Inspired by our pets, a guinea pig named Sweetheart and a rabbit named Dragonlily, I decided to engage in a little creative writing. Enjoy!
The Wormhole
The white rabbit with the black dragon tattoo on its back wanted to go to the beach. The dragon tattoo was actually a big patch of black fur that looked like the outline of a dragon on his back, something their Ooo-menz always pointed out to other Ooo-menz that came over to visit. Although the rabbit hadn’t ever actually seen the dragon tattoo on its back, it was happy it was there because it made the rabbit feel quite special.
Now, back to the beach – the Ooo-menz went to the beach all the time, because they lived by the beach, and the Kid Ooo-menz couldn’t stop talking about how much fun the beach was. The rabbit hopped over to a triangular wooden hutch in the middle of the backyard. The hutch had a see-through caged section and a smaller enclosed room with a hole in the center, big enough for another animal the size of the rabbit to pass through.
The rabbit wiggled its noise and nibbled on some backyard grass. It was a beautiful day.
“What’s up, Sweetheart?” the rabbit said to the wooden hutch.
The see-through caged section of the hutch was empty.
“Sweetheart, you there?”
The rabbit heard a low groan come from the dark entrance of the enclosed room of the hutch. He couldn’t see anything.
“What do you want?” came a low voice from the darkness. It sounded annoyed.
“Sweetheart, I just –“
“Don’t call me sweetheart.”
The rabbit wiped its nose with its front paws and then ate some more grass.
“But that’s your name,” the rabbit said.
A nose, mouth and dark eyes surrounded by white fur poked slightly out of the hutch enclosure.
“True, but I also know it demeans me as a woman,” answered a voice from the darkness.
“I don’t know what that means. You’re a guinea pig,” said the rabbit.
“A female guinea pig,” said Sweetheart. “A proud female guinea pig that doesn’t like mouthy male rabbits named Dragonlily.”
The rabbit named Dragonlily stopped eating and closed its eyes.
“Dragonlily. Ugh. Who named us these names again anyway? I mean, I like the dragon part because of my tattoo, but Dragonlily? What were these Ooo-menz thinking?”
Sweetheart waddled out of the hutch enclosure into the sunlight. Her white nose and face turned into a large creamy brown body except for another white patch behind her head. Her dark eyes watched Dragonlily’s every move.
“Our Kid Ooo-menz did. And they’re girls – girls rock, you know. And there’s nothing wrong with our names. They’re good names. The Kid Ooo-menz take care of us and you shouldn’t make fun of them. You’re such a mean boy.”
Dragonlily went back to eating grass.
“I’m not making fun of them,” he said between chews, “I’m making fun of our names.”
“Our names are great. Well, mine is great. Yours is, okay,” said Sweetheart.
“Right. And they also call us guin-guin and bun-bun,” said Dragonlily.
“Ha! Bun-bun! That’s funny,” said Sweetheart. “You’re a bun-bun.”
Dragonlily hung his head and his pink and white ears sagged.
“Wow. Thanks, Sweetheart.”
“I’m not your sweetheart.”
Dragonlily sighed. He hopped and ran around the yard, darting from underneath the white hibiscus flowers to behind the Japanese maple tree to the storage shed on the other side of the backyard. Sweetheart munched on a patch of grass pretending not to notice.
Dragonlily darted back to the hutch and then stood on his big back feet and leaned against the hutch. Sweetheart wiggled her bottom and backed up.
“Hey, I really want go to the beach today,” Dragonlily said. “It’s such an amazing day and we’ve never been. Let’s go!”
“The beach? Are you serious?” Sweetheart said.
“Yes, the beach.”
Sweetheart sighed.
“Well, we can’t get out of the backyard, first of all. And second, even if we could, we wouldn’t which way to go and how do we get there. And third, we’re not supposed to leave. Ever. It’s not safe and not allowed.”
Dragonlily shrugged his little rabbit shoulders.
“Not safe? We’ll be fine. Not allowed? They’ll never know if we come and go quickly. And I hear from the sea gulls that there’s some tasty sea grass and other plants for us to munch on. C’mon, our Ooo-menz are gone for a few hours and it’s a perfect time to go on an adventure.”
Sweetheart shook her head and backed her bottom right up against the hutch cage.
“Why would I want to do that? We have no idea how to get there, so how could we come and go quickly? And I’m perfectly happy here. We’re safe here, they take care of us and we have all the grass, hay, fruits and vegetables we could ever want.”
Dragonlily laughed and tilted his head to the right as he stared at her with his big left blue eye outlined in black fur.
“Obviously.”
Sweetheart frowned.
“Are you making fun of my size?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Because I’m the right size for me.”
“Understood.”
“And I’m happy just the way I am.”
“Obviously,” said Dragonlily.
He snickered and pushed on the hutch. He rocked it back and forth with his front paws.
“C’mon, you’re great and I’m great, so let’s go to the beach and do something new! We do the same things every single day. Don’t you want to do something new and fun?”
Sweetheart shook her head.
“And not safe? No, I don’t,” she said.
“Fine,” said Dragonlily.
Dragonlily darted to the back gate. He had tried many times to dig under the fence, but the ground was too hard, like the cement at the bottom of the retaining wall that separated his yard from the upper street behind their house. In fact, any place along the fence where the dirt met the wooden fence was just too difficult to dig under.
Shrink the think, he thought, which was his way trying to figure out the right answer to a big problem.
Shrink the think.
Sweetheart laughed.
