A Silent Lullaby

Before all of this, I lived in a house like many citizens and when I was bored I would watch television. The nice flashing lights of the pixels, the electricity powering a computer to entertain the mind, to alleviate boredom. Or the commercials to convince you to spend money on products I wouldn't use. It made sense to buy them, of course. I almost picked up the phone to call the number on the screen, it calling me like a mother calling to her child. In some of the commercials, was the little bunny with an acronym arching beneath it at the center or either on the bottom right-hand corner, showing you that this product, if an applicator of some sort was not tested on animals. A proof that cruelty was depleting. We cannot have that, they deserve life and not a life trapped in a laboratory acting as subjects for the next big cosmetic company. The fur of the animals, all different styles of shag carpet or a plush blanket made from the wool of a sheep. I would like to have one, to just touch it. To play with it.

A protection is required against cruelty to animals only, the telephone number for the ASPCA should be like 911, in which everyone knows of its existence and meaning.

However, I want an animal—preferably a mammal in great physical condition. Science is nothing without tests, I believe that all should know that. It is very respectable in the science community to use animals as test subjects; virologists use them, monkeys, for vaccine testing. You wouldn't have to have them sign waivers. We will negate the fact that many people are raising homemade signs and posters with non-centered writing visible, into the air like trophies won by a sports team, with ardor, shouting for the cease.

While at home, reading, on their side I was asking who else would be test subjects. Ourselves? No, no, we are too good for that.

I think I will just go out and get one; I no longer read. You know, a pig would be perfect—a full-grown one. They are perfect with specifics of length, width, height, and body fat percentage. Although, the only thing better would be a hog—its large tusks to dig and root for food protruding from the lower jaw, like a monster's overgrown teeth. The boar is a fast runner and a strong swimmer. But the possibility, I find, of finding one here in the music-filled outskirts would be doubtful. Almost nothing—very close to.

Oh well, I think. Still, the scientific method must go on. Testing is still required.

The weight of it in my arms is light, I can carry it for the rest of the way back to my warehouse. It is almost a few miles. He is a he, I checked. His body, soft to the touch, with a heavenly soft feel, like a firm teddy bear, is trembling. His nose is out of control. I know that people wear them as accessories: as a coat or a hat. It is not unusual, but I have never thought about it in that type of way. The darkness of the premature sunrise of the dawn caused them to be out. It is like a signal for them to roam, and gather. To become the non-human versions of hunters and gatherers. But only the latter. The population of the rabbits is scant but almost an animal farm.

My tactics for acquiring one were simple: I just wanted to grab it. There were no traps, no bait. I had just walked the abandoned road in search of one. Or maybe I should say hunting for one since that was the reality of the situation. He was bounding away, he didn't want me to grab him.

I wonder if naming him would give him the respect he deserved since he will be used. It will save his dignity. Well, I wouldn't know, I won't be able to see him once he is in the music box. I could see him after the fact when everything comes to a halt. When everything— the music ceases to fill my ears. No one will see him, besides me, and I do wonder what he will come out like. What will he look like? Will the outcome be the same? Now, if the outcome from the sticks from the first machine, them snapping in half—that would mean it was probable for the rabbit to snap in half. But those were sticks almost six inches in length and five centimeters in diameter, and this was very much grand. Too grand? I am not sure. My hope is that this works. Or will he come out completely wasted and torn like an old shirt or a towel used many times with no break?