Never Doubt The Rabbit

One day a fluffy little bunny called Doubt was hopping down a city side walk. Hop hop went the little fuzzy cute widdle bunny. She stopped for a second and looked up inquiringly at a tall building, twitching her nose as she did so.

It was so TALL. Doubt, this was the bunnie’s name, had never seen such a tall building before. She was so used to the grassy green country-side with its tall strong oaks and small maples. The city was far too hard and cold to make a proper burrow, in which to spend the night in. She had to come here though, not by choice. All little bunnies must one day learn that there is a world outside of their comfortable burrow. Doubt raised herself up on her hind legs to get a better view of the front of the building. On the first floor was a vegetarian restaurant. Hop hop hop hop went Doubt until she was peering into a glass window-pane. She could see large humans walking about. One of them was walking into the restaurant right then and there, so Doubt slipped between their legs and slid into the restaurant.

The hostess noticed the strange sable rabbit with the intelligent looking eyes staring at her and couldn’t help but actually address it “Hello there, how may I help you?” the hostess said with wide looking eyes.

“I’m here for that quality control job that was listed in the Herald Times.” The small sable rabbit responded.

“My, but you’re such a small rabbit!” she exclaimed, “I doubt you could even hold a stick of celery in your paws.”

“harump!” went Doubt. “We’ll see about that! Let me speak to your manager!”

“Yes ma’am….sir….little rabbit.” the confused hostess exclaimed, and walked off at a brisk pace towards the back of the store.

Anon, a jolly looking man in a white chef’s outfit came walking up towards the front of the restaurant. “My deepest apologies for my Hostess,” he murmured most politely “We aren’t used to getting country bunny applicants to our fine gourmet restaurant.”

“I should believe not!” said Doubt in a very firm voice “but I am confident in my abilities and do not doubt that you would make a mistake in hiring me.”

The chef gave Doubt a long and thoughtful look “well, come on then! To the back with you! We’ll see how you do for the remaining of this evening, a test-run if you will.” he smiled politely, nodding his head, kneeling with his hand outstretched. The little rabbit hopped onto his hand, and was whisked away to the back room.

“Here is our kitchen!” the chef said with a proud flourish of his free hand. The little bunny gasped. It was quite a large kitchen, with many utensils hanging from the ceilings and lower level chefs cutting and dicing a million different things.

The chef placed Doubt down gently on a counter upon which was a selection of greenery saying to her “As our quality control personel, I expect you to be able to select only the freshest of greenery for our clientel. Understand?” The little bunny nodded with a smile on her face and got to work sorting the browning greenery from the freshest ones.

She had been at it quite awhile, her paws getting sore, when all of a sudden the top chef burst into the kitchen.

“The Mayor of the city is here!” he whispered in an urgent tone. "He wants celery soup, but, it’s not on our menu and no one here has been trained to prepare it!"

There was a worried murmuring amongst the chefs in the kitchen. What were they to do? If it wasn’t prepared properly, the mayor would surely never return.

“My mother taught me how to make a delicious celery soup! We have it once a week back at the burrow!” a small but strong voice cried out.

Heads turned in the kitchen to see who had said this, it was Doubt.

“You! You must prepare this soup!” the head chef said vociferously, striding towards Doubt. “I’ll give you the run of my staff. They will help you in this preparation. Now, don’t dawdle, it must be prepared at once!” and with this the chef turned to hover anxiously over the creation of a loaf of bread.

Doubt hopped onto a stool. “LISTEN EVERYONE! I NEED 3 quarts of chicken stock, 3 pounds celery, coarsely chopped, ½ pound carrots, julienned, ½ pound onions chopped, 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 table spoon of salt, 1 teaspoon ground white pepper 3 quarts hot milk and 1 cup of margarine. Oh, and I need a Pot and spoon too!”

The kitchen staff began running around shuffling through cuboards and hurriedly opening drawers trying to find the ingriedients. Doubt was placed in front of a pot, and the chicken stock was poured in. Doubt slowly stirred this until it came to a boil. Mmmm it smelled like home already. Then, in went the celery, carrots and onion. Doubt kept stirring slowly, the aroma reaching her twitching nose. The flour, salt, pepper and milk were whisked together under her direction and then slowly added to the soup pot as well. She stirred it at boiling for 10 minutes and then carefully had the vegetables strained out of the mixture.

“Voila!” she cried. “My mama’s soup is done!”

The head chef came hurrying over. “My does that smell simply delicious!” he exclaimed, clearly pleased. “Lets take a bowlful out to the mayor at once!

Doubt poured a steaming ladleful of the soup into a ceramic bowl, and it was whisked away through the swinging kitchen doors.

“whew!” doubt thought. “This is a long ways away from my country burrow. I sure miss it….and I sure hope the mayor likes my mama’s celery soup.”

A minute passed….then 2.….5...10.…

“Where is the chef that made this?!” a disembodied voice exclaimed. “I must meet them!”

Doubt nudged her way through the swinging doors and hopped towards the loud bellowing voice, only to find that it was the mayor. Hop Hop Hop went Doubt over to his table “ ‘twas I who made this soup. It was a family recipe.”

The mayors eyes widened in surprise “Why, hello there little rabbit! It was you that made this soup??? Well, I must admit, this is the best celery soup I’ve ever had! I’ve been to restaurants all over the city, and none of the celery soups were as tasty as this one. How would you like to be my personal chef?”

Doubt could not believe it. She had come here, trying to find a simple job as a quality control staff bunny, but here was the mayor of this grand city offering her the position of chef for him and his family.

“Yes!….YES! I would love that!” Doubt squeaked happily.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since then, Doubt has aged a few years, she has aquired a nice little burrow in the Mayor’s back yard, some of her fur has gone gray, but you can still see her, a few times a week, hovering over a pot of her Mama’s Celery Soup in a nice homely kitchen.

So, trust not your eyes the next time you see a little rabbit, even though they may appear small & inexperienced, doesn’t mean they wont slip around your legs, into your kitchen and into your heart.

Never Doubt The Rabbit.

(Mama Doubt's Celery Soup Recipe: http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/cream-of-c...tail.aspx)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------