Week 7 Storytelling: Tar-Baby Revenge

(Brer Bear and Brer Fox walking as depicted in Disney's movie Song of the South.)

As Sandy was tucking her daughter, Rose, into bed, Rose asked about the Brer Rabbit story they read the night before.

"Hey Mom, did Brer Rabbit ever get back at Brer Fox for getting him stuck in the Tar-Baby?" said Rose.

"Well, there isn't a story saying if he did, but you can make one up if you'd like," said Sandy.

So Rose made up her own Brer Rabbit story. She called it The Tar-Baby Revenge.

Brer Rabbit was huffing and puffing about how Brer Fox got him really good the other day with his Tar-Baby trick. He wanted to get back at him by making him just as scared.

So, Brer Rabbit tried to plot something just as good but he couldn't think of anything at all. He thought maybe he should use tar too, but then decided that Brer Fox would already know it was happening. Then he thought he could trick him into falling into a lake, but that was predictable too.

Brer Rabbit almost gave up on his revenge plan, that is until he talked to Brer Bear. Brer Bear told Brer Rabbit to make a sand pit.

Brer Rabbit thought this was brilliant. For days Brer Rabbit sneakily worked on making a bunny that looked just like him to trick Brer Fox into stepping into the sand pit. He was so proud of himself for creating such a plan that he even shared the entire plan with Brer Bear. Beer Bear happily agreed to lure Brer Fox to the location of the pit because Brer Fox was mean to him too.

So on the day that they planned, Brer Bear walked Brer Fox down to the location of the sand pit. Brer Fox fell for the trick and got stuck into the sand pit. Both Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox looked into the pit and told Brer Fox that he needed to learn a lesson and get tricked himself.  Brer Fox agreed.

Despite his compliance with their demands to be more friendly, they still made Brer Fox sit in the pit and think about all of the mean things that he has done.

After making him sit in the pit for a while, Brer Bear got Brer Fox out. Brer Fox apologized to both Brer Bear and Brer Rabbit and went on his way back home.

Life was pretty good for a few days after that, but as usual, Brer Fox could not resist the urge and was back up to his tricks again.

I guess Brer Rabbit and Brer Bear will have to come up with a new plan of revenge.

Rose smiled proudly as she told her mom the story.

"Well sweetie, why did you let Brer Fox go back to being the bad guy if he was supposed to learn from this lesson?" said Sandy.

Rose exclaimed, "Because Mom, if Brer Fox wasn't mischievous... We wouldn't even have Brer Rabbit stories! And I love them! Duh!"


Author's Note: This story is based loosely off of The Wonderful Tar-Baby Story. In the original story, Brer Rabbit gets stuck on to this baby made of tar. It was made by Brer Fox and he was trying to figure out what to do with Brer Rabbit as he trapped him. As one might predict, Brer Rabbit escapes and his escapades continue in other Brer Rabbit stories.

I made this story more of a spin off to the original. My mom used to read me these stories when i was younger and I thought it would be fun to explore a kid telling their own Brer Rabbit story. It has a reversed role kind of feel to it. Where Brer Fox is the one in trouble but manages to escape.

I originally wanted to write a slightly altered Brer Rabbit story, but this idea got stuck in my head and I went for it.