Heading back . . . I’m heading home . . . proclaim to the world that the dead have returned home. Life from death or death from life, this is the time for a fresh start. Seize my right to paint the night let it hang like destiny until it becomes a part of me spoken as creativity. Although the road lies broken with the life we put down . . . poof, it’s gone! So tell the world I’m bound, I’m bound for home.
The days after my release from the hospital, I found myself wandering more. The room was gone and I knew that Muerte would forever be gone. After all, the key ingredient was no longer within a fingers length away. I was unable to find a place that I could really call home, so I decided to head back to the place that I always would know. Traveling down a road, I had discovered that my travels had led me to a town called Alsip. Muerte had blessed me with a new beginning and a new life, but in the end “true” believers would discover that it was a curse. I knew Muerte was gone but I always hoped one day it would come back, hoping that it would help me once again find my path.
As I walked down a paved road lined with different cars and different models I realized where I was. I was at a swap meet. One of the largest swap meets in the area. I only knew about this one from the people I had conversed with over the years. People often exclaimed that you could find anything at Alsip’s Swap-O-Rama. Why I entered the large swap meet I will never remember? Maybe it seemed like the place to go at the time? After all if you could get anything from this place, maybe it could show me the path that I needed to travel.
I entered the building and immediately was hit with the smell. Maybe it was the type of people, maybe it was the area? However the building smelled old and had a stink that only seemed to come from garbage trucks rumbling on a hot summer day. I made my way past stall after stall each one carrying different products and items. To say that the swap meet had everything was an understatement. I had never seen so much and in such a variety. It took me at least an hour to walk through the first house. I walked through the second and then the third. I entered through a set of flaps that covered the doorway and I entered a fourth house that seemed to not have been a high selling point. Many of the tables lay empty as the rented sections remained unused and even forgotten. Few were scattered through the room. I passed by a table selling decorative plastic flowers and then another selling different products from the orient. I turned to see two men approaching towards me. They were coming from one of the last booths in the room. It was draped in a red tent and seemed the oddest out of the lot. The two men seemed like they were in a heated debate. As they passed one of them was saying loudly, “you should listen to the rabbit man! It knew that my wife was having an affair and luckily I rushed home early and found the man slipping out my back door”.
Shaking my head in confusion, I began to approach the mysterious tent like structure fitted with golden tassels and a truly different image for this sort of surrounding. I moved closer towards it and noticed that curtains were shut. A brown sign stood on an old looking easel. The sign read, Let the White Rabbit Reveal Your Way asking price $250. I tried not to laugh but I heard another set of laughing from within the tent. I opened the curtain and stepped in to see a man looking approximately my age. He had dirty blond hair and sported a backwards baseball hat. He sat puffing on a cigarette as a large stack of money was being counted in his hands. He waved at me as I entered, “come on in hold on one sec man”! He kept counting as I was able to see that the tent was barren. A table, chair, and a large cage took up the entire tent. I saw a large snowy white rabbit lying in a bed of fine sawdust. Its black eyes rose up at me as his nose sniffed softly. Finally the man looked up at me, blue eyes focused on me. “What can I do for you?”
Unsure of where to being and truthfully unsure of why I entered in the first place. The man stared at me for several seconds his young features becoming more visible to me as the time progressed. My mouth must have gapped wordlessly several times as the man said, “Look if you not here to ask a question get lost. I’m making money here”! When the man started to rise from his seat I knew I had to think of something fast. “What could you be selling that is worth two hundred and fifty dollars?” The man stopped, “Well, let me ask you this? How much would you pay to have any question answered truthfully?” I laughed, “Nothing”! I smiled but the man just smiled wider, “really? Any question?” “Any question,” I repeated as the man shrugged, “well any question formed in a yes or no response but yeah any question”. “And how do I know its right? I could ask any question even ones that don’t have an answer”. “Well that’s up to the rabbit, I don’t answer anything . . . I just collect the cash”.
Shaking my head, “I don’t believe this. This . . . this rabbit here is going to answer my question”? Laughing, “yep, he can answer anything . . . name is Lyle . . .” he froze and extended his head towards me and gave me a cheesy wink. “What the hell is that for Lyle?” Waving his hands, “nothing, nothing and this is my rabbit Guthrie . . . so just give me the money and ask away”. “Guthrie,” I said with a little chuckle, “yeah dude Guthrie I didn’t name him that’s what he says his name is so that’s what I call him!” I paused “so . . . does he speak”? “Who,” shot Lyle looking confused. “The rabbit,” I watched Lyle look to the hare and then back to me. Laughing slightly, “no, it’s a freakin rabbit! Rabbits don’t talk. Didn’t you learn that in grade school?” “Well then how is it going to tell me the answer?” Lyle walked over to the cage and pointed to a large room in the back of it. There was a little tray table in the front with a window that led into the little house. “You see Guthrie goes into that little house and drops out some letters for you to read”. “And he is right,” Lyle nodded, “every time”! Holding the cash, “and the customers keep coming back”. He waved the cash in front of me, “care to ask Guthrie a question”? I stared at Lyle and then back at the rabbit, “do I get a money back guarantee if he is wrong”? Lyle shook his head, “I’m telling you he is never wrong so there is no need for a money back guarantee”. I opened up my mouth but saw Lyle’s frustrations beginning to grow, “listen if you don’t want to ask then don’t just stop wasting my time. I got other people . . . willing people”!
