At first, there’s no sign of what their job is going to be. It could be anything! The White House is a very big place when you’re just a small turkey, after all, and it’s a very big place when you’re just a small dog.
For a while, the duo wander through the halls of the White House aimlessly. It’s not until they hear the frustrated grumblings of a human that they get an inkling of what might need to be done.
“This way,” says Jack. He waddles over to the partially open door.
Bruce joins him, tail wagging hard and fast. “Is this the job?”
“Listen,” says Jack. “We’ll find out!”
“It’s just a rabbit,” says a man, tall and slender. “I don’t understand what the big deal is.”
The other man, shorter, older, says, “the big deal is that President Roosevelt loves that rabbit. Peter Rabbit is an important part of the staff!”
“But it’s a rabbit. It’s not part of the staff. It’s just an animal.”
“We find the rabbit, or we lose our jobs. That’s it. There’s nothing else to it. The concept is really simple.”
Jack and Bruce scramble away from the door and into an emptier hallway, leaving the two humans to discuss it.
Bruce says, “that must be our job! We have to find Peter Rabbit!”
“That little bunny could be anywhere,” says Jack. “Bunnies are so small!”
“I’ve met Peter Rabbit before,” says Bruce, excitedly. He’s prancing about, lifting up one front paw and then the next, all dancing and hopping about. “He’s a really fun bunny! He gets scared super easily though! I be that’s what happened. I bet something scared him, and he took off and hid somewhere! We should find him. That’s got to be why we’re here.”
Jack isn’t sure if that’s exactly what brought them here. It doesn’t seem like the sort of job that would take two Presidential Pets. But he bobbles his head all the same, because it’s better than not having anything to go off of. And if they find Peter Rabbit, well, that can’t be a bad thing, right?
In fact, getting to talk to a Presidential Pet from this time area might be exactly what they need.
“Alright,” says Jack. “Let’s go find the bunny! Do you know where he likes to go?”
“Nope,” says Bruce, but he sounds no less cheerful for the negative answer. “But that’s okay! I’m a dog, and we’re great at tracking things down! I’m sure if I can do a bit of snuffling and sniffing, we’ll have that bunny located in no time!”
Katelynn E Koontz – Author