My Neighbor's Rabbit

Granny Rabbit sounds so grumpy today. I heard she nagged at Rocky. “Rocky, you have to stop!” Said Granny Rabbit. Yesterday, I heard from my room that Granny Rabbit was complaining about something when she was talking to someone on the phone. My window is facing granny rabbit’s backyard. I can hear everything from my bedroom, I mean everything. I know when she will start coughing badly and when she will fart violently. I know her daily activities. She always coughed badly in the dawn like she was having a morning asthma attack or something. Then, she fed her rabbit when she stopped coughing. She takes a shower at 6am and takes a morning walk in the park to bask in the morning sun. She said to me once that the morning sunlight is very good for old people and babies because it contains vitamin D. When she got back from the park she would make breakfast and set a nice table in her backyard. She will let her rabbit out of the cage and play around the backyard while she eats her breakfast. She let her rabbit find the pok choy and eggplants she grows in every corner of her backyard. Granny Rabbit lives alone, but she looks happy living a modest life with her rabbit. Her name is Mrs. Sullivan, but I call her Granny Rabbit and she likes it.

Granny Rabbit’s house looks like a resort to me. But mom says the house looks like a book café. Dad agrees, he said Granny Rabbit’s house has a coffee shop ambiance. The walnut colored walls, wooden ceiling, and the big glass windows allow the sunlight to come in and light up every corner of her first floor. Granny Rabbit’s two-storey house is not a big house. It is what mom and dad called a minimalist house. The front yard has a small garden filled with Asoka, Morning Glory and Jasmine. The wooden fence is short. People on the road can see what happens inside the house, particularly the first floor, because the glass windows are big. The front garden is small, but Granny Rabbit’s backyard is quite spacious and so green. I’m so glad that my window is facing her backyard because the length of her building is half of ours. The green grass sooths my eyes everytime I open my window. Her sons sent this grass and all kind of flowers from Asia. Granny Rabbit wanted to give us a few tiles of that soft grass, but we didn’t have a green area in our backyard, so we only took the Asoka and Orchid to our front garden.

Mom said granny rabbit has two sons and grandchildren, but they live overseas. Granny Rabbit loves our neighborhood, and she always told my mom that sons are different from daughters, they must focus on their own family, the family they raise. I heard both of them live in asian countries, and they have established a furniture business there. The eldest son lives in Bali, Indonesia and the youngest lives in Pattaya, Thailand. Granny Rabbit never talks so much about her grandchildren. I don’t even know how many grandchildren she had. Maybe one day I will ask her. I think she likes her solitude with a rabbit as her companion. Besides, she got us, her neighbor.

I remember when I was 5-year-old Granny Rabbit offered me a cheesecake with sprinkled cream and strawberries toppings. The cheesecake was so delicious, I cannot forget such a rich flavor. I ate that yummy cheesecake while watching Mr. Bean movies with Granny Rabbit in her living room. At that time, Granny Rabbit looked younger and sort of beautiful woman like my mom. She always wears dresses, cardigans and flats. She also knows how to wear a sincere smile. When mom gave birth to my little brother, Granny Rabbit offered to babysit me for two days. I felt quite comfortable staying in her house for two days. I slept in her guest’s room. That room used to be her sons’ bedroom. I could see her sons’ drawings and their old photographs. She read me a bedtime story. She is always very nice to me.

Granny Rabbit’s husband, Mr. Sullivan was a good man. He passed away 7 years ago at a project site he worked at. Dad said he died of a heart attack. Dad and Mr. Sullivan were friends. Dad used to help Mr. Sullivan painted his front walls and wooden fence before Christmas. When Mr. Sullivan spotted dad buying paintings. He quickly offered his help and made time to help my dad. One Christmas day, when we visited Granny Rabbit, she showed us the movie collections of her late husband. Mr. Sullivan liked to watch Rocky Balboa, no wonder Granny Rabbit named the rabbit ‘Rocky’.