“You’re not getting out of here, Dragonlily.”
Shrink the think.
He darted back under the white hibiscus flowers. The ground was moist and softer here. He looked down at his front paws and an earthworm popped its head out of the ground. Or its tail. Dragonlily wasn’t sure.
“What’s up, kids?” it said.
Although Dragonlily couldn’t see the worm’s mouth, if it did have a mouth, he heard its voice, which wasn’t too high or too low.
“What?” was all Dragonlily could say.
“I said, what’s up, kids?”
Sweetheart overheard and called out from behind them.
“Hi, Kes. Dragonlily wants to go to the beach.”
“Kes?”
The worm wriggled out of the ground a little more.
“Yes, Kes. That’s my name. Pleased to meet you, Dragonlily.”
Dragonlily backed up a bit.
“Um, sure. Pleased to meet you – Kes.”
“You kids want to go to the beach today?”
“Not me,” said Sweetheart. “But this crazy guy does.”
Dragonlily nodded. He wasn’t sure if Kes the worm was a boy or a girl, and because he couldn’t figure it out, he really wanted to know.
“Pardon me, Kes, but are you a boy or a girl?”
“Does it matter?” the worm said as it pulled the length of its body out of the ground and wriggled closer to the rabbit.
“No, Kes, it doesn’t,” said Sweetheart, sounding annoyed again.
“So sorry,” Dragonlily said. “I didn’t mean to offend you.”
“No offense taken, just don’t ask me again. I am what I am.”
Dragonlily nodded and then hopped over to the hutch. He still wondered what Kes was.
“You two know each other?” he said.
Sweetheart swallowed a mouthful of grass and nodded.
“Yes, I met Kes in the spring after the last rain we had and our Ooo-menz had put me out in a patch of wet, new grass. It’s a really nice worm. And quite smart as well.”
“Ah, thanks, Sweetheart,” Kes said. “Now, who wants to go to the beach? Dragonlily?”
Dragonlily focused again on how badly he wanted a beach adventure. He hopped and spun in the air like rabbits do when they’re happy.
“Yes! Yes, we do! Can you help us get there?”
“I’m not going anywhere,” said Sweetheart.
Kes wriggled to the where the shade of the hibiscus flowers stopped and the bright sunlight started.
“Yes, I can get you both to the beach.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Sweetheart repeated.
“How?” said Dragonlily.
“A wormhole, of course.”
Dragonlily blinked.
“A what?”
Kes turned the top of its worm body back toward the place where it come up from the ground.
“There. A wormhole. Us worms make wormholes, tunnels through time and space. Like shortcuts. We can travel anywhere we want in a matter of seconds. You didn’t think we just ate dirt and pooped dirt, did you?”
Sweetheart laughed.
“That’s a good one, Kes,” she said.
Kes continued.
“A wormhole is also called an Einstein-Rosen Bridge, but if you’ve never read any theoretical physics, wormhole is easier to remember, of course; consider the source. A wormhole connects extremely long distances like a million light years or more, or even short distances such as a few feet, or down the street, and even time travel between points in time. I could get you to Natural Bridges State Beach down the street in a flash.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, but if you get us to the beach, we’re in!” said Dragonlily.
“I’m not in,” said Sweetheart.
Dragonlily hopped and spun again. He darted over to the hutch and opened it with his long front teeth.
“C’mon, let’s go to the beach, Sweetheart!”
Sweetheart waddled out from inside the hutch.
“Again, I’m not going anywhere,” she said.
Dragonlily darted behind Sweetheart and shoved her bottom towards the worm.
“C’mon, let’s go! It’ll be fun!”
“I think we’re breaking a safety rule. Actually, many, many safety rules,” she said as she slid closer to Kes and the hibiscus flowers.
“C’mon, the Ooo-menz are gone!”
“You mean humans, don’t you?” Kes said.
“No, the Ooo-menz.”
“Sure,” said Kes and wriggled back to its hole. “Anyway, give me a minute so I can prep the wormhole,” he said. He whispered something at the hole, but Dragonlily and Sweetheart couldn’t hear what it was.
“Has any animal ever gotten hurt going through a wormhole?” Sweetheart said.
Kes shook its body back and forth.
“Not really. I think. As far as I know only worms use wormholes, so this will be a first.”
Dragonlily stopped pushing Sweetheart forward.
“Wait, worms time travel?” he said.
Kes didn’t answer the question. Suddenly a strong wind whipped through the flowers and the hole the worm had come through glowed with swirling tiny bright white stars and opened a few inches bigger than the small hole it was.
“Okay, jump through,” Kes said.
“Jump where?” said Dragonlily. “That’s not big enough for me. And it’s certainly not big enough for her.”
“Hey, watch it, bub,” said Sweetheart.
“Sorry,” said Dragonlily.
Kes wriggled away from the swirling, lit up hole.
“It’s big enough. Just jump through,” Kes said.
“Are you sure?” said Dragonlily.
“I’m sure.”
“I’m not going any—”
But Sweetheart couldn’t finish her sentence. Dragonlily shoved her hard again from behind and they both headed straight for the swirling hole.
Kes called out to them as they slid into the hole.
“Have fun! And oh, don’t forget – you have to find the Monarch Wormhole Station to get back home. And say Home Station when you find it. If you don’t, you may end anywhere or any time!”
Then the wormhole closed up and Kes wriggled away. The worm dug into another moist spot in the dirt and disappeared.
And Sweetheart and Dragonlily were gone.
