Hazel
Part 5
Bunny
With Wings
My
parents sent me a plane ticket to come home for spring break. They
didn’t know about Hazel. I’d had her a month but I wasn’t very
good about writing letters home.
I
knew that a week was too long to leave her alone and I already had
the ticket so I figured I’d better bring her home with me. I just
didn’t know how I was supposed to take a rabbit on a plane.
I
didn’t want to chance putting her in a box and checking her. I
didn’t know if they pressurized the luggage compartment I’d seen
the way the baggage handlers threw things around. I would have to
take her as a carry on.
I had
a suitcase and two knapsacks. The suitcase was too big for a carry
on and I needed it to pack things in but the knapsacks were limp and
they’d be confining for Hazel.
I
went out to the trash room where most of my best ideas came from.
There were several boxes there including a thick walled one that
looked about the right size to fit under an airplane seat.
Would
they even let me bring a rabbit on board the plane?
They
had to, I decided. People travel all the time. A lot of people must
bring their pets along. I’d never seen a pet on a flight but I’d
only flown four or five times and that included Nana’s funeral when
I was only eleven and not paying too much attention.
Still,
I wasn’t sure if they’d give me trouble. Maybe they wouldn’t
even notice if I could make things less obvious than a box with holes
punched in it.
The
larger of my knapsacks stretched over the box without any room to
spare. It was as if they were made for each other. Hazel’s lucky
rabbit feet held great sway over my dorm’s trash room.
I
removed a side of the box that matched the mouth of the knapsack. I
could close the knapsack with the flap but Hazel would still get air
through the canvas.
Al
had gotten a new used car but refused to loan it out. I couldn’t
really blame him but I needed a ride to the airport.
Karl,
whose position as Hazel’s Uncle had improved his social life, was
able to borrow a car and volunteered to drive us. I lined the
knapsack box heavily with newspaper both to catch her urine and to
make it more comfortable for her.
This
time there was no rabbit urine on the car seat.
As I
walked up to the airline desk, Carl had that same smile on his face
that he had the night Miles met Hazel. He thought I was in trouble
and I was starting to agree with him. They had to let pets ride on
airplanes but would they just let me carry her on?
“Good
morning sir!”
“Good
morning.”
I
handed the agent my ticket.
“Do
you have any bags to check?”
“Yeah,
I have this suit case and I’d like to carry on these two
knapsacks.”
“Oh,
I’m sorry, Sir. We limit you to only one carry on per flight.”
My
knapsack hopped.
“Sir,
is there an animal in there?”
I
opened the flap and Hazel peeked out.
“Isn’t
that an adorable bunny! I’m afraid that’s not an approved animal
carrier though. We can rent you one for twenty two dollars or sell
you one for fifty.”
I had
six bucks.
Karl
searched his pockets. “I’ve got eighteen.”
Whew!
“And
then, of course, you’ll need a ticket.”
“There’s
my ticket.”
“Yes,
but you’ll need a ticket for your pet. Let’s see, you’re going
to Logan airport? That’s one hundred twenty seven dollars round
trip or eighty three one way.”
Karl
stopped smiling. Seeing your friend get in trouble is fun but he
liked Hazel almost as much as I did. Besides, his last three dates
were with women he got to know with her assistance.
“I
can take her back to school but I’m leaving for home tomorrow.”
“We
don’t have enough money,” I told the ticket agent.
“Do
you have a credit card?”
“No.”
“I’m
sorry, sir. I can’t let to take the rabbit into the cabin with
you. It’s against regulations.”
I
tried to check my smaller knapsack but the ticket agent must have
guessed I was going to try to smuggle Hazel aboard and refused. I
was stuck with an extra carry on and no way to get Hazel to
Massachusetts.
“Are
you still flying today, sir?”
“Yeah,
I’m going.”
She
looked at me suspiciously. She had reason to. I knew I had to try
to smuggle Hazel on and I’ve never had a good poker face.
After
she handed me my seat assignment, Karl and I left the counter.
“What
are you going to do?”
“Go
outside and let her go,” I said. I said it loud enough to let the
ticket agent hear. I didn’t think she’d buy it but if she warned
the flight crew, we were sunk.
“Oh
man!” At least Karl was convincing. He believed me.
When
we got back to the car, I began going through my smaller knapsack
picking out things I had to have and putting them in my pockets.
“Karl,
will you take this knapsack back with you.”
“Sure,
what are you going to do?”
“Smuggle
Hazel on the plane.”
“You
can’t do that. You heard the ticket agent. You could get in
serious trouble.”
“I
don’t think they’ll send me to prison for bunny smuggling.
Besides, when did you ever worry about me getting in trouble?”
Karl’s
smile returned. “I can’t believe you’re doing this.”
