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Webmaster's Comments: The following story is posted here with Edward's permission. It is a wonderful creation in which Sarah's favorite teddy bear....Beary....takes on a life of her own and sets out on a most interesting adventure. We hope you enjoy reading of Beary and Sarah's exploits as they meet some of the most fascinating characters I've come to know in childrens' literature. Thanks Ed!!!!
The Beary Story
- By Edward McAllister
Sarah Meets Bouncer
The soft morning light peeked through the curtains as Sarah rubbed her eyes.
The summer vacation was actually, finally, wonderfully here after all the
waiting. She really really liked school, but vacations were better. She
reached over to Beary for a really good summer morning cuddle and then
realised she wasn't there. Beary was a soft white and extraordinarily cuddly
bear. She had known her forever and always ensured she looked her absolute
best (except when she looked her worst).
She remembered that poor Beary had once fallen from the bed and couldn't
climb up again. It was quite likely that the poor thing may be a dusty grey
bear under the bed so she peeked down but her bear wasn't there.
"This is very weird, strange and altogether rather mysterious," thought
Sarah. "Where can my Beary be?" She slipped out of bed and tippy toed around
the room looking for her. She looked under the bed again, in the closet, behind
the curtains and she even looked in her special drawer that contains her highly
secret bits and bobs, but no little white bear was to be found. She tossed the
bedding on the floor and looked under the pillows but still couldn't even think
what might have happened.
She sat in the middle of the room, screwed her eyes really tightly and tried to
remember going to bed last night. She counted all the things that little girls
do before sleeping. "I brushed my teeth," she said holding one finger up.
"Then I brushed my hair," she said, holding another finger up. "Then I carried
Beary to the bed," she said holding the third finger up. Although she had remembered,
it sort of made things worse as it just made it more mysterious than ever.
Now then, you know how it is when something crosses your mind or a
thought just pops in there? Well, a thought just 'popped in' to Sarah's head.
She walked over to the curtains and looked out. She could not believe her
eyes. Running down the street were two fluffy grey rabbits and hopping and
bobbing between them as though she had a life of her own was Beary.
Without waiting to get dressed or even wake anyone else up in the house,
she flew downstairs, into the street and ran as fast as she could after Beary
and the rabbits. She ran and ran and ignored the people who shouted things
like 'Hey' or 'Ho' even 'Yikes' when she flew past them.
Soon, the houses thinned out and she found herself on the very edge
of the wood. She saw the rabbits jump over a long low stone wall and into
the eaves. Without thinking, she ran to the wall and hopped over it just like
them. In a twinkling she saw Beary and the rabbits just disappearing down a hole.
"Now just you leave my bear alone rabbit," she shouted not really
expecting the rabbit to either understand or answer her. Imagine her surprise
when the rabbits turned from the hole. They carefully placed Beary by the
entrance and both bowed low and very politely. "Good Morning Sarah," said
the larger of the two. "My name is Bouncer Cotton and this is my very good
friend Flouncer Cotton." "How come you're both called cotton?" Asked Sarah,
completely forgetting that she'd never heard a rabbit talk before or how this
rabbit knew her name.
"Ah," said Bouncer. "That would be on account of the mix up in the warren
when we were born. You see, my Mother was second cousin to Flouncer's
third cousin and my father was Uncle to Flouncer's Aunt on his first cousins
side, so they decided we should all be called Cotton. Sarah thought very hard
about this and tried to remember what her grade teacher told her about family
relations, but try as she would, she could not work out who belonged to who and
where, so she told them so. "Well I can't work it out, for all I know, you
could even be brothers third removed or something," she said. "Well I'm blessed,"
said Bouncer. "That's just what my uncle twice removed said, how did you know that?"
I didn't," said Sarah feeling rather pleased with herself. "I'm a person
and that means I'm cleverer that a rabbit, especially a rabbit who is trying to
steal my bear," she said loudly as she suddenly remembered why she was
here.
"Oh no," said Bouncer. "Beary wanted to come with us." He turned to the
bear who was sitting by the mouth of the rabbit hole and prodded her.
"Didn't you Beary, you said so last.........."
