The electric piano comes in. It’s a Hohner Pianet.
The keys go:
Duh-Duh, Abm, Db/Ab,
Duh-Duh, Abm7(b5), Db/Ab,
Lloyd Loar’s Vivi-Tone Clavier.^[1]
Sharp staccato hits. Brighter, with less sustain.
Did you know that 2,200 children go missing in D.C. every year?^[2]
That’s right. Right here!
They just disappear.
Poof!
You should know this.
Brushes on the hi-hats. No snares. Absolutely no snares.
Let the beat build.
The low end is a Palatino cutaway upright.
The bass line goes:
Doom, Duh-Doom, Doom.
The Bunny Man is coming.^[3]
You hear the rimshots right? The rolls on the timbales?^[4]
The rototoms go:
Boonka-Daka, Boonka-Daka.
You already know it’s going down.
The Bunny Man is coming.
Did you know that 2,200 children go missing in D.C. every year?
That’s right. Right here!
They just disappear.
Poof!
You should know this.
Let the beat build.
He wears a furry, white, rabbit suit with long, floppy ears.^[5]
The white fur looks like a cigarette smoker’s wallpaper—yellowed.
It looks like their lungs—blackened.
The Bunny Man is waiting, watching with his glowing red eyes.
I’m just playin’ witcha.
His eyes are just human eyes watching through the eye holes in his bunny mask.
Big, plastic, ear-to-ear permagrin, shotgun blasted across his silicone rabbit face.
His eyes are just human eyes watching through the eye holes.
His eyes are just human eyes.
Last week they found a child’s femur in Anacostia Park.^[6] Stripped clean, bleached in the sun.
Wait.
Listen.
This is the best part. This is where the guitar comes in.
Let the beat build.
Syncopated rhythm. 7th chord harmony. Jazz progressions.
Improvised melodies overtake the written ones.
Chromaticism.
This is when the cross stick snare hits come in.
Did you know that 2,200 children go missing in D.C. every year?
That’s right. Right here!
They just disappear.
Poof!
You should know this. Let the beat build.

^[1] (n.d.). Clavier by Vivi-Tone Company, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1934 …. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from http://collections.nmmusd.org/ElectricInstruments/LoarInstruments/10878/LoarClavier.html

^[2] “The Missing Kids Of Washington, D.C., And Social Media : NPR.” 1 Apr. 2017, https://www.npr.org/2017/04/01/522284693/the-missing-kids-of-washington-d-c-and-social-media. Accessed 17 Dec. 2020.

^[3] “The Bunny Man Unmasked – Local History – FCPL Curated ….” https://research.fairfaxcounty.gov/local-history/bunnyman. Accessed 17 Dec. 2020.

^[4] (2020, March 8). Go-Go 101 – American Musical Instrument Society. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from https://www.amis.org/post/go-go-101

^[5] (n.d.). braddockheritage.org/ | Bunny Man: Artist’s Rendition. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from http://braddockheritage.org/items/show/26

^[6] “Skeletal remains found in Southeast D.C. neighborhood ….” 29 Apr. 2018, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/skeletal-remains-found-behind-apartment-in-southeast-dc-unnerve-residents/2018/04/29/04d21d10-4bcb-11e8-84a0-458a1aa9ac0a_story.html. Accessed 17 Dec. 2020.

***

Image by Yuri_B from Pixabay