The Tale of Princess Mayblossom

In her thirty-six years of breeding rabbits Ellen Sendak had never come across a rabbit as mean as Princess Mayblossom. Princess Mayblossom had never really stuck out as a young baby, but when Ellen evaluated her to decide whether to keep her, the little bunny was practically flawless. Ellen, admiring the sweet little creature, named her after a fairytale princess.

Ellen liked to show her rabbits in the county fair each year, and in August she took a little troop of them, including Princess Mayblossom, to exhibit. At first she had absolute faith in the little beauty, but, alas, when the judge got to her, Princess Mayblossom bit his hand mightily. The tall, aging man screamed in pain and tried to shake her off. Princess Mayblossom didn’t let go until the show scribe took his clipboard and batted her with it. Needless to say, Princess Mayblossom was disqualified, and Ellen got more than a few scratches trying to get her back into her cage.

So Princess Mayblossom sat in the rabbit barn in Ellen’s backyard for two years. After attempting to hold her several times, and being rewarded with deep gashes on her arms, Ellen finally decided to just breed her. After all, meaner does often make better mothers. But Princess Mayblossom never produced children, and eventually Ellen lost interest.

Ellen’s interest was renewed however, one fateful summer afternoon, when she walked into the barn with an armful of grass hay. She was humming a country tune and smiling to herself as she glanced around at her little pets. There was Pinocchio, with his notoriously flat face, staring blankly in her direction, and longhaired Beast dozing in the corner of his cage. Goldilocks, whose fur was a most peculiarly light color, was cuddled up to one of her babies, the other two nosing at their food. Then Ellen spotted Princess Mayblossom.

“What are you doing!” Ellen screamed, dropping her grass hay. Princess Mayblossom ignored her and continued her feast. “You’re babies,” Ellen moaned. “You’re eating your babies!”

*~*~*

Princess Mayblossom was enjoying herself. Once again, the hand had placed a box of grass hay in her cage a couple days ago. She’d loved that little tribute up until this morning, when she’d suddenly experienced excruciating pain. “What’s happening to me?” she asked Goldilocks.

“You’re having babies,” her neighbor reported. “There’s one behind you right now.”

Princess Mayblossom turned around to examine this phenomenon, and the little bald thing that confronted her had made her jump. “I don’t want it!” she cried.

“It’s yours,” Goldilocks replied.

Eventually, there were five more babies. Princess Mayblossom watched them for a while, recovering from her pain and wondering what to do with them. She tired of thinking and turned to eat her grass hay. She realized suddenly that she was very hungry. Everything went blurry for a while, and she sensed her hunger dissipating. Her equilibrium rejuvenated, she sat calmly, munching.

Then the hand lunged into her cage and started scooping away the special food. It made loud, frightening noises. Princess Mayblossom smelled danger and dropped her feast. She jumped at the hand and started scratching it with all her might. It swatted at her, but she managed to bite it and it retreated. Princess Mayblossom looked around. All the special food was gone. How she loathed that hand!

She looked around and noticed Goldilocks staring at her. “What just happened?” Princess Mayblossom asked.

After a pause, Goldilocks responded, “I don’t think the hand appreciates savaging one’s babies. There are a lot of natural impulses the hands don’t understand.”

“Savaging?”

“Eating your children because they’ve sucked too many nutrients out of you, and if you don’t return those nutrients you might die. It happens among us, but the hand must not realize that.”

“Oh.”

From the cage to the other side, Mad Hatter chuckled. “Don’t you know any of this, Princess Mayblossom? It’s rather common knowledge.”

“I’ve never really bothered to pay attention.”

“I believe you there. Perhaps if you would stop and think, you wouldn’t ruin your life so badly.”

“What do you mean?” Princess Mayblossom asked, feeling rather offended.

“The hand is more than just “the hand.” It’s a whole creature, like us, but different. I’ll explain later, here it comes now.”

Princess Mayblossom turned to see the huge creature looming in the distance. “I never noticed the rest of it,” she muttered to Goldilocks.

“Understandable,” Goldilocks replied, with forced sympathy.

The front of Princess Mayblossom’s cage swiveled away and the hand attacked. It grabbed Princess Mayblossom firmly and lifted her from her cage. It squeezed her into its vast appendages and started moving away.

If Princess Mayblossom hadn’t been so focused on trying to bite the hand, she might have heard Mad Hatter say, “Of course, the creature behind the hand isn’t always something you want to understand. It does eat creatures like us.”

*~*~*

The hand dropped Princess Mayblossom down into an enormous wooden cage and quickly replaced the front. “It wreaks of frustration,” a voice said from behind Princess Mayblossom. “You must have upset it badly.”

Princess Mayblossom turned to survey her surroundings and the source of the voice. A huge, ancient, crème colored buck sat in the back left corner of the cage and a scrawny, old, blue doe sat in the right back corner. The cage was poorly lit for sure, but definitely spacious enough for Princess Mayblossom. If the elders respected her boundaries, she could live like this.

“You will leave me be,” Princess Mayblossom announced. “Don’t introduce yourselves; don’t talk to me at all. If you feel hungry or thirsty, say ‘food’ or ‘water’ to let me know, then take care of it. Quickly return to your corners and I won’t have to hurt you.”

The blue doe seemed willing to obey, but not the buck; he just laughed. “I don’t think you want to start off this way,” he said. “We can help you.” He stepped toward Princess Mayblossom, puffing up his chest and revealing how truly huge he was.

Princess Mayblossom was a little stunned. To be honest, no one but the hand had ever opposed her in such a direct manner. “I don’t need your help,” she sniffed.

“You must not know where you are then.”

“Oh? Where am I?”

“You are at the gateway to Paradise.”

“Paradise?”