Before anyone could move Beary disappeared with a whoosh, straight
down the hole. Assuming of course that rabbits holes are straight. Sarah
turned to the rabbit and putting on her most bossy face asked what the rabbit
was going to do now. "Anyway," she asked. "Why doesn't Flouncer say anything?
I mean to say, he could have blocked the hole with his fat tummy and stopped Beary
from slipping down."
"Well that's the whole thing you see," answered Bouncer. "Poor old
Flouncer has lost his marbles and we need a rather brave little bear to get
them back again from the water rat's hole. He really is a quite fierce and
frightening water rat and we were just too scared to do it by ourselves. We
went to see the witch of the wild wood and she told us of a really brave little
bear called Beary who could help. We asked around and found out where
she was living and we sort of sneaked in last night and asked for assistance.
Beary told us all about you, then she agreed so here we all are."
Sarah sat down and started to think. She had always known that Beary was
special ever since she was frightened of the wall shadow in the bedroom.
She had whispered to the bear and the shadow turned into a jacket that had
been hanging on the closet floor. "Wow!" She thought. "My little bear is magic,
I knew that pink nose was special." She leaned toward Bouncer. "Okay Bouncer,
how can we help Flouncer get his marbles back?" The rabbit bowed even lower than
before, so low that his large and somewhat floppy ears rested on the ground. "I
need to speak to Boss Cotton first," he said. "He is the head of our family, well,
he's really a second cousin of my aunts uncle twice removed from his first cousins
brother." Things sure do get confusing with rabbits involved.
Boss and the Sparkly
Confusing or not, Sarah wanted Beary back, and she wanted her right now.
She peered down the darkened rabbit hole but all she could see were old tree
roots and leaves that had blown into the hole on a windy day. Suddenly the
side of the hole where she had been holding on crumbled away. Whoosh!
She disappeared in an instant straight down the dark burrow. Now you
would think that she would fall down and down like Alice in Wonderland,
but not in this rabbit hole. First she turned left, then right, then left again
and flew out of the hole landing in a huge pile of dusty musty old leaves.
She could see Beary's white furry legs sticking up so she grabbed her. The
poor bear did look a site, her blue Oshkosh B'gosh dress had so many little
brown twiggly bits sticking from it, she looked like a hedgehog, and her
poor pink nose was starting to become unraveled.
As Sarah was starting to clean Beary's dress the two rabbits whooshed from
the hole and landed either side of her. Bouncer landed reasonably well but
poor old Flouncer landed headfirst. He was okay though as he had lost his
marbles anyway. (Well, had them stolen) Bouncer pulled Flouncer from the
pile and then hopped over to Sarah and Beary. "C'mon you two, we can't hang
around, we've got to reach the Sparkly Kingdom by nightfall if we want Beary
to help us. Anyway, I think we're lost now, you should have turned left by
the third right turn." "What third right turn?" Asked Sarah rather angrily.
"I'm not a rabbit, I'm a human person, in fact I'm a little girl. If you needed
someone to turn left or right in rabbit holes, my Beagle Samantha could have
done it, so there!"
Bouncer really had to agree I mean, he was always getting lost. He
remembered the time he needed to turn right to visit his Uncle's second
cousin and ended up quite close to the wily fox's den. Talk about shake. He
shook so hard his tail went bald for a while where the fluff was shaken off.
"Well," said Bouncer. "I think we should stop talking about Beagles
or thinking of foxes and start to think about finding Boss Cotton."
"I thought you said we needed to find the Sparkly Kingdom so that
Beary could help us," said Sarah. "I do wish you'd make your mind up, I'm
beginning to wonder just who has his marbles missing."
Bouncer sort of twitched uncomfortably. "We need to find Boss
Cotton first, because he has the key to the Sparkly Kingdom. Without the
key, we can't ask the Sparkly King to give Beary her voice, and without
Beary, we can't get into the kingdom of the Water Rats. Until we can to that,
Flouncer here just keeps getting sillier and sillier."
Sarah could see the sense of that so she agreed to go with the rabbits
to find Boss Cotton. She picked poor Beary from the leaves, brushed her
down and off they went. They did look a sight though, Bouncer was in front
leading the group because he sort of knew the way. Sarah was behind
because she sort of didn't know the way, and poor Flouncer didn't know
anything at all so he just followed them both.
