One gentle pinch. Quite a personality.
The Second Ear
“Must this one stand up too?” the rabbit asked.
The chef paused with its tip between her finger and thumb.
“That was the idea.”
He looked up at her hand. One ear rose above his head, tall and carefully shaped. The other curved towards her fingers, making a small roof above his eye.
“Whose idea?”
She smiled.
“Mine.”
The rabbit considered this from the hollow of her palm. Beneath him, a cream-coloured plate held a flower, a small bird, and a kitten curled around its own tail.
The kitten had not offered an opinion. He looked comfortable enough to have finished with opinions for the afternoon.
A Little Lower
The chef had made the bird first. She had pressed its tiny wings close to its sides, then turned it in her hand until its round body balanced neatly on the plate.
The flower had needed five petals. The kitten had taken longer, mostly because she had enjoyed making the tail.
For the rabbit, she had saved a piece of dough with a small chocolate fleck near one edge. It now sat beside his cheek, just below the place where she had given him a smile.
She eased the curved ear a little higher.
“Like your other one.”
He followed her fingers with his eyes.
“Could you put it back?”
She lowered the tip.
“There?”
“A little more.”
The ear settled beside his head. He turned towards the bird, who was studying him from below.
“Oh,” the bird said. “You’ve heard something.”
The rabbit looked back at the chef.
“Have I?”
“That’s what you look like.”
He turned towards the bird again.
“I like that.”
Something to Hear
For a moment, the chef kept her fingers near the ear. She could lift it easily. The two would make a handsome pair, with the same neat hollow down the middle.
Then the bird began explaining the flower.
“Five petals,” he said. “I’ve counted.”
“I know,” said the flower.
The rabbit leaned forwards in her palm.
“Do you have names for them?”
“Names?”
“For the petals.”
The bird stopped counting.
The chef laughed softly. Beneath her supporting fingers, the rabbit’s little feet shifted as he tried to see the flower more closely. She lowered her hand towards the plate. Butter and vanilla rose faintly from the warm dough, and the ceramic made a small sound against the counter.
Before setting him down, she touched the curved ear once more, ready to smooth its edge.
His paw came up and rested against it.
“This one.”
She left the bend where he had chosen it, smoothing only the little ridge beneath his paw.
A Place Beside Them
The rabbit stood on the plate, one ear high and the other leaning towards the company. The bird moved aside so he could examine the flower.
“That’s five,” the rabbit said.
“Yes,” said the flower.
He looked at her centre.
“And you.”
The chef brushed a few crumbs from her palm. From here, she could see his uneven ears above the bird’s round head.
“Anything else?” she asked.
He turned towards her, then glanced at the kitten curled beside the rim. There was room in the curve between its paws and tail.
“Could I have somewhere like that?”
One of the kitten’s eyes opened.
The tail curled a little closer.
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