“When we grow old or unhappy the hand puts us here, in this cage. Every once in a while it will choose one of us to take to Paradise, the endless land outside of the cages, where grass and fine vegetables grow freely all around.”

If rabbits could smirk, Princess Mayblossom would have done so. “You think I need your help? I think I would enjoy this Paradise .”

The blue doe squeaked nervously, causing Princess Mayblossom to glare at her. “What?” she demanded. “You think I’ll get in your way of getting to Paradise? Well, too bad, because I will!”

“You may do whatever you want, my dear,” the buck soothed. “We are old, we can wait. I think Marya Morevna was merely thinking of your bad habit.”

Princess Mayblossom eyed Marya Morevna. “What bad habit, old one?” she asked the buck.

He sniffed importantly. “No need to be formal, you may call me ‘Little Thumb.’” He paused to make sure Princess Mayblossom was paying attention, before continuing. “We haven’t been here long enough not to know who you are, Princess Mayblossom, and what you do. As a matter of fact, I’m surprised you don’t realize your bad habit yourself.”

Annoyed, Princess Mayblossom advanced on Little Thumb. He backed into his corner and watched her, suddenly nervous. “Don’t be mysterious with me, Little Thumb,” Princess Mayblossom commanded. “What do you think I do that is such a bad habit? Tell me now.”

Marya Morevna spoke up from her corner. In a timid, tired voice she said, “You have a habit of scratching, biting, and otherwise harming the hand, dear.” For some unfathomable reason, perhaps because her statement had been too forward, Marya Morevna earned herself a glare from Little Thumb. She looked down, and seemed to pretend she hadn’t said anything at all.

Princess Mayblossom was unimpressed. “That’s my bad habit? Did it ever occur to you that what I do is good for everyone? The hand is a threat, a predator, and I keep it in line.”

Little thumb chuckled softly. “Did it ever occur to you that the hand might be good? It gives us food, water, keeps our cages clean, gives us toys, even takes us to Paradise. What’s so wrong with all that?”

“It’s so big,” Princess Mayblossom muttered. “It smells dangerous.”

“The hand smells dangerous, but there’s an entire creature behind it,” Little Thumb said.

“I’ve heard that.”

“It’s a creature that loves us, provides for us, and, you should try to remember, isn’t scared of you at all. As a matter of fact, it is surely quite fond of you if it has put up with your behavior all this time. You bite it and it rewards you by putting you here, on your way to Paradise.”

“I’ve never thought of this!” Princess Mayblossom exclaimed. “If it does love me, even when I bite it, maybe it will be easy to get it to select me to go to Paradise. What do you think it would do if I licked one of its fingers? Probably scoop me up and take me to the endless land.”

*~*~*

More than a week went by. Little Thumb continued to explain the wonder of Paradise, and the goodness of the hand . Marya Morevna stayed quiet in her corner, only leaving it to eat and drink. Whenever Little Thumb felt too tired to talk any more, Princess Mayblossom spent her time gazing out of the cage, toward a tall patch of grass. She thought of her glorious privelage, being a favorite of the hand. She thought of how wrong she had been to hate it so . She resolved herself to be kind to it the next time it swooped into the cage. She would show it that she was ready, that she was appreciative.

Finally, the time came. The front of the cage swung out and the hand, with a strange, thick covering on it, poked tentatively into the cage. Little Thumb and Marya Morevna stared intently as Princess Mayblossom approached it. She nuzzled the hand and it relaxed and gently massaged her chin.

Princess Mayblossom paused, and thought of the creature behind the hand, the rest of the “whole.” She walked forward and peered up at the shape. She saw eyes, huge eyes that seemed to say, “welcome.” The sides of the creature’s mouth turned upward and it scooped Princess Mayblossom out of the cage and held her close to it. Princess Mayblossom felt so happy. She turned toward her cagemates to tell them goodbye.

Marya Morevna jumped forward, thumping her back feet, and shouted out, “No! Princess Mayblossom, it wants to eat you! Little Thumb tricked you!”

*~*~*

Ellen closed the hutch with a smiling face. The Princess Mayblossom she held in her arms was very different from the Princess Mayblossom of last week. She wondered if the older, gentler rabbits had had a positive influence on her. Then,  little Marya Morevna started thumping her back feet against the floor of the hutch. Princess Mayblossom leapt out of Ellen’s arms, straight up in the air.

Ellen jumped sideways and miraculously caught the creature. She held it like a baby and stared into its eyes. An understanding seemed to pass between them.  Princess Mayblossom relaxed and turned over. Ellen put her in the single-hole rabbit carrier and put it in her car.

They drove for about fifteen minutes and arrived at a little farmhouse. Ellen’s friend, Tom Berkeley, greeted them. “Hello, Ellen. Is this the latest rabbit for my little ‘reserve?’”

“Yes it is, Tom. She’s beautiful, but I’ve decided to let her live here. Domestic life just isn’t suiting her.”

“Not very old this one, maybe we should make her into a stew instead of letting her go?”

Ellen shot a look down at Princess Mayblossom, who truly was one of her favorites. “Most definitely not, Tom. If you want a stew, I have a huge old orange buck hiding in the back of my hutch. He’ll have to do.”

“You mean, Little Thumb? He’s still there? Bring him on over Saturday and Angie and I will cook him up into a nice stew.”

They started walking toward the ‘reserve,’ a huge vegetable garden/grass patch behind the farmhouse. “Oh!” Ellen cried. “Marya Morevna would be lonely without Little Thumb. Perhaps I should bring her over and release her in the ‘reserve’ too?”

“Sure,” Tom said. “That sweetheart deserves to finish her life feasting on vegetables. Mother of half your babies isn’t she?”

Ellen nodded. “As a matter of fact, she’s Princess Mayblossom here’s grandmother.”