Presently they came to a huge rabbit hole, in fact, it was the largest rabbit
hole Sarah had ever seen. The little garden around it was very neat and tidy
with some delicious looking carrots popping their heads through the soft
brown soil. To the side of the hole was a large rocking chair, and sitting in
the rocking chair was the largest rabbit in the wood. He was asleep and
snoring when Bouncer respectfully tapped him on the knee. He opened one
eye, then the other. His ears popped up and a huge smile stretched from one
floppy ear to the other when he saw the bear in Sarah's arms.
"Well done Bouncer, I see you've found our Beary at last, is she
awake yet?" He asked. "Not quite Boss," answered Bouncer. "She needs to
go to the Sparkly King to get her straw stuffing magical again, but we need
the key." "Boss Cotton scratched his chin. "Hmmm, let me see," he said quietly
to himself. "Where did I put that key? Is it in the watering can? No I would
never have put it there. I wonder if I put it in the shed or maybe under the
kitchen sink?"
"Have you tried your pocket?" Asked Bouncer hopefully. Boss felt in the
pocket of his large blue overall. "Bless my whiskers, here it is!" He
exclaimed. "Right where I left it last. I suppose you'd better guard it for me
Bouncer, I'm just too busy to start any adventures today. Anyway, I
promised the Sparkly King a sack of my finest carrots the next time I visited
him and I seem to have eaten most of them." Bouncer took the key and was about to
get back in line to lead the expedition when Sarah walked over to Boss Cotton.
"Hello Mr. Boss," she said very politely. "I heard you say that Bouncer had found
'our Beary'. May I ask why you think Beary is yours?" Boss hopped around for a
little and then he settled down in the enormous chair again. "Well," he said. "It
looks as though we might be here for a little while, so I'll make some carrot tea
and then I'll tell you a little about Beary that perhaps you never knew."
He made some delicious carrot tea with carrot cake and carrot
sandwiches (to tell you the truth, most rabbit recipes have carrot in there
somewhere) and made himself comfortable in his huge chair.
"Well Sarah, a long time ago and right here in the wild wood lived a
Sparkly. Now you might think that Sparkly's aren't really here, and I know
that some silly people think that they are really fireflies. Well let me tell you
young lady, they most certainly are here. As I was saying, this Sparkly was
the first Sparkly in the world. I think he must have been very lonely. One
day, he was sitting on a branch. He didn't know where he had come from
and he didn't know where he was going, he only knew he was sitting on the
branch. This made him very sad so he started to cry. As the tears fell on him,
the sparkle started to disappear.
Now just down the road lived the Witch of the Wild Wood. You may
think that witches are bad, but this one was a very kind witch. She had a
little helper, a little white bear with a pink nose and blue dress. Her name
then was Beary Fluffdumpling. Beary was out collecting berries when she
heard the sad little cry of the Sparkly. She looked up into the tree and there
she saw a little figure starting to fade. She knew she would have no time to
run for the witch so she jumped into the tree. The Sparkly was fading fast
now, so the brave little bear whispered a magic spell she had heard from the
witch. In an instant, instead of being a little warm bear with a pink nose, she
became cold and full of stuffing, but she needed the stuffing to keep the
Sparkly from going out. She pulled bits from her and waived the stuffing
around Sparkly. It lit up and kept the sad little thing going while Beary
Fluffdumpling called for help.
Sparklus Hilarius
The Witch of the Wild Wood heard the cry and rushed from her
cauldron. (She had been making newt soup) In a flash she was on her broom
and whizzing to the sound. When she arrived at the tree, she could hardly
believe her eyes. Beary Fluffdumpling was all but gone. She had pulled her
own stuffing out to keep the Sparkly sparkling, and now she was all but gone
herself. The witch quickly cast a spell on the Sparkly to stop him shedding
tears and gently lifted the brave little bear from the branches to the ground.
It really was too late to save Beary, but the witch was not only kindly, she
was also very clever.
