ADVANCED (C1) LEVEL STORY
The real story of the Easter Bunny
Do you know the Easter Bunny?
Have you heard of Peter Pan?
Can you imagine how the two are related?
Have you heard of Peter Pan?
Can you imagine how the two are related?
Just as Christmas has Santa Claus, Easter has the Easter Bunny. Just as Santa carries a sack full of presents, the Easter Bunny hops along with a basket of chocolate eggs. You don’t have to be good to receive your egg: he is morally
heart sank.
What a strange character he is. Why should a giant, fluffy, pink bunny have this job? Why eggs? Why chocolate? The truth is a lot more disturbing than you might imagine–the Easter Bunny is not the innocent friend you may at first believe.
The story starts with a fresh, young fairy called Tinker Bell. As with all fairies, she was one hundred per cent good: unfailingly kind, thoughtful, gentle and generous. She never had an evil thought and was completely unable to fathom cruelty or aggression. Her soft, open heart was overflowing with love.
The education of a fairy consists of four years living in the forest caring for the animals and learning how to mix up various natural potions and remedies. Following this, she starts her life’s work. However, fairies don’t live long. Did you know it is our teeth that contain our youth? We humans are lucky because we get two sets of teeth. Nevertheless, you will notice we start getting weaker after our wisdom teeth finish growing, and people die when all their teeth are gone. Well, a fairy only gets a single set, and they all fall out when she is about ten, so that is a fairy’s life expectancy, and it’s also why they only have a single job until they die.
In Tinker Bell’s case, her life’s work was to care for a group of children who had run away from that world of adults and responsibilities to a magical place called Neverland. They were called the Lost Boys, and they would never grow up. They were rowdy and rough, cheeky and naughty, childish and noisy. They argued and fought, danced and sang, broke things and then laughed. Most of all, though, they just had fun, and Tinker Bell loved that. She nursed their cuts and bruises, cheered them up after they’d had an argument, and cleaned up after they’d made a mess. Then, at the end of each day, she tucked them into bed, warm and safe. It was affectionate and fulfilling work.
One day, a new boy arrived. His name was Peter Pan and, although he was the same age as some of the other children, in some ways he seemed much older. When Peter Pan injured himself, he wouldn’t accept Tinker Bell’s magic potions to heal his wounds. The first time she tried to help, he flicked her away like an irritating fly. He never cried. He said the pain was no problem, and it was better for his spirit if the wound healed naturally. He never wanted tucking in at night and never argued with the other children. The Lost Boys had never had a leader before–they’d been happy as equals—but as soon as Peter arrived he took command, and the others followed like sheep. He was so confident and strong. He always had an answer and always knew what to do.
Tinker Bell was fascinated by Peter. She’d never met someone so quick and sure before. That he was so indifferent to her made her even more curious. She’d spent her whole life being open and honest–helping those who needed help, and asking for help whenever she needed it. Tinker Bell started to follow Peter to try and find ways to help him out, but was always refused or ignored. So many times she was flicked away like a mosquito, but she always fluttered back like a butterfly to try again, until one day he flicked her too hard and she crashed to the ground, damaging her wing in the process. For the first time in her life, she cried. She had ever felt sad and ashamed. She tried to fly away, but her damaged wing wouldn’t let her, so she ran back to the hole in the tree where she lived and stayed there for three weeks until her wing had healed, as fairy magic doesn’t work on fairies. Moreover, she was cut and bruised, and couldn’t go out to get fruit. During this time all the children came to see her and bring food–all except Peter.
After she got better, she stayed away from Peter, until one day she saw him hit himself in the eye with a piece of wood when he was practising sword fighting. He was practising hard, so knocked him down and his eye swelled up and bled.
Tinker Bell saw this and laughed. She shouted “Hah! You’re lucky you’re not a grown-up because they fight with real swords. If you were, you’d be dead now!”
It was Tinker Bell’s first experience of anger, but it felt good.
At first Peter looked angry too, but then he laughed merrily and called back “Hey, Tink, it’s good to see you’re getting tougher!”
