#dannypartridge

Danny sits in the corner reading Mad Magazine, but not really. Shirley made a bundt cake with butterbrickle frosting. It didn’t really help and only Reuben ate a slice and even then he didn’t finish it. Christopher stares out the window at the rain that never seems to stop. They were all stuck inside. Usually rainy days were fun, especially when your mother was the Creator of the Universe.

But this time it was different. Keith wasn’t there to try out a new song or ask Laurie what a good organ fill would be. Most obviously missing was Danny and Keith’s banter back and forth. Shirley sadly whips the potatoes as she remembers how Danny and Keith would mercilessly go back and forth with each other until she felt she had reached the breaking point.

And now she misses it. What she would give to see Keith smash his acoustic guitar on Danny’s head, causing him to scream and fall on the carpet, staining it with his freckled blood. Christopher keeps staring out the window as the rain falls. Laurie hasn’t left her bedroom but just keeps writing “I Can Feel Your Heartbeat” on her fogged up window, as tears spill down onto her David Cassidy pillowcase.

Tracy is in a cold tunnel. She can hardly find her way and keeps stubbing her toes and falling on her knees. She cries for her mother but her voice just echoes off the tunnel walls. And then she sees a rabbit with beautiful, fluffy yellow fur and bright, orange glowing eyes. It starts to hop away and Tracy follows as best as she can, hoping that the rabbit will lead her out of the gray, cold tunnel. She runs as fast as her little feet can move but eventually she loses sight of the rabbit.

As she collapses on her hands and knees sobbing, she feels something. At first she thinks it’s a raisin and she’s hungry. But then she holds it to her nose and realizes it’s bunny droppings. She smiles in the dark with understanding and slowly, carefully makes her way along the tunnel floor, her fingers searching for more fertility feces.

She keeps finding it which guides her further and further up the tunnel system. And then the pellets stop. Tracy starts to cry in the dark. And as she cries, she notices that the rain has stopped even though it wasn’t raining in the tunnel and then she opens her eyes realizing it was just a dream.

Sun streams through her bedroom window as her face slowly smiles and she whispers under her breath, “Good morning, Keith.”