She carried the poor little white bear to the broom and soon they where
speeding back to the house. Once inside, the witch opened up her oldest and
most secret spell book. She got some special magic bits, you know, like eye
of bat and stuff like that, and then sung a very old and ancient spell. After
she had finished, it looked as though the bear was sleeping, which I suppose
in a way she was. The witch had laid the spell of sleep on her. It went
something like this, only it was such a long time ago, I really can't remember
all the words. Just as well really as I wouldn't like to send you to sleep.
|
Flesh and blood and bones and skin
Wrapped in a coat so fair
Now this spell I will begin
To save this precious bear.
<
No more blood and bones I see
Just some dried up straw
But this spell that that I decree
Will live for evermore
One day the bear she will belong
To a child that is the same
The sweetest child you ever saw
And Sarah is her name.
|
|
After the witch had finished, she put Beary in a bag and mounted her trusty
broom again. She returned to the tree to help the Sparkly. She told him that
he wasn't alone, he was just the first. Soon, the wood would sparkle with
them, especially on frosty nights. In fact, if you ever go to the wild wood on
a cold and frosty morning. Look at the fallen leaves and you can see where
the Sparkly people have walked through the wood. They glitter and shine
and if you're really lucky, when you get an extra white and glittering leaf,
hold it up to the pale winter sunshine and you can see a million rainbows so
small you wonder how they could all fit there.
Anyway, as I was saying. The witch told the Sparkly that he was now the
King and he needed to make the wood ready for his people. "What happened to
the brave little bear?" Asked Sparklus Hilarious. (I forgot to tell you, that's
what the witch said his name should be) "I really want to thank her for her
kindness and bravery. Why, I think she must be the bravest little bear in the whole
wood." The Witch of the Wild Wood shook her head sadly and showed the Sparkly King
what had happened to the little bear. He reached in to touch her and as he did,
something very wonderful and magical happened. Beary Fluffdumpling opened her eyes
and spoke.
"Please don't be sad Sparklus Hilarious, I am very happy. In my
dreams I have seen a precious little girl who will hug me and love me
forever. Her name is Sarah and although she doesn't know it yet, she is
magical too. One day, when the wild wood calls and needs me, she will help
me to wake from my long sleep." With that, the little bear fell into a
stillness. The witch flew away to the big town and very carefully and very
quietly she found the baby Sarah. She placed the little bear in her bed with
her with a blessing and returned to the wild wood.
Sarah stared at Boss Cotton with her eyes as wide as they could possibly be.
She held Beary extra tightly now she new where she really came from. "I always
knew it," she cried out. "I always knew my Beary was so special, she was always
different to the other bears. Even her nose is a different colour." "Yes," said
the rabbit. "Now you see why we call Beary 'our' bear. If it were not for Beary
Fluffdumpling, the wild wood would have no sparkle.
In the Tree Palace
Sarah thought long and hard about this. I think she started to see how the life
of the wild wood was special. She was the outsider and all the creatures in it
were at home. Of course, there had always been the whisperings of the
Sparkly folk, and she had always wondered if rabbits could talk to each
other, but she had always thought it would have been in a sort of, well,
'rabbity' language. Instead, she could understand everything that was being
said, even when Boss Cotton was speaking and chewing carrots at the same
time.
"Well thank you Mr. Cotton for that very interesting story, but I think
we really need to go to see the Sparkly King, don't you?" The large rabbit
flopped his ears as he nodded in agreement. "Yes Sarah, you're right, you've
got the key and Bouncer knows the way, so off you go."
Bouncer, Flouncer, Sarah and Beary restarted their adventure. It had been
rather pleasant to sit with the old rabbit, and it had been very wonderful
indeed to hear the tale of Beary and the Sparkly King, but Sarah knew they
needed to find Flouncers marbles very quickly. He was getting sillier and
sillier. Presently they came to a large tree, in fact it really was quite the
largest tree that Sarah had ever seen. She peered up into its branches and
then she walked around it. It took her a while because it was so huge.
"Wow," she said. "This really is the biggest tree in the wood, maybe
even the whole world, but why have we stopped here, aren't we supposed to
be looking for the Sparkly King?"
Bouncer hopped over to Sarah. "We're here," he said as he produced the key
from his waistcoat pocket. He put the strange shaped key into an old knot of
wood. Then the strangest thing happened, knots of wood that before had
seemed just sort of, well, 'bark' like, suddenly started to look, well, sort of
'door' like. Before the three friends knew it, the door swung open.
