5:20

The reason for the self-satisfied look on Edward’s face became apparent after about five minutes of gnawing and spitting. The beaver had made a substantial dent in the bottom of the crate; the hole was almost large enough for the smaller rabbit to squeeze through. That is, if the hole hadn’t been on the bottom of the long flat crate and the other side of the hole hadn’t been blocked by the metal floor of whatever vehicle they were travelling in.

“Well, fuck…”

“Now, now. No need for vulgarity,” Edward remonstrated. “There is, after all, still my plan. That is, if you aren’t too much a ’beaver of action’ to follow a mere herbivore with a penchant for thinking things through.”

The beaver glared at Edward but oddly enough got the impression the rabbit was being sincere rather than sarcastic. “OK,” he said finally, “whaddya got?”

“Ah. What I have is simply an application of physics. But that can wait until later. I am much more concerned about what happens once we exit this container. The next steps are much more crucial if we assume we are locked in a moving vehicle of some sort. We could be trapped in a van speeding along a deserted highway. Who knows how long we were asleep.”

Edward paused and took on a lecturing tone that had just an edge of smugness in it.

“What if we are a rail car? Or far underground on a mining cart?”

The beaver started to say he thought this was ridiculous, but the rabbit cut him off.

“What, pray tell, if we find ourselves in a boat upon the ocean or a plane high in the sky?”

“Or worse yet,” the rabbit’s eyes started to crinkle, “what if we find ourselves in a float plane flying high above the ocean? Surely that would be the worst of all possible fates? I think that I could not bear it if that were true, to be trapped in such a float plane. Oh, yes, I can quite imagine it. Trapped in one of those float planes,” Edward’s whiskers vibrated delightedly, “like, oh I don’t know… a beaver?”

The beaver just stared at the gleeful rabbit. “You’ve got to be kidding me…”