Bedtime Story

The Mews

Good fortune has many disguises

BEDTIME STORY

Mum sat down beside the little one

It was bedtime and time for her story

Once upon a time there lived in Siberia, a man, his wife, their son, and his teddy bear

They lived in the forest far from anyone

The man hunted and gathered wild fruits, roots of plants, and nuts to live on

It was a simple life and all seemed well

Until the man just upped and left, leaving wife and son and no one knew why

Soon the boy’s mother said she could not live like this

She gathered food and clothing and set off for the nearest village, a long way away

You will be fine here with your bear, she said, I will be back in a day or two

That night the snow fell, the first of the Siberian winter

And in the morning the boy, being somewhat adventurous, set off into the forest with his teddy bear

To enjoy the snow, but soon was lost

Come evening what to do but gather up the snow into a shelter and curl up with his bear

Come the morning, cold but still breathing, aware of something very large above him

There stood a full-grown Siberian mother bear

He feared an attack, but she had a benign air

Looking at him and then to the cub that he held

The elder sister looked up from her tablet

The bear thought the teddy was a cub

I thought bears were meant to be intelligent

And so they are, said Mum, perhaps the cold had dulled her senses

Shall I continue

She picked him up gently, took him to her lair and laid him down

Showed him where some food was stored and then lay down and hibernated

He spent the winter there happily enough, laying against the mother bear at night for warmth

Spending days exploring the forest with his teddy bear

The first summer was the happiest he had known

He hung out with the young bears, learning their ways

His teddy spent his time with the other cubs and soon became like them

And so it was for the next few years, until fate intervened

Probably for the better, though it did not seem so at the time

Voices in the forest, and then horror as the boy was captured

The other bears thought to have escaped, now of little interest

As these rough men studied Boy Bear and his teddy

And later, round a makeshift fire

They discussed in guttural Siberian patois what to do

Sell him to a circus seemed to be the common view

So Boy Bear and his teddy became circus attractions

And none too happily

For the first Boy Bear had but one thought, escape

And having learnt all about cunning and survival arts, a plan was hatched

Boy Bear said to the ringmaster, the people are getting bored just watching me

Mooching around like a Siberian bear

What does mooching mean, asked the elder sister, now involved in the story

Shh, shh, just listen to Boy Bear’s idea

I need to be active, something like the trapeze

So the posters went up

SEE THE AMAZING BOY BEAR

WONDER AT HIS ARTISTRY ON THE TRAPEZE

MARVEL AT HIS TEDDY RIDING THE MAGIC WILD WHITE STALLION

So they came from miles around

What could be better for the circus coffers

Until the night that had been planned

When Boy Bear left the trapeze

Did summersaults in the air and landed

On the wild stallion, ridden by his faithful bear

Then they rode and rode and rode

And magic was the horse that seemed not to suffer any fatigue

They rode across two continents, heading to a place that they had heard

Was quite the most civilized on Earth

One talks of course of Albion, and that was how it was back then

They reached the shore of France and gazed across the water

White cliffs faintly visible

And found some friendly fishermen who agreed to take them there and to whom they gave the horse

And what happened next, we will have to wait until tomorrow

As the little one was drifting into sleep

Her sister asked quietly, was the bear Fitzroy

Mum gave an enigmatic shrug

Perhaps, but then there are as many stories about Fitzroy as there are trees in the Siberian forests.