A Happy Accident

First day, first walk home.  My classes had finished and I was on the beginning stretch of the two-mile walk back to my house.  I really wish I didn’t have to start college in the Spring semester, but it is what it is.  At least, navigating campus when there’s snow on the ground and it’s freezing outside guarantees you remember where everything is in a hurry.  

I was coming up on a daycare building located a few blocks away from campus and I could see a couple tigers enjoying the snow outside despite the temperature.  It still makes me feel a bit weird to be walking past little kids my size on my way to college, but I’ll have to get used to that as a rabbit living in the city now.  I had just about passed the two children when one growled and pounced on the other, and both of them came tumbling towards me.  I had barely managed to brace myself when we collided, and I was knocked backwards off my feet.

The landing was much less pleasant than the hit.  The sidewalk wasn’t quite wide enough and I fell over into the street gutter, which happened to be directing a deep flow of ice-cold water at the time.  I reflexively jumped up out of the water, but I was in it long enough that I was already hyperventilating and shivering from the shock of the cold. 

“OK, outside time is over.  You two are playing too rough and I need to get this other kiddo dry.” I heard a male voice say.  

Who is the other kid?  I didn’t see another kid.

The next second, I was picked up off my feet and cradled in the arms of a tall, white and tan dog.  I tried to say something, but I was still breathing too hard to get a word out.  I watched through strands of his fur as he carried me into the daycare and I realized that I was the other kid.  This guy thinks I’m actually a child.  In the absence of words, I try to shake myself free of his arms, but between my shivering and his hold, I was unsuccessful.

“Careful, little one.  I don’t want to drop you.  We need to get you warm and dry before you get sick,” he started, before saying to himself, “Crazy, here I thought the only wet things I would be changing today are diapers.”  

My face went deep red as I came to understand the situation.  He doesn’t just think I’m a kid, he thinks I’m a toddler.  Not only that, but he aims to change my clothes.  This point was driven home as I was set down on a table and he started to pull my coat and shirt off.  I froze up, and not from the cold water.          Do I scream and run?  Where do I go in soaked clothes in this weather?  I can’t even get a word out, and what would I say?  Do I try to play this out and then run away?  I’m already not good at standing up for myself, and the embarrassment of this situation on top of being in a big new city wasn’t doing me any favors.  

With my torso now naked, I chose to just play it out for now.  He grabbed a hooded towel themed after a popular fox cartoon character and wrapped it around me.  I was momentarily overwhelmed by its soft warmth before I snapped back to the reality of my pants being pulled off.  I had to say something now.  I’m warmer, I can talk, and here it goes.

“I-”

“I wasn’t expecting to see you wearing big kid undies.  I’m sorry that these got all wet when you’ve done such a good job at keeping them dry.”
I blushed so hard I’m surprised it didn’t completely heat me back up.  He then proceeded to rub me dry with the towel before picking me up and letting me down to stand on the floor.

“Sit tight here, little guy, and I’ll get you some new clothes from the cabinet over there.”

This was my first opportunity to properly look around the room, and I don’t know what I was expecting.  I was standing in a nursery, I was just sitting on a changing table, and right next to my head were changing supplies and stacks of baby diapers that looked big enough to fit me.

This mistake had gone on for far too long and I needed to say something right now.

“I’m sorry, but-”

“Randy, dear, I just heard that a kiddo fell in some water.  What happened?”  Asked a woman as she entered the room.

Can I get a word in, or do they think I’m too young to even talk?  

“Yeah, the twins were playing rough outside and knocked this poor bunny into the gutter.  I was just getting him dried off and dressed in some new clothes.” He responded.

“Uh, Randy, we don’t have any rabbits who attend our daycare.” She said with a confused look on her face.

“Don’t we?  He was outside playing with the twins, and I saw that we’re supposed to get a dropoff around this time.”

“We’re supposed to get a raccoon boy dropped off around this time, but his dad already phoned in and said he wouldn’t be coming today.”

Now it was Randy’s turn to be confused, and he replied, “OK.  Well I still needed to help him, right?  I couldn’t leave the little tyke to freeze outside.  Just look at his clothes, he was soaked to the bone.”

He picked up my pants to back up what he what was saying, only this time he discovered something in my pocket.  As he pulled out my wallet, I finally had my chance to speak.

“I’ve been trying to tell you.  I’m not a child.  I was just walking home from the college and got knocked over on accident.”

Randy’s eyes went wide as he opened my wallet and saw my ID.  Right away, he began to profusely apologize.

“Sir, I’m so so sorry.  I had no idea.  I just saw someone small who needed help and I helped them.  Today’s my first day and, please forgive me.  I didn’t mean to invade your privacy or anything.  Oh my, I’m so sorry.”

