A Parliament of Hares

Fiction

I was late as usual. Bonnie was bound to lecture me about it. I prepared myself for the onslaught, creeping quietly through the trees into the small clearing that sat in the middle of the woods. The others were already gathered and sitting in a circle. I could see Bonnie at the centre, the others watching her closely. I tried to sneak to my spot amongst the group, hoping that I might go unnoticed. My back paw caught on a rock. I tumbled, rolling into the centre of the group and landing right in front of Bonnie. She sighed, annoyed.

‘Thank you for joining us, Margot,’ her disapproving stare bored into me, and I could feel it through my whole body.

I hopped to my spot, muttering, ‘Sorry, sorry,’ as I went.

‘Now, where were we? Ah, yes, Evelyn you have something you wish to discuss.’ The elderly hare hopped into the middle of the circle, her arthritic joints moving stiffly. The older woman always had some complaint or disagreement. Usually, Bonnie would just placate her and the matter would be dismissed never to be heard of again.

‘Yes, thank you, Bonnie.’ She cleared her throat audibly and looked around the circle as if to stress the sense of importance of what she was about to say. ‘As I am sure you have all noticed,’ I rolled my eyes, she always started like this. ‘There has been a very serious insult to my property.’ She huffed, staring accusingly at each hare in the circle.

‘Someone,’ she paused dramatically, ‘has been stealing rosemary from my garden!’

Bonnie looked at her kindly, ‘How do you know that someone has taken rosemary from your garden, Evelyn?’

Evelyn narrowed her eyes, well as much as she could in her current form, ‘Because I counted the sprigs and on Tuesday there were three missing, then on Friday there were eight missing!’

Snickering broke out around the circle. We all knew who had taken the rosemary, it was Skylar. She loved to cook, and the smell of roast lamb had been wafting from her cottage all week. I didn’t know why Evelyn was so upset. She had about twenty rosemary bushes and was certainly no great cook herself. It seemed only right that someone got some use out of them.

Bonnie, who knew perfectly well who had taken the rosemary, said, ‘Did you see the culprit, Evelyn? Perhaps it was an animal sneaking into your garden. There are plenty of rabbits about who would gladly feast on that extraordinarily beautiful garden of yours.’

Eveyln’s chest puffed out at the compliment, ‘Well, you are right there Bonnie. I have caught the wee scoundrels nibbling on my greens on more occasions than I can count. But rosemary? I’ve never known the rabbits to eat my rosemary!’

‘Maybe it was just too tempting for them to resist,’ said Bonnie looking in Skylar’s direction. To her credit, Skylar had the decency to look guilty.

‘I suppose you are right, Bonnie. My garden is the best in the village!’

It wasn’t exactly what Bonnie had said, but Evelyn seemed pleased and was already hopping back to her spot in the circle. I often wondered what everyone would be if they could choose what animal they turned into. Evelyn was most certainly an old bat if ever I did see one.

If I weren’t a witch, I would have assumed that coven meetings were full of incantations, offerings to the Goddess, and other such mystical aberrations. In actuality, it was quite mundane. It was not unlike a meeting of the fat, balding white men who ran the country. It was all triviality and unresolvedness. I craved more.

The meeting continued on for the next hour as it has always done. By the end of it none were pleased, but none were discontented either. I wasn’t entirely sure that was what Gran had meant when she taught me about the balance of nature.

The coven hopped from the dense forest, scrambling around the roots of the great trees, in the direction of the village.

‘Look, Ma! It’s the hares again!’ cried out a young boy. I had seen him a few times before in both my forms.

‘Leave them be, Henry. They’re returning from Parliament,’ replied his mother. The boy looked like he wanted to say more but stopped himself.

I arrived at my cottage and changed back to my human form shielding myself behind the hedge away from prying eyes. I thought back to the boy, Henry, and wondered what he would say if he saw me change. I smiled at the thought of his wonderment. Perhaps that was what was missing.