My Nephew and His Stuffed Rabbit
I went home for a wedding a couple months ago. I timed it so I could spend a couple extra days staying with my sister and her family who live outside of Philadelphia. My sister has a son named Evan and he's a great kid. He's five years old and loves exploring. He always carries around a stuffed rabbit that he constantly talks to. "Thomas, let's go play with this!" "Thomas, let's go find some frogs!" I can't help but think of Calvin and Hobbes when I see Evan playing with Thomas. As I said, he's a great kid, but one problem is Evan never listens when my sister tells him not to go wandering off alone as he's always running off into the woods near the house. My sister has tried everything to get him to stop going off alone, but short of locking him in his room or tying him up, there's no stopping him. Evan just doesn't understand how dangerous the world is.
There had been a rash of kidnappings in the towns around where my sister lives. It really scared her especially when she wasn't sure where Evan was half the time. When I was there she got a call from the school-- Evan skipped taking the school van home and ran away. My sister asked me to stay home in case he came back and dashed to her car and went to try and find him. Fortunately after an hour he made it home. He was fine and skipped in with his stuffed rabbit (yeah, he brings it to school too). I called his mom while Evan ran to his room saying he had to do his homework-- a journal for writing practice. My sister came home relieved but furious. She went up to talk to him. After awhile she came down with his journal which had his longest entry yet. I fixed the spelling and punctuation but this is what it said:
Today a man said, "Come with me. Your mommy is sick."
But he was lying.
I said "Thomas, step on his foot." CRUNCH!
"Thomas, step on his knee." CRUNCH!
"Thomas, step on his back." CRUNCH!
"Thomas, step on his head." CRUNCH!
He was a bad man.
Later that night I went to talk to Evan. I asked "Did you and Thomas the rabbit meet a man today?" Evan looked at his stuffed animal, then back at me and laughed. "This isn't Thomas! That's Thomas!" and pointed above me, over my shoulder. No one was there but I could have sworn I felt breath on the back of my neck.