"Right Ho," said Bouncer. "In we go." They all stepped into the
doorway and as they did so, it slammed shut behind them. Now I expect you
would think that being shut in a tree was quite horrible. Not this tree. As the
door slammed shut, a thousand glittering lights shone out and there before
them was a long staircase winding down.
Sarah sniffed the air. It had a very pleasant smell, you know, the sort of
smell that makes you feel really comfortable, like a new toy, or Christmas
trees, that sort of thing. They walked down and down and down. This really
was a long way and just as Sarah started to think they would reach the other
side of the world, they stopped going down. They had entered a large hall that
was lit with thousands and thousands of rainbow coloured lights. At the far end
of the hall was a huge glittering silver and golden chair, well more like a throne
really. Sitting on the chair was the Sparkly King. He rose to greet them and when
he saw Beary, he was overjoyed. Sarah looked at him and wondered if this was the
same Sparkly that Beary had saved.
As he came near to them, Sarah felt Beary suddenly wriggle and twitch. She
was so surprised she nearly dropped her. The Sparkly King laid his shining
hand on Beary and in an instant she was awake and yawning. "Well that was a very long sleep and no mistake," she said. This time,
Sarah did drop her, but instead of falling on her head, Beary landed nimbly
on her furry pads. She looked up at Sarah who was now finding it very hard
to close her mouth. In fact, her chin had dropped so much she started to look
like a letterbox getting ready for Christmas.
Now then, you now how it is when you want to say something, but
you just can't? That's exactly how Sarah felt, but she was actually quite
brave and feisty and I don't think it would be long before she found her
voice again. She smiled her hugest and best smile and held her arms open. In
a flash, Beary had jumped up and they hugged and hugged.
After they had hugged and hugged, Beary jumped from Sarah and ran to the
king. She hugged Sparklus Hilarious and then hand in hand with Sarah they
followed the king while he presented them to the court. Sarah noticed that
amid all this sparkle and light, there was a small dark shadow sitting quietly
by a large glittering door. As they got nearer Beary suddenly gave a whoop
and ran over. It was the Witch of the Wild Wood. Sarah was most surprised
to see that under the dark cloak, the witch was dressed in a very bright green
and she had very long golden hair. She was sort of expecting a witch with a
horrible crooked nose and spidery fingers.
Beary and the witch hugged and hugged even more that with the king.
To be honest, Sarah was getting just a tinsy bit jealous with all this hugging.
"After all," she thought. "She's my bear." The Witch of the Wild Wood
suddenly looked over at Sarah as though she heard what was thought. The
poor girl went absolutely scarlet from head to toe as she realised the witch
could read her thoughts, then she became rather sorry for thinking them.
"After all, Beary lived in the wild wood before she was given to me." She
told herself.
After a while, everyone was bought to a huge wooden table covered with the
most delicious food. Sarah was quite pleased, as she was getting rather
hungry. Although she quite liked carrots, they didn't really fill you up as it
were. While she was eating some delicious strawberry flavoured ice cream
covered in wonderful melting chocolate mousse, she noticed that Beary, the
witch and the king were sort of huddled and talking rather secretively. She
squeezed her eyes shut and tried not to think bad thoughts about it, but
would you believe it? Just as her eyes thought they couldn't squeeze
anymore, the king called her over to their little group.
"Well then young Sarah," he said kindly. "It would seem that our brave
Beary here has had quite a wonderful life with you, a life she wishes to carry
on after this adventure is over." Beary smiled at Sarah and I can tell you,
Sarah positively beamed back.
Beary Gets the Marbles
The Sparkly King and the Witch of the Wild Wood sat Sarah down with
Beary. I think they were there for quite a while because the sun slowly
popped away for the night and the silvery moon peeped through the cloud
wrack. After quite a few hours of talking and planning, the King walked
quietly to where Bouncer and Flouncer were snoring. He shook them gently.
"Come on you two loppy eared rabbits," he said with a smile. "We've
thought of a plan to get Flouncers marbles back, but it needs to be done
before daybreak."
