Ignorance is Bliss
It was a quiet afternoon in the woods of Vandykeville and a family of rabbits were out for an afternoon stroll. “Something familiar about that tree,” remarked one of the rabbits whose name was Burdock. “Do you think we’ve been here before dad?” asked his son Figwort.
“Um, I don’t know love, I can’t remember now.” She shook her head with a slightly bewildered expression. She felt sure that she’d been having an important thought about something but she couldn’t for the life of her think what it was now. “Never mind mum,” reassured Aster, “if it’s important it’ll come back to you.”
After a while the family of rabbits continued their stroll and found that the footpath led them out of the woods and alongside a very large, smart looking house. As they approached the house, a rabbit came out through the front door looking slightly harassed. “Ah, Nicholas, there you are. Just Crystal to find now.” The Dandelions watched while Ron continued his search.
On hearing that one word, a clear memory finally formed in Angelica’s mind and she exclaimed loudly and in great distress “Lavender and Larkspur!”
In amongst this the Hopkins were trying to establish who Lavender and Larkspur were and how it was that they’d been forgotten. They were stunned to learn that this wasn’t just a case of forgetting to bring them out that day but that it had been many months since they’d seen them. They hadn’t been in the least bit worried about them before because they’d simply forgotten about their existence. Ignorance was indeed bliss it seemed! Although now, all was not bliss because they had remembered their existence but could not for the life of any of them, remember where they were.
The Hopkins tried their best to comfort their new friends but were so baffled by their extreme forgetfulness they struggled to maintain sympathetic expressions when really they wanted to look aghast. Finally amongst all the frantic questions, confusing replies and growing hysteria as all the Dandelions desperately clawed at dim memories they couldn’t quite get hold of, Nicholas could be heard saying to Primula “We play with two rabbits at nursery just like you. Same colour and one floppy ear, just like yours.” “It turns out,” they then explained to Burdock and Angelica “that a very kind bear called Tamsin Honeybear, found two baby rabbits huddled together at the bottom of a tree and they were all covered over in leaves."
Fortunately Ron had telephoned through already and explained everything, saving any further embarrassing and awkward conversations. “You’ll be the twins' parents,” said Russ kindly “we’ve got them all ready for you inside. Tansy will fetch them for you now.” By this point poor Angelica was overcome with relief, remorse and shame and all she could do was hold her apron up to her face and have a good cry.
“That’s how it happened!” she exclaimed horrified. “We were playing hide and seek in the woods. We found Figwort, Aster and Primula and then we went home. We forgot that we had more children to find!”
“That would explain why Tamsin found them all covered in leaves. They’d found themselves a very good hiding place,” laughed Russ. Lavender and Larkspur giggled with him, clearly none the worse for their experience. The rest of the family gathered round to make a fuss over the babies.
“We’re ever so grateful for all your help in finding them,” Burdock said to the Hopkins “But we won’t trespass on your kindness anymore. We’ll be getting on home.” The Dandelions all looked about them in a rather bewildered manner. “Which way is home dad,” Figwort hissed. “Um… um…” Burdock faltered.
It seemed that in the efforts to remember what they had done with the twins, other important memories, like where they lived had been pushed beyond what they were now able to recall. After that day, all members of the family developed strategies to help combat their forgetfulness: Aster leaves a trail of rice behind her when she goes out by herself so that she can follow it home; Angelica puts the babies on a hand lead when she’s out with them on her own so that there’s no chance of them wandering off and Figwort has developed exceptional hearing so that he can follow the sound of his frantic parents cries home whenever he gets lost.
It’s to be hoped that after moving in with the Hopkins, the Dandelions never had another anxious moment but I think that’s rather unlikely, don’t you? The end. |
“I don’t think so,” replied his sister Aster, “we’d remember, wouldn’t we.” The littlest of the rabbits, Primula, began to play amongst the leaves at the bottom of the large multi trunked tree. The rest of the family looked at her dotingly as she played happily.
A vague memory stirred in the mind of Burdock’s wife Angelica. “Do you know,” she mused, “I think we have been here before. I’m sure….” she trailed off losing track of her thoughts.
“What’s that you said dear?” replied Burdock absentmindedly. The Dandelions (for that is who the rabbits were) called out a greeting to which he replied somewhat distractedly “Oh, hello. You must be new around here. Welcome. I’ll welcome you properly in a moment. I’m just in the middle of a game of hide and seek with my triplets. Let me just find them and then…” He broke off while he looked round the front door to discover triplet number one. “Got you Lauren!” he exclaimed with relief, giving the impression that he did not always find them so easily. “I’m Ron Hopkins by the way,” he introduced himself as he continued his search along the veranda.
Again Angelica had a sense of a memory nudging forwards in her mind but before it could fully form Ron cried out “Found you Crystal!”
With the game now over, Ron called for the rest of his family to come out and in the melee of hellos and introductions, Angelica’s mind moved swiftly back to the present.
It wasn’t long before the Hopkins and Dandelions were playing and chatting like old friends. As Angelica and Ron’s wife Adrianne drank tea on the veranda, they looked out at the babies playing. “Must have your hands full with those three,” Angelica commented. “Well yes we do rather,” replied Adrianne, “but the bonus to three babies is that they can amuse each other and sometimes they’ll play for hours on their own.” “ Yes I suppose that’s true…” Angelica trailed off as another memory began to stir. “More tea?” offered Adrianne interrupting her thoughts. “Oh yes please,” she agreed readily, “it’s a lovely flavour. I can’t quite make it out. What is it?”
“Lavender,” explained Adrianne. And then more loudly and hysterically “Burdock we’ve forgotten Lavender and Larkspur!”
What followed was a rather confused series of conversations between the members of the Dandelion family as they tried to remember when and where they’d last seen the two youngest members of their family.
In an instant, Ron and Adrianne had the whole story out of him.
"She nearly didn’t see them but when she did she took them off to the Nursery and Russ and Tansy Timbertop have been looking after them ever since seeing as no one knew who they were or where they’d come from. We all thought they’d been left by fairies,” they laughed.
A relieved Burdock and Angelica thanked the Hopkins profusely and asked for directions to the nursery. Whilst pointing the way, Adrianne tactfully suggested that the rest of their children stayed with them; she didn’t want anyone to get mislaid on the way there or back. Rather miraculously, given the Dandelions’ short term memory, Burdock and Angelica managed to navigate the short distance from the Hopkins home to the nursery. They found Russ and Tansy waiting by the door.
The reunion was a joyful one. Tansy explained that Lavender and Larkspur hadn’t seemed at all distressed during their stay with them. “It’s like they had no memory of their life before,” she commented. “All they wanted to do was play hide and seek all the time,” she added. It was then that the memory that had eluded Angelica all day finally clarified in her mind.
After many thank yous and promises of bringing the babies back for a visit, the Dandelions made their way back to the Hopkins house.
Behind them Ron and Adrianne we’re having a somewhat hurried conversation. Eventually nodding in agreement, they turned to the Dandelions, “Look,” they said “We’ve got a house here that’s plenty big enough. The children get on just fine. Why don’t you stay here and live with us. We don’t feel happy with the idea of you all going off on your own.” Given that the Dandelions were still at a loss to where they lived and how they would ever find their way home, they readily agreed and soon everyone was shaking hands and hugging before making their way into their now shared home.
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