Out of the Ordinary--- AR

Corine loved Louie like she would never love another.  She cherished the times they played together; the long walks they took around the neighborhood, sometimes sprinting all the way back home.  This was their regular routine---a so very basic routine.  Rain, sleet or snow couldn’t prohibit the long walks that seem to make both of their worlds so much better. 

It was raining, but that never stopped them.  Corine ran, hurriedly to the small storage closet that held his leash and little blue raincoat. She always thought he looked like a large puff ball with the small raincoat on, but all the neighbors adored it.  Louie walked over to her, excitement in his eyes.  He loved their walks too. It gave him a reason to get out of the often crowded home in which they lived.  Yet, the rain seemed so hypnotizing. 

Outside, lightening had begun to illuminate the sky.  It was merely two in the afternoon, but the sky screamed nightfall.  Corine was glad no one was home to prohibit her from going on her special walk due to the storm.  Louie walked onto the porch looking up, uneasily at the sky, his blue raincoat already getting soaked.  But Corrine was persistent and pulled until he had no choice but to step onto the path.

She’d decided they’d cut the walk short, just going around the neighborhood once instead of the four times they would usually travel it.  Down the street, the only visible life was cars passing every now and then, looking at her and Louie as if they were insane. The thunder became more noticeable.  Maybe they were.

Corine looked left and right as she came to the first crossing on the street, the rain hitting her face.  It had taken over her pink bubble coat and was now working on her polka dot rain boots.  She looked down at Louie, who was paying more attention to the dirt than any old storm.  Lightening crashed in the background. 

As they began to near the end of their journey, before they would turn back, Louie saw something.  He began to run, hesitantly at first, but then as if he was a professional track star.  Corine screamed for Louie, but in his own haste, he paid no attention to her.  It was a rabbit.  The target of his pursuit was only a small, brown, terribly ordinary rabbit.  While the thunder roared, the lightening flashed, and the rain came down ever harder, the subject of Louie’s world was a rabbit.

Corine caught up with Louie, but not before going farther than they had planned.  She wasn’t lost, but had slipped in her pursuit, and now a large bruise had taken over her frail, 10-year old mind and body.  At that age, a bruise was so very dramatic, so she cried.  She cried all the way back to Louie, and seeing the sadness in her eyes, the rabbit was no longer his focus.  He turned back and they were on their way back home finally.

The rain had slowed for the moment.  Corine was glad, but wished the lightning and thunder would stop too.  They made the most dreadful noise, but Louie didn’t seem to mind.  Concentrating on the thought of it distracted Corine.  As they came to the first crossing, she didn’t see the car.

They ruled it a hit-and-run.  There were no witnesses.  Nobody was out that day, no one but a small girl and her bestfriend having their daily walk like always.  Her mother found her lying in the street, leash in hand.  Louie lay beside her, his body almost completely flat.  This was a tale of a girl and her bestfriend---of man’s bestfriend, taking an ordinary walk, on an unordinary day.