SNOW - FULL MOON - YOUNG BOY -WONDER

                                  

                          AND NO ONE BELIEVES ME!

My memory of that beautiful cold evening some fifty-five years ago is as clear as if it happened yesterday.  We (Larry and me) had skied cross-country the three kilometers from our home in Saskatoon Saskatchewan, to the ‘Sand Hills’ that afternoon. The ‘Sand Hills’ were a small group of sand dunes we called hills. The rest of the day we spent skiing down the big (to us) 200-meter hill. We did not just ski down. After reaching the bottom of the hill, off came the skies, we would then walk up the hill, then down, walk up, all day long.

Larry had left early that day.

I was returning home that early January evening totally exhausted. I was following the ‘short cut’ along the western shore of the South Saskatchewan River. The full moon and the fresh white snow gave the world a soft beautiful glow that seemed to sparkle in the fine ice crystals.

By the time I reached a small clearing a block or so before the Arctic Ice plant, I just had to have a rest. I spotted a fresh snowdrift a few feet deep and struggled over, took off both skis, turned my back to it and just let myself fall gently into the snow. Oh what a beautiful feeling, lying there with my parka hood and toque on, so warm, so relaxed, the snow molded to every contour of my body. I took a deep breath and watched the clouds of steam drift past the gleaming white full moon as I exhaled. I have ever been more totally relaxed and contented in my entire life as I was that crystal-clear evening.

I was lying on my back, just looking up at the full moon, I closed my eyes for a moment and I felt myself drifting off to sleep.

So warm, so comfortable.

Now being an eleven-year-old Saskatoon boy I had heard many stories about how a person evidently would get warm and comfortable just before they froze to death. There were many tails of people being tired and lost, lying down for a few moments to rest.  The next thing one heard about them was a story in the ‘Star Phoenix’ referring to the details of the discovery of a frozen body. I knew all about this so I tried not to go to sleep, but despite my efforts, I must have dozed off.

The next thing I remembered was opening my eyes with a jolt. I did not move. For a second I could not get my bearings, then all became clear and I realized I was OK, still warm and comfortably propped on a slight angle in my snow-bank. It was then the most amazing sight a young boy could imagine played out before my eyes. Right in front of me was a game being played. This was a game I had never seen before. I was not sure if it was a game of tag or a race of some sort, or maybe some sort of a dance. The contestants, all fifteen or twenty of them, were running around in a circle about twenty feet in diameter. As if from a signal some of them would suddenly jump straight up in the air and another one would pass under, and keep going. They all seemed to have big smiles on their faces. Their ears were erect, and they made happy little sounds. At times two would run straight at each other then both would jump straight up into the air and attempt to touch each other’s feet, all the while having this big grin on their faces.

They were Rabbits. 

I didn’t make a move or sound. However, after about two minutes, they suddenly as one disappeared into the bush. All that remained were hundreds of little footprints in the snow, a full moon, and a young boy still not sure if he was dreaming.

It is several years since I wrote this little story. Most who have read it find it rather hard to believe.  The other day I decided to Google Rabbits – to my amazement I found the following poem.

Larry Bennett may 2008

Dancing Rabbits

We who play under the pines,
We who dance in the snow,
That shines blue in the light of the moon,
Sometimes halt as we go.
Stand with our ears erect,
Our noses testing the air,
To gaze at the golden world,
Behind the window there.

Suns they have in a cave,
And stars each on a tall white stem,
And the thought of fox or night owl,
Seems never to trouble them.
They laugh and they eat and are warm,
Their food seems ready at hand,
While hungry out in the cold
We little rabbits stand.

But they never dance as we dance,
They have not the speed nor grace,
We scorn both the cat and the dog,
Who lie by the fireplace,
We scorn them licking their paws,
Their eyes on an upraised spoon,
We who dance hungry and wild,
Under a winter's moon.

Elizabeth Coatsworth
Songs of the Rabbits Outside the Tavern