The Mad Bomber
	He was an oddball.  There ain’t nothing normal about him.  He’s off his rocker.  Them boy’s screws aren’t tight enough.  A shameful disgrace of the area.   The nuttiest nut you ever did see.  Seen more intelligence from a room full of drunken politicians.         This was the typical sort of comments made by his neighbor’s.  Harry didn’t care.  He was who he was.  What did it matter that he bounced from place to place making all kinds of weird noises?  He called it singing, everyone else called it ‘awful noise.’  Once he even tried to put on a concert for everyone to help them better appreciate his talents.       Problem was not much talent to appreciate.  It also did not help him that he had made his instruments completely out of discarded soda cans.  Some of these were smashed, some a little crumpled, and all of them certainly not musical.  Did it stop Harry?  You better believe it did not even faze him.       Through a combination of drumming motions, blowing into empty cans, and shaking a bunch on a string he did his best to play tunes.  Poor Harry was clueless about how everyone really felt.  He had no idea that the howls he was hearing was not everybody trying to ‘sing’ along to his ‘little ditty.’  It took old George to finally get so fed up with it all that he chucked a rotted tire at Harry to get him to stop.         Sad part is Harry thought it was a tip.         One year for Christmas he had found a burnt out light bulb which gave him an idea.  There he stood among the trees that all his neighbors walked by regularly with this light bulb.  He was standing erect and perfectly still with his face pointed to the sky and that burnt out bulb clutched firmly in his teeth.  It was his hope that he would be mistaken for a Christmas tree and the others would leave presents at his feet.  If you think it actually might work, then you must be related to Harry.       The fact is these actions aren’t what earned Harry his many nicknames.  Oh no.  These were almost normal.   People expected this.  No, the name most people really called him was the ‘Mad Bomber.’  Somewhere in Harry’s life his brain must have decided it was no longer interesting to dwell in this plane of existence.   Therefore it promptly relocated to a new dimension.  How else could one explain his fascination with the pretty twin glowing orbs that would hearken him to jump?   That was his explanation, no one else’s.         One night during the late summer season he was sitting on the edge of a cliff over looking the world.  There he sat contemplating amazing sounds that would come from behind him whenever his stomach gave a weird rumble.  Upon hearing it he would try to spin around swiftly to see who was making it.  Every time the culprit would be gone leaving behind some foul odor.  One day, he would catch the rat that kept pulling this prank on him.  It was with that very quick turn of his he noticed something that pulled his attention away.  The moon was low in the sky and somewhere down below two parallel lights were rushing from his left.  This puzzled poor Harry.  Somewhere in his head was a residual memory of what these were, but for the life of him he couldn’t remember.       He leaned way over the ledge trying to see better what it was that was in such a hurry.  The lights were nearly right below him when he slipped from his spot.   Instinctively, well it was for him, he kicked his feet out.  This propelled him far from his spot.  High in the air he soared and then rushed to where those orbs of curiosity were moving.  He just barely missed them, but landed on something soft right behind those things.       WOW! What a rush!  He thought to himself as he became giddy from the thrill.  “Thanks, I need to leave here.”  He waived as he jumped out of the back of the lights.  Whatever it was, it sure was soft.  With that he vaulted himself away and landed with a harsh thud on the ground.  Not as soft, he thought again as he rubbed himself.  He quickly forgot about that part as he looked up and marveled at how far he had fallen off the cliff.  The thought slowly occurred to him that perhaps he should come again tomorrow night and see if those nifty twins would come back.       That is precisely what he did.  Sure enough, with the moon low he saw the two lights coming.  He waited until the right moment…and then leaped into the air.         “Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!”  He screamed the entire way down.  This caught the attention of some of the folk that had been moving quietly about down the hill a ways.  It was Smitty who saw him right before he disappeared over the lip of the cliff.         With complete disbelief taking grip everyone in sight of this astonishing episode went running to the edge.  Down below they saw Harry rolling with laughter at what had occurred.  This really puzzled the audience at the top of the cliff.  For you see, they had not seen the twin temptresses rush on by.       George looked down at him.  He grumbled loudly, catching everyone’s attention.  “That does it.  The mad bomber has finally lost it completely.”  With that his new name was born and that would be how he would forever be known.       On the third night Harry was convinced that it would be even more fun if he timed it right and got a full head of steam behind his leap.  This time when he saw the orbs in the distance he quickly ran back from the edge.  Taking a deep breath he then began to run full out towards the edge.  