I took a breath. “His name is Mr. Bunny. He belonged to my daughter.”
Lily reached out and touched the rabbit’s crooked ear.
“I know you had a daughter.” She said it carefully. “But I never knew her name.”
“It was Josie.”
Lily whispered it back, testing it. “Josie.”
I told her how Josie carried him everywhere, even into the bathtub, and loved him so hard that his fur wore off.
“But I never knew her name.”
Lily was quiet, leaning on my shoulder.
Then she asked the question she actually needed.
“So… you’re still my mommy?”
“Yes.”
I said the word before she’d finished her sentence.
She melted against me. A moment later she looked at the rabbit again, and her voice went soft.
“So… you’re still my mommy?”
“Will you tell me about Josie?”
So I did. I started with the way Josie sang off-key in the car, and how she wouldn’t eat anything green unless Mr. Bunny went first.
Lily stroked him gently the whole time, like she was comforting him.
He’d come a long way to get here.
But finally, he’d come home, to me, like Josie wanted.
Lily stroked him gently the whole time, like she was comforting him.
