The Sound of Rabbits by Janice Deal

Author:Janice Deal
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Regal House Publishing
Published: 2023-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Junie

Bug

The big yellow bus brings her from school, and she sits alone in front, by the bus driver, because Dakota, who usually sits with her, is already home. Because of the swears. Even Junie knows this. Her sometimes friend Melly said Dakota was a bad girl (friends can be mean), but Junie knows her sister isn’t bad. Dakota makes brownies and lets Junie lick the spoon, for one thing. And didn’t she let Junie sleep with her best Blue Bear last night when mama had to go help Gram, and Junie was sad and wanted her mama?

“She’ll be back, Junebug,” Dakota said, and she climbed into bed with Junie and put her arm close until Junie fell asleep. When Junie woke, Dakota was back in her own bed, and the room was cold and filled with moon, but the blue bear was still there with her, soft except for the bald place on the ear. That was Dakota’s bear.

So Melly was wrong, and didn’t even Mama say once how friends can be friends but sometimes not?

What doesn’t take long in the car takes a long time on the bus, there are so many stops to make. At school Miss Manny has pinned up pictures of pumpkins, and friendly-looking pilgrims. She has hung what she calls Indian corn, with its dark kernels, what Daddy calls flint corn. The classroom stays in Junie’s mind the way it does not when she has Dakota to distract her. Today she thinks about the paste smell and the worn places in the floor that Miss Manny has smoothed out with gray duct tape.

School stays in her mind all the time it takes for her to walk from the bus stop home. It’s raining but Junie has her rainbow bubble umbrella; the gravel walk is full of puddles. Mama is not at the window, waving and waiting with Jellybean the way she used to be. In fact, the house is so quiet when she lets herself in that Junebug is afraid. The curtains are pulled together except for a fat stripe of gray light on the living room carpet from where they don’t meet. No TV on, and no smell of coffee or anything cooking. Mama doesn’t cook so much right now, but Junie likes the suppers in metal trays just fine, like the meatloaf last night, in its little section, and there were hot apples, too, that burned the roof of her mouth. That hurt but she didn’t cry.

“Mama!” she cries now, scared, and then she hears her sister’s voice, coming from their room: “That teacher is a cunt! You ask anyone!” A harsh laugh then, and silence.

“Dakota?” Junie creeps down the hall. There is a smoky smell coming from their bedroom; Junie knows Dakota burns incense sometimes, though Mama asked her not to when no one else is home.

“Yeah, I told her that, like she’ll listen. She’s at work now.” Junie cracks the door and sees Dakota lying on her bed, talking on the phone.

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