6. Bunnies And Ben
Chapter 6
Bunnies And Ben
Since there was a fair chance that Liliana would not survive her attempt to help an honorable man become the new king of the North Carolina pride in a few days, there were a few things she needed to take care of. She had promised her best friend, Pete, that given time and patience, his beloved Ben Harper would come to understand the world held more than the laws of science admitted. Once he accepted that the world was wider, he would be more receptive to learning his boyfriend was a werewolf, rather than thinking that one of them must be insane. If Pete just flat told him, or worse, showed him, Liliana saw a lot of restraining orders in Pete’s possible future paths.
But Ben was no closer today to accepting the existence of Others than he was when Liliana said those words to Pete. The futures she had seen were many and varied, but none of them led in the right direction.
She needed to set Ben on a path more likely to lead to a good outcome for him and Pete, even if they got married after Lilly was dead. Her dearest friend deserved happiness. It also disturbed Ben Harper how little he knew of his boyfriend’s life. Both men’s paths would be better ones if Ben could be coaxed into accepting the hidden world.
Being confronted with something with big teeth out of a nightmare or Liliana’s disturbing eyes as his first experience did not lead to good outcomes. Liliana needed to find a gentler way.
Ben taught science at the middle school on base at Fort Liberty. Janice Willoughby’s eleven-year-old son, Sam, was one of his students. But Liliana didn’t see any path where Janice could coax Ben in the right direction. The spider seer would have to intervene directly in some way.
So, Liliana sat on the back side of the roof of Janice’s house, hidden under the sheltering shade of the big old oak that stretched its long limbs clear over the peak of the roof. The spider seer leaned against the chimney, watching as Janice’s children played in the backyard, the tree’s twigs screening her from their view.
Janice had five children, but the other three had gone to a sports game with their father. The eleven-year-old, Sam, opted to stay home with Janice and play with his baby brother. The sixth grader didn’t seem interested in sports, despite having boundless energy.
In North Carolina, basketball was the game most revered. Liliana imagined all the people staring, the all-important ball moving unpredictably, the constant need to focus attention when a thousand other things demanded it. She shuddered.
In Liliana’s opinion, Sam was the only Willoughby child with good sense. Playing basketball on a school team seemed worse than combat with a werelion.
While Liliana watched from her hidden perch, Sam ran around from the bottom of the playscape’s slide to the ladder repeatedly. He swung on the swings, climbed on the rope bridge, and swung from the monkey bars.
Janice’s youngest, the toddler, Kayden, circled the yard. His bright red tricycle following a trail worn into the grass.
Their shaggy golden retriever mix followed dutifully behind him.
Sam spotted a butterfly. He chased it from flowering bush to bush, trying to get it to land on his hand, panting from all the running and climbing he’d done. The fluttering painted lady didn’t seem interested in leaving the yard which was surrounded by lilac bushes just inside the privacy fence despite the determined little boy chasing it from flower to flower.
The Willoughby family had gone to a great deal of trouble with the eight-foot privacy fence and the bushes to make certain their back yard was concealed from outside eyes. The reason became obvious a moment later.
As little Kayden zoomed by on his well-worn circuit, followed by the dog, Sam shifted to rabbit form. He bounced up on the dog. His rabbit feet splayed over her furry back as he rested.
The dog seemed quite accustomed to the children becoming four-footed and furry. It bent its neck to the side until muzzle met rabbit paw, gave one quick sniff, and went back to trotting behind the tricycle. The three of them made a cute little parade.
Anyone outside the family seeing the children become lop-eared brown rabbits could be dangerous. Good that they were well-screened. But …
If Liliana peeked around the chimney, she could see Ben in the next yard over, sitting in the gazebo while he graded assignments from Sam’s science class.
If only he could see his student turn into a lop-eared bunny. That would convince him animal-kin were real in a non-threatening way. But not if they did it in front of him on purpose. Then, he’d think it was a stage magic trick, put on for his benefit.
Is there some way that Ben Harper could see into the Willoughby’s backyard at a crucial moment?
Liliana’s fourth eyes showed her a flicker of a possibility, an image of Ben peeking through a knothole in the fence, a tiny breach in the privacy armor that she hadn’t known existed until then. She sat up straight.
I need Janice’s help.
