18 Mrs. Bun-bun Says Goodbye

Upstairs, Valentine first got a t-shirt from her Aunt Ali's drawer, but then took a detour to her own room. A few days before, the jump ring which attached Mrs. Bun-bun to her phone had given way, so she had left the little rabbit on her desk until she had a chance to go to a craft store for a replacement key chain. For over twenty years, she had never gone anywhere without the little rabbit toy.

In all that time, she had never questioned why the toy never looked dirty or worn, no matter what happened to it, even if it fell in the mud or went through the washing machine.

Then there were her memories from long ago, of Mrs. Bun-bun actually talking to her…and that terrible Christmas when Brenda's brother Jack, which was something she avoided remembering, the same way you avoided poking at a tooth which ached.

Yet there was Mrs. Bun-bun, the same as ever, on her desk next to the grow-light. Valentine picked her up. "What are you?" she asked the toy in Mandarin.

The toy moved in her fingers, and disappeared. Suddenly she reappeared in the middle of the room, fully five feet tall and looking just the same as ever. "Someone you do not need any more. I have fulfilled my task. You are grown now, and you are coming into your powers. Come here, child."

Mrs. Bun-bun beckoned to her, and when Valentine stepped up, she rose up on tiptoes to bestow a light, whisker-ticklish kiss on the girl's forehead. "Goodbye, my Snow Orchid. I will meet you again on the moon."

With that, the rabbit disappeared.

Valentine's mouth fell open in shock, and suddenly her eyes started to well up with tears. It was just too much. The monsters—the fight—the drive home, Evan's life story—now losing Mrs. Bun-bun—and what powers? What or who was she?

She sat down on her bed and cried. The last piece of her childhood was gone, just like that, and before her was the abyss.