“Alright . . .” reaching into my pocket I took out the last amount of money that I had collected from the selling of Muerte. “Here, I’ll ask, but if I don’t get the answer I want I am taking my money back . . .” I slammed the money into his outstretched hand, “by any means necessary”! Lyle smiled reaching over and picking up his cigarette again, “you’re not going to do anything inside this tent, now ask your question and get out. I already dislike your company”. Placing my money on top of another large stack of money he exclaimed, “Alright now approach the cage and state your name”. I turned to the rabbit and then back at him. “Approach the cage and state your name,” he repeated at me. I turned and took a giant step towards Guthrie the rabbit. His eyes focused on me as his ears perked up. It was only then that I had noticed how snowy white he was. He was untouched by dirt, grim, oil, grease, just a perfectly fluffy rabbit with an unusual gift. “My name is Robby Richardson . . .” I froze when I watched the rabbit stir and sit up in his spot. I became startled at the sudden clatter when I realized that Lyle had also stopped what he was doing. He returned his cigarette to the ashtray and repeated my name, “Robby . . . you said, Robby Richardson?” I nodded, “yeah what about it”? Lyle gazed at me up and down, “do you know about Muerte?” I began to laugh, “Muerte, yeah I know it. I know it very well”!
Lyle continued to ponder, but raised his hands “wait right there ok? I have something for you”. Lyle began a panicked search through his table until he opened a drawer to a rolling file cabinet and pulled out a familiar item. It was a black satchel tied with a silver rope around the top. “I have this,” I stared at the satchel, “how . . . how did you get that”? Lyle walked over and handed it to me, “some guy told me that I had to give it to you . . . said that it was the last batch something about not being ready in time.” I took the bag and felt the large amount of powder shift in my hand, “what guy? Who told you about this?” Lyle shrugged, “I don’t know some rude mad scientist . . . had the strangest accent like Russian or something”? “What else did he say,” Lyle waved his hand, “forget him I made a promise to get you that stuff and I have done that, now ask your question and go”. Lyle glared at me until I finally put the small black pouch in my pocket. I took a big breath and moved my way towards Guthrie. My thoughts swimming with questions but none seemed to need an answer. Those were answers that I could figure out with time. As the snowy white rabbit stared up at me I thought deep and hard. I wanted to know a question that the average person wouldn’t know. I loved the idea of possessing unknown knowledge that the public was unaware of.
I felt the words leave me before my mind could stop them. “What year will the end of the world happen?” The rabbit stared up at me and wiggled his nose several times before turning in its spot and heading into its home. “That scientist also wanted me to tell you something,” “yeah Lyle what’s that”? Gulping slightly Lyle picked up his cigarette again and began to drag several times before saying, “everything that you have done to this point has been for Muerte, and Muerte will be in your life until you find the white rabbit.” I shook my head in confusion, “find the white rabbit?” “The next path is the path of the white rabbit . . . look let me just stop you right there ok? I don’t’ have anymore information then that so either ask your question or take your satchel and go . . . I have completed my task”. “Just one thing Lyle, just one more thing, how am I supposed to find my white rabbit?” Lyle gave a wide smile, “oh that’s the best part!” “Why,” Lyle gave a look of amusement, “come on Robby you know! OH believe me Robby you know!”
“I am done with that stuff and done with that life, I’m going home,” turning to the cage I saw to my astonishment four small blocks each marked with black letters. However this time instead of letters the little tray contained 4 numbers, 2-0-1-6. I backed away slowly and saw that Guthrie was now outside of his house. He was standing on his hind legs eyes locked onto mine. We stared at each other as the seconds flew by. I felt my legs freeze to the ground as a hand clamped on my shoulder. A voice spoke unlike any that I had every heard. It was deep and raspy and when I saw that the voice belonged to Lyle I felt my world being flipped upside down. “It will happen in 2016, 2012 is only the beginning . . . A SIGN . . . be warned if man doesn’t change its way the rapture will come.” Lyle starting laughing as the cage door popped open and Guthrie gave a little hop out of his cage. It dropped in front of me as Lyle’s maniacal laughter was ringing behind me. Guthrie gave a little sniffle as it hopped out the tent door. I turned to Lyle whose eyes had turned black, “follow the rabbit . . . follow the rabbit . . . follow the rabbit”. I turned to the fleeing rabbit and then back to Lyle who was still repeating, “Follow the rabbit . . . follow the rabbit . . . follow the rabbit”!
“WAKE UP,” I was being shaken awake and it took me several seconds before I remembered where I was. My dreams had become much more vivid since my withdrawal from Muerte. “We’re almost there,” rubbing my eyes sleepily, “so is there any particular place that you are going to or should I drop you off anywhere in Chicago Robby,” I shrugged, “yeah anywhere is fine”. “So kid you always hitch hike,” I sleepily leaned my head back on the window, “no”. My driver asked, “So why are you heading to Chicago anyway?” My hands ran down my legs towards my pocket, “I’m just . . . going home. I’ve been away for far too long.” I felt my hand reach a small bulge in my pocket, a bulge that contained the last of Muerte. Muerte would once again reveal my calling however this time it would reveal my true nature. It would reveal what I was destined to become. It would help me find my white rabbit.
The End