Between the Wheels
"I've seen it all before", the rabbit said with a heavy heart. He had recognized some of the fruit vendors and beggars as successful businessmen but all that changed on October 29, 1929. That accursed day, the Dow Jones plummeted over 1,000 points and many lost all their life savings- Nathan Gatzby was one of those people. He once lived in a mansion with his wealthy family, having inherited his father's factory and pulling in thousands of dollars a month, which allowed him much like his parents to live rather comfortably in their mansion in Montauk.
But unfortunately, the Gatzbys were behind on their payments when the Great Depression struck. So they found themselves on the street after their 28-room mansion was foreclosed, their only remaining possession of value being the clothes on their backs (most of the designer suits were sold for food) and their reliable Ford Model T. Truly, this family was living in between a rock and a hard place, really they were living in between times- the prosperity of the Roaring Twenties still fresh on their minds but so far away for the bleakness of the Great Depression.
Just a few years ago back when his parents were still alive, Nathan Gatzby's ears would perk up when he heard the sunny and bright news stories of self-made millionaires, jazzmen, and entertainers but today's headlines and radio waves were dominated by sordid stories of businessmen committing suicide and deteriorating conditions in Europe. The latter stories did much to convince the young rabbit that in spite of the fact that the world had just fought in "the war to end all wars" that there would once again be war at some future point. Nathan wanted so much to hold on to the good times, of trips to the art museums where his parents would buy the paintings and sell them for tenfold some time later, of going to the beach and buying delicious ice cream, of dancing the Charleston with his girlfriend, Zelda. His life would pretty much have been assured as a member of New York's patrician family but then his parents died, leaving him an orphan at a time that the world was collapsing. But these yesterdays were getting farther and farther away from where the rabbit stood now, a time of darkness and unhappiness.
So with nothing else to do (all the theaters and sources of entertainment were gone as the economy collapsed) all around, the hare decided that he would drive the Model T away from the dismal surroundings into the beautiful beaches of Long Island, which the Gatzbys once called their home. No matter how bad the world's collapse, the hare reasoned, nature would be a constant source of joy and delight. And as the hare took the steering wheel in his paws, he was enraptured by the shore on this summer night, framed by the setting sun, the responsive control of the steering wheel in his paws- so enraptured was the hare that he hardly noticed that he had run something over. Pulling over, Nathan surveyed the damage to his car.
The hare had run over a rabbit with his car- not an anthropomorphic one but one of his species nonetheless and it filled him with both remorse and an odd fear. Looking at the mangled flesh and sinews and bones of this rabbit now dead on the asphalt, Nathan was reminded of how the Great Depression came. It was a catastrophe, nay a cataclysm that struck down the hopes and dreams of people the world over. And they weren't expecting it- the rabbit wasn't expecting to be run over either. It was at that moment studying the corpse of the rabbit that Nathan realized how powerless he truly was.
He thought back to Broadway, the Great White Way, where the rabbit would look at the neons for various shows, plays, restaurants, and other fascinating destinations designed to split fools from their money. How many times would he and his parents come here when he was young to view every passing fancy and sample the exotic foods that New York offered, Nathan could not easily remember. These bright lights and attractive images had a lure on him of course and he thought back to how a fly would feel as he flew right into the bright zapper or towards the headlights of a passing car. As he left the car to spend some time meditating on the beach alone, he realized that the wheels in the factory which his father owned, which had been shut down shortly before he passed away, were much like the economy itself.
The same cogs and gears which spelt money and prosperity for him in the past were now spinning out of control and grinding each and every thing unfortunate to enter their path. The loss of control over the world economy was indicative of how the nation had gone- America had gone from singing the patriotic songs of emerging from the First World War to a chorus of "Brother can you spare a dime?"
Indeed, everything this family of hares had worked for slipped between their paws, much like water through a sieve. It was one disaster after another that stripped Nathan of his finances, his home, and eventually his family- this was the Great Depression. Nathan had seen many movies in his life but never would have guessed his life would become a dark and terrible one, filled with one catastrophe on the other. When would it all end, the rabbit would ask himself before realizing that there would be no end to this terribel time in world history and his former station in life would not be restored- ever. He tried to study the Bible, which he had brought with him on the drive to the beach, as religion was the only thing that would give him solace in the midst of all this chaos.
But hide from it as he might, and that is what rabbits were really good at he knew that just as the sun was going down upon his beloved beach so too was the sun going down on the entire world. The Wheels of Time were coming to run him over just as they would to each and every single one of us. And what will happen next- there will always will be another war, another wasteland, and another lost generation.