Renee Oelrich

Before taking my Bunny costume back to the renters, I head over to a relative’s house, her son has been in bed with covid. Being as he’s past the quarantine time; we decided to give him some fresh company. I bounce into the room a few steps and twist my torso a bit to grab his attention. He perks up, sits up in his bed and points at my Bunny paws. I walk over and hand him a hockey helmet filled with electrolyte packets for his water, some of those cheese, meat and cracker protein snacks and an autograph hockey puck from the college team in our city. All of this is compliments from his parents. He had been trying out hockey for the last few years but hadn’t quit gotten his balance yet. His parents thought this would be a great way to encourage him to keep trying. He was super excited and kept asking, “is this really for me, is this mine, no way, I wanted this helmet, how’d you know?” I grabbed the checkers and board and held them out. He looked up and nodded, yes, then made room for my big Bunny self to sit and set up the game. If I talk, I always whisper, so that they don’t know if I’m a human, boy or girl, or a relative. So, I whisper, “you got all your homework done?” just to start a conversation. He has and starts talking about the hockey puck. So, I humor him by asking him who all signed it and what positions they play. He instantly jumps into the names on the puck and shows me each one, then tells me about the positions in between our turns on the checkerboard. I point to the window and whisper, “did you know that the clouds are where the angels play? They practice all the time up there, where no one can see them miss the shot or be wobbly on their skates. Look, they’re playing a game now.” He smiles a lot and has a good burst of inspiration flowing through his veins. A few clouds go by, and he says, “you really think so?” I whisper, “yeah, that’s why clouds always look like angels playing or doing something. They’re there to show us it’s okay to do the things we really want to do even if we need more practice. They’re right there with us.” After I make sure that he got to win the checkers game, I bounce up and look at my Bunny paw, then point to indicate it’s time to go. He jumps out of bed and runs over to hug me. I ruffle his hair, then try to pat it down, then mess it up again and he starts to giggle while putting his hair the way he likes it. I grab the helmet and plop it on his head and give him a thumbs up.