talked through their chewing and their swallowing. They gargled through their drinking and spit some of it up occasionally. That was one quality of Karen that I hated: She was a spitter while speaking.
Finally, breakfast ended.
I said goodbye to everyone while racing out the door. I wanted to get home as quickly as I could and tell my father about the previous evening and such. I also had to tell him about the Pika Bunny.
"You WWHAAT??!" Dad cried, dropping his coffee mug, which shattered all over the floor. Coffee went flying around the room, some landing on me. I glared at him. "Jack and I saw the Pika Bunny. The rabbit that you and mama saw before you guys got married."
I helped clean up the catastrophe that my father spilled, and during our duty, he asked me, "You don't suppose that that Pika Bunny really does seal two peoples' fates, do you, Ann?"
I wanted to slap my father on the face when he said that. "Excuse me? You don't want to see me and Jack, or Jack and I, whatever the hell the correct grammar is, be together forever? You think we're going to get married and settle down and all that? Are you assessing that you don't like Jack?"
My father nodded.
I gasped.
That made my mind do a quick jump. Was Jack the right guy for me? Why didn't my father approve the farmer? We were ranchers! There's not a big difference!
"Fine, but if he proposes to me, you know what, Dad? It's my future and I can have it with whomever I want to have it with. I will accept. Sure, I love Cliff too, but he's not the right guy. He's a great guy and all, but I prefer Jack. Not because he's a farmer, not because I'm a rancher, and certainly not because I spend more time with him."
"Then what's your reason, Ann?"
I took a deep breath and said, "Because he has the music box!"