post #273 - a bedtime story

Once upon a time, there was a bear. He was small and furry and well-meaning, and he lived at a house in Attleboro, Massachusetts. For a time, he must have had a family, and maybe even some friends, but they don't come into this story except at the beginning. And at the beginning of this story, the bear's friends and family weren't treating him very nicely. They had grown tired of him, and had put him out with the trash, where he sat overnight in a bin at the end of their driveway.

During the night, it rained, and it was very cold, and the poor bear felt very wet and uncomfortable. He was upside-down in the trash can, on top of some cardboard and an old hat, and his nose felt cramped. He also felt very sad, and very confused.

Now, there was a girl who lived a long way away from the bear, in another state. But she came to visit her mother in Attleboro. And her mother lived in a tall white house across the street from the bear's family. The girl arrived very late at night, and didn't notice the bear, upside-down in the trash can at the end of the driveway across the street from her mother's house. Instead, she got out of her car, and took her bag, and went in her mother's warm apartment to spend the night.

In the morning, when it was light, the girl woke up and went down to her car to get something she wanted to give to her mother, and this time she did see the bear. What she saw were two furry fuzzy grey legs sticking up in the air out of a black trash can that was full of garbage. She looked, and she looked, and she knew she needed to do something to help the animal who belonged to those legs.

She glanced up and down the street, and then she walked across to the garbage can. And she reached in and pulled the bear out and looked at him. He looked back at her. She could feel that he was wet all over, and he looked sad and lost. "Bear", she said, "You are going to come with me. I will wash you and dry you all over, so you will be comfortable again."

And she took him and washed all the rain and wind and dirt out of his fuzzy grey fur, and she dried him and set him down so that he could look around and get his bearings. He saw a nice bright living room and a sofa and some cushions, and everything was very warm and soft.

Then the girl's visit with her mother was over, and she took the bear under one arm down the staircase and out to the street, and she set him right in the middle of the front seat of her car. She said, "Bear, this will probably be one of the longest trips you've ever been on, but I am taking you home. And if you like the drive, you can sit in the front seat of my car every time I travel to visit my friends, and keep me company."

The bear was very happy.

And for many years, as long as she owned the car, the girl took her bear with her when she traveled, and he always sat on the front seat of her car, right in the very middle. He loved to look out the window, and he liked the music she played on the cassette player, and he liked to hear her sing along to it. The bear felt very very happy.

Then one day the girl had to give her car away. It was very old and didn't run anymore. So she took the bear out of the front seat, and took him up to her bedroom and put him next to her bed. "Bear", she said, "It's going to be winter again soon, and you should be warm and cozy, so I'm going to keep you here inside for awhile. You can tell me if you want to go on more trips, and I will always take you with me if you want to go!" The bear decided he was quite content to stay at home.

Now, one day, a long time after that, on a day that might or might not be today, the girl got in her new car and drove to New Jersey to visit her friends for the weekend. She left the bear at home, but she did think about him quite a bit while she was driving. And I will tell you why.

She was driving on a big, big highway, and there were lots of signs with the names of all the places she was passing - all the other cities and roads that you can get to from that highway. And just as the girl was getting close to her friends' house, she suddenly looked up and saw a huge sign that said: Bedminster Pluckemin. She thought it was a funny sounding name, and she said it over to herself a few times, just very quietly in her head. It reminded her of another name she'd heard: Buckminster Fuller. She liked how the name sounded so much that she thought she'd better give someone that name, and just then she thought of the bear. He'd gone a very very long time just being called "Bear", and it was time for him to have a name.

And so she named the bear Bedminster Pluckemin. She knows he will be very happy with his new name, and she can't wait to get home and tell him all about it!

The End (of the Beginning)