The Runaway Bunny

The Runaway Bunny is a recurring phrase that links the title of Part Seven to Bernadette Fox’s letter to Bee Branch. In the letter, Bernadette invokes the runaway not to celebrate escape but to refuse it: the daughter who might leave is told to stay with her mother and close to home.

Title and Letter

Part Seven bears the title The Runaway Bunny. Later, in a letter addressed to Bee Branch, Bernadette writes, “And I don’t want to hear it from the Runaway Bunny. The Runaway Bunny stays.” The phrase moves from the part heading into the intimate language of the letter, where it becomes a name for the possibility that Bee Branch might leave.

A Reversal of Escape

Bernadette’s wording reverses the promise implied by a runaway: rather than granting the figure freedom to depart, she insists that it stay. The declaration follows her appeal for Bee Branch to remain “close to home,” making the phrase both affectionate and emphatic. Its repeated form gives the insistence the force of a rule, even as Bernadette frames their future as something they will continue together.

The Future Bernadette Proposes

The demand is part of a conditional vision of family life. Bernadette says that if Bee Branch agrees, she will be gone for an extra month, then return to work on plans for the new South Pole Station; Bee Branch will graduate from Galer Street School and go to Lakeside School, while Elgin Branch continues his work at Microsoft, and the family will move into a normal house. The Runaway Bunny phrase therefore holds departure and return in tension: Bernadette imagines travel and change, but insists that Bee Branch remain attached to home and to the family’s shared future.