Ella and the Rabbit

A David Sands Competition story by Rachel Bridle

An entry in The Sands of Time Writing Competition

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Ella and the Rabbit

Ella was tired. She sat on the bench in the changing rooms and slowly pulled off her uniform, peeling off each layer and feeling her muscles creak and groan. Oh for a shower, she thought longingly. It had been a really long shift. Three weeks of time nudging was at least a week too long, with so little sleep. And when was the last time she had sat down for a proper meal?

The door to the changing rooms opened and Charis walked in.

‘Hi Ella,’ she said brightly, moving to the row of lockers. ‘Long shift huh?’ she asked, sympathy written on her face. ‘Heard you sorted Joanie out though, congratulations!’ She grinned and started pulling clothes out of her locker.

Ella smiled to herself. It was true, she had managed to encourage Joan to make her way to the garden to receive her first ‘divine guidance’. The girl just didn’t want to go outside that day at all, and had been sulking as only a 13 year old could. But Ella saw her to the garden safely after much cajoling about fresh air and personal space – something that all teenagers throughout time seemed to crave - and time had successfully reset itself. Joan of Arc would do all she needed to do now.

A big success for the Time Nudgers, Ella thought to herself, and a great end to a shift that had seen Ella nudge many minor characters throughout the period – prompting a page to waken a key English knight which eventually led to a key battle being fought near Orleans; a stable man who had been encouraged to eventually spot a thorn in the saddle of the army commander and prevented him from being thrown from his horse. Many small nudges all centred around the Hundred Years War, successfully ensuring that time was now going on the right track again.

Ella had worked for the Department of Time Management or the ‘Time Nudgers’ as they were generally known, for four years now, and had what she termed the privilege of nudging time back when it had gone awry many times now. She did love her job, she reflected, but oh for some sleep!

The door to the changing rooms opened again and a white rabbit walked in. Ella registered bemusedly that it was about 3 feet tall, was dressed in a waistcoat and holding a fob watch – ‘Oh dear, oh dear, it’s late,’ he said, shook his head at Ella and walked out again.

Ella sat still on the bench and shook her head slowly. She looked up at Charis who was now changing into her uniform while humming to herself, and who had clearly not seen any weirdo white rabbit at all. Wow, I must be really tired, Ella thought, shades of Alice! She rubbed her eyes, laughed at herself and her crazy tired imagination and decided to head home. Bed was calling.

===

Ella drifted awake slowly and stretched cautiously. Muscles were not doing too badly, she thought to herself, and she smiled dreamily. She looked over at her clock casually and thought about drifting downstairs for some food – bacon sandwich, she thought, crispy at the edges, butter melting. Her mouth watered.

She sat up slowly in the dimmed light. The bedroom door opened and in walked a white rabbit in his waistcoat and holding his fob watch. He looked directly at Ella and said, ‘It’s late Ella, it’s late,’ and walked out of the room, shutting the door firmly behind him. Ella sat like a stone in her bed. What? She felt her stomach lurch, and her breath quicken. Was she going mad? She was not tired anymore. Had she taken something? She looked quickly over to the bedside table, had she taken tablets? Nothing was there, no bottles of pills. How had she seen a talking rabbit? Again? What was going on? She jumped out of bed, grabbed clothes and got dressed quickly. She just needed food, she thought.

Ella ran downstairs, and in the kitchen standing leaning against the fridge was the white rabbit, again. ‘It’s late Ella, it’s late,’ he said, then disappeared. Ella cried out in shock and blindly grabbed for a chair to sit down. What was going on? She was due a psych appt and medical this week. Maybe she should bring them forward, she thought? Ideas about who to call and when tripped in her head, one after the other. Had she taken something? They had to take a catalogue of vaccinations all the time, was something making her hallucinate? Was all the time travel affecting her? She had heard stories before… people losing it. She felt her heart pounding in her chest and she chewed her lips anxiously.

She grabbed her phone and took deep breaths while she looked for her department doctor’s contact details and put through the call, her hand shaking as she waited for the call to be answered. An urgent appointment was clearly needed.

===

‘A white rabbit?’ repeated the Doctor, while reaching for his phone.

Ella felt panicked immediately. ‘Who are you calling? What are you doing?’ she felt her voice rising and put her hand out as if to stop him.

