Cherie yawned as she opened her eyes that morning. Through a sleepy haze she looked out from beneath the row of bushes where she lived, planted along the top of the back of her friend Gord’s home. She briefly glanced at the sky, bright blue mottled with scattered puffs of white clouds. It should be a nice day, she thought.
She walked over to the edge of the short ledge the bushes were just barely hanging over and looked down for her friend. Normally, Gord would already be out of his cave and walking around, perhaps taking a swim in the small pond at the front of his home where he liked to stop and look through its Plexiglas front at the people who’d come by to see who Cherie liked to tease as her silly polar bear. This morning, though, Gord was nowhere to be seen. Odd.
Cherie flew down into Gord’s home and peered inside his small cave. She saw Gord near the back, curled up as though asleep, yet with his eyes open and staring at nothing.
“Gord?” she said quietly. Gord made no reply. Very odd for this most talkative bear.
Cherie took a couple of steps into the cave. “Gord? Are you all right?”
For the longest time Gord remained curled up and silent, still staring at nothing. Finally, he sighed deeply before replying, “Why, hello Cherie. I apologize for my lack of manners this morning in not saying hello sooner.”
“Is something wrong? Are you sick?”
Gord closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again and turned to look at his friend. He tried to smile, but it fooled no one. “Why, no. I feel fine. It’s that… well… why, it seems rather silly, really.”
Cherie walked all the way into the cave until she was directly across from Gord. “Something’s bothering you, Gord. Do you want to tell me about it?”
“Just a bad dream, my friend. Nothing, really.”
“Sometimes bad dreams spill over into when you’re awake.”
“Why, yes. Yes they do.”
“It might help if you talk about it.”
“In a moment. First, I really should get up.” With that Gord stood up, stretched, and walked out of the cave with Cherie walking ahead of him. He slipped into his pond for a moment, then looked over at Cherie and smiled. She knew what this meant, so she took off and flew about for a minute as Gord shook himself, spraying water in all directions. Once he was done shaking, Cherie landed next to the pool’s edge.
“Now, about your dream,” she said.
“Yes, that,” he softly replied. “I dreamt I was back in the forest next to where I used to live. Everything seemed normal and all right, like it used to be. Then… why, it was very strange. Something started hitting me from out the sky.”
“Do you know what it was?”
“No. I thought it might be a bird — I hope you don’t mind — or perhaps two of them, as it seemed like there were two of them. They would hit the back of my head, and every time they did so they’d scream at me.”
Cherie asked, “Was it just a scream?”
“Why, no. It would be a few words. They didn’t make any sense, but after a moment I’d remember them as being part of something different people had said to me at different times. Bad things, calling me names and such.”
“Like the bad people who come here to the zoo?”
“Why, yes. Thankfully, most people who come here aren’t like that.”
“True. Anyway, about your dream…”
“I tried to see what was hitting me, but no matter how I turned and twisted I never saw anything. Then I started running, but whatever they were followed me and kept hitting me. The only change was now each time they screamed, the word ‘remember’ was in what they were saying.”
“What did you do?” Cherie asked.
“Why, I tried something. I stopped running.”
“And did what?”
“I looked up and yelled ‘you’re over!’ And the attacks stopped. Then I woke up.”
Cherie paused for a moment, then said, “So why were you so upset when you woke up?”
Gord thought about it. “I guess remembering the bad things people have said.”
Cherie quietly replied, “Silly polar bear. They’re over, too.”
“Why, yes. Yes, they are.”