His little legs pumped furiously as he worked up as much momentum as he could.  His tiny arms were cranking along with every stride.  Then right at the edge he planted one foot firmly and sprung away into the night.       Sure enough, he had the same thing happen.  Except this time he did gain more altitude before plummeting to be caught softly by his new playmate.  This episode repeated itself for three weeks.  After the first five days everyone else knew to ignore him.  However, parents did make certain to not let any of their children near the cliff early in the evening.  That was certainly not something they wanted to see repeated by anyone else.  After all, they weren’t lemmings.  Heaven forbid anything happen to anyone else in the community.  Now if something were to happen to the Mad Bomber that might be different.       It was just such an evening that Harry miscalculated.  Watching intently for his new love to arrive he was pacing back and forth along the edge.  As he turned around and looked right he saw the two orbs coming along.  Harry did not care they were coming from the wrong side.  After all, it was fun time.  Who cares about the details?       He tripped his way back to his starting position.  He realized at this point that it might get tricky; after all he couldn’t be sure about his timing with his friend coming from the other side.  Oh well, he thought, I’ll just have to go for it.       He dug his right foot into the ground like a bull he once saw.  He even tried to snort like it.  Clenching his little fists tight he began to works his arms in a windmill.  Now or never buddy-o!  With that he let out a roar and ran with all his might to the end.       Reaching the line between earth and joy he sprang into the air with every ounce of energy he could muster.  The moon was full, he noticed, and shone beautifully this night.  A smile stretched across his mouth as with a shout he screamed “WWWeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!”       Those who were intrigued by this latest stunt looked at his progress.  As he flew through the air he was perfectly superimposed upon the moon.  They watched his movement in slow motion, the image forever burned into their minds. As he began to feel the effects of gravity pull him down it appeared that his body fell in stages.  First his legs and butt started to descend.  Followed slowly by his torso and lastly came his head, fluffy top, and his long floppy ears.   Yes, you heard right, long floppy ears.  How else would you explain a rabbit’s ears?  ‘Short and stubby’ certainly would not fit.   Harry “the Mad Bomber” Rabbit flew through the air.   “WWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!” He screamed this louder then ever as he fell to the soft bliss he came to love so well. Except, this time there was no soft landing.  Just a sick crunch as Harry bounced off a windshield and flew into the side of the cliff. The car he landed on went skidding as the driver slammed on the breaks. The front tire hit a log that had been in the road and went spinning out of control.   Onlookers would have seen the car not circle once, not twice, but complete three and a half circles until finally coming to a stop facing the wrong direction.   Somehow the driver got it to stop on the shoulder.  At least it looked like it was intentional. Shortly after the vehicle stopped two rather shaken figures emerged from the car.   All they could manage was a look at each other.  Message was conveyed in the single meeting of the eyes, “what the heck was that?!” Before either of them could speak a truck came to stop even with their car.  The passenger of the truck rolled down his window.  “You boys ok?”  The other two just numbly nodded the affirmative.  “That’s good.  Me an’ Pa here saw your lights spinning around and had no idea what was going on.  It took us a moment to figure out it was some car.  That was wild.  What happened?” Jay, the driver, finally managed to swallow.  “You should have seen it from our side.  Something hit our window and freaked us out.  I over compensated then hit something in the road.  I’m just amazed we didn’t go over into the ravine.”  Sure enough, they could see tire marks going dangerously close to a steep drop off. Looking at the black sports car the two guys were driving the passenger of the truck gestured to a cell phone he was holding.  “Your car a’right?  I can call you in a tow if you like?” Jay looked at Brent, his passenger, and they both shrugged.  “No, I think we’ll be fine.  The engine is still running and I did pull the car forward a bit.  We just need to catch our breath before we head out again.  Thanks for the offer though.” “Sure, glad to see everything’s fine.”  He smiled and waived at them.  “Well, I don’ t know about you, but we’re sure awake now.  Good luck!”  With that the open truck filled with loose hay pulled away and continued the way the black sports car had come. Jay and Brent never did find what had hit them that night.  For the rest of their lives, usually when they were trying to fall asleep, they would every so often hear a high pitched voice yelling with glee into the night. Oh, what happened to the Mad Bomber?  He lived.  One ear was permanently bent, half of his teeth were missing, and he could often be seen chasing fireflies grunting.   “Look at the pretty lights.”  This was always followed by a strange and disturbing laugh.  He never did go back to the cliff.  Whenever he would wander to close he would wet himself and run away.