The Chase is On

It was a crisp fall night and Officer Jack Rabbit was five hours into his ten-hour shift. No amount of coffee seemed to clear the fog that settled in his brain.

POP! POP! POP!

Gunshots rang through the air and that’s all it took for Officer Rabbit to spring into action. His heart raced and his breaths came in short gasps. He tried not to let the panic creep in. He quickly rounded the corner and saw a small gold sedan take off.

"This was my big moment!", he thought to himself. He was going to catch the shooter and prove to his partners he wasn’t just a rookie anymore. The moment of fear he felt earlier turned into an excitement he had never felt before.

He turned on his overhead lights and the vehicle took off. Officer Rabbit called on the air for backup and the chase was on! They traveled down Lake Hefner Parkway, their speeds increasing to 70 miles per hour.

Soon Officer Bambi and Sargent Dumbo fell in line as secondary and paralleling units.

As they continued South, speeds increased to 85 miles per hour. Surely the suspect didn’t think they could outrun three police officers!

More and more officers converged to the area to join the long procession of patrol cars in the pursuit. Almost a dozen officers were now involved. It had gone on for over ten minutes now and the excitement in the air was electric! News helicopters swarmed the air hoping to get a glimpse of late-breaking-news to broadcast on live television. Frantic citizens swerved into the shoulder to avoid being clipped by the crazed lunatic evading the police.

The suspect exited the highway and pulled into the parking lot of a gas station. The dozen officers in hot pursuit parked haphazardly to block all exits. They rushed out of their cars, guns drawn, and removed the suspect from their vehicle. The cuffs came out and the female driver was placed in the backseat of Officer Rabbit’s patrol car. His smile was so big his cheeks started to hurt. He caught his bad guy…or girl!

After a quick search of the car, there was no gun in sight. Officer Rabbit scratched his head in confusion. She must have thrown it out during the pursuit and he didn’t notice.

Soon, Lieutenant Mufasa arrived on the scene to help question the suspect. As he leaned down to see the face of this hardened criminal, he’s taken aback by who he saw…Ms. Ruby Caster, an 86-year-old grandmother of eight sitting with her hands laced in her lap.

After a few brief questions and a very hearty laugh, Lieutenant Mufasa explained to Officer Rabbit that Ms. Caster’s car backfired causing what sounded like gunshots. When Officer Rabbit asked why she didn’t stop and why she was driving so fast, the Lieutenant explained that Ms. Caster was running late for a dinner with her eight grandkids and because she was running late, she left her hearing aid at the house and couldn’t hear the sirens.

Officer Rabbit felt defeated and embarrassed. The Lieutenant left him with these wise words, “Always think before you take action. Ask questions when things don’t make sense. The world is not always breaking apart around you.”

Author's Note:

For this story, I chose to re-write the story of The Foolish, Timid Rabbit. This was the one that stuck with me the most out of the original anthology of Jataka tales we read. It was about a rabbit that was sleeping and heard what they thought was the world breaking around them. They ran and ran and ran and soon others ran too. No one knew the details, but they ran anyway.

When the King Lion challenged them to find out why they were running, it was found to be a coconut that had fallen and made the sound. Although I tried to make my story funny, I see this type of thing happen almost daily in real life. We as humans are followers and we don't ever stop to ask why we are doing some of the things that we do. It’s important to ask questions about why we do some of the things we do in life. Just following the pack can lead to decisions that we can’t take back or make us look foolish. I think this story did a great job of conveying that message so it was a fun story to re-write from a more modern, relate-able perspective. I also tried to use recognizable names from movies (mainly Disney) so that the reader would connect the animals mentioned in the original story to this one.

Bibliography: "The Foolish, Timid Rabbit" from Jakata Tales by Ellen C. Babbitt. Web Source