The rabbits yawned and stretched, then they had a very good scratch,
stretched again, yawned some more and hopped over to the others. The King
gave Beary a small bag. It looked like an old piece of cloth tied at the top
with an even older piece of string. Sarah looked at it and wondered what it
was, but Beary tucked it away in her blue B'Gosh dress.
The four friends said their goodbyes to the Sparkly King and climbed up and
up to the door in the tree. From the inside it didn't need a key, so they just
pushed their way out and into the pale watery moonlight.
"Right," said Beary. "We've got to get to the Kingdom of the Water Rats
and find that dratted hole and we've got to do it before the moon goes back
to sleep." They walked quickly and quietly through the tall trees.
Now you would think that a sweet little girl like Sarah would be afraid to be
in the woods at night, but let me tell you. She was very brave and every time
she felt just the tiniest bit afraid, she squeezed Beary's paw then she thought
of her Mom and Daddy. She thought of her Daddy's beard tickling her chin
and her Mom's cuddles and cooking. In fact, the more she thought about the
cooking, the hungrier she got and the hungrier she got, the more she resolved
never to leave any of Mom's cooking again.
After a while, they came to a large clearing in the wood. In the middle was a
large still lake. As Sarah looked at it, it seemed that the moon was
swimming in it. Very strange! Suddenly a large trout flicked his tail and the
ripples made the moon look as though it was being sliced like an old cheese
which by the way, is exactly what it is made of.
The four friends were aware they were not alone here. From all around the
edge of the lake, little ripples and the patter of claws in the mud began to
build up.
Soon it was quite noisy. They thought about running, but as they were about
to turn around, hundreds and hundreds of small red beady eyes winking and
blinking surrounded them.
I have to tell you that this really is quite the scariest part of the story
so far. I mean to say, would you like to be stuck in a dark place and surrounded
by hundreds and hundreds of red eyes? I don't think so! Just as Sarah thought she
would scream, Beary stepped forward and opened the bag the Sparkly King had given
her. She dipped her paw inside and then she threw the contents up to the night sky.
The whole woodland clearing became a dazzling sea of light. It was as though a
million bright rainbows had fallen to the darkest place in the world. As the brave
little bear stepped forward the horrible red eyes turned and fled, their ratty tails
following behind.
"Come on!" Shouted Beary. "Let's be after them and get those pesky
marbles back." They all ran as fast as they could but the water rats were
dashing here and there so fast. Soon the glittering lights began to fade, but it
was too late for the rats. Beary had found the thief's hole and was even now
dashing out waiving the precious bag of marbles above her head. The four
friends ran from the clearing as fast as they could. Water rats could be very
horrid when the fancy took them and none of the friends wanted to be there
if that happened.
After a while, they were pretty sure the rats wouldn't be following them so
they fell on the grass with a bump. Beary handed the marbles back to
Flouncer who bowed very politely as only well bred rabbits can. Sarah
thought that with his marbles back, he might say something clever, but he
just fell over and went to sleep. Soon, Sarah began to feel very tired as well.
She lay on the grass and cuddled Beary as hard as she could. "Could I ask
you a question Beary?" She asked sleepily. "Will you still be alive when we
go back to the house?" She just about finished the words and then fell into a
deep sleep.
As she woke in the morning, she expected to see the sky peeping through the
tops of the trees, but as she looked to her side, she saw the blue curtains in
her own bedroom with the sun trying to peep through. She sat up suddenly
as she realised that if this had been a dream, then Beary was never alive, and
Bouncer and Boss and Flouncer and the Sparkly King, not to mention the
Witch of the Wild Wood, had all been a dream. She started to cry and soon
her Daddy Mike and Mom Lori walked through the door.
"What's up sweetheart?" They asked.
"Why are you crying?" With
that, her daddy lifted her from the bed for a gigantic huge fresh in the
morning hug. As he was holding Sarah, her Mom walked to the bed, her
brown eyes were wide with amazement. There on the bed was Beary, she
was covered in leaves and grass from the wild wood and her paw was
glittering with Sparkly dust. Sarah stopped crying and smiled at Beary. She
knew it was all real and somehow the Witch had magic spelled her back
here. Even as she smiled at the battered white bear with the pink nose, would
you believe it, Beary winked and smiled back.
The End.