Chapter Two: Arfie and Ben and the Very Tired Bunny
A couple of cheekies tried to guess where this was going and … well … you came close which I put down to good writing (and smart readers). So, enjoy the next one – hope it makes you smile. I’m a bit sad that it changes where the paragraphs are – message in that for all the younger readers – it makes you read in a monotone. I bunged in a few to get those voices lifted a bit.
Chapter Two
Later, when Arfie and Ben returned from their walk with Mrs Balfour, they were surprised to see the Addison’s setting off in their caravan.
‘’pect it’ll be up to us to look after the rabbit.’ Said Ben.
‘Good.’ Said Arfie. ‘I like old Armidale.’
‘He’s slow for a rabbit.’ Said Ben. ‘Makes our dinner late.’
‘Does it?’ Arfie squished his eyebrows together to make a frown. Sometimes it helped.
‘Mrs Balfour likes to make sure he eats all his pellets before she gives him a cuddle.’
‘And us.’ Said Arfie. ‘She cuddles us too.’
‘Cuddling Armidale makes our dinner late.’
‘Oh.’ Said Ben.
‘We can go and keep him company.’ Said Ben. ‘That way she’ll come over early to fetch us home.’
Ben was so clever. Arfie gave him a big lick and a bounce and a double-quick snip as they set off over the road.
And that was when they saw another strange thing.
The hutch was empty. The door was shut. The straw was all soft and yellow and the blanky was still curled around waiting for a rabbit to fit into it.
‘Must be in his burrow.’ Said Ben.
Arfie bounced across the soft soil. He bounced three times. ‘Wake up Armi!’
Armidale didn’t. At least he didn’t push his ears up and then his nose and his eyes and his big floppy feet to say he was awake.
‘Probably tired.’ Said Ben. ‘Rabbits get tired in their burrows.’
‘Do they?’ Arfie scratched about looking for a way in. He stuck his nose into the dirt. ‘Come on, Armi.’
Armi didn’t. The ground stayed still and the sun started to sink a little.
‘He’ll come out when he’s hungry.’ Ben said. And sat down.
Arfie sat down too but it was cold sitting in a backyard when the night time was coming.
He scratched a little hole in the burrow.
‘Our dinner will be late.’ He said.
‘Just like I expected. Always is when She’s feeding Armidale.’
Arnie squished his eyes tight. He had a new think. ‘How will Mrs Balfour find him if he’s sleeping in the bottom of his burrow?’
‘A good question.’ Said Ben.
Arfie waited.
‘Seems to me we should fetch him out.’ Ben wandered over to the burrow. ‘She’ll never see him in there.”
Arfie nodded. ‘I’ll get him.’
Arfie was good at digging. Mrs Balfour said he was so good at it that she’d have to give him away to a mining company. Arfie stopped making quite so many holes. He didn’t want to live with a mining company, whatever that was.
‘Good idea’ He said.
Arfie dug as hard and as fast as he could.
Ben helped just in case Arfie made a mistake.