Confidence & Being Myself
The Ears Won’t Match
Nina carries Dad’s present to the table with both hands, very slowly.
“Don’t shake it.”
Dad puts down his empty glass. “Wasn’t going to.”
She sets the brown box in front of him. There is a red stripe across the lid, and her card is tucked underneath.
Inside is the rabbit she made yesterday. Blue body. Pink nose. White cotton tail.
Dad loves rabbits. He draws them on the grocery list. Sometimes they wear his glasses.
Nina gave this one tall, tall ears. She held them up the whole time the glue was drying.
She peeks inside again.
One ear stands up.
The other one has flopped forward, right across one black eye.
Nina nudges it with her finger. Up it goes. Down it flops.
She tries once more. Now the rabbit looks like it’s hiding behind its own ear.
“Ready?” Dad asks.
Nina puts the lid back on, quick, and presses the red stripe flat with her hand.
Dad pulls his chair closer. Nina pulls hers closer too, until their chair legs go clonk.
Dad puts his fingers on the edge of the lid.
Nina keeps her hand on top.
It was supposed to have two tall ears. She could still slide the box away. Her card is under it, with the picture she finished before breakfast.
“Now?” says Dad.
Dad is about to lift the lid. Nina’s hand is still on the red stripe.
What does Nina do?
Every choice costs something. Let’s see what.
Give him the rabbit.
Nina takes her hand away.
Dad lifts the lid and looks in. “A rabbit!”
He lifts it out by its blue body. The floppy ear bobs over its eye.
“That ear went wrong,” says Nina.
Dad turns the rabbit around. “And it’s got a tail!”
Dad stands the rabbit next to his glass. Then he puts his glasses down in front of it.
The glasses are wider than the whole rabbit.
“It can’t wear those,” says Nina.
“No. Those are mine.”
She pushes them a bit closer. Now the rabbit is peering through one enormous lens.
Nina slides the card out from under the box.
On the front, she and Dad both have long rabbit ears. Dad’s go right off the top of the card.
“I ran out of paper,” says Nina.
Dad holds the picture up next to his head. “They’d hit the ceiling.”
Nina stands the rabbit next to the open card. Its floppy ear covers her drawn face.
She shifts the card, so her face shows again.
Dad puts his glasses on to read what she wrote inside.
The rabbit stays by his glass, with one ear up and one ear down.
Ask him to fix the ear.
“Can you help me fix it first?” Nina asks.
Dad takes his fingers off the lid. “What’s come off?”
“Nothing. It just won’t stand up.”
She opens the box and shows him. Dad fetches the tape and a blue pen from the windowsill and sits back down.
Nina holds the ear straight while Dad tapes the pen behind it. The pen sticks up way above the ear.
“Too tall,” she says.
Dad slides it down. Now the bottom pokes out next to a foot.
Nina turns the rabbit sideways. “It’s got a blue leg.”
They take the pen off. The ear flops straight back down.
Nina looks all around the table — and picks up Dad’s folded yellow napkin.
“Could it lean on this?”
Dad stands the napkin behind the rabbit, and Nina tips the ear back against it. Two ears up! As long as the napkin doesn’t move.
“Don’t move its cushion,” Nina warns.
Dad leaves the napkin exactly where it is. “I’ll find another one for lunch.”
The box is open, the tape is out, and Dad has already seen every bit of his present.
Nina slides the card across. “You can open this part.”
Give him just the card.
“Just the card today,” says Nina.
She lifts the box onto the empty chair beside her and slides the card across to Dad.
“This one?” he asks.
She nods. Her feet curl around the legs of her chair while he looks at the picture.
Dad holds the card up next to his face.
“Are those my ears?”
“Rabbit ears.”
“Ah. I thought I’d had a funny haircut.”
Nina giggles and points to the smaller person. “That’s me.”
On the card, their drawn hands meet in the middle, with very long fingers.
Dad opens the card and reads the words inside.
“I did the letters myself,” says Nina.
He stands the card up by his glass. Slowly, slowly, it slides flat.
Nina folds the bottom the other way and tries again. This time the two paper rabbit-people stay standing.
Nina looks at the box on the chair. She lifts one corner of the lid, just enough to see a white ear.
Dad is still looking at the card.
She closes the lid again and turns the red stripe toward her. Dad hasn’t seen the blue rabbit yet. It is still hers to give.