‘Don’t worry,’ said the Doctor, ‘hang on… Hello Colonel Harper… yes, it’s Dr Williams from the Time Nudgers… yes… yes, they are all well actually… thank you… yes, well we have a white rabbit here…’

Ella looked on in bewilderment, listening to the one-sided conversation with a mix of worry and hope. She felt her stomach churning away, and adrenalin running up and down her arms like spiders crawling.

‘Yes… yes,’ continued the Doctor. ‘It’s for…’ he looked down at the paperwork, ‘Lieutenant Ella Davis, number 487336… yes, yes, I’ll send her along.’

He put the phone down and looked up at Ella, smiling in what Ella knew was meant to be his Reassuring Smile.

‘It’s fine Ella, really,’ he said. ‘White rabbits mean something you see; Harper will explain.’ He handed a scribbled note to her. ‘Go here, they will explain next steps.’

Ella took the note, feeling strangely discombobulated. What was going on?

‘Don’t worry,’ said the doctor, ‘you really are not going mad.’

===

Ella was ushered into an office and urged to sit down on one of the sofas next to the desk.

‘Well,’ said Colonel Harper, smiling at Ella as she sat down. ‘I am sure, Lieutenant Davis, you have felt like you were going mad!’

Ella forced a smile but she knew it came out twisted as she swallowed nervously. ‘Yes,’ she replied. ‘I thought I was hallucinating… or something...’

‘Very common reaction, very common,’ nodded the Colonel as she smiled again at Ella. ‘Well, the white rabbit…’ she paused, ‘was he wearing a waistcoat and carrying a fob watch?’

Ella nodded, beginning to relax just a little. ‘He kept saying it was late,’ said Ella, ‘and he mentioned my name.’

‘Yes, well,’ said the Colonel, ‘well, yes.’ She laughed. ‘We think, emphasise on think… that the white rabbit is one of the manifestations of time.’

Ella felt her eyes widen. ‘He looked like he was straight out of Alice in Wonderland!’ she blurted, ‘I thought I was hallucinating from my childhood.’

The Colonel chuckled again. ‘Yes, well, we think Lewis might have had a bit of a bleed through from time himself before he wrote that book,’ she said easily. ‘And just look at the rest of the book, the whole thing is – to use an old well-worn phrase - somewhat timey wimey, isn’t it.’ She smiled.

Ella felt herself swallowing nervously. ‘What do you mean, a manifestation of time?’ she asked.

‘Well,’ the Colonel replied, ‘we think that the rabbit appears when things are particularly difficult in terms of time, for the person to whom the rabbit is appearing.’

Ella thought a few moments. ‘So there is a problem for me?’ she asked.

The Colonel nodded. At that moment, the white rabbit walked into the room. ‘It’s late Ella,’ he said, shaking his head. Ella cried out and pointed. ‘He’s there, Colonel, can you see him?’

The Colonel looked around bewildered. ‘I can’t, Ella… may I call you Ella?’ she looked over.

‘Yes, yes, of course,’ said Ella as she watched the rabbit disappear in front of her. She took a deep shuddering breath and looked once more at the Colonel. ‘So, what is the problem with time and me?’ she asked.

The Colonel sat forward in her chair, a small frown appearing between her brows as she started to explain. ‘As you know, the Time Nudgers are here because time keeps moving away from its proper track since the earth core explosion in 4038…’ she paused as Ella nodded. ‘Well, occasionally,’ she continued, ‘time moves for the very people who are nudging time back to its rightful course,’ she said. ‘When that happens, the white rabbit will manifest as a kind of… well, warning I guess’

Ella nodded, bewildered, fearful but wanting to know more. ‘So does someone have to go back and well, nudge me?’

The Colonel nodded. ‘Kind of’, she said. ‘But it’s you Ella, you need to go back and nudge yourself.’

Ella felt herself recoil. This went against everything she had been taught. Never were time soldiers allowed to go to their own time period, never were they permitted to go anywhere near.

She shook her head firmly. ‘But how… that doesn’t make sense!’ she exclaimed, and looked over at the Colonel once more. ‘Surely, someone else needs to go and nudge me! Not me?’

