Blog Love Omega Glee: The Marching Hare (10 July 2012)

Taking a walk down Believer Boulevard, The Coyote nears a building which houses an abortion clinic. Protesters often line the sidewalk, particularly on weekends, imploring patients to reconsider, but on this hot Tuesday afternoon there are only two protesters. One is an older white man, who wears a white beach hat and holds up a sign with a picture of a fetus on it. The other looks to be a white man as well, but it is difficult to tell much else about him because he is wearing a furry white rabbit mask, clutching a Bible, marching back and forth across the sidewalk, and chanting "Jesus!"

As The Coyote approaches, a young black girl gets out of a car and runs up the sidewalk toward the building. The man in the rabbit mask bars her path and starts yelling at her, "Harlot! Repent thy evil ways! Do not let the innocent suffer for your sins!"

The girl shrinks back and goes and stands on the grass of the treelawn. She carries a plastic grocery bag and clutches it tightly. The rabbit bears down on her and starts reading from The Bible: "And God blessed them, and God said unto them, 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth . . .' And Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord slew him. And Judah said unto Onan, 'Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.' And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother. And the thing which he did displeased the Lord: wherefore he slew him also. . . ."

The Coyote sighs and interrupts, "Excuse me, I think you are scaring the young woman here . . ."

The rabbit ignores The Coyote and keeps spouting Biblical verses at the girl, who leans back from him.

The Coyote taps the rabbit on the shoulder, "Excuse me, but I think you are scaring the young woman here . . ."

The rabbit slaps The Coyote's hand away and turns around, locking eyes with The Coyote, and says, "She ought to be scared. She ought to be scared of burning in hell if she kills her baby!"

The girl runs around the rabbit and up to the door of the building where someone opens the door for her. The rabbit runs after her, but the man with the fetus sign holds up his right hand and stops the rabbit before he hops onto the building's property. "Goddammit!" the rabbit yells, and, enraged, turns back to The Coyote, leaning in face to face, "I wish your mother had miscarried!"

The Coyote reaches up and grasps one of the rabbit's ears and tugs gently. The rabbit pulls back and between his movement and The Coyote's tug, the mask pulls off in The Coyote's hand. The Coyote gets a glimpse of a balding middle-aged white man before the man covers his face with his Bible and runs away down the sidewalk, crying "My face! My face!"

The Coyote watches him disappear down the block and continues to hold the mask by one ear, the rest of it dangling in his hand.

The old man holding the fetus sign looks upward and says, "Thank you, Jesus."

Then he looks at The Coyote and says, "Thanks. That guy was really getting on my nerves."

"Why was he wearing a rabbit mask?"

"He said it had something to do with how people should breed like rabbits."

Not wanting to litter and not wanting to take someone else's property, and thus unsure of what to do with the mask now, The Coyote asks, "Will you give him his mask back if I leave it with you?"

"I hope to never see that nut again, son, but all right. I suppose it would be the Christian thing to do. Would you mind doing me a favor in return though? I have to go to the restroom very badly, and it's a couple of blocks to the church. Will you mind holding my sign while I'm gone?"

The Coyote sighs and agrees. He puts on the rabbit mask and hopes no one passing by recognizes him.

Blog Love Omega Glee is a novel by Wred Fright about two bloggers who fall in love while the world falls apart, which is being serialized on his blog. To start reading from the beginning or read another installment, please visit Blog Love Omega Glee Central on WredFright.Com. If you like what you've read, or you've read all of Blog Love Omega Glee and want more Fright, then please read his first novel, which is available in print and as an ebook.