The Secret of the Bunny

It was raining heavily at Charleston Elementary School when Mr. Peprah who was to teach his first class after receiving his degree from the University of Ghana in Africa. He had only been in states for four months and during that time he was fascinated with the many ways of his new country. It was the middle of April and Mr. Peprah was about to encounter a peculiar American tradition for the first time. 

“Hello class,” he greeted them with a thick African accent.  “My name is Mr. Peprah and I am an immigrant from a country in Africa called Ghana.  I’ve always liked to teach kids such as all of you here today.  Now that I have introduced myself and said something I like, I want everybody here to do the same.” The class was relatively small with about fifteen typically vibrant young children with curious personalities. “Let’s start with you,” he said to a blond haired girl looking at her with cheerful smile.

“My name is Tina and like ponies.”

“Good. Now let’s keep going with the person next to you.”

“A chubby boy with slicked back brown hair in a long sleeved shirt and red shorts who was slouching in his chair spoke up next.

“I’m Edward and my favorite thing is video games.”

Mr. Peprah spoke with his head tilted. “In my country video games are not played as much. Thank you for sharing.

The third child to tell about himself was slender with handsome features and was squirming in his seat with a grin on his face.  “I’m Mathew and I like to fart!”

The whole class erupted in laughter causing Mr. Peprah to smile and shake his head.  “Oh come now, you have to like something belter than that. Think of something else.”

Mathew thought for a few moments then his eyes lit up. “The Easter bunny!”

The foreign teacher was slightly puzzled. “You know I don’t know a lot about the Easter bunny. One of you will have to explain it to me during recess.” 

Soon after everyone had taken their turn, recess came and all the children shuffled out to the playground; all except one. 

“Mathew, why aren’t you outside?”

“To tell you about the Easter bunny,” Matthew said with sparkling eyes.

“That’s right. Okay. Go ahead.”

“The Easter bunny is a magical animal who takes chocolate eggs to kids who have been good.”

“Is that so?-and how would a bunny do that? Bunnies have live bunnies and not eggs.”

“The Easter bunny is special. Once a year he goes to the Land of Candy where there are chocolate birds that lay chocolate eggs. To get there he hops across a magic rainbow that only appears every year on Easter. “

“Oh really? But how can he carry so many chocolate eggs and give them to so many kids?”

“He carries a basket that shrinks the eggs when they go into it like a bunch of really small Reeses Pieces.  Then he hides them in secret places where they grow big for kids to find. But only good kids get the eggs because the Easter bunny asks special fairies to sprinkle fairy dust on the good ones the night before Easter.  Then they find them like a magnet.”

Mr. Peprah was delighted by Mathew’s imagination. “So how old is the Easter bunny?”

“Old!-he even lived in that garden where Adam and Eve lived.”

“Really?-and what did he do there?”

Mathew stopped for a moment to think. “He guarded the tree of chocolate that had the first eggs grow on them.”

“I thought that the eggs came from the Land of Candy.”

“One time they did but then God made the Land of Candy.”

“And where is the Land of Candy?” asked Mr. Peprah.

“It is with all the magic lands like leprechaun land and the North Pole where Santa lives.”

Suddenly the bell rung and it was time for the children to go to class. “Well it’s time for next class. Thank you so much for explaining the Easter bunny with me Mathew.”

Soon the day was over and the pleased teacher drove home.  He entered his apartment and decided to go to sleep early. That night he dreamed strangest thing.  He was in the Land of candy. The streets were made of hard caramel and the light posts were candy canes with suckers of blue , green, and yellow at the top. There were what seemed to be produce fields but instead of fruit or vegetables there grew pixy stix, gum drops, cotton candy, Hershey kisses, Laffy Taffy, licorice, cookies;  endless sweets of all kinds; and there. In a ginger bread house barn he saw chocolate chickens laying their eggs. There below where the eggs dropped, was a bunny with bright blue eyes collecting the eggs into a hard candy basket. He watched the white animal winked at him and say something. “What?-surprised to see me? Hhmmph, when will grownups learn? Tootles; time to wake up.” The man opened his eyes at a loss at what to make of the dream.

“One thing is for sure, I’ll definitely take what children say a little more seriously.”