Maynard Got Lost

Once upon a time there was a baby rabbit that got lost. He searched the forest for his family but could not find them anywhere. He was getting hungry and the sun would be up soon. He knew he needed to find a quiet place to hide so the scary animals in the forest would not find him and eat him.

His name was Maynard.

Maynard found a hollow under a tree trunk and crawled in just before the pink sky turned orange. By the time the sky was blue he should have been snoozing away, but he could not find sleep. He was too scared. The noises the forest made during the day were creeping him out. He felt the clump clumping of deer hooves on the dirt, vibrating their way along the ground to his quivering paws. He sensed the wriggling of worms through the dirt. The wind picked up mid-day and the crackling of the limbs around him made him glad he was safe inside a tree trunk.

Maynard wondered where his family was. He wondered if they were mad at him for getting lost. He wondered if they were looking for him. He wondered if they noticed he was gone – there were, after all, more than 30 bunnies in his immediate family.Maybe they would not even notice and never come looking for him.

Throughout the day Maynard slept when he was able to. When he was unable to sleep he worked on a plan in his head. When the sun began to set he would put his plan into action.

Maynard awoke to the tell-tale sounds of evening in the forest – crickets singing all around. Frogs were belching on the edge of the nearby pond. Maynard was filled with fear. Adrenaline pumped through his blood. The fur on his back stood straight up. His nose twitched. All at once Maynard transformed into NINJA BUNNY! He said to himself “you got this, bunny!”.

As if he had springs on his feet, Maynard flew out from under the tree he had hidden under and flew with lightning speed toward the sound of the frogs. He jumped high in the air and with a double twist summersault he landed on the far side of a felled log that ordinarily would have stopped him in his tracks. But not tonight. Tonight he was on a mission. His landing was stealthy. Without hesitation he continued on toward the pond where he was hoping to find his family. He was really hoping to find them because suddenly he realized that his plan did not extend beyond the pond.

Maynard is not the smartest among bunnies, which are generally not considered the most adept species to begin with. Maynard’s plan to go the pond was well thought out, for a bunny. And Maynard must also be given some credit for having realized that he was not prepared with a back up plan in the event that he did not find his family.

The moon was full tonight and the air was cool. Dew was beginning to settle on the grass. Maynard hopped his way toward the pond for longer than he thought he should. The pond must be further than he estimated. Estimating is not a skill the bunnies excel at either. But the pond must be close now . . . he’s been hopping for nearly an hour, he felt!

Suddenly he heard something that made him freeze in his tracks. Maynard had heard the older bunnies tell stories about creatures called humans but he had never seen one himself. Nor had he smelled one. But now that he did smell one, he knew what it was without mistake. Like the smell of chocolate chip cookies baking is to a human – even if you have never smelled it before, you immediately recognize it.

Maynard was like a statue, he was even holding his breath. His heart beat like a bass drum so hard in his little bunny chest that he was sure all of the forest could hear it.The human walked by Maynard so close that in a single hop Maynard could have been to the human.

In a flash Maynard ran through his memory of the stories he had heard of humans.There was the tale of the small human that held a fellow bunny hostage, feeding it nasty carrots. There was the story of the large human that stole all the bunnies it could and killed the bunnies’ dead. There was not a single good human story that Maynard could remember.

Maynard knew he had to get away from the human. He dug deep for his ninja courage and in a flash ran . . . he ran like the wind. What Maynard possessed in courage he continued to lack in intelligence. Maynard ran smack into the human, so hard that he fell back in a daze, flat on his back. The air in his chest was stuck, he could not make himself breathe. Suddenly everything went dark and with a final glimpse of the moon Maynard fell weak into a deep sleep.

When Maynard came to, he was flooded with bright sunlight. He was confused because the only sky and sun he saw was from an opening high above him, on the side. The place where he was was white, all white and bright. The ground he stood on was smooth and shiny. His bunny nails could not grasp it. When he tried to hop he slipped and slid. He stopped, standing still until he could get his bearings. Suddenly a human came into the space. The same human he ran into. The human towered over Maynard. All his ninja courage slipped away and he sat still, shaking, terrified.

All at once the human picked him up. Maynard was too scared to struggle. The human stroked him in a way that reminded Maynard of his bunny mom. Maynard liked this and his fear gradually went away.

The human placed Maynard in a cage with lettuce and radishes (Maynard’s favorite) and cucumbers and carrots. This was nothing like the human stories Maynard had heard from the older bunnies. In fact, Maynard was happy.

Eventually Maynard forgot all about the stories he’d been told. He almost forgot about his bunny family too. He knew he was not ninja enough to escape, so he just enjoyed his radishes and the pats from the human. But every once in a while he thought about his bunny mom and still wondered if she had ever even noticed that he was gone.