Short Story

Sushi and the clever bunny

    This was once, a little clever girl named Sushi, who was very talkative and inquisitive that no one of her friends could stand her for more than three minutes, because she was always asking about everything, but Sushi was too stubborn to accept that fact. As she had no friends to trust or to play with, Sushi liked to go to the forest every morning to see the animals and every living thing there was, because Sushi thought that as animals could not talk, they would not get annoyed with her comments.

     One morning, Sushi was sad, sitting on a rock at the edge of a river in the forest, watching the fish passing by; when sudden a little pink creature came out from the grass, it was a bunny. The animal was quite small but it could jump very high and it had big ears, a pinky noise and a very fluffy tail. Sushi thought that it was very cute and funny and decided to take it home, but when she was about to pick it up, for her surprise the little bunny spoke, leaving out these words “I don’t think that's a good idea to take me with you, I suggest you to leave me here and come to visit me as much as you want” to what the stunned girl responded “Unbelievable that a fool bunny is talking to me, I must be out of my mind now” and the bunny said “No, you are not, I can talk because I am a clever bunny, there is no other like me in the world, but I only talk what is necessary and when is necessary”. Sushi was really surprised and delighted with the bunny who also told her that he was not allowed to talk much otherwise he will lose his power and become a simple bunny.

     Sushi understood that she must be quieter if she wanted to have the talkative bunny for a while, but in an instant she had forgotten about the warning the bunny made and she surrounded him with a lot of silly questions, which the bunny had to answer, because he always answered questions. “You should remember that I cannot talk that much dear” the bunny reminded Sushi, but as she was excited she told him “Don’t worry, a few more questions will not harm anyone” and she kept the questions, as the bunny always answered questions, he continued too.
After a while talking, the bunny became to feel tired and his throat began to swell. The bunny told sushi that he had to stop talking and that she had to stop doing questions, because the bunny always answered questions, but Sushi did not listen to what he said and she continued.

     The bunny’s tongue became purple and swelled; and when Sushi finally had a good question to ask, that was “how can I stop talking too much and stop asking people about everything?” the clever bunny wanted to answer, but was too late. The bunny had lost his power of talking, he moved his mouth, but from his throat nothing came. Now Sushi was sad because she had nobody to talk to again. She felt guilty because, she knew it was her fault that the poor bunny was voiceless, but then the bunny started to write in the sand, “I’ll get my power back when you answer yourself to your question” because for the bunny, questions should always be answered. And Sushi started thinking, which would be the answer for her question. 

     Finally Sushi understood that the only one way for her to stop talking and asking was observing more, listen more and talk less and suddenly then the bunny could talk again, telling Sushi this last words “You finally understood, talk less, listen more, otherwise you won’t be able to hear others’ answers”, and Sushi went home cheerful, promising the bunny she will follow his advice.

"Closing our mouth and opening our ears is the only way, we will understand others"

By Fanny Hernandez