From that day, they started talking more. Tinker Bell never helped Peter, and he never flicked her. Before long they were the best of friends–they became inseparable. She loved his confidence and independence and he appreciated her tough personality and cynical sense of humour. Even though being harsh and negative were not natural fairy traits, she found she’d never been happier than these days with Peter.
Years passed this way, and Tinker Bell was nearing the end of her ten years—her teeth were wobbly, and she knew she didn’t have long.
Then, one day just before Easter, everything changed when a new girl arrived. This girl was human and the same age as Peter, but from a posh family. She wasn’t tough or pessimistic or exciting or funny, or any of the things that Peter liked in Tinker Bell. She wasn’t much of anything, actually. The girl’s personality was about as deep as a puddle. However, the one thing she had in excess was beauty. Her hair was ebony, her eyes were ocean blue pools, her lips were blush pink, and her skin was as white and smooth as eggshell. Peter commented on this, and Tinker Bell’s heart cracked like eggshell.
You probably know this part of the story: Peter fell in love with Wendy; there was some fighting with an infamous pirate called Captain Hook; Peter beat Hook, rescued Wendy, and everyone lived happily ever after. Only that last bit isn’t quite true.
Peter did beat Hook, but just barely. He cracked Hook round the head with his wooden sword–cracked the old pirate’s skull like an egg—but as Hook fell, he slashed forward with his hook and caught Peter’s shoulder, very close to his neck. The hook sunk deep through Peter’s skin and muscle, but he managed to push Hook off and into the water where the crocodile got him. Nevertheless, Peter’s wound was bad. He was lying on the ground bleeding heavily. Tinker Bell hurried over to use her magic and potions, but Peter flicked her away.
“Leave me alone, Tink! Why are you always buzzing around me? You’re trying to get your old teeth into me! I’m not yours, so get lost!”
Wendy came running up and Peter forgot all about Tinker Bell. He asked Wendy to dress his wound. The beautiful girl ripped of some fabric from the hem of her dress and wrapped it around his shoulder.
When Tinker Bell saw this, she went crazy. After all this time and friendship, Peter chose this stupid child over her just because of that ridiculous, young and pretty face, even though his life was at risk and Tinker Bell was far better equipped to save him.
It doesn’t happen very often, but when a fairy turns bad, she turns really, really bad. Tinker Bell had closed off and toughened up her warm, gentle heart, building a shell around it so she could be the kind of person Peter wanted, but when that shell broke, there was nothing left inside. Tinker Bell swooped for Wendy and whisked out all her teeth except one. Without her teeth, Wendy immediately withered into an old woman, wrinkled and weak, and she crumbled to the ground.
Peter saw this and came for Tinker Bell, screaming “What have you done, you pathetic little insect?”
He tried to hit Tinker Bell out of the sky, but the mad fairy’s rage made her strong and fast. Without thinking she changed him into the most pathetic, shameful and embarrassing animal she could think of: a big, fluffy, pink rabbit.
“Now who’s tough?” Tinker Bell shouted. “Now who’s pathetic? But you haven’t seen anything yet! I’m just getting started!”
Tinker Bell put Wendy’s teeth in her mouth, crunched them up, and swallowed. Within moments she was young again.
“Listen carefully, Peter,” she growled. “I have taken Wendy’s youth, but this is not enough. I will stay young forever, and you are going to help me. You will bring me more children’s teeth so I can stay powerful. Wendy has just one tooth left—she will need more to stay alive, but as it was my spell that took her youth, it is only me who can give it back. You bring me enough teeth, and I will keep her alive. But if you fail, she dies.”
Peter said nothing—rabbits can’t speak. But since that day he has been doing everything he can to collect the teeth of the children of the world. A rabbit can’t attack you and take your teeth by force–especially not a pink, fluffy one! That’s why he makes up chocolate eggs and gives them away, so the sugar will cause your teeth to fall out by themselves and Peter Rabbit the Easter Bunny can simply collect them up and give them to Tinker Bell to fuel her immortal rage.
And that is why the Easter Bunny is not the cheery, innocent friend you thought.
