Hop Along...

"Good night, sleep tight, and remember tomorrow is rabbit day!" 

With that her mother kissed her on the forehead and left the room. 

Remember tomorrow is rabbit day. Remember. Remember. 

She tried to stop thinking about it and go to sleep. She closed her eyes and her mind kept replaying rabbit, rabbit over and over on a loop. 

What if she forgot? Would her father lose his job? She had overheard her mother talking to her aunt about it. That if he got laid off she wasn't sure what they would do. Maybe she could take on a second job at night for a while but then she would never see the family. Her aunt told her that she was worrying about tomorrow's problems today and she should stop that. 

What if her mother lost her job instead? What if they both lost their jobs? 

What if someone got sick? Or broke a leg? Or the house burned down?

Rabbit, rabbit. Remember tomorrow is rabbit day. 

She hadn't remembered in May and that was the month that her best friend moved away. Her father had gotten laid off and had to find a new job in a different state. All of their summer plans were gone before they even had a chance to get started.

And Julia was miserable in New Mexico. It was much hotter than Michigan and there were no lakes nearby. Nobody had a lake house. Nobody even knew anybody with a lake house. She had gone to a pool party at their neighbors house and gotten so sunburned she blistered. She said it was like the surface of the sun there and it had only been June, by the time it was August she said it was even hotter and they had to go back to school already. 

Tomorrow is rabbit day. She'd already ruined Julia's life she needed to be careful. 

She had thought about leaving herself a note but was pretty sure that would be cheating. That it only worked if you remembered on your own. 

Rabbit, rabbit. Tomorrow was rabbit day. 

She laid awake for a long time worrying about all of the things that could go wrong if she forgot. All of the things that had gone wrong when she had forgotten. She couldn't remember anything really lucky from times she had remembered but maybe she wasn't a lucky person and just to be normal like everyone else she had to do everything to insure she was lucky. Pick up pennies, though you didn't really find many pennies laying around. Find four leaf clovers, she had known someone who found one of those. Make wishes on the first star of the night. Keep your birthday wishes secret so they would come true and never wish for something selfish. Fingers crossed for luck everyday. Three turns around when coming home from a trip to confuse any bad juju that attached to you. Knock on wood. She did every lucky thing she heard about and a few that she made up herself.

Rabbit, rabbit. Tomorrow was rabbit day. 

She wasn't sure if she'd get any sleep at all tonight. And maybe that would be best. If she just stayed up until midnight. Would that count? Technically midnight was tomorrow. But if she didn't go to sleep it wouldn't be the first thing she said, she had already said a lot of things today. So she thought she had to sleep for it to count. Had to sleep, had to remember without notes. Had to say it before saying anything else. 

Rabbit, rabbit, Tomorrow was rabbit day. 

In the living room her mother and aunt were talking. 

"Did you tell her to remember it was rabbit day?"

"I did. Do you remember how fun that was when we were kids? Say rabbit, rabbit the first day of the month before you say anything else and you'll have good luck all month. I loved trying to remember and the few times that I did I was so excited to see what lucky thing would happen."

"Oh, god, not me. I hated it. It would stress me out. I felt like if I didn't remember then I was responsible for all of the bad things that happened. There are still times as I'm falling asleep that I think about it."

"Really? Well I'm sure Rebeccah realizes it's just a silly game. I'll have to try and remember to ask her in the morning."

"Good luck with that. Rabbit rabbit leaves your head as soon as you sleep after all."