The Choice and the Headless Rabbit

 

What would you think if a headless rabbit showed up just a few feet from your front door? That’s what happened to me this week. Was it a message, a warning? I doubt it, but it was creepy and it made me think of the scene in The Godfather where the guy wakes up with a horse’s head in his bed. After seeing the gruesome sight out my front door window I planned to dispose of him after breakfast. An hour late I passed by the door again and the rabbit was gone! At least I thought it was, but his frozen carcass had moved across the sidewalk and onto the lawn. Of course, that creeped me out even more. I threw on some clothes, got a shovel and a plastic bag to get the rabbit. Using my CSI skills acquired from watching TV, I figured out something tried to drag the poor thing off and either got scared off from its mission or it wasn’t strong enough to take it any farther. Damn, it left a blood stain the size of the missing head on my cement. I wonder how long that’s going to take to dissipate.

Aside from the dead rabbit it’s been a good week. I can usually say that when it’s time for my monthly Movie and Lunch Club to meet. This month we saw the The Choice, based on a Nicholas Sparks book by the same name. IDMd’s summary says this about the storyline: “Travis and Gabby first meet as neighbors in a small coastal town and wind up in a relationship that is tested by life's most defining events.” And, indeed, it was tested in the heart-string tugging way so common in Sparks’ stories. The romance was full of predictable sentimentality and I loved the first line spoken: “Now pay attention, because I’m about to tell you the secret of life.” But it wasn’t easy for Travis’ good ol’ boy drawl to win me over. Although given the fact that it didn’t win Gabby over at first, either, I guess the casting choice of Benjamin Walker for that part was right on point. By the time he threw out the line, “Why do you make it so hard to flirt with you?” and Gabby replied, “if I made it easy you won’t flirt anymore” I was starting to like the guy. Gabby did, too, because seconds later they were having sex on the kitchen table. I must be getting old because while their lovemaking was more ‘sweet’ than ‘cave-man’ with enough skin shown to make it interesting without being x-rated all I could think about how cold that antique porcelain topped table must have been. 

I won’t be a spoiler just yet. Instead I’ll share some snide words from the RogerEbert.com review: “Another year, another return to the daffy romantic outpost of Sparks-landia, a place that often claims to be on the North Carolina coast but one where logic does not apply, fate is more fickle than usual and every nature shot feels like a photoshopped postcard.” Okay, I agree the coastal scenes made me want to step into the movie screen for a dip in the ocean or to sit in the Adirondack chairs to watch the sunsets and the movie was a “daffy” romance but sometimes that’s exactly what you’re in the mood to see. Predictable can be good and there is nothing wrong with lasting love portrayed in fiction from time to time. God knows there isn’t enough of that in real life. That said, I’m not a huge Nicholas Sparks fan but the movie didn’t deserve to be kicked around just because it’s not Citizen Kane. I’ve got to quit reading at RogerEbert.com!

Now for the spoiler alert: Nicholas Sparks’ books/movies always have an obstacle---a plot device---that keeps the characters apart. In The Choice that obstacle was a 12 week coma and a decision on when to pull the plug on the ventilator. (How many of us widows can identify with that choice? I can.) Most of the thirteen ladies in our club were crying by the time the movie got to that part and they were passing a pack of Kleenex down the row. I didn’t cry because I knew Sparks usually delivers a happy ending. I did, however, get a lump in my throat wondering if he broke suit in this story. He didn't.

We saw this film at a theater we rarely go, in the small town where Don grew up, for the cut-rate of $5.00. Then we went to a local tavern for baskets of the best fried fish I’ve probably had in my entire life and that was only $5.00! For ten bucks and a tip it was a great bargain day of entertainment. And going to that town spoke to me in a way I can't describe. Maybe it was the romance we'd just seen combined with the memories made in that town but I felt close to Don that day, kind of warm and fussy inside...until I got home and saw the blood stain by my front door again.

I decided to google the term, “headless rabbit on the doorstep.” I didn’t expect Google to turn up much of anything with such a long search term but I got 20,000 hits! I kid you not. I only went to three websites when I ran across this---and I quote---“There are plenty of animals that are crazy for bunny brains.” Crazy for bunny brains! Gross! I ruled out coyotes and raccoons because I’ve never seen any running around here. But red-tailed hawks and great horned owls are not uncommon in my yard so I guess I won’t need to call my local CSI to investigate. Did I mention earlier this is the second headless rabbit I’ve found in the yard? I found one last spring as well. Darn hungry birds! I'll never look at my hawks and owls the same way again. ©

Favorite line from the movie: 

"Some choices will effect every moment for the rest of your life."