Rabbie
Legacy Name: Rabbie

Pinafores, Parties and Pirates...

Once there was fluffy, white, cotton rabbit who lived in a toy store. He spent every day in the display window watching as shoppers strolled past the store. Sometimes children would come into the store and they would always leave with a new toy. There were all sorts of different toys in the store and so sometimes it would be a wind-up car or a beautiful doll or even a stuffed rabbit like him. But no one ever picked this rabbit. He was just a display. That’s what the sales lady had said. There was a whole bin of cotton rabbits for sale, but he was just for show.

Many months passed and he had lost all hope that he would ever find a child to call his own. He loved to watch the smiles on the children’s faces as they went bounding from the store clutching their new treasures. He was sure that he could make someone just as happy, if only he had the chance.

One day just as the store was closing he saw a woman come running into the store.
“I want a rabbit”, she said hurriedly, “like the one in the window.”
“I’m sorry, but we’re all out of those”, said the sales lady. “We won’t get another shipment in until next week and that one is just a display. I would sell it to you but it’s been up there for months and it’s faded and probably dusty.”
“It’s Easter and I’m going to see my new niece” replied the woman. “I have to have something. I’ll take it.”
And just like that he was taken from the shelf and placed into a shopping bag. He was going home.

Rabbie (as he would now be called) soon forgot all of those other children. Now he had his own. Her name was Cate. She had blonde loopy curls and big blue eyes and she loved him. There were other toys of course. A big white bear named Barry, a spotted dog named Dot, Linon the Lion, Charlie the horse, Chilly the seal and a pink elephant named Ellie with massive ears. Together they spent endless days playing. They would have grand tea parties with princesses and trolls. They would pretend that the great wooden sleigh bed was a pirate ship and sail the seven seas. Sometimes Cate would put Rabbie in a dress which he liked less than pirates but after all it made her happy and that was all that mattered. Even though Cate loved all of her toys, it was clear that Rabbie was her favorite. She would pack him in her backpack whenever she left the house and every night she would snuggle with him as her mother read them a bedtime story.

Over the years Cate grew taller and Rabbie grew more threadbare. His nose became shabbier and his fur became patchy until there were places where you could see his stuffing, but whenever Cate was feeling alone she would pick up the little rabbit and stroke his ears and hold him close to her. Eventually she grew up, as children tend to do, and the animals were set aside on the chair by the bookshelf. Rabbie would watch silently as she traded her hours of play for reading and homework and boys. Finally Cate went off to college. She would be gone for a very long time and when she came home it was as if he didn’t exist. Rabbie figured this was the way things went and that before long he would be put in one of the boxes with her other old toys.

One day Rabbie heard Cate coming down the hall toward her room. He sat quietly on the chair knowing that he would be utterly forgotten. When she opened the door he could tell she had been crying. Her eyes were red and puffy and she had the most pitiful look on her face. She looked as if her heart was breaking and Rabbie wished there was something he could do. As if she had heard his silent prayer, Cate walked over to the chair and picked him up. She looked at him for a moment, tears falling down her cheeks, and then she held him close and threw herself down onto her bed. She lay there for almost an hour holding him and crying before she finally fell asleep.
Story by Disco