The spider seer scrambled down to the eaves of the house. She dropped her upper body over the edge, leaving her legs on the shingles. This angle made her long curly hair dangle a fair distance past her head. She had an urge to swing her head to feel her hair move.
Janice Willoughby was sitting on her back porch sipping an iced drink. She was absorbed in a scrolled out electronic book reader while her children played.
“Hello,” Liliana said, considering Janice from upside down.
Janice yelped in surprise and threw half her drink into the air.
For a moment, Liliana wondered why she was so startled. Oh. The spider-kin broke a social rule. She knew this one. “I’m sorry. I should have gone to the front door.”
Janice laughed as she stood, brushing liquid off the arm of her lawn chair. “That would be appreciated.” She shook her hand, flinging drops off of it.
“Okay,” Liliana got her full self back up on the roof.
“No, wait, not now,” Janice said. “Do that next time. Just tell me why you’re here now.”
Liliana dropped her upper body back over the lip of the roof, swinging her hair a little extra just for the interesting sensation. “I have an idea of how we can gently introduce Ben Harper to the hidden peoples.”
“Oh! That would be great. I’ve been sort of hinting around at things, but he just looks at me like I’m nuttier than a squirrel turd.”
“I saw Sam play with your dog while in full rabbit form. The dog doesn’t threaten them?”
“Never.” She patted her leg.
The shaggy golden dog lay down on the grass, unburdening itself of a half-grown rabbit that started nibbling on the lawn. Then the dog trotted over to Janice.
“Wendy has the gentlest nature. She plays with them like they’re her own puppies.” She rubbed the dog’s head affectionately.
“Does she ever play chase with them?” Liliana asked.
“Sure,” Janice bent a little sideways, trying to look at Liliana’s face more straight on. “Why do you ask?”
“I have an idea. There’s this knothole in the fence over there.” Liliana told Janice what she had in mind.
“Have you foreseen this working?”
In her excitement at the idea, Liliana had forgotten to look. She opened her fourth eyes, looking right then while she hung there. None of the new futures branching from this moment were bad, but some succeeded in sending Ben along a path toward expanded understanding of the world, and some did not. There were many possibilities branching forward. Ben’s own curiosity would be the determining factor. “There is a chance that it will work, but it is uncertain.”
“Worth a shot, then.” Janice waved the two children up to her. After Sam shifted back to boy form, she explained in a soft voice for telling secrets what she wanted him to do.
The smaller child, Kayden, rocked his tricycle back and forth as he listened, but Liliana wasn’t certain how much he understood until he said, “Me!”
Sam grinned. “Mr. Harper would be less likely to suspect a trick if Kayden did it.”
Janice smiled. “Are you sure, Kay?”
The toddler nodded vigorously. “Me.”
Liliana ducked back under the oak’s heavy branches on the roof to watch as Janice put her plan into action.
The fence that the two houses shared had twin gates facing the street side by side. Janice left through her gate. A spring shut it behind her. She knocked on Ben’s gate. “Hey, Ben, you back there?”
Ben opened the gate for her, and she went into his yard. “Hi, Janice. What’s up?”
“I’m sorry to bug you, but I was about to make an apple crumble pie and discovered I’m out of cinnamon. Any chance you could help me out?”
“I think I could be persuaded, especially if I get a piece of that pie.”
“Deal.”
Ben went inside his house. When he returned, he handed Janice a small spice jar.
“Great, you’re a lifesaver,” she said. “I’ve got a bunch of apples that are about to go bad if I don’t use them.”
While they talked, Sam and his baby brother had both turned into rabbits. They started a game of chase with Wendy in the grass. The dog ran away from the baby rabbits as if they were terrifying. Then, she turned the tables and chased them, causing joyful bounces in two directions. The smallest of the Willoughby children, a handful of fur and cuteness, rolled onto his back, squealing like he was in terrible distress, his tiny, furry legs kicking in the air.
Janice made a convincing expression of alarm and ran to the fence. She looked through the knothole to see her toddler on the ground, kicking and squealing in rabbit form like he was being killed.
The concerned dog had its nose buried in the child’s furry belly trying to determine what distressed him. It looked a bit like the dog was eating the baby bunny.
