A REAL SACRIFICE

 A Real Sacrifice Based on The Velveteen Rabbit (How Toys Become Real) by Margery Williams-Bianco

"What if the boy died of scarlet fever?"

Little Rabbit always wanted to go to the seaside with the boy to hear the resonant rustling waves and to see the tiny periwinkles and crabs crawling their way to the rocks that remain fervently still despite the spring tides that only dramatically allay overnight. However, the plan seems to have crumbled apart once Nana caught sight of him lying under the bedclothes. "How about his old Bunny?" she asked. "That?" said the doctor. "Why, it's a mass of scarlet fever germs! Burn it at once, and get him a new one. He mustn't have that any more!"

Little Rabbit found himself cramped into a sack full of rubbish and old albums, carried out to the end of the garden behind the chicken coop. The gardener was supposed to burn the sack but had crops to tend to, so he promised he will burn the entire lot first thing in the morning.

The boy slept in a different bedroom with a new rabbit with real glass eyes, too excited to go the seaside he even dreamt of it. However, he woke up in the middle of sleep with joints he can't even move, a tummy that aches yet looks like bloated, and swollen glands. He sought for the rabbit he grew on, but got perplexed when he found a clean white plush that replaced his shabby favorite.

Struggling, he went outside the house and scoured every nook and cranny of the garden in the hopes of finding the little Rabbit, and he later realized he hasn't even looked behind the chicken coop. As he hurried, he stopped and shrieked in pain as his body was swollen over, not to mention that it has already been taking a toll on his kidneys, his faint heart, and his other vital organs. Little Rabbit hastily went outside the sack and was shocked to see the boy lying in the grass, clenching his fists in extreme pain. He immediately had thoughts of his precious owner dying at that moment, and could not do anything but to remain frozen on his feet. Suddenly, a

real tear trickled down his little shabby velvet nose and fell to the ground.

And then a strange thing happened: for where the tear had fallen a flower grew out of the ground, a mysterious flower, not at all like any that grew in the garden. It had slender green leaves the color of emeralds, and in the center of the leaves a blossom like a golden cup. It was so beautiful that the little Rabbit forgot to cry, and just lay there watching it. And presently the blossom opened, and out of it there stepped a fairy.