The Colonel shook her head. ‘We thought the same,’ she said, ‘But after the, ooh, about the fifth time of it not working, we thought we would try sending back the person who had been warned about their own timeline.’ She smiled gently. ‘It worked,’ she said softly. ‘Well, most times, as with all nudging.’ She looked up at Ella. ‘Obviously, there is always risk, as you know Ella.’

Ella nodded.

‘But on the whole,’ continued the Colonel, ‘we have realised that actually, there is way more success if the warned person nudges themselves within their own timeline.’ She paused and looked over to Ella, who was staring at the carpet, deep in thought. She let the silence linger for a bit.

Ella looked up. ‘I have so many questions!’ she said ruefully. ‘What about, well paradox, and damaging timelines and things?’

The Colonel smiled reassuringly again at Ella as she replied. ‘Its all rubbish actually Ella,’ she said. ‘None of it is true, there is no paradox and people are well able to walk into their own time stream.’

Ella stared, felt her mouth opening. Her stomach lurched uncomfortably once more.

The Colonel continued. ‘But Ella, don’t tell anyone.’ She laughed outright. ‘It’s the only thing keeping people from diving into their own timelines…. imagine the chaos if people did that! Going backwards and forwards, trying to correct mistakes, trying to win the lottery! No thank you’

Ella opened her mouth to speak, and shut it again. What?! She thought. Her sense of things, of the reality that she thought she knew, was taking quite a beating today.

‘Well, how do I find where I need to nudge?’ Ella asked. ‘Normally, we nudge according to exact timelines and observations over decades by all the boffins…’ she laughed, ‘I mean, it’s all scientifically calculated and we have no idea about this…’

‘We think that is why the rabbit appears,’ said the Colonel, nodding in understanding. ‘We have realised that we need to do things differently, and we have found that the rabbit leads the person to the correct place.’

Ella was definitely confused. ‘Why a white rabbit?’ she asked, bewildered.

The Colonel sighed, ‘No idea,’ she said. ‘But we just have to follow the pattern of what has gone before.’ She hesitated a little. ‘Ella, you need to start talking to the rabbit when it appears.’

‘What?’ replied Ella. ‘Talk to it? Talk to the rabbit?’ she stopped abruptly. Then said, ‘Will it talk back?’

‘Apparently, it will,’ the Colonel smiled wryly.

The silence lingered again. The Colonel watched Ella working through things, feeling nothing but sympathy for her.

Ella stirred, ‘What do I do now?’ she asked.

‘Go home Ella’, said the Colonel and stood up. Ella stood also and they shook hands. ‘Go home, and wait for the rabbit, and Ella…’ the Colonel hesitated, ‘Good luck my dear.’

===

Ella felt jittery all day. She went home, travelling on the mini blimp hopper. She was actually desperate for the rabbit to not appear right now. She couldn’t start talking to the darned thing if she was in public could she?

She did think she saw him in the distance at one point, just as she was walking to her front door. But he quickly disappeared.

She made lunch, eating it on the sofa, and watched some TV. But she felt hugely on edge, when would it appear? She kept looking out of the corner of her eye, wondering when he was coming. He was certainly taking his time, she thought. Ha! Time! She laughed at herself. The day dragged on.

The rabbit appeared quite suddenly just as she was curled up on the sofa, in her dressing gown, waiting for a repeat of Lewis to start again. She silenced the sound of the TV as the rabbit looked at her.

‘It’s late Ella,’ said the rabbit looking at her.

‘Hi,’ said Ella hesitantly in response.

The rabbit looked at Ella. ‘You acknowledge me,’

‘Yes,’ replied Ella more firmly this time.

The rabbit tipped its head to the side. ‘There is danger in your life, Ella,’ he stated firmly.

‘What kind of danger?’ replied Ella

‘You may not be all you are meant to be,’ replied the rabbit.

Ella frowned. ‘What do you mean?’ she asked, ‘And why is that dangerous?’

The rabbit looked straight at her. Ella felt like he was looking into and through her. ‘You must be all you are meant to be, that is the way of time,’ he replied sternly. ‘Anything else is a danger for you, for all, and for time.’

Ella felt herself almost laughing at this. ‘I’m not important!’ she said, ‘I’m just a humble soldier doing a little job.’

