Today, my sister Mary, emailed some of my "earlier work" to me, which I read with great interest. Though my penmanship, spelling and writing style were fairly similar to what they are today, I would estimate my age to be six years old when I wrote this. I can picture myself propped up at the kitchen table with a dull pencil in hand. My mind churning out millions of ideas for an action packed, adventure story and settling on a dark and sad story about a family of bears. Below, I give an overview of this fine piece of work, so you might want to scroll down and read the story before you read my synopsis.
Reading the story this morning (26 years later) I was transported back in time, imagining my little brain developing such a masterful story line. I began the story, innocently enough with a playful scene: Furry's difficulty in learning to eat ants and the unfortunate "heepings of dirt" that came with that. Perhaps learning a life lesson in his youth. And at this point in the story, life for these bears seems to be fine. But then, out of the blue, Mother bear is slaughtered by a rather excessive barrage of gun fire. Yes, it took 5 shots to bring her down. The same could not be said for poor Bushey, who's life was snuffed out with a single shot, preceded by the "klick" of a fateful round being loaded into the chamber.
At this point, Furry realizes his best bet is to stay inside the cave. Having seen what happened to his mother and brother, he holes up and waits out the hunter... (I chose not to describe the scene where Furry sits in the dark cave, shaking, rocking back and forth, while he watches his family being field dressed) It is now abundantly clear that Furry will be on his own. Though I'm sure the prospect of eating ants and "heepings of dirt" does not bolster his confidence in being thrust into self reliance. But, he pushes on with life, as bears do.
And so it happens that one day, he encounters a large, menacing, black bear and flees to the safety of a nearby tree only to find that, contrary to popular belief, his long nails prohibit him from climbing. (The timing of this discovery could not be worse!) His whining, "whining like heck" actually, scares the other bear into thinking that Furry's mother (now stew) would come to Furry's rescue. And so the story ends with long nailed Furry, with elevated hear rate, alone in the wilderness. His fate at the hands of mother nature.
Reading the story this morning (26 years later) I was transported back in time, imagining my little brain developing such a masterful story line. I began the story, innocently enough with a playful scene: Furry's difficulty in learning to eat ants and the unfortunate "heepings of dirt" that came with that. Perhaps learning a life lesson in his youth. And at this point in the story, life for these bears seems to be fine. But then, out of the blue, Mother bear is slaughtered by a rather excessive barrage of gun fire. Yes, it took 5 shots to bring her down. The same could not be said for poor Bushey, who's life was snuffed out with a single shot, preceded by the "klick" of a fateful round being loaded into the chamber.
At this point, Furry realizes his best bet is to stay inside the cave. Having seen what happened to his mother and brother, he holes up and waits out the hunter... (I chose not to describe the scene where Furry sits in the dark cave, shaking, rocking back and forth, while he watches his family being field dressed) It is now abundantly clear that Furry will be on his own. Though I'm sure the prospect of eating ants and "heepings of dirt" does not bolster his confidence in being thrust into self reliance. But, he pushes on with life, as bears do.
And so it happens that one day, he encounters a large, menacing, black bear and flees to the safety of a nearby tree only to find that, contrary to popular belief, his long nails prohibit him from climbing. (The timing of this discovery could not be worse!) His whining, "whining like heck" actually, scares the other bear into thinking that Furry's mother (now stew) would come to Furry's rescue. And so the story ends with long nailed Furry, with elevated hear rate, alone in the wilderness. His fate at the hands of mother nature.
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