From Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale

People disappear when they die. Their voices, their laughter, the warmth of their breath. Their flesh. Eventually their bones. All living mempry of them ceases. This is both dreadful and natural. Yet for some there is an exception to this annihilation. For in the books they write they continut to exist. We can rediscover them. Their humour, their tone of voice, their moods. Through the written word they can anger you or make you happy. They can comfort you. They can perplex you. They can alter you. All this, even though they are dead. Like flies in amber, like corpses frozen in ice, that which according to the laws of nature should pass away is, by the miracle of ink on paper, preserved. It is a kind of magic.

--Diane Setterfield



Friday, February 29, 2008

A Story

I'll have to find it...
Once upon a time there was a little bunny that loved the rain. He’d hop and twirl among the raindrops.

He lived in the desert so he didn’t get a chance to play in the rain very often. No one else would play with him because they were afraid of the rain.

One day as he was hopping through the shadows of a desert scrub, when he heard the sky crakck and huge raindrops pelted down. He ran home to let his mom know it was raining. Then he jumped and twirled right back into the rainstorm.

He danced and played for longer than ever, but the rain never stopped. He grew tired of so much hopping and frolicking, so he just started lippity lopping from soggy mound of sand to sandy mush.

The puddles between the sand dunes got bigger and bigger. But the little bunny was not afraid. He was curious why this rain shower was so much longer than any other rainstorm.

As he hopped and trotted further and further from his burrow he met another bunny that was traversing the storm. She was looking up and around with wonder. They sniffed each other’s noses and ears before lolloping through the dunes together.

After ages and ages and more rain than the both of them had ever seen they came across another strange sight. A massive dark shape loomed up from the soggy desert sand.

“This much be what is causing the rain,” thought the bunny and he hopped up to ask it to stop. The bunny could find no face to talk to and he hopped around the shape with his new friend right at his back. They came to a bridge from the ground into the dark shape.

The bunnies sniffed and sniffed the wooden bridge. As they sniffed they started climbing in to the bridge. When he was done sniffing, the bunny thought it was time to go. The bridge was just wood and not tasty wood, at that.

He looked down and almost tripped over his friend bunny in surprise. The rain had covered the ground all around them.

The bunny’s friend jumped into the lake that was swelling around them. She swam until the bunny almost lost sight of her. He was lonely now and hunched against the never-ending rain.

He heard some splashing and saw his new friend paddling back. He watched with wonder as she scrambled onto the bridge.

They were stuck alone and drenched on a bridge from the lake that had been their home to the dark shape above them.

After a while the bunnies got restless. They sniffed at the dark shape and took a step towards it. Then another step and before they realized it they were inching toward the dark shape.

The closer they got the wider and darker it became. The bunny looked around him once or twice but all he could see was rain falling into the depths around him.

His friend stopped suddenly and sat up. She turned one eye toward the dark shape, then the other. The bunny followed her lead. As he looked at the mass before him he saw something that had not been there before.

A light shone from the midst of the darkness in front of them. It was a welcoming light, like the sunshine on a new day.

The bunnies started moving infinitely faster. Then they heard a voice above them then. It was an old voice and kindly, but they could not understand it.

They started to hop to the light and the voice. Presently they came to the end of the bridge. The light shone into their eyes and they could see a doorway into the darkness.

Inside were all sorts of animals. The bunnies felt the warmth from dry hay and crowds of other animals. They were tired of being wet and they hopped in the arc just as the water rose high enough that the bridge fell from the door.

3 comments:

Janika said...

Cute story. Did you make it up, or where fif you find it?

Unknown said...

Yeah I made it up. I had a spare moment at work and thought this would be cute and typed it right up in about 10 minutes. :) Are not I cool?

Emily said...

Very cute! I love it!