Big Blue Light

Written by Bunny Mickley, Summer, 2003

“Dad, how come we aren’t afraid of the humans?” the little rabbit asked his father.

“Because they do not attempt to kill us, son,” his father replied.

“Why?” the son asked back.

“Come with me and I’ll show you.”

The father rabbit led his young son out into the front yard of a house in the midst of a large block of houses. It was around dusk, and the sun had just set, leaving the houses cheerfully lit from the inside. As far as the residents of the houses were concerned, it was a normal fall evening.

“Son, I want you to look at the houses and tell me what you see.”

“There’s a lot of them! Most have gardens, and the grass has been freshly cut and looks quite juicy. We always come out here this time of night to eat. What’s the big deal?”

“No son, I want you to look inside the houses — not at the front. Tell me what you see inside the houses.”

“Okay, I see lots of lights inside the houses. In a few of them I can see humans standing around inside talking.”

“What about the lights?”

“They’re almost all yellow, but in most of them I see a big blue flickering light. The humans all seem to be sitting around staring at the big blue light, too.”

“Very good, son. Now I want to show you something else.”

Once again the father led the young rabbit around, but this time they went to the back yard of a house a block away. He picked this house because of the bug zapper in the back yard. As they approached they could hear the sounds of bugs being zapped away in the background.

Upon arrival they sat still for a few minutes before father spoke up, “Son, what is this?”

“It’s an insect killer. We see them all over the place. Animals that eat insects like to hang out under them, but we don’t eat insects, dad. So why did you bring me here?”

“You’ll understand in a second. What do you notice about it?”

“It’s got a blue light in it,” he said, and then stopped to reflect on what he just said. “I think I see what you’re getting at.”

The two of them sat still in the way that only a rabbit can and stared at the light, admiring the buzzing sounds as bugs from all over were drawn to it to met their ultimate demise.

“The legend among the rabbits is that in the past humans and rabbits were constantly fighting with each other. They would set traps and even use guns in an attempt to kill us. Most of the time they didn’t even have the decency to eat their kill — they would simply bury it, or skin it and use the fur to make jewelry.

“But, at some point in the past that all changed. Slowly the big blue lights started invading their homes. At first we thought it was hostile action by some other creature to kill the humans, but eventually we realized they do it to themselves! They welcomed the big blue light into their houses!

“It didn’t take long before they lost all interest in us. Sure, every now and then we still find a human that wants to kill us, but they are few and far between. There are greater threats in the world than humans now, so we focus on those instead,” father said with a watchful eye on the horzion.

“But dad, if the big blue light kills them instantly like it does for insects, how come all of the humans aren’t dead?” the young rabbit asked with a puzzled look on his little furry face.

“We don’t really know, son. I guess that since they are so much larger it takes a long time for the big blue light to work… but we really don’t know.”