The Great Rabbit Revenge Plan by Burkhard Spinnen Page A

her throat and waves it at the Konrads. ‘Goodbye, cruel world!’ she rasps. ‘Do me a favour. Tell the graveyard rabbits not to dig in my grave.’ Then she lets herself drop, stiff as an iron bar, in among the boxes.
    But she’s back on her feet again within seconds.
    â€˜What did you think of that?’ she says.
    But she doesn’t get an answer. The two Konrads have fallen on the floor with laughter. And they are still lying there, tears running down their cheeks, gasping for breath.
    â€˜Hey,’ says Fridz, ‘what’s all this hanging about? We have work to do. The rabbit has to go in the box.’
    The old Konrad, the sensible one, gets his breath back first.
    â€˜What?’ he says. He expects the worst – and he expects right.
    â€˜You have to help me,’ says Fridz.
    â€˜I can’t!’
    Oops! Who said that? Sentences like ‘I can’t’ are strictly forbidden, especially in front of girls.
    Punishment comes, as deserved.
    â€˜Don’t get your knickers in a twist,’ says Fridz. ‘Here, look!’
    She takes the box, its bow now a bit more crooked, and presses it into the Konrads’ hands. The box has a flap on the side, which looks as if it has been cut with a pair of shears. Fridz opens the flap and closes it.
    â€˜See?’ she says. ‘You hold the flap of the box open. Giant in. Flap closed. You can manage that much. Let’s go. We haven’t got much time. Henri will be back in half an hour.’
    What can he do? Nothing, of course. To be on the safe side, the old Konrad gives the new one, the adventurous one, the bright red box – and two minutes later there he is, in front of the hutch, helping Fridz to take her revenge on her father’s girlfriend.
    â€˜Keep still, would you!’ says Fridz. She does not, however, mean the Konrads, even though their hands are pretty shaky. She means the rabbit, who apparently has got wind of what’s going on, and who is therefore not going to let himself be caught.
    â€˜I am keeping still,’ says the new Konrad, because he can’t see anything from behind the box.
    â€˜I don’t mean you,’ says Fridz.
    And now she has nabbed the last Flemish Giant.
    â€˜Flap open!’ she cries.
    The new Konrad holds the flap open as wide as it goes. His eyes, however, he keeps shut. And when he notices how heavy the box suddenly gets, and how at the same time it starts to rumble inside, he panics a bit.
    â€˜Close flap!’ calls Fridz.
    But the new Konrad can’t do it. The best he can manage is not to let this ton weight of a creaking box fall.
    Fridz says something unrepeatable and closes the flap herself. She takes a big roll of sticky tape out of her pocket and a huge pair of scissors, and she uses a couple of pieces of sticky tape to stick the flap together so tightly that a dozen rabbits couldn’t get it open. At least, that’s what she says as she finishes doing the sticking.
    â€˜You can put it down now.’
    Which the new but no longer quite so adventurous Konrad is delighted to do.
    â€˜But only for a quick breather,’ says Fridz. ‘We have to go immediately.’
    â€˜Where are we going?’
    â€˜Well, where do you think? To the post office, of course.’
    Now even the new Konrad protests vigorously. ‘Not to the post office!’ he cries.
    â€˜Why not?’
    Why not? Why not! How could he even begin to explain? Heavens above! Send a rabbit in a box by post! First of all, there is no way the post people will allow it. And secondly they would be perfectly right, because it would be pure cruelty to animals.
    â€˜What do you mean, cruelty to animals?’ says Fridz, kicking the box. ‘He’s got space in there. And if you think it’s necessary, I can make a few air holes.’ She’s already holding the giant scissors over the box.
    â€˜It’s no use!’ Konrad is all worked up.