“Oh, no!” Janice said, in a somewhat less convincing way. Her hand over her mouth covered her attempts to smother a grin. She ran out of Ben’s yard and back through her gate simulating panic. Liliana thought her performance had convinced Ben.
“Are you all right?” she asked loud enough that Ben, just a few feet away on the other side of the fence, could hear. “Come back to human form so I can see if you’re hurt.”
The baby bunny shifted back to a toddler without difficulty.
Liliana was impressed by the level of shape control in one so young. By the time he was an adult, Kayden would have the kind of control she’d only seen in Pete. He’d be able to change just his ears to hear something, or just his legs to leap amazing distances while still mostly in human form.
Janice scooped him up and hugged him. “Don’t scare me like that. From all that noise, I thought Wendy hurt you. Were you afraid?”
The little one grinning in her arms, nodded enthusiastically.
Janice couldn’t suppress a snort. She continued to fuss over her youngest, glancing occasionally at Liliana where she perched on top of the house, peeking around the chimney. She could see Ben Harper standing in his own backyard, confused and a bit worried about what just happened.
He could hear Janice fussing over her toddler. He had to be wondering about the “human form” remark.
Liliana held her breath, waiting and hoping. All it would take to change everything would be for Ben’s curiosity to overcome his polite nature.
From the corner of her eye, Janice watched Liliana, waiting for a signal.
Ben looked at the knothole, a tiny aperture into the never-glimpsed backyard right next to his. It would be rude to look, breaking a strict social rule. But Janice’s quick glance through that knothole told him he could see. It was right there if he wanted to look.
The teacher looked around, making sure no one else would see him breaking that social rule.
Liliana ducked behind the chimney, continuing to watch him with her fourth eyes.
This was the moment. From here, all of Ben and Pete’s futures branched. If Ben’s polite, do-as-I’m-supposed-to, believe-what I’ve-been-taught nature was stronger than his curious, find-out, learn-something-new nature was, then Pete might as well walk away, and when his broken heart began to heal, find someone new.
Ben bent over to put his eye to the hole.
With a broad grin, Liliana punched the sky where Janice could see.
Janice smothered a triumphant grin. “Sam, why don’t you play chase with Wendy a little in rabbit form so Kayden can see she isn’t dangerous.”
But the kid was ahead of her. As soon as Sam saw Liliana’s signal, he ran around the yard once on his four bunny legs.
The dog chased him, her tail wagging.
Then, he shifted form. The long bunny ears vanished into a blonde head. Limbs lengthened and fur vanished leaving a normal-looking little boy. “See, no problem,” Sam said to his baby brother.
Ben rubbed his eyes. “But …” He stood there for another long moment staring through the hole at the perfectly normal child that he knew well… who had been a rabbit a moment before.
Kayden squirmed out of his mother’s lap. Standing next to his big brother, he said, “Safe?”
Sam patted him on the back. “It’s fine. Wendy won’t hurt you.”
Kayden shifted to his tiny, fluffy bunny form, standing on hind legs to look at the now huge in comparison dog.
Wendy bent down and touched noses with the baby rabbit.
Sam scratched the dog behind the ears. “See, Kay. She won’t hurt you.” He got a messy lick in the face as a reward.
Kayden shifted back to human form. “Safe!” he said, loudly.
Janice handed the boys back their shorts that had been abandoned in the grass earlier.
They pulled them on.
She gave Kayden a quick hug, whispering, “That ought to do it,” in his ear. “Let’s go inside and make a pie, boys. I’ll let Kayden stir the crumble topping. Sam, you can roll out the dough. What do you say?”
Both boys cheered and followed their mother into the house. Wendy followed, wagging her shaggy blonde tail.
“How …” Ben stopped as if uncertain how to finish. He stood up from the hunched posture he’d needed to see through the knothole. Jaw slack, he stared into space.
After a long moment, he said, “I need coffee.” He tripped on his back steps on the way into the house. “Or maybe something stronger.” His tablet and stylus lay abandoned on the picnic table.
Liliana looked into Ben and Pete’s future. She smiled as many of the former paths disappeared, fading into better paths. In one strong possibility, she saw the two men dressed in tuxedoes saying vows while surrounded by flowers.
She nodded in satisfaction. She’d done what she could for Pete’s future.
Ben Harper’s curiosity would do the rest.