It was after teatime on Friday and Bunny was bored and lonely. Her friend, Lara, had gone out to play on her scooter with Daddy. Bunny lay back on the bed looking out of the window. It was getting dark and she could see the moon which looked like a big silver balloon floating in the sky.
Balloons were one of Bunny’s favourite things. Yesterday Lara and Bunny had made a mind map of all their best things and balloons were at the top, so it had to be true.
Bunny wanted an adventure. As she looked out of the window she decided she wanted to be ‘SPACE BUNNY’.
At that very moment Bunny saw a strange red face, with big round eyes, staring at her through the window. He looked sadly at her and in a quiet voice said ‘‘Please Space Bunny, we need your help, all our chocolate is turning into cheese, blue cheese. We hate cheese, especially blue cheese.’’ and he began to cry.
Bunny was surprised. She had never seen anyone like this before. She had only just decided to become Space Bunny and things had begun to happen rather sooner than she had expected. “Who are you: and where do you come from?” said Bunny in a loud and brave voice, which she hoped would be just right for Space Bunny.
“My name is Grub and I live in the moon, and I am an alien.” he said in his curious, quiet, squeaky voice. Bunny was a bit frightened but pretended that she was not. As everyone knows, aliens who live in the moon only eat chocolate fudge brownies with hot chocolate. If all the chocolate turned to blue cheese they would become very hungry, very quickly. When aliens are hungry they can be a bit strange.
Bunny felt sorry for Grub so she decided to help and to be SPACE BUNNY from now on. “OK Grub” she said “let’s go. How do we get to your house?”.
“We fly there using my special magic kite, of course.” said Grub.
Before she left Space Bunny went to the special box under her bed. She got out her green striped bag with wheels in case she was able to do some shopping in a moon shop. She had heard that M & S (Moon and Stars Ltd.) was very good. Then she found the old trunk in daddy’s bedroom and packed her second best pair of moonglasses, drinking cup, toothbrush, lettuce flavoured toothpaste (especially for bunnies), hairbrush (with the bunny ears attachment), shoes, socks, pink pyjamas and finally her best knickers with the moon carrot pattern.
Of course, nobody had ever seen a real moon carrot but everyone knew they had blue leaves. This was due to the old song ‘Blue Moon’ (click to hear the song). It was a hit many years ago for three space alien brothers called Shah, Nah and Nah. The brothers used to live on the moon but had been told to leave, by the Moon Police, because they were just too colourful and always in trouble. Most people couldn’t remember the words of the song ‘Blue Moon’ but knew it was something about ‘blue‘ and ‘moon’ and ‘carrot’ or perhaps ‘heart’. Anyway it was a long time ago and that was why everyone believed that moon carrots were blue.
When Space Bunny and Grub got to the moon they quickly went inside Grub’s house to get warm and to find out why all the chocolate was turning into blue cheese.
In the kitchen they found Grandad Grub. He was making tea and was very pleased to meet Space Bunny. He was wearing his best green shirt with the blue patch and his red spectacles, tie and socks, which he only wore for special occasions. They all sat down for some tea and Space Bunny had some moon carrot cake, which was blue. She thought to herself, ‘hmmm colour is all upside down on the moon.’
When they had finished their tea and moon carrot cake, they sat down to listen as Grandad Grub explained what had been happening to all the chocolate.
“At first the chocolate fudge brownies just tasted a bit mouldy,” Grandad explained. “but soon they smelled like cheese and finally they tasted like cheese. The chocolate brownies also changed colour to blue, because they had become blue cheese brownies.” Everyone became very worried, and very hungry. They couldn’t understand what was happening. Then one night Grandad heard some squeaky, munchy sounds coming from the fridge in the kitchen. He tiptoed in and peered round the fridge door. There, on the second shelf, was a blue moon mouse nibbling a piece of cheese. Grandad quickly slammed the fridge door shut trapping the moon mouse inside.
At that moment, Grub came into the kitchen. When Grandad told him about the blue moon mouse in the fridge he got out his new mobile phone and phoned the Moon Police. But they were out. So he phoned his old friend Peter Rabit. Peter knew immediately what to do. “Phone Space Bunny,” he said. “she will know the answer.”
Unfortunately Space Bunny’s phone needed charging so she couldn’t answer. There was no other way, so Grub set up his magic kite and went to find Space Bunny himself. Which is how they all came to be in the kitchen listening to Grandad.