The rabbit sighed deeply. ‘All are important!’ his voice rising as he said it. ‘All must play their part. You have influence beyond your knowledge, and you must be allowed to have that, for the good of all, and for the good of time.’

He stopped and looked at the bewildered Ella. ‘Do you understand?’ he asked.

Ella shuddered a little. ‘I think so,’ she said. ‘But I don’t really get it,’ she confessed.

The rabbit nodded. ‘Never do,’ he muttered to himself. ‘All are important!’ he exclaimed loudly and determinedly. ‘All have a part to play. Without you, the world would not be what it is. All contribute to that. There is no smallness, no little contribution. All contributions are equal.’

‘Ok…’ said Ella, thinking deeply.

It was true. She had nudged seemingly insignificant people to do tiny things, which had a huge impact on time recovering. She sat and remembered one bizarre job in particular, which had seemed so convoluted at the time, and like some kind of nursery rhyme – like the ‘Old Woman who swallowed the fly’. She and her team had laughed about it.

She had been instructed to encourage the lady of the manor where she was serving as a servant, to give alms to a particular poor man on the side of the road, who took this meagre offering and was able to provide food for his family during a very difficult period, and this led to his daughter being able to survive, and grow into adulthood. In time, she married and was able to bear a daughter who fell in love with a young man who she encouraged to apply to be a servant at the home of a local knight. Friendship grew between the servant and the son of the knight, and it was the servant who supported the son to go with, and fight alongside Simon de Montfort, who succeeded in battle due to the support of men such as the knight’s son. Simon de Montfort essentially became the harbinger and father of the idea of representative government.

And it all began with someone being encouraged to do a tiny act of kindness. Small, small acts which powered larger acts. Everyone contributed to the annals of time. Everyone could have influence. Small influences could become larger as time went by.

Ella sighed again and looked at the rabbit. ‘So what is the problem with me, and why am I causing danger?’ she asked.

‘You love books,’ said the rabbit.

Ella laughed. ‘I do, its true!’ she said in response.

The rabbit nodded. ‘It is a good and wise thing to love books and knowledge,’ he replied. ‘But for you, books are not all there is supposed to be.’

Ella frowned, trying to work things out, not really understanding.

‘You have not joined the gymnastics club,’ said the rabbit.

Ella shook her head. Yep, not really getting it.

The rabbit surely had a look of pure exasperation on his face. ‘Time has altered!’ he said. ‘You are no longer joining the gymnastics club! If you do not join, you do not discover the joy of sport. You do not embrace it. And in the end, you do not become a time soldier, you pursue academics instead.’ He looked sternly at Ella. ‘That is noble of course, but you - you must become a time soldier. It is imperative, for time, for all.’

Ella paused before responding. ‘Why?’ she asked, ‘Why am I not doing that? Not joining the club, I mean. I remember being really excited about it.’

The rabbit frowned again. ‘You must find out and correct it,’ he said. ‘That is your job, to persuade yourself.’

Ella looked at the floor. ‘Ok…,’ she said slowly. She looked at the rabbit again. ‘This really does seem so small, surely I will join the gymnastics club eventually?’

The rabbit actually stamped its foot. Ella almost laughed with nerves, anxious about the anger of the little rabbit, but she stopped herself in time. This was Time remember, she told herself. This is a Big Deal.

‘You must go!’ said the rabbit. ‘You must change things.’

‘Ok, of course,’ Ella felt herself feeling like she was going to babble in response to the rabbit’s anger. She shut her mouth firmly.

The rabbit looked at her, ‘Are you ready?’

‘What?’ replied Ella. ‘Don’t we need to get everything set up with the boffins and stuff… I need to get my uniform ready, get my costumes sorted…’

‘No,’ interrupted the rabbit. ‘We will go now.’ He held out a paw. ‘Come, now.’

Ella looked over, and took the paw.

===

Ella blinked and found herself suddenly in a garden. She looked around in shock and stumbled on the rough grass. How did that happen? The rabbit looked up at her from her side.

‘I will return when time is back on track,’ he said, and disappeared instantly.

Ella shouted, ‘Wait…’ but to no avail; there was no one to respond to her.

