Neighborhood Girl Mystery

Pow
Originally uploaded by kafkas_undies.

The girl around the corner loves her bunny ears. Every time I see her, she's wearing them. It's been this way for a year, maybe longer, and the ears keep getting dirtier.

They're the kind of bunny ears you buy at a novelty shop, the kind stapled to a white headband and sold in plastic packaging around Halloween time. Or maybe Easter. A strip of polyester pink sits in the middle.

The girl has had the same pair for over a year. She goes tanning often. You can tell. If she can afford tanning, can't she shell it out for a new pair of ears? Like what if she needs them to listen?

I want to ask her, but I'm afraid it's a tragic story. The girl is only twelve, tops. She likes sitting on the steps of her building - a bunch of apartments in what used to be a one-family back in the day before halogen light bulbs and Bonwit Teller. I wonder who she lives with.

I almost asked today, but thought better of it and then I almost called a radio show to ask their advice. But then I asked myself: what do a bunch of strangers know about dirty bunny ears?