A SURPRISING FRIEND

Once upon a time there was a whispery forest, with clouds dancing in the sky above, birds drawing large circles in the air and friendly trees weaving their branches together. A certain spot of the sunny forest was the home of a bear family. Mother Bear and Father Bear had three cubs: Bambo Bear, Tango Bear and Tic Bear. The cubs were playing and fooling around all day long. They had plenty of toys, as you can imagine, and each one of them had a favorite one: you could spot Bambo every day on his blue bike, Tango would carry a big bucket filled with berries all the time, and Tic, the little one, could not part with his big red ball.

One day, as they were wandering far from home playing, they reached the big lake at one end of the forest. Bambo Bear sat his bike on the ground (it needed some rest too, won’t you agree?), while Tango Bear sat on the grass tasting the blueberries and raspberries he had gathered in his bucket. The older cubs called for Tic to come taste some of the berries. But Tic was delighted to be chasing after his mischievous ball, which was bouncing up and down and took a last bounce right into the lake. Tic stopped abruptly at the shore, as he could not swim. Bambo Bear and Tango Bear ran as fast as they could and got in the water up to their knees trying to grab the ball. Unfortunately, despite all their efforts, the ball seemed to float farther and farther away. Stunned, they stood on the shore for a while, then tried to walk around the lake, hoping helplessly that the wind would push the ball their way.

As evening was falling over the woods, the older brothers tried to comfort Tic Bear by telling him how very soon Mama Bear and Papa Bear would go to town and definitely buy him a new ball…Tic was so upset…He could watch the ball floating on the lake through the tears in his eyes and it was hard to understand why he could not reach and get it. On the way home he grew very sad and kept whispering in a hurt voice: "I will come every day to watch my ball floating on the lake…I will never forget about it". And he was true to his word two days in a row, despite all the promises from Mama Bear that by the end of the month, when business will take them to town, they will return with a ball both bigger and more beautiful. But our Tic just could not give up stopping by the lake once a day. While the first day after the incident the ball looked like a far, small red dot, three days later it was completely out of sight.

On the fourth day, while the brother bears were sitting on the shore tasting the blackberries and raspberries from Tango’s bucket, they started hearing strange noises interrupting the peace of the woods. Bam, bam, bam. Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh the leaves were fluttering. The noises were getting louder and seemed to move towards them when a furry dog running in big jumps after a big red ball popped from the woods. He seemed to be so happy with what he was doing that he did not notice a single thing around him. The three bears were staring motionless as the dog ran farther and farther away, bouncing and chasing the colorful ball with his snout.

Tic shouted: "Hey! That’s my ball. Stop right there! Stop and come back!" He was shouting atop of his lungs and suddenly they were all screaming and chasing after the dog without the slightest chance of catching up with him. After a while the dog stopped, looked behind him with a puzzled look on his face, then looked ahead but decided with a sigh to walk back towards the terribly upset little bears. When he got close to them he said in his most clownish voice: "Oh, I understand now, this is a shouting contest. The one who can shout the loudest gets a prize. It’s my turn now. And he let go of his loudest and longest bark, two times in a row. The bears were upset and confused by his behavior." Well, no", they explained, "we were trying to get your attention to let you know that this is our ball, it actually belongs to Tic, who lost it on the lake a few days ago". The dog seemed to fake most of his surprise " Oh, really? And what would be my reward for swimming all the way across the lake to bring it back for you?" The bears got confused for the second time and started whispering: " We haven’t thought of this, but we could ask our parents to repay you for returning the ball to us..."

The dog looked Tic in the eyes and said "You’re so lucky to be a little bear cub! Of course I’m going to return the ball, but I have a request of my own: my owner brings me to this lake a few times a year, when he’s hunting. When I happen to be around, can you promise to come play with me and share this tricky ball?" Tic quickly looked his brothers in the eyes, mainly because bears aren’t known to be very good friends with dogs. As he got their approval he started jumping up and down and spoke with tears in his eyes: "I can’t tell you how happy I am! From now on, you will be my friend and every time you stop by we will play ball together. We’ll always be here for you, around the lake, always."

That evening when the bears returned to their house, Mama Bear exclaimed: "Tic, what a surprise, you found the ball today! The three bear cubs answered in one voice: "More than that, mother, we found a surprising friend!"