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~Bus #53~

Bob Whithabey always wore his lucky blue rabbit head attached to a belt loop of his pants as he rode bus #53 from Seattle to the track in Auburn to play the ponies. It was the only time he wore it, and on this Saturday the bus was especially crowded.  Some riders who noticed his lucky blue rabbit head thought it was weird, and some thought it was gross, but eight-year-old Tom Bernard thought it was really cool. He asked Bob Whithabey where he got it, and Bob told him he made it from one of the rabbits he raised for meat. Tom told him he sure would like to have one of those, so Bob told him if he's on the bus next Saturday he would give him one.  Tom told Bob he would be on the bus, and was very excited about the prospect of obtaining such an unusual

and unique item.

When Tom got his lucky blue rabbit head from Bob the following Saturday he hooked it to a belt loop above his fly and would look down at it often throughout the day with great pride. "This is the coolest thing I have ever owned!" he thought to himself. 

When the boys at Tom's school saw his lucky blue rabbit head their envy of it was obvious. They all wanted one, and asked Tom where he got it. Tom told them he got it from an old man on bus #53 so the boys planned to be on that bus next Saturday, and so it came to pass, that when bus #53 arrived at the West Seattle Junction the following Saturday, five eight-year-old boys stepped aboard and anxiously scanned the seats looking for a man wearing a lucky blue rabbit head on his hip. 

They took their seats with a tad of anxiety in their hearts when they didn't see Bob Whithabey on the bus, but that changed to glee when they saw a man with  blue rabbit head at his hip board the bus when it stopped at Rat City.  The more outgoing of the  boys approached Bob Whithabey a minute or so after the bus pulled away from the stop and asked him if he knew where he and his pals could get a lucky blue rabbit head like the one he had. Bob replied that he was going to butcher some rabbits ten days from then, so if the boys were on the bus Saturday after next he would bring one for each of them. 

"We'll be here!" said the boy, and he didn't even try to hide his excitement. When he told the other boys the news they were very elated, and wished with all their hearts that they could watch Bob Whithabey butcher the rabbits, but didn't want to risk asking too much of him.

After the boys got their lucky blue rabbit heads from Bob Whithabey the following Saturday they attached them to their belt loops and proudly wore them to school the following Monday. When their teachers saw them they said "Oh, no! You can't wear those disgusting things to school!"  And they took the heads away from the boys and put them in their desk drawers.  

The boys all agreed that there was no way in hell they were going to let the teachers keep their lucky blue rabbit heads, and at the first opportunity they took them back and thought to themselves: "consequences be damned!" 

During the week the boys were suspended from school they hopped on bus #53 wearing their lucky blue rabbit heads on their hips for all the world to see. They decided they would look for Bob Whithabey, and if they found him they made-up their minds that they would ask him if the next time he butchered rabbits they could go to his house and watch. They figured they had nothing to lose by asking, and if he said "yes," it would more than make-up for being grounded from TV and video games at home for a month, or even a year, for that matter.

D. B. Tompsett