The Hare and the Great Thump

Hare found a cool patch beneath a palm. The afternoon had been warm, and he had spent it searching for tender grass along the forest edge. Now his paws were tired.

He turned once in the shade, moved a scratchy twig and lay down with his ears resting along his back. Behind him, dry palm leaves had gathered in a hollow. Above them hung several heavy coconuts.

Hare watched a beetle climb over a root. The beetle slipped, tried again and reached the other side. Hare’s eyes began to close. All around him, the forest went about its ordinary afternoon.

A breeze moved the palm leaves. One ripe coconut loosened, fell and landed in the dry hollow behind Hare.

Thump!

Hare sprang to his feet. He had been almost asleep, and the sudden sound seemed enormous. Leaves crackled beneath him. His heart beat fast.

“The ground is breaking!” he cried.

He ran before turning to look. Roots and ferns flashed past as he hurried towards the wider path. Behind him, the coconut sat exactly where it had landed. The tree was standing. The ground had not moved. But Hare was already too far away to see any of that.

Another hare saw him running. “What happened?”

“The ground is breaking near the palms!”

The second hare hurried after him. At the next bend, Deer heard their warning and joined them.

“Who told you?” Deer called.

“Hare!” answered the second hare, pointing ahead.

Soon Elephant stepped onto the path. He saw Deer running and heard the same frightening words. He followed too, keeping his great feet clear of the smaller animals.

Each newcomer thought somebody ahead had seen the danger. Hare heard the feet behind him and grew more certain that something terrible must be following them. Nobody had looked back.

Lion was resting beside a grassy hill when the animals came into view. He stood up, but kept well away from their path.

“There is open ground here,” he called. “You have room to stop.”

Deer slowed first. The hares took a few more bounds, then stopped beside him. Elephant came to a halt behind them. Everyone was breathing hard.

“The earth is breaking!” said Deer.

Lion looked towards the palms. He saw trees standing and birds flying as usual.

“Where did it begin?” he asked.

The animals looked at one another. They had all been running, and none had kept track of where the news began.

“Did you see the ground break?” Lion asked Elephant.

“Deer told me.”

Deer shook his head. “I heard it from the hares.”

The second hare pointed gently towards the first. At last everyone was looking at Hare. He wished he could make himself smaller.

“I heard a great thump behind me,” he whispered.

“And what did you see?”

Hare thought back to the shade, the beetle and the sudden noise. “I did not look.”

Lion lowered himself onto the grass. “That sound frightened you. We can go and see what made it.”

Hare’s ears lifted a little. “Will you come with me?”

“Yes.”

The others waited on the open grass. Hare and Lion walked back through the forest, much more slowly than Hare had run.

At a fallen branch, Hare stopped. Lion stopped too.

“We can look from here first,” he said.

Hare listened. A bird called. Leaves moved in the breeze. He could hear nothing chasing them.

They went on. Hare recognized a fern he had rushed past, then the twisted root beside his sleeping place. The palm stood straight ahead.

“That is where I was,” he said.

Lion waited while Hare decided to take the final few steps. Together they approached from the side.

Nothing had swallowed the palm. There was no great crack beside the root. Hare pressed one paw onto the ground. It felt firm.

Behind his sleeping place lay a coconut, half buried in dry leaves. A fresh mark showed where it had landed.

Lion looked up at the tree, then down at the hollow. “Was the sound behind you?”

Hare nodded.

“Here?”

“Yes. Just there.”

Hare walked around the coconut. It was ordinary and brown, with a loose piece of fibre sticking out. He had seen many like it before. Now he began to understand what he had heard.

“May I move it?” Lion asked.

Hare stepped aside. “I am ready.”

Lion rolled the coconut gently onto another patch of dry leaves. They crackled, and the coconut made a small, dull thump.

Hare’s ears twitched, but he could see what had happened this time.

“That was the sound,” he said. “Only much louder when it fell.”

He sat down and let out a long breath. “I made everyone run.”

“You were frightened,” Lion said. “Now you have found out more. We should tell them.”

Hare looked towards the path. He wanted to hide under his palm, but the others were still waiting for news.

When they returned, Elephant was still beside the hill. Deer and the second hare got up to meet them.

“The ground is safe,” Hare said. “A coconut fell onto dry leaves. I heard it, but I did not look before I ran.”

The second hare rubbed one tired paw. “I did not look either.”

“Nor did I,” said Deer.

Nobody laughed. They had all been afraid. Elephant reached for a mouthful of grass, and the others began to relax.

They chose their paths home. This time, Hare could hear separate footsteps instead of a crowd running behind him. Lion walked with him as far as the palm grove.

Hare chose a new resting place a little beyond the hanging coconuts. He could still see his palm, the root and the dry hollow.

“Goodnight,” Lion said.

“Thank you for coming back with me.”

When Lion had gone, something rustled near Hare’s paw. His ears rose. He looked. The beetle was making its way through a leaf.

Hare watched until it reached the root, then settled his chin on his paws. A bird called once overhead. Far away, Elephant brushed through the grass on his way home. Hare knew those sounds. He closed his eyes and rested. The end.