_What_Bunnies_Are_For_-_Part_4_

        "You're changing the subject!" Jamie complained. "You don't
understand, it's not that at all!"
        "What, then?"
        "I'm... well... you're... damn it all!"
        Tabby nearly fell over laughing. "You want me! You're afraid
of feeling desire for me! Oh Jamie, you silly!" She crawled over the
table and embraced him, her head submissively under his chin. "Poor
Jamie," she cooed, her voice still full of laughter. "I promise not
to let you touch me unless you want to. If you touch me against your
better judgement I'll slap your hand! Does that make you feel better?
Can we be friends instead?" She pulled away to face him. "Please
Jamie, I want so much to like you, you're a nice guy."
        Mullens could hardly speak. "You said before that you wanted
me to understand you," he muttered.
        "I do, but you'll never understand if you won't trust me. If
you trust me, doesn't that mean I'm your friend?"
        "I, uh... and no, uh, bedroom, uh...."
        "Only if _you_ want to."
        "Well... but what if I want to and you don't?"
        "I always want to," she replied, with a mild leer. "I was
made to be affectionate."
        "Hardly seems fair," he mumbled, still taken aback. "Um,
could you go back across, uh...."
        "I'm sorry, Jamie," she said, moving back to her side of the
table. "I didn't mean to upset you."
        "You didn't upset me, it's just, I was...."
        "I know, I felt it."
        Jamie blushed; Tabby giggled prettily.
        "What did you think wasn't fair?"
        "Huh?"
        "You said it hardly seems fair. Do you mean it's not fair
that I was made to be affectionate?"
        "Oh, yeah, that's what I ment, yeah." He stopped for her to
explain again, but this time she waited for him to go on. "It's not
right, is it, you being a slave to what we made you to be. Is it?"
        "You'll have to judge that, Jamie, I can't. I'm inside the
experience, it seems perfectly natural to me. I know that I like the
way I am, caring about the people I serve and the ones I bring to my
room, and wanting to be touched and have people like me. It hurts a
lot when a customer or a lover or a friend is angry at me, but it
feels wonderful when they're happy. I feel good about myself and the
whole world! Someone told me that humans feel that way, too, but not
as much. Why did you make me to need approval so much, Jamie?"
        "I didn't.... I mean, I don't know. I guess so that you'd be
a better waitress and hook... <cough> entertainer."
        "You didn't call me a hooker. Thank you, Jamie! But that's
just cynicism; you're blaming the company that owns me for caring
about profit more than morality, and that's how companies are made to
be. They wouldn't have me this way if it didn't fill their customer's
needs. You said it yourself, humans do things like breeding animals
for their benefit. What human need could bunnies like me fulfil?" and
again, she waited for him to reply.
        "This is like being back in school!" he muttered. (Tabby
giggled and nodded her head.) "Well, you said you're affectionate,
and, uh, you said that humans are like you, only not as much...." He
looked to Tabby, who only nodded. "Um, so, maybe we need affection?"
She nodded, enthusiastically, but still said nothing. "And, uh, and
we're, uh, we're not getting it from each other?"
        "Yes, exactly! You created bunnies to give you the simple,
unconditional affection that you don't show to each other!"
        "Wouldn't it be better if we just showed it to each other?"
        "Again, Jamie," she replied, seriously, "I can't answer that
for you. Maybe it's too dangerous for you to be open with each other;
perhaps because of venerial diseases, since I'm immune to anything
you could get. Maybe you really don't like each other. Maybe it's
yourselves that you don't like and you need someone who won't turn
you away to help you feel better about yourselves. In any case, even
if I knew, it wouldn't be my place to tell you. I'm just a bunny."
        "Now don't say that! You're not _just_ a bunny! You're smart,
maybe... maybe more than I am. Well, you are! And you're clever, and
nice, and... and what's so blamed funny?"
        Tabby held her sides and rocked back and forth, laughing
hysterically. "You... oh, you are! A minute ago I was a blacklegging
furry and now you're angry because I'm belittling myself!" Still
laughing, she came around the table and knelt beside him. "Jamie, may
I give you a hug, please?"
        Mullens held his bunny tightly and petted her ears as he
would a pet rabbit. Tabby got over her laughter and was soon purring
contentedly under his chin. At last she pulled away again to face
him. "Come with me, Jamie," she said.
        "Where?"
        "I'm going to show you around mansion. I want you to meet
some of the other bunnies and see for yourself how we live."

                                (continued)
Copyright 1995 Allan D. Burrows
All Rights Reserved after publication