The Cowardly Rabbit

This is a short story loosely based off of some real-life events.

Gary was walking along the trail, and I alongside him. He was looking down at his phone, unaware of his surroundings. I, on the other hand, was observing the beautiful scenery. The soft breeze blowing through the tree branches above, the squirrels chattering and playing among the leaves. It was a very pleasant evening. Couldn’t have been better.

“Pfah! F**k you, tree,” Gary swore after he walked into a tree branch and brushed his face against it. I almost started laughing but I knew my friend did not appreciate being laughed at, so I kept it to myself.

“Come on, man. It’s a forest. There are trees here. Why don’t you get off your phone and enjoy the nature?” I looked at Gary and he looked up from his phone for a second.

“I’m busy. I just have to finish setting up this deal. Hah! This kid wants to buy a pack of cigarettes from me and I convinced him to give me $20 for it! What a f*****g idiot.” Gary tapped on his phone for a few more seconds and then put it in his pocket.

“Hey, look! It’s a bird’s nest!” I pointed up to a nest only six feet off the ground, resting on a small tree branch. I always liked birds. Watching them look for worms and then go feed their young. It always gave me a feeling of peace and tranquility whenever I witnessed creatures caring for their young.

“Oh yeah,” Gary said without much interest. “I wonder what kind of bird it is.” He approached the nest and was only about two feet away when a robin swooped down from above, flying just past Gary’s head. “Jesus Christ!” Gary was visibly shaken. Gary was quite the “courageous knight” when it came to dealing with animals. Again, I could barely stop myself from laughing out loud. “What the f**k? Stupid bird.” Gary walked back over to me.

“Dude, it’s just a robin. It has babies in the nest. They don’t like it when you get too close to their young.” I tried explaining to my dim friend the behavior of pretty much all animals.

Gary turned toward the nest with the robin now sitting in it. “Well f**k you, robin!” He raised his hand with his middle finger extended, trying to insult the bird and its young. Suddenly he stooped down and grabbed a long tree branch that had fallen from above. He started slowly walking toward the nest again while holding out the branch in front of him.

“What are you doing?” I was alarmed at this point; I didn’t want any harm to come to the animals.

“I’m getting rid of the nest,” Gary replied nonchalantly. “Those robins don’t belong here.” He walked up right next to the nest and the robin flew out of it, chirping furiously. It perched on a branch a few yards away. The baby robins began chirping with alarm.

I didn’t have time to explain the extreme stupidity in his statement of “those robins don’t belong here” as I hurried over to him to try and stop him. Unfortunately, I was too late. He brought the end of the branch he was holding up to the nest and swatted the nest off of the tree.

“No! What the f**k, dude?!” I cried in dismay as I saw the nest upside down on the ground, the small baby birds and a couple eggs sprawled around it. “Those are babies! Why would you do that?” I looked at the contents of the nest that were now spread on the ground. Two little tiny babies and two eggs. The eggs were cracked open and both of them contained unborn chicks. I looked at the two babies that had already hatched and I realized they were beyond saving. They were so small and young that I imagined they had just hatched within the last few hours. The mother robin, still chirping with anger and alarm, instantly raced toward Gary, but he was prepared. He swung the branch at the robin, but it swerved out of the way and then flew off, realizing the hopelessness of its battle.

“Heh, f****n’ p***y,” Gary threw down the branch and laughed. “Teach you to fly at me.”

I looked at Gary with hatred; he was no longer my friend. “Dude, you’re a f*****g a*****e. Why would you kill those robins? What did they do to you?”

Gary looked at me as if I had insulted him without cause. “I already said, those robins don’t belong here. Who cares? It’s just a couple birds. Why don’t you have a funeral for them if you care so much, f*g?”

I didn’t respond and we kept walking. A torrent of utter contempt for Gary swelled within my mind; I couldn’t believe that he had done something so cruel and heartless. Gary pulled a joint out of his pocket and lit it. He slowly drew the smoke into his lungs a few times, then held it out to me.

“No thanks,” I said. I couldn’t smoke at that moment. I didn’t want to be high.

“PUS-SY,” he said in a low, mocking voice. My hatred for him increased and I just wanted to go home and get away from him.

We continued walking and a few feet in front of us I saw a rabbit grazing on the edge of the trail, its nose twitching and its ears perking up as it heard us approaching. “Run, rabbit,” I thought to myself.

As we got closer, Gary walked up to the rabbit and stomped the ground in front of it. “Square up, rabbit,” he challenged the small, furry creature. Of course the rabbit darted away instantly, as rabbits are known to do in response to any loud noise, especially if the noise is created by a big blundering fool such as my “companion”.

“Rabbit didn’t square up. B***h-a*s!” Gary insulted the creature with amusement. His voice also contained a hint of pride as well as surprise, as if he was truly proud of himself, as if he had actually expected the rabbit to engage him in a fight.

Again I smiled to myself, hardly able to contain my amusement at the pure idiocy of this person. Gary and I continued walking in silence, as I continued observing my surroundings and he continued smoking his joint. Eventually we reached our destination; we got into my car and I drove him to his house (he couldn’t be bothered to get a driver’s license) and I dropped him off there.

I drove to my house, and that was, of course, the last time I saw Gary. I decided that I would no longer associate with someone so immature, so idiotic as him. Sometimes one has friends that are occasionally nice to them, but the bad qualities of the friend outweigh the good. With a friend like that, it’s better to just leave them out of your life for good.