She said down roughly on the grass, feeling her stomach flip once more, and her breath coming in tiny gasps. Her heart pounded in her ears. Where was she? What was she supposed to do?

She looked down and realised she was suddenly in blue jeans, and a white t-shirt. How did that happen, she thought to herself. She took some calming breaths, breathing deeply in and out and gradually began to look around. She knew where she was! This was her grandmother’s garden from when she was a child.

It was a beautiful early summer’s day. There was a slight breeze that floated around and lifted her fringe slightly, and the warmth of the sun was lovely, not too hot, but delicious, like a warm bath on her skin. There was a lovely smell of jasmine drifting around, and she caught the faint aroma of freshly mown glass from somewhere.

Her grandmother’s garden seemed smaller than when she was a child, but it was still a great size. She was nearer the bottom of the garden as it sloped gently towards a stream and a long line of trees shushing and moving lazily in the breeze. As she looked around, she could see the edge of the top of the house, but the slope of the garden hid her presence really well and the house was quite a distance really, nothing to worry about.

She put her head up to the sun. She could hear some buzzing away off to the right, and saw some butterflies drifting around. It was incredibly peaceful and still.

Ella felt herself relax. Ok, she knew where she was, it was a lovely day, all was good. Let’s take this a step at a time.

Over in the distance towards the back of a house, she suddenly heard shouts and crying. Suddenly stumbling down the slope, while crying and wailing, came her! Came Ella herself! Ella instantly knew it was herself as a child. She must have been maybe 7 or 8 years of age? Her long blonde hair was meant to be in a pony tail but it had escaped as always, and was a complete state, neither up nor down. She was dressed in a slightly grubby pink top and had blue denim shorts on, and of course, she was barefoot. The little girl was using her entire arm to wipe her nose while she cried and moaned, running blindly down the slope.

‘I don’t want to,’ shouted the little girl over and over, looking over her shoulder ‘leave me alone!’

Ella the adult thought she must hide before someone followed the little girl, but she heard her mother shout out, ‘Eddie, just leave her to have a cry out,’ from the back of the house. And her father quite near, but out of sight, called out, ‘Ella, we will talk in a bit, ok?’

Little Ella dropped to the ground a few metres away from adult Ella, who she hadn’t even seen. She cried and sniffled, rubbing her nose back and fro. Eugh, thought adult Ella, so disgusting!

Little Ella took some calming breaths, just as adult Ella had done so recently. Ella smiled as she watched the little girl try to get her emotions in order. She groped around to the back of her shorts and pulled out a floppy, well worn book, lay on the grass and started to read. Every now and then her breath shuddered a bit, but the reading did help to calm her down.

The two Ellas stayed like this for a while, the older woman watching the little girl as she read and became absorbed into her stories. The weather was so beautiful, peace came again, everything was silent for a while.

After a bit, the little girl turned over and suddenly saw Ella looking at her. She sat up abruptly, her eyes becoming wide.

‘Who are you?’ she demanded.

‘I’m..’ Ella paused. She couldn’t say her real name! ‘I’m a friend,’ she said, ‘A kind of relative.’ The little girl looked at her.

‘What’s your actual name?’ she asked sternly.

Ella smiled. What a fierce little thing she is, she thought. ‘I’m… Verity,’ she replied.

Little Ella laughed! ‘That’s my name!’ she replied, ‘Well, it’s my middle name. I am Ella Verity!’ She scrambled further towards ‘Verity’ and held out her hand. ‘Pleased to meet you,’ she said solemnly. Ella laughed and replied that she was pleased to meet her too.

The two grinned identical grins at each other.

Ella took a breath, and decided to dive straight in, ‘You looked really upset there,’ she said gently.

Little Ella sighed and looked at her hands, twisting her fingers together. ‘They want me to join a club that I said I wanted to go to and I did want to go but I have changed my mind and now I don’t but they don’t understand,’ she said in one long sentence, not taking a breath. She sighed again, not looking up.

‘I’m so sorry,’ said Ella. ‘Will they make you go?’

‘No,’ said the little girl, ‘but I do want to go… but I don’t. Its just really confusing!’ She looked up and Ella caught a glimpse of teary eyes again.

Ella paused and looked at the little grubby face. ‘Would it help to talk about it?’ she asked.

