1
It was on June 8th, 2017 that Pauline González finally mustered the courage to break up with her manipulative boyfriend of seven years, Tucker Tr She’d met him at the Boston Architectural College during her second year. It hadn’t been immediate, but she’d warmed up to him. He was one of those goofy loners, or Mr. Nice Guys, as some of her classmates had liked to call them. He’d pressed her for about a year and she’d finally agreed to go out with him. Looking back, perhaps that should have been the first red flag.
The problem was, he charmed her during that first night out. He was funny, and she’d honestly had a very good time. So she’d agreed to another date and then another and then another. Until she was head over heels for him. And thus started their chaotic romance.
The first red flag she noticed was two years into their formal relationship. She’d been offered the opportunity to study in a renowned Spanish college for six months. Her head had been in the clouds, a high so high she plummeted hard into reality with Tucker’s first reaction.
“You are gonna leave me for six months?”
“Well, I’m not gonna leave you, I’ll just be abroad, you know, studying.”
“I can’t believe you are doing this to me. After everything I sacrificed to charm you…”
“Listen, Tuck,” she called him Tuck. Yuck. “It’s not like I’m leaving you. I’m just going away for a while. You’d do it too, if you were given the chance.”
That had been when his eyes got dark and he stormed out of the room. He came back two hours later smelling of alcohol and apologized, but a bit of damage had been done.
From there, it had just escalated, very slowly, but surely as well. It was everything: she couldn’t go out with her friends, she was cheating on him if she worked overtime, he accused her of hating him if she wanted to take some time for herself… it was everything.
So, naturally, she’d finally had enough during dinner at a local pizza joint after she told him that she’d been offered a promotion in her architectural firm.
“…but the job is in New York, so we’d have to move. But it’s a very high-paying job, and I’m a step closer to being manager. And get this,” her eyes sparkled with joy, “I’ll be working on the 32nd floor! Ah!” She honestly thought he was going to be happy for her.
“Look, Paulie, I don’t think you are thinking this through. We have a life here.”
What’s there to think through? I got a promotion! And we can afford a nice place in Midtown Manhattan, Tuck! It’s great! I can even get you a job at the firm!”
“I don’t need a job at your stupid firm, thank you very much!” He said it forcefully, and put his pizza slice down. “I’m happy where I am. You want to take my job away from me.”
“No, I was just suggesting it, we have so many growth opportunities, I thought—”
“Well, you thought wrong. And I think you’re making this about you—”
“Because it is about me!”
“What I feel is that you don’t want me to grow career-wise. You want me to stay in my sad position, where I’m just a lowly architect under a thousand managers while you rise to glory. I knew that letting you go to Spain five years ago would do a number to your head.”
“Letting me? LETTING ME?!” Now she was getting mad for real. Who did he think he was?
“Yes, letting you. And you know why I shouldn’t have let you go? You know why we’re going to stay here? Because I’m the one who deserves to grow. I’m the guy, for God’s sake. I—” then he seemed to realize what he was saying and stopped himself.
Pauline regarded him with chilly loathing. “Say it!”
He didn’t say it, but still looked mad. Ready to storm off, as a matter of fact. She knew his storm-out face. And she remembered every storming out he’d done over the years, how each and every one of them had broken a bit more, but also opened her eyes to what he really was. With each door slam he had opened another door towards his psyche and towards his manipulation of her, and now he’d left the final door ajar, but a glimpse was all she needed. Maybe it was time for her to storm off for once.
“You know what?” she said, putting down her pizza. “Fuck you. We’re over.” Then she stood up and left him, his mouth agape.
She got to her studio apartment in the first floor of a building close to the Franklin Park Zoo. She promised herself she wouldn’t miss him, but the hard truth was that she did. She hated him, true, with all her might, but you amass a staggering amount of memories when you’ve been together with someone for seven years. And she couldn’t help but cry as soon as she hit her pillow. She wept herself to sleep, promising that she could have this one night of sorrow and then get herself together. She had to pack for New York.
A strange sound woke her at 2a.m. She sat up, ramrod straight, listening closely. Then: Thwonk! There it was again. It was coming from outside her door, which lead directly to the sidewalk. She peeked out the front window, but couldn’t make out anything, so she finally decided to open the door. There was nothing there. Slight movement caught her eye and she looked down to discover a tiny bunny trembling at her feet. It just lay there, looking up at her with its big gray eyes. Pauline stooped down and cupped it in her hand. The bunny was so small it fit in both palms with space to spare. It didn’t move or complain, it let itself be picked up and taken inside.
