I don’t wait for Mom to get off the couch, I don’t want her to hug me and say Oh Maggie and Everything’s going to be okay because it’s not going to be okay, how can it be okay?
Tana and Polly follow me up to our room and wrap all their arms around me until the pounding gets quiet enough for me to tell them what Mr. Gullick said. What he said about not even liking the rabbits. What he said about the babies not having enough meat on them yet. “We have to save them!”
Polly says we can buy them.
“We can’t! He already sold them to Alderwood’s!”
“What’s Alderwood’s?”
“That restaurant,” Tana whispers, “that fancy restaurant where Aunt Sandra had her wedding party.”
“I’m going to save them. I have to save them.” I’m going to climb up to the highest branch and jump into Mr. Gullick’s yard and save those rabbits.
Tana says stealing’s a sin, but isn’t she always telling us that God forgives sins? And isn’t killing rabbits a bigger sin than stealing them? Tana says we can pray for God to take care of the rabbits in heaven. She puts her hands together and Polly puts her hands together. I put my hands together too but my prayer is different. God, please forgive me for stealing Mr. Gullick’s rabbits. God, please forgive me for stealing Mr. Gullick’s rabbits. Amen. Amen.