The little girl looked down again. ‘I’m just happy reading really, I don’t need anything else.’ She looked up into Ella’s eyes. ‘I like my book people, they are always kind to me.’

The two sat looking at each other, and then slowly at all the calm beauty around them. The silence lengthened for a bit. How do I get her to talk? thought Ella. And then she replayed little Ella’s words to herself.

She paused, then asked, ‘Do you like your book people so much because other people are not kind to you?’

Little Ella looked down again, and started to quietly cry. Adult Ella rubbed her arm gently, and little Ella folded herself in, the two Ellas were suddenly cuddling together. Ella stroked the little girl’s hair gently.

‘What has happened Ella?’ she asked.

‘I think I like gymnastics,’ she whispered.

Ella waited.

‘But Sienna said she is going,’ said the little girl.

Suddenly Ella understood. She remembered Sienna. Poor Sienna. Now looking back, she understands why she bullied others around her – her family life was hard, poor Sienna was neglected, life was hard for her. But when you are young, you just know people are unkind, and Ella remembered the unkindnesses Sienna meted out on her. The sly digs, the unkind words, nothing physical, just a litany of tiny words that cut deeply.

But hang on! Sienna had left Ella’s life by this time! Is this where time had come off track? Something had happened to stop Sienna leaving for a better life with her grandparents, and little Ella was now reaping the result of that wrong move.

Ella hugged the little girl closer. ‘Is she unkind?’ she asked.

The little girl nodded slowly.

Here we go, thought Ella, this is my nudging…

‘But you really want to go to gymnastics?’ she asked

Little Ella nodded again. ‘But it won’t be fun if Sienna is there,’ she said.

Ella gave her another squeeze, and started to talk about life for Sienna and how it was hard for her. She talked a while about how unfair it was that Sienna was unkind, but that maybe if Ella could learn to understand that life was not as lovely for Sienna as it was for Ella, that might help a little. She spoke softly about how much fun gymnastics was, and how facing something hard so that you could experience the good bits to come was a really good thing to do and really worthwhile. The little girl never questioned Ella’s knowledge of Sienna, and seemed to implicitly trust the adult, and Ella knew that Time was working with her, getting things back on track.

Eventually, the little girl pulled away and looked up.

‘But what do I do if she is unkind?’ she asked simply.

‘Tell your teacher,’ replied Ella promptly, ‘and your mum and dad,’ she said. ‘It’s important that people know when we are unhappy. But it’s also really important that we don’t let things like this stop us from doing things that are valuable to us.’

Little Ella looked down. ‘I need to have A Big Think,’ she said importantly, stood up and started to walk back up the garden. She stopped after a few steps, turned around and gave Ella the biggest grin. Then ran away.

Suddenly the white rabbit was there. Ella jumped but smiled at the rabbit.

‘Did it work then?’ asked Ella.

‘Indeed,’ said the rabbit. ‘You are back on track. Come.’ He beckoned urgently and Ella took the paw again.

She looked down and realised she was in her dressing gown once more, back in her home. The rabbit was nowhere to be seen.

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The next morning, Ella sat in bed, coffee in hand, pondering the previous day’s madness. Did she dream it, did it really happen? She sat back against the headboard and closed her eyes.

And there, suddenly, she saw a succession of memories play before her eyes. Her shock when Sienna told her she was going to start the gymnastics club in September, just when she was going to. Her dad asking why she didn’t want to go to gymnastics anymore, her mum getting exasperated with her. She remembered running down the slope and diving straight into her favourite Chalet School story again, where she felt safe.

And then there it was. The memory of a tall lady with short bobbed blonde hair, eyes as blue as hers, who was called Verity and hugged her until she felt better, and braver, about going to gymnastics again.

Ella opened her eyes and grinned once more. She looked over at her cabinet at the gymnastics medals and trophies, and then over to the wardrobe where her ‘Time Nudgers’ uniform hung ready for the next day. It really had happened.

She lifted her mug in salute, and said out loud ‘Thanks White Rabbit.’ And then she could have sworn she heard just a hint of that little stern voice replying, somewhere off in the distance, ‘You’re welcome’.

Rachel is a wife, mum, and singer. Lover of books and history, and believes Richard didn't kill the boys in the tower.

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