Zipper

2

"Hoppy?" Emmy called out.

She looked around the park and saw a few more kids, but none of them had Hoppy in their hands. She looked for Kat, who was sitting on the bench nearest the car, reading the book she always kept in her purse. No Hoppy sitting beside her, patiently waiting for Emmy.

"Hoppy!" she called a little louder.

Not far behind the slide, there was some tall weeds and trees. The weeds were probably tall enough to tickle Emmy's elbows if she ran through them. She was studying them closely, trying to make any shapes out that might be Hoppy, when she saw the weeds move as if a breeze had touched only that part. Someone giggled playfully. Were they laughing at her? They must have Hoppy, and they're watching her look everywhere for him, the way she watched, in giggle fits as daddy would look for his glasses when they were clasped right on the collar of his shirt. It's not funny when Emmy was the one doing the looking.

"Hey!" Emmy said. "Give him back!"

Nobody said anything, but Emmy heard the giggle again. The weeds moved from farther away this time, a gentle sway that seemed like it could be a ball rolling around. She looked back over toward the bench and saw Kat still reading. If something bad was in there, if she was to scream in terror, Kat would look up, run to get her. But whoever had Hoppy just seemed like they wanted to play. If she screamed, they might get in trouble. She didn't want to get them into trouble, she just wanted to get Hoppy back.

"Come on, give him back," Emmy said as she went to the edge of the weeds.

"Come get us!" a sing-songy voice replied. It was high pitched sort of like Kat's.

"You shouldn't go into the woods," Emmy said, repeating what Kat had told her before. "There could be snakes or you could get lost."

"No ssssnakes here, and I'm not lost. Are you lost?" the voice said. "It's just a little ways in. It's too hot out there, it's cooler in here. Hoppy likes it."

Who was that and how did she know what Hoppy likes? Emmy was the only one that Hoppy would talk to. She felt a little hurt. Why was Hoppy talking to someone Emmy didn't know? She looked at Kat again and then back to the weeds and plunged forward.

She heard the giggle.

The weeds gave easily as she pushed through them. She kept an eye out for snakes, but found the ground much safer than she expected.

"We're over here!" the voice sang, it was so much like Kat's.

Emmy pushed through and then the trees started, and the grass got smaller. She stopped and looked around. Nothing but trees. She heard the giggle come from the right and when she looked, she saw some pink poking out from behind a tree trunk, eye-level with her.

"Hoppy!" Emmy cried.

She ran forward, her pink and white sneakers pounding on the uneven ground, and grabbed the bunny by the ear. She tugged, the hand tugged as someone behind the tree kept giggling. She really had a grip on him, Emmy pulled with all her might and--

POP

Out came Hoppy and the person holding him.

Emmy gasped and let go of Hoppy.

She looked a lot like Kat! But she was also not like Kat, Emmy noticed. Kat had tan skin and this person's skin was pale. Chalky. But then again, she was wearing face paint and her eyes were smeared with a lot of black, so maybe that made her skin look lighter in comparison. Also she didn't seem to like being hot, as she mentioned earlier, so she probably didn't go in the sun much. She still had the black paint on her fingers, the skin parts of her bare arms pale. Her clothes weren't like any clothes that Kat had. It was a dress, red and sleeveless with zippers here and there in strange places and her legs were covered with red and black tights. Her shoes were black and flat with zippers on the side. One of her zippers was broken.

"Don't you want him?" not mommy asked--that's what Emmy was thinking of her as.

She had a smile that was like Kat's, except it didn't feel like Kat's to Emmy. Kats smile was in her eyes like sunshine...but non mommy's smile left her eyes blank.

"Who are you?" Emmy asked. Did she know Kat?

"You can call me Zipper," she said.

"Zipper?" repeated Emmy curiously. "Why? You like zippers?"

It made sense, because she was wearing a lot of zippers.

"Well, yeah, kind of," she said. "Don't you? They make a fun sound!"

Zipper dropped Hoppy and grabbed two different zips on her dress, zipping them back and forth. They sounded cool, and she made a rhythm of it, dancing around in a circle. It made Emmy want to dance too and she joined in.

Then Zipper stopped and so did Emmy when she heard Zipper mumbling. Concerned, she stopped twirling and looked at Zipper, whose mouth had suddenly become wider and zipped shut. She ripped the zip open and shouted "ta-da!"

Startled, Emmy fell backward on her bottom. It hurt a lot, particularly on one specific spot on her right side. She'd hit a rock or something. She started crying, because it kept stinging. In moments, she felt herself being swooped up into a firm grasp.