The First Time I Was Scared

I woke up on a bitter cold morning and was so hungry. I asked mom if we had any carrots and she said that we could go to the farmers market a little later. She told me that if I wanted a snack, there was some lettuce over by the grey sitting rock. Hmm -- I love lettuce. It's so green and crunchy.

Click Here For Amazon Short Stories

My daddy had left us for another bunny down the road, so mom had to look after all us kids, eight of us. I was the oldest and it was me who had to look after everybody when we were left alone. My little sister Cotton was a real pain cause she was always being bad and never stopped talking back to me. I told her if she didn't stop it, I would pull out her two big front teeth. I was only kidding of course but mommy counted on me to keep things under control when she was gone to the market, so I had to play it real tough when I was in charge.

Today, we were all going to the market with mom and I couldn't wait. This would be our first trip out as a family and it was going to be a lot of fun. I loved all my brothers and sisters and I know they loved me right back. There is Peter, Cecil, Harry, Pumpkin, Cotton, Buttons, Gracie, and me, Thumper. We are all four months old.

I could hear my mom calling us. It was time for our trip to the farmers market and we were all excited and hopping around. Cotton kept pulling my tail as a joke. I told her that when I catch her, her teeth were coming out and she ran away real fast.

One by one, each of us ran up the chute and out onto the grass which was at the back of this humans house. He had this big creature there that lived in his own wooden shack and this thing even had his name on the place. We had to be quiet so we wouldn't wake this monster. It had such a loud sound that would come from its mouth. I was always afraid when I heard this noise and hid under my bed of leaves.

Not too long after, we reached the market and, Wow, what a sight! I had never seen anything so beautiful in all my four months. There was food coming out of the ground for as far as I could see. Let's see now -- there were carrots, lettuce, some other green stuff and some little red things. I don't really know the names of all these things because I haven't started school yet. After all, I'm only four months old. But as far as I was concerned right now, this was the best place ever.

Mommy told us to hurry up and eat until we were full. Then, after our tummies were big and hard, we had to fill our mouths with as much as we could and carry it all back home so we could eat again tomorrow and the next day. Mom said that we would have to go to the market every third day to get more food. That was o.k. with me cause my eyes could look at this stuff for ever. It was so pretty with all the different colors and there was so much of it. I loved the farmers market.

On our way home, mom told us to run quickly in single file and to stay together.

All of a sudden, out of nowhere, I heard a scream and lots of noise behind me. I turned to look at what had happened. Mommy was biting and scratching at this monster thing that came out of nowhere. It had an ugly pointy face, a big red tail and awful pointy teeth. I heard mommy yell for us to run, to run home fast and don't look back.

My little heart was pounding and my feet were going so fast that it seemed like I was flying though the air. I had lost all the food from my mouth but I didn't care. I just wanted mommy, but she was nowhere to be seen. All my brothers and sisters were with me. Peter, Cotton and Cecil had managed to hang on to their bundles of food, but that was all.

After a long while, it was starting to get dark and our mom still wasn't home. I was beginning to have bad thoughts and Buttons and Gracie wouldn't stop crying. Cotton came over to me and snuggled up against me. She started to say something about mommy but I stopped her and told her I didn't want to hear it. She was sniffling and I felt a wet spot on my side. One of her tears had fallen on me and I felt very much alone. There were eight of us all cuddled together in the darkness, but ... as I tried to keep myself from crying, ... I felt so sad and for the very first time --- I was scared.