Pauline retrieved an old shoe box from her closet and chopped a carrot from her fridge. She put the carrot in the box and then set the bunny in. She sat down next to it and tried to feed it the carrot, but it wouldn’t eat it, so she resigned herself to caress its fluffy ears. They felt like ice, so she rummaged in her closet again and found an old frayed blanket. It was stupidly big for the rabbit, but it had to do. She covered the bunny with the very tip of the blanket and it closed its eyes.
Pauline went back to bed, but couldn’t sleep. After about an hour of tossing and turning, she picked her phone and began reading about rabbits and their care. She read a couple of articles about their behavior and spiraled down a black hole of information until she was reading what to feed to bunnies. The article started thus: Even though carrots are generally portrayed as the main source of sustenance for rabbits, it is not advised to feed it to them as a regular food. Pauline panicked and rushed to the shoebox to remove the carrot. The rabbit was still asleep under the blanket, its breath a bit shallow. Pauline threw the carrot to the trash and returned to bed. The rabbit wasn’t eating, after all. She would go to the store tomorrow to get food and supplies for it.
In the morning, Pauline bought a big bag of alfalfa hay, which was recommended in most websites, rabbit food pellets, celery, bell peppers, beets, and whole carrots (according to the articles, rabbits ate the leaves). She also got a bag of cage bedding. She had some empty cardboard boxes in her apartment where the bunny could be for the time being.
When she arrived back home, she got a small plastic dish and a cup from her cupboard. She put some hay and pellets in the dish and filled the cup with water. Then she added a branch of celery and everything in front of the bunny, but it wouldn’t move. She began to get worried, but let it be while she had breakfast. When she returned to check on the rabbit, it was still under the blanket with its eyes closed, and the food and water were still intact.
Two hours later, she was eyeing the vet, Dr. Martin García, nervously. The room was too quiet, and the horrible sense of foreboding she felt was unshakable. Then the doctor removed his glassed and looked her dead in the eye.
“She has a respiratory infection that could develop into pneumonia if left untreated.”
Her heart sank. She didn’t understand the gravity of the illness, but it didn’t sound good. “What should we do?”
“First and foremost, she needs to rest.” As if on cue, the rabbit coughed and wheezed, then lay her head on the cold examination stand. “I will prescribe some antibiotics, but you need to make sure she eats properly and gets enough water.”
“Thanks. I will,” she promised. “Also, did you say she?”
“Yes, it’s a female rabbit.”
Pauline smiled sadly. She had decided to keep her since yesterday, but up until now she hadn’t known what to name her.
During the following week, Pauline made sure to take care of Bianca as best as she could. She stayed with her during the mornings and fed her, she made sure she took the antibiotics three times a day. For couple of days, it looked like Bianca wasn’t going to make it, and Pauline called in sick two days to be with her.
But then, slowly but surely, Bianca started to move and be more active. She began spending more time with her eyes open and exploring her newfound home. She hopped around the entire apartment and bit all the cables Pauline had in her house. Then she chased them with a nibble of all the books in the bottom shelf of her library. Pauline didn’t care. She was relieved that Bianca hadn’t died. She couldn’t remember a moment when she’d been happier.
And so, the day came when she was finally packed up and ready to leave for the Big Apple. She regarded the apartment fondly and reminisced on all the memories she’d made in there. Including the ones she made with Tucker, the good and the bad. She remembered when she’d first came here and celebrated with him with pizza, sushi, and tacos; she remembered when she’d been sick and he’d come over to take care of her; but she also remembered all the storming off he did right here, all the screaming and manipulation, and all the scars and sadness he had caused her. Well, no more, she thought to herself. It’s time for a new beginning. For seven years, Tucker had been her only company, and she’d gotten used to it. Now she recognized her error. She had no one else now, but she intended for that to change.
She guessed she owed her new optimism to Bianca. When she had needed a distraction from her reality and her impending sadness, she had appeared, giving her something to do. Yes, Pauline had nursed Bianca back to life, but Bianca had provided hope in return. And that was far more priceless than anything else in the world.
“Thanks, Bianca,” she whispered while she stroked her back. Her fur felt warm now, and she tried to lick her hand. “Let’s go.”
And she closed the door to her old life. The sun never shone so brightly, and the future never seemed so full of opportunities.