“I
don’t see that I have much choice.”
When
I went back into the terminal, there was a different agent at the
desk. Was that good news or bad? The agent at the desk had no
reason to suspect the knapsack I was carrying but was the other one
away because she was reporting me?
Karl
looked nervous.
“I
think I’m going to go.” I guess he didn’t want to really see
me get in trouble.
“OK,
thanks.”
“Yeah,
good luck.”
I
headed for the gate.
There
was something new. In the late seventies they started x-raying all
the carry-on bags before people got to the departure gates. I looked
to see if there was a way around it. There didn’t seem to be.
Maybe,
I could walk around on the outside and get in that way.
That
would look pretty suspicious and they probably had chain link fences
to keep people from doing that. I didn’t see any other options.
Do
x-rays hurt rabbits? I’d had x-rays at the dentist office and when
I broke my arm. Were these any worse? I hoped not.
I
stood in line, holding my knapsack to my chest. There were seven or
eight people in front of me.
I
mumbled into my knapsack. “Hazel, you’re going to have to stay
perfectly still.”
I
don’t know if anyone heard me. College kids tend to be a bit
strange anyway, maybe they just thought I was talking to myself.
I
laid the knapsack carefully, flat side down on the conveyor belt. I
should have been scared but I was actually pretty excited. I rushed
ahead so I could see the screen as Hazel passed through.
The
luggage screener didn’t seem surprised that I was watching the
screen so closely. It was a new thing; probably a lot of people ran
up to see. The novelty had evidently worn off for her. She looked
so bored; I half expected to hear snoring.
Her
expression changed when my knapsack came into view. The two bags
before had been a mish-mash of confusing images. I’d been able to
make out a pair of scissors in one bag but everything else was just
non-descript shades of gray.
There
was no question about what was in my bag. There was a rabbit clear
as a bell and nothing else.
She
stopped the belt and I held my breath. She looked over at me and I
tried to smile casually. Thankfully, the x-ray didn’t show a
beating heart, a skeleton or any interior organs. It was just a
bunny and to my eyes at least, there was no way to distinguish Hazel
from any stuffed bunny you might find in the toy department. Her
pose was the same with her front paws evenly before her chin and her
hind legs folded beneath her. Her tail was up and her ears were
back. And she wasn’t moving, not an ear twitch, not a whisker, she
didn’t even look like she was breathing.
The
screener was not at all bored now. The expression on her face was so
confused it was hilarious. My adrenaline was running high and every
cell of my body wanted to laugh out loud. Hazel was doing her job
but I was going to blow it! I bit the insides of my cheeks and tried
to breathe normally.
The
screener looked at Hazel about twenty seconds though it seemed much
longer to me. Other than her shape, she showed no sign of being a
live bunny. The screener hit the belt control and Hazel didn’t
even jump then. She just placidly rolled to the end of the belt
where I picked her up and tried to keep from laughing.
I
practically floated to the departure gate. Though I’d feared the
flight crew only ten minutes before, after the luggage x-ray, I had
complete confidence in Hazel.
I got
on the plane and found my seat without the slightest
self-consciousness. I had the window seat and I put Hazel’s
knapsack on the floor between my legs.
A
woman in her thirties sat next to me. It occurred to me that we were
pretty tightly packed on the plane. A lot of people are allergic to
animal fur. Was I condemning a fellow passenger to a miserable trip?
“You’re
not allergic to rabbits are you?”
She
looked a bit confused by my question. “Not that I know of.”
I had
to put Hazel under the seat for take off but pulled her knapsack up
into my lap as soon as the seatbelt light went off. Her nose pushed
up around the flap of the knapsack. The air couldn’t have been
good in there.
“Oh
my!”
My
neighbor saw the nose.
“Would
you like to meet Hazel?”
“You
actually brought a rabbit on the plane?”
I was
glad she kept her voice down. We were in the air but I could still
get in trouble if the flight crew learned of her.
I
unfastened the flap but Hazel stayed in the box while we were in
flight. My neighbor helped me keep watch for flight attendants and
even shared some of her salad. Hazel gratefully accepted the lettuce
and even the carrots though I knew they weren’t her favorite. I
guess stress will make a bunny hungry.
Mom
was waiting at the gate when I arrived.
“Is
Dad here?”
“He’s
parking the car.”
“I
have someone I want you to meet.”
Mom
looked around at the people nearby. She must have thought I was
bringing a girlfriend home.
My
neighbor from the flight smiled and waved. My mother looked
concerned. The woman was nearly twice my age.
“No
Mom.” I walked a few steps away from the gate with all the airline
personnel and undid the flap of my knapsack. Hazel popped her head
out.
“Oh
my goodness!”
“Mom,
meet Hazel.”