His desperate apologizes continued as the woman briefly left the room, and I could have sworn that I heard muffled laughing from outside the door.  Now that my tension had eased, I started laughing a little too from the absurdity of the situation and reassured the guy that everything is fine.  A few seconds later, the woman reappeared in the room, and said,

“Sir, I’m deeply sorry for my son’s mistake.  He’s young and he just started officially helping out in the daycare.”

They looked like a mother and son.  They both had long noses and thick fur that was almost identically colored white and tan except for some darker brown on the boy.  

“It’s really OK,” I replied, “He had a point.  I couldn’t have kept walking home in this weather being all wet.”  

“That is true.  At least we know that he will spring into action when it counts,” she said, giving her son a playful nudge, “So this is Randy, and I’m Marge.  Would you like us to find you some clothes here, or can you wait for us to wash your stuff?”

“If you could just lend me some clothes, that would be all right,” I responded after telling them my name, “Even if I waited for my clothes to be clean, I’ll probably want something more than a towel soon.”

“I had just gotten some new clothes for you.”  Randy said, eager for his moment to redeem himself, and he retrieved a stack of clothing from the table top.  All I could see were some jeans and an orange shirt with a pattern on it.

Just then, the two young tigers from outside looked in through the doorway and began offering their apologies also.

“We’re really sorry for knocking you over.”

“Yeah, really sorry.  It was an accident.”

I gave them a smile and nod before Marge said, “Thank you for apologizing, you two, but in the future, you can’t play so rough around others.  Now run along.”  Turning her attention back towards Randy and his clothing selection, she continued, “Let’s try to find something a bit more mature, please.”

“There’s probably a different shirt I could find, but these are the only proper underwear in his size that we have.” He answered.

“He could wear a big kid pullup like me!” Said one of the tigers, still peeking through the doorway.

“I thought I told you to scoot, little one.” Marge said in a no-nonsense tone, and the kid quickly abandoned his post at the door.

Meanwhile, I was blushing from ear to ear from listening to the conversation of these two daycare workers and a small child talking about how I should be dressed.

“I’m sure whatever you have there is fine,” I interrupted, “I just have to wear it for a little bit anyways.”

“It’s your call.  We’ll be right outside when you’re done changing.” She said, handing me the stack of clothes before leaving the room with Randy and closing the door.

On top was a pair of underwear adorned with colorful prints of characters from a TV show meant for preschoolers.  Below, I saw a bright orange shirt with a picture of a race car on it, and finally blue jeans with an elastic waistband.  It was definitely childish, but not to the point that it bothered me any more than anything else that had just happened.  I finally stripped off my soaked underwear, dried myself completely with the towel, and started getting dressed in the new clothes, but I stopped after pulling on the briefs.

Standing there, I looked down at myself wearing only the brightly decorated underwear and I felt strange.  Not because of what I was wearing, but I felt like I was searching my memories to connect the current situation with some feeling of childhood joy.  Being held and carried, getting dried while sitting on a diaper changing table, and now these clothes were giving me a weird sensation of happiness and comfort even though I had no recollection of these details from when I was a little kid.  Not wanting to keep them waiting, I put those feelings aside, finished getting dressed, and opened the door.

Marge looked down at me, smiled, and said, “Looks like those fit you just fine.” 

“Yeah, well Randy has a good eye, at least for sizes,” I say jokingly, “If you have a bag for my clothes and a coat I can borrow, I can get out of your fur.  I’ll bring your clothes back as soon as possible, probably tomorrow since I’m walking right past here anyways.”

“You don’t worry about the clothes, just bring them back when you can.  Also, I want to offer you a ride home.  Not just for what happened, but also because I don’t think you would want either of the winter coats I have to lend.”

“If you’re offering, a ride would be nice.  Who knows what else might happen if I try to walk home?”

“Good point.  Someone might mistake you for their own child.  Just give me a second to bag up your wet stuff.”

At least this lady has a good sense of humor.

“All right, got your things.  You can follow me through here to get to the garage,” she said to me, then yelled to Randy, “Hey, I’m going out for little bit.  Hold down the fort and don’t bring in any more strangers please!”

A sarcastic “ha ha” was his only response.

I followed her to a side door, and next to it were a pair of winter coats that I assumed were the ones that were available.  One was pink and the other was yellow, and both were printed with unicorn princess characters.  

Catching me looking at the coats, she said, “I didn’t think either of those would be something you’re interested in wearing.  Also, someone might get the wrong idea if they see a person wearing that coat and walking away from a daycare with a bag of wet clothes.”  

I understood what she meant and I went blushy again at the idea of being mistaken for a child that peed his pants.

Stepping into the garage, I saw a minivan parked, and with a chirp, it unlocked and the side door rolled open.  Marge walked towards the driver’s door as the now-open side door revealed to me two child seats latched into the regular car seats.