When Space Bunny heard Grandad’s story she knew the moon mouse must hold the key to the riddle of the chocolate turning to cheese, because the mouse and the cheese were blue. ‘This Reminds me of the song ‘Blue Moon’ she thought. Then in the corner of the kitchen she saw an old faded framed photograph of the evil brothers Shah, Nah and Nah. They were wearing space suits. “Who is in this photograph?” she asked Grub. “They are my cousins Shah, Nah and Nah”, replied Grub.
“Curious” said Space Bunny.
“Where is this mouse?” asked Space Bunny. “Still in the fridge I think’” said Grandad. Space Bunny gently knocked on the fridge door. “Sssssh” she said I can hear something. They all listened. Then they heard a quiet miserable little voice humming a tune. It was ‘Blue Moon’. Space Bunny opened the fridge door and there was the blue moon mouse curled up in a corner humming sadly to herself.
“Hello” said Space Bunny “don’t be sad. What’s your name?” The mouse looked up “Molly Mouse” said Molly the miserable moon mouse. The fridge seemed to be full of blue cheese. It was very smelly. “Why don’t you come out and tell us why you are sad” said Bunny. “And then we can close the fridge door” said Grandad holding his nose.
So Molly sat on the radiator to get warm, because it was cold in the fridge. When she was comfortable she began her story. “I was not always blue” she said, “I used to be mouse coloured. I enjoyed chocolate fudge brownies and going to parties with my friends Lara and Parker. Then one day at a party there were three older aliens showing off to two teenage moon girls with ‘cool dude’ short haircuts, called Ehlah and Ehryn. ‘Let’s magic the mouse’ said Shah and they all laughed.” At the memory of this Molly began to cry. Grub thoughtfully opened the fridge door and took out a tiny piece of cheese, which he gave to Molly. “Thank you” she sniffled.
Molly then went on to explain how the alien brothers were always getting into trouble for colour crimes. Once they turned all the BigMoonMacs green and the fries purple. They made bananas red and doughnuts black. But most of all they liked to turn things blue. Which is why Shah turned Molly Mouse blue and made sure that any food she came near would immediately turn into very smelly blue cheese.
“After that I couldn’t go to parties any more, because, as soon as I came in, all the chocolate fudge brownie ice cream turned to smelly blue cheese ice cream. And the hot chocolate turned to Gorgonzola sludge.” Molly began to cry all over again.
Grandad explained that this time the Moon Police had had enough of the three alien brothers. So they made them illegal aliens, and told them to leave the moon. Unfortunately the police forgot to make Shah remove the spell from Molly. So she had taken to hiding in cupboards and sneaking into the fridge to get something to eat. Of course, every time she did that everything turned to blue cheese.
“That is a difficult problem” said Space Bunny. “But don’t worry I think I have an idea. Grub I need some paper and paint.” Grub quickly went to his art desk and got the paper and paint.
Space Bunny explained her idea. “On earth little girls, and it is normally little girls, are helping to save people’s lives by painting rainbows. They remind people to stay safe. If I can paint the same rainbow then it should break Shah’s spell and everything will be back to normal.”
“It will be a new normal for me” laughed Molly.
Space Bunny quickly painted the picture. She told Grandad to stick it on the wall by the front door.
As soon as Grandad stuck the painting on the wall, Molly slowly turned back into a mouse coloured mouse. In her hand was a large chocolate fudge brownie. ‘Thank heavens’ thought Grandad to himself, ‘I didn’t know how this story would end until a moment ago.’
To celebrate Grandad invited them all to tea. They had chocolate fudge brownies and carrot cake, which was the colour of carrots. After tea Space Bunny thought it was time to go home. The magic kite was a bit uncomfortable so she called a moon taxi. As the taxi took off she shouted to Molly, Lara and Parker, who were playing in the garden, “Keep up with the little rainbows. They really work.”
“We will “ they chorused! “Goodbye and thank you Space Bunny.”
On the way home Bunny thought to herself, ‘Well I enjoyed being Space Bunny and going to the moon. But, I think I will just be Bunny for the rest of this week. I wonder if I will have any more adventures this summer.?’
If you want to read the story of Bunny’s next adventure click ‘Bunny’s Brilliant Holiday’.
Acknowledgments
This story is an online collaboration between Lara (6yrs) and Dan (Grandfather 71yrs). It was started in May 2020 during the Covid 19 lockdown. Lara did the drawings on paper, creating more characters and scenes as the story evolved. Dan used his iPad to gather and colour the pictures and develop the story further as Lara sent each new drawing. It was a reciprocal and shared creative process.