This is the first in a series of short stories I wrote for children. Each one has a moral or lesson to be learned.
If you have young children, please feel free to read the stories to them, and then come back and let me know how they enjoyed them, or not.
Charlie the rabbit learns about death and stealing pies
image credit - the fabulous Beatrix Potter
Charlie dragged his feet as he walked up the small hill. His ears drooped sadly and even his bob-tail sagged. Tears trickled down from his eyes and hung on the end of his nose. Charlie was the saddest looking rabbit in the whole world.
He reached the top of the hill and sat on his favourite mossy boulder. The sun had made it warm and cosy, but even that didn't make Charlie feel any better. He sighed sadly and put his head in his hands, looking down at his feet.
Birds chirped merrily in the trees and chased each other across the bright blue sky. Bees hummed to themselves as they bumbled from flower to flower. Even the crickets were singing as if nothing was wrong. Didn’t they know? Didn’t they care?
Charlie wished he had someone to talk to, but everyone was acting strangely, and no-one seemed to want to answer his questions. So Charlie had come out here to his favourite boulder, to sit and try to work things out for himself.
A shuffling sound made him look up from his feet to see old Uncle Toby standing beside him. He put down his wrinkled walking stick and sat beside Charlie on the boulder. He didn’t say anything to Charlie, he just sat looking out across the meadow where dandelions waved in the soft summer breeze.
“Why do people have to die Uncle Toby?” asked Charlie eventually.
Uncle Toby sighed and looked at Charlie. His own face was sad as he said, “Because that is the way nature is. Everything that is born and lives, one day has to die. The trees, the birds, the dandelions, and even you and I, will have to die one day. It is part of the balance that makes up our lives.”
“But I didn’t want Gran to die. Why did she die?” asked Charlie.
“Your Gran was very old,” said Uncle Toby. “I don’t think she wanted to die and leave you either. Your Gran loved you very much and I’m sure she would much rather be here with you now, but that is just not meant to be.”
“Did she die because she was mad at me?” Charlie begged.
“Mad at you for stealing her freshly baked apple pie you mean? asked Uncle Toby kindly. Charlie nodded.
“Well let me tell you something about that apple pie,” he said.
“Your Gran was a clever person. She knew that you and your brothers would steal her pie. So she made that one especially for you. Do you remember how it stained your whiskers and gave you away?” Charlie nodded again and blushed with shame.
“I can still remember her laughing with your mother about it, just after she had marched you in and told you off. So no, Charlie. It wasn’t you fault that your Gran died. There is really no-one to blame, least of all you. If anything, the joy that you and your brothers gave her, made her live even longer.”
Charlie sniffed and waved his feet. He was glad that he was not the reason his Gran had died, because he loved his Gran and now he missed her terribly.
“You know, I talked to your brothers about this too,” said Uncle Toby quietly. “They all thought that your Gran dying was their fault.”
“Really?” asked Charlie.
“Oh yes,” replied Uncle Toby. “It is very normal to feel guilty when someone dies, and to blame yourself. Even your mother blamed herself for your Gran’s death. But she is no more guilty than you, my dear Charlie.”
Charlie thought for a moment and then said, “Uncle Toby, where do people go when they die?”
Uncle Toby pulled at his whiskers for a moment and then said, “Well that is a hard question to answer Charlie. Many people have different ideas on what happens, but no-one knows for sure.”
“What ideas?” asked Charlie.
“Some people say that if you are good you go to a wonderful place forever, and if you are bad you go to a bad place forever. Other people say that you get born again and start all over. And still another group says that nothing happens. When you’re dead you’re dead, that’s it.”
“What do you say Uncle Toby?’ asked Charlie looking at the old rabbit.
Uncle Toby’s eyes twinkled and he said, “I believe I’ll wait and see for myself when the time comes. That’s the only way to find out for sure.
But I do not intend to find the answer for a *long *while yet," he said smiling.
“I miss her so much,” said Charlie looking back down at his dusty feet.
“I know how you feel,” sighed Uncle Toby. “I remember when my Gran died. I cried for days. But then I started to remember all the times I had with her, and the funny things we used to do. And it cheered me up. I realised that even though my Gran was gone, I would always have memories of her, and she would always be with me in my mind.” Uncle Toby stared across the meadow and smiled.
“I remember once when I was about your age, I stole one of her blackberry pies.”
“You stole a pie?” asked Charlie astonished. He just couldn’t believe it. Old Uncle Toby snitching pies!
“Oh you are not the first young rabbit with a taste for stolen pies,” he said, his face wrinkled into a grin and his whiskers twitching mischievously. “I was quite the pie sneaker in my younger days.”
Charlie grinned back and wagged his feet as Uncle Toby continued his tale.
“I crept up to the windowsill where the pie was cooling, and I grabbed it with both hands. Oh it was delicious, with crumbly pastry and fresh blackberries. I was just about to take a big juicy bite, when my Gran came out and caught me.”
“What happened next?” pressed Charlie with wide eyes.
“Ha ha ha,” laughed Uncle Toby. “Well I ran off with the pie in my hands as fast as I could. I was a fast runner in those days, but Gran was even faster. She caught me down by that big old oak tree over there on the other side of the meadow.”
“What did she do?” asked Charlie excitedly.
“She made me eat the whole pie. Right there and then, the whole thing! Then because I had made her run all the way across the meadow, she made me carry her all the way back to her kitchen!”
Charlie and Uncle Toby laughed together for a while, and then Charlie asked, “But why is everyone else so happy. I mean the birds and the crickets, they just don’t seem to care. Why aren’t they sad too?”
“I’m sure they would be if they knew your Gran, perhaps they just never met her. It’s like last year when old Mr. Hoppit died. You knew him sort of, and you even went to his funeral with your mum and dad.”
“Yes” said Charlie.
“But you weren’t sad were you?”
“But that was different, I didn’t know him like I know my Gran.”
“True,” replied Uncle Toby. “But you can see now why the birds and the crickets aren’t sad can’t you?”
“Yes, I guess so,” admitted Charlie.
They sat quietly for a while just watching the swaying dandelions and listening to the cricket’s songs.
Uncle Toby looked down at Charlie and saw him smiling.
“What has got you smiling like a rabbit in clover young Charlie?” asked Uncle Toby.
“I was remembering my Gran,” he replied. “She always used to pull on my ears to make me taller and she would say ‘Charlie you are the cutest little rabbit ever. I’m going to have to make you bigger so that everyone can see just how cute you are.’ And then she would give me a slice of her delicious strawberry tart.”
Uncle Toby laughed. “That sounds just like your Gran.”
“Do you still feel sad?” he asked.
“A little,” replied Charlie. “But when I think of Gran now it doesn’t hurt so much. She always did know how to make me smile.”
“Well I’m pleased,” said Uncle Toby.
He looked up at the sun and said, “If I know your Aunt Hilda, she will probably have a fresh apple pie sitting on the windowsill cooling about now. There will probably be a couple of glasses of dandelion tea as well. What do you say you and me sneak on over a snitch it while no-one is looking?”
His eyes sparkled as he looked down at Charlie.
Charlie smiled back. “Ok Uncle Toby, but if we have to run you’re going to get caught.”
“Then we will have to be *very *sneaky,” chuckled the old rabbit.
They both stood up and Uncle Toby patted the warm boulder.
“This used to be my favourite place to come and sit and sort things out in my head,” he said.
“It’s my favourite place too,” said Charlie.
“Well you are becoming a wiser rabbit every day,” commented Uncle Toby.
“Now let’s go get that pie!” And with that they walked back down the hill towards Uncle Toby’s house and the waiting pie.