I hesitate and ask, “Do I really have to sit in a baby seat?”  

She laughed and said, “No, no you don’t.  Sorry about that, this van is a POS Chrysler product and if I unlock it from the key fob, it also triggers the automatic side door opener.  You can go around to the other side and ride shotgun.  That is, unless you want to sit in one of the baby seats.  It would be safer for you.”  

I was caught off guard by that offer.  The child seat would be embarrassing, but I’m already used to that.  It does look comfy, and the van is for bigger animals, so I would barely see over the dash in the passenger seat anyways.  And she’s right that it would be safer.

She must have sensed my internal dialogue, because she smiled at me and said,

“Go ahead, if that’s what you want.  I won’t tell anyone.”

“They just look really comfy.” I replied with an embarrassed smile.  

“I bet they are, and you know what?  Someone my size would need to spend a ton of money to get a car with seats half as comfy as one of those.  I would say that you’re pretty lucky.”

My shyness melted away a little and my smile became a genuine display of delight.  As she started it up, I walked to the van, hopped into the seat, and discovered it was indeed very comfortable.  I found the straps, and after fiddling with them for a few seconds, I managed to buckle myself in.  

“And if you’re still cold, this will help.” She said, reaching back and pressing a button on the seat.

It started heating up.  It felt so good that I involuntarily gave a little sigh of happiness.

“Don’t fall asleep, you still need to navigate.”

“Of course.  Just go left out of here and in a few minutes, take a right on Canyon street, then I’m in the first blue house on the right.”  I said, noticing that she had adjusted the mirror so that we were looking at each other while speaking.

“Aye aye,” she said playfully as we began reversing out of the garage, then she asked, “So, U of Z, huh?  Heck of a school to choose.”

“Yeah, well, it wasn’t much of a choice.  Both of my parents graduated from there and I’ve known I would be going there too since I was in kindergarten.”

“Do you live with your parents here in the city?”

“Nah, we live out east past the Green Basin.  They arranged for me to stay with my cousin here during the school year.” 

“That’s convenient.  I wish I could convince Randy to put more effort into studying so he could go to the college that’s practically next door.  How long have you been studying there?”

“I just started today.  Hell of a first day, right?”

“You started in the Spring semester?”

“Yep.  It’s kind of a weird situation.  I actually finished high school early just a few weeks ago, and I had enough AP credits to advance to the second semester of first-year college classes.  My parents insisted I do it that way so I could get a head start on my degree.”

“Which is?”

“Agricultural engineering.  It’s what everyone in my family does.  They’ve been developing new fertilizers and seeds for decades.”

“Uh huh.  Now, I don’t mean to be nosy or anything, but how are you feeling about all this?  It sounds like you’ve had other people making a lot of decisions for you.  You must be the same age as Randy, and here you are at college in a new town.  Are you doing OK with all of that?”

Out of everything that had been said to me today, that was probably the most shocking.  The babyish comments from earlier were due to a mistake, but here was an older adult honestly asking me if I was feeling OK about things.  I was confused because I never thought I had the option not to. 

When I was younger, I was always so willing and eager to please my parents that I would ignore any feelings that got in the way.  I was really scared when I was enrolled in a private school in 3rd grade, and sad when I was signed up for academic summer programs while my friends went to camp, but I didn’t say anything and toughed it out.  After a while, I got to feeling like that’s who I was supposed to be: the reliable guy who does what’s expected of him and powers through no matter what.  Lately, nobody has ever bothered to ask if I was OK with something because they just assumed that I was.  Until now. 

“Yeah, I guess I’m doing OK.”

“You guess?”

I guess.  How am I really feeling anyways?  And why is this woman so curious?  It had been a while since I had really thought about how to label or describe my feelings.  Scared?  Nervous?  I decided to take a chance and just go for it.    

“Well, I’m excited about going to school, but this new scenery is a little scary for someone small like me.  And, and there’s practically nobody else at home.  I’m staying at my cousin’s house, but he works so much that I’m alone most of the time, and I’ve never lived on my own, so I just feel kind of lost.”  

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.  How long have you been living there now?  Are you staying fed and taking care of yourself?”

I could tell that the tone of her voice had become softer and more motherly after she learned that I wasn’t as old as she thought I was, and it was bringing back that weird feeling from earlier.  It was a nostalgic, warm comfort that was different from that of the car seat and made me feel safe.

“Yes, for now.  I’ve been there four days, and I’ve eaten what was available, but it’s almost gone, I don’t know when my cousin is going shopping, and I don’t even know where a grocery store is here yet.  I’ve thought about calling my parents, but I don’t want them to think I can’t do this.  I’m sorry, I’m just running my mouth.”

Without saying anything, she turned the van into a fast food restaurant, pulled into the drive-through line, and in that same gentle tone, turned and said to me,

“You deserve two treats tonight.  First, I’ll get you something to eat.  Second, when we get to your place, I’m going to give you a big hug, because I think you could use one.”

That was it.  Her face, her voice, and words made me melt, and as I looked down at my clothing and the car seat, my vision clouded with tears and I started sniffling.  I don’t know why I was feeling this way, but I knew it was fine.  In that moment, I didn’t have to be the grown up who can take on anything that I had been trying to be.

“Oh, Honey Bun, it’s OK.  It’s all right.  You just sit there and don’t worry about anything for a few minutes.”

I nodded as I dried my eyes.  Not even 15 minutes ago, I was being mistaken for a toddler, revealed to be a college student, and now I was working my way back to the child treatment again.  Only this time, I had ended up an active participant.  This day has been beyond bizarre.

The thought made me laugh to myself while the van moved forward to the pickup window.  I didn’t catch what she had ordered, but anything would be agreeable to me right now.  She handed her card through the window, and it was returned with a brown bag and the bright paper box of a kids meal.  Suddenly, I became very self conscious of my appearance in the child seat, my face heated up again, and I avoided eye contact with either Marge or the restaurant worker.  That effort was wasted when she said,

“Hey, I got your food here,” as she passed me the box, followed by, “And here’s your juice.  Two paws.”

My worries fell away as quickly as they started and I carefully placed the juice into a cup holder on the car seat.  This restaurant must primarily sell food to larger animals, because the meal box and juice bottle were actually quite large.  Inside the box were nuggets, fries, apples slices, and a toy, and I went for the nuggets first.

The van moved forward and continued towards my home.  After I had a few bites, I looked back at Marge who was picking fries out of her bag, and said, 

“Hey, thanks for all of this.  It really means a lot to me.” 

“It’s no problem at all.  Are you enjoying it?”

“Sure am.  I’ve never eaten at that place before and it’s great.”  I said as I was moving on to the apple slices.

“And are you happy with where you chose to sit?”

With a mouthful of food, I nodded, swallowed, then answered, “Yep.  It’s a little embarrassing, but I’ve already had a lifetime’s worth of that today, so I might as well get a comfy ride out of it.”

“Yeah, today probably didn’t go how you were expecting, huh?  But at least it all turned out well, and I’m glad I got to meet you.”

“Likewise.” I said as we made the turn on Canyon street, and moments later, the van came to a stop outside my cousin’s house. 

I set down my juice and went for the seat belt latch, but I couldn’t figure out how to release it.  Even with both of my paws, I couldn’t get the button to activate.

Noticing me struggle with it, she turned around, reached for the buckle, and effortlessly popped it open.

“It’s made so that little paws can’t unlatch it easily, for safety.”

I was blushing again from thinking that I have the paws of a little kid and can’t even unbuckle myself from the seat.

Still in the van, she paused, then continued, “Hey, given everything that happened today, I hope you take this as a compliment, but you’re really cute.”  

I could have sworn that my whole body turned as red as my face must have been, and without looking up, I found the words, “umm, thanks.”

“I mean it, and you know, if you’re ever feeling too stressed out about everything, feel free to stop by the daycare in the evening.  And you can ring the bell next time.  You don’t have to fall into freezing water just to get someone to take care of you.”

My heart skipped a beat and I understood what she meant.  If I showed up, I would be treated in the same manner as I was right now: like a small child.  And I wanted it too.  This was my chance to make a decision for me, so I smiled and said, 

“Well, I do have to bring these clothes back sometime,” accepting her offer.  

“If you want to bring them back.  If you don’t, all that happens is this town gets one more bunny in an adorable outfit, and that’s not a bad thing, is it?”

“I suppose not.” I say looking down at the clothes again and swinging my feet a little. 

Then, Marge exited the van, opened the side door, and kneeling down, said, “Now it’s time for that second treat I mentioned earlier, come here.”

She opened up her arms to me and I jumped down out of the seat to meet them.  At first it was a hug, but then I was practically being held as my feet left the floor of the van.  Her fur against mine was unbelievably soft and I almost didn’t want her to put me back down.

We let go of each other a few seconds later, and, retrieving the remainder of my food, I said,

“Thank you, for everything.  This is the best I’ve felt in a while.”

“Thank you, too.  You brightened up my day also.  You have a good night then, I hope to see you soon, OK?”

“Absolutely, before the end of the week.”

“All right then, bye bye.” She said with a little wave.

I return her bye bye and wave, and walk up the path to the house.  Stopping at the door, I turn and give one more wave before stepping inside.

I’m definitely going back there tomorrow.