The Christmas Bear: A Tale for Children - Stuart Raine
December 2010
Salzburg, Austria a week before Christmas and it was cold: very cold. Snow had fallen early that year and the low temperatures had frozen the white covering to the pavements, even in the centre of the town. The crowds of shoppers, however, were even more than usual, seemingly undeterred by the wintry conditions of a gloomy late December early afternoon. Looking from the window of the shop where he sat on a high glass shelf, the bear could see the people outside looking up at the house opposite where a famous composer had been born. At the Christmas shop next door there were a constant stream of people and some, coming out or before they went in glanced his way and some came into the toyshop where he was. He had started the month with many friends on the shelves around him, but now he was left on his own. He wondered why that could be and felt rather sad. He thought he looked rather smart in his lederhosen and white shirt, although he knew that he had eaten too many cakes and was perhaps a little overweight. But he was surprised that no customer as yet had taken an interest in him.
It was rather stuffy in the shop where he sat and it would be exciting he thought to be taken out as his friends had been and see what the outside world was like. As he sat thinking about this, he noticed two people stop and look at the window. A man and a woman: perhaps a married couple out buying last minute presents. He tried to look as appealing as possible and the lady smiled back at him and looked at the man next to her. He also smiled, said something, but then they turned away and were lost in the crowd. The bear sighed. Another chance had gone.
As he sat thinking again, he suddenly noticed that the lady had returned alone. She glanced at the window, smiled again and entered the shop. The bear couldn’t look around to see what was happening and didn’t want to get too excited, but he did hope that perhaps this was the moment he had been waiting for.
Suddenly he heard a click as the glass door to the window display unit was opened. He felt a hand clasp him around his middle and he was drawn backwards out of the window and into the shop where he was placed on a counter. He put on his most engaging smile and puffed himself up as the lady looked down at him. She said something to the assistant in a language he didn’t understand, but he heard the reply: '30 euros'. He didn’t understand what that meant and now wished he was cleverer at languages. So he smiled his best smile again as the lady looked at him and picked him up. The lady returned his smile, put him down on the counter, said something again he didn’t understand and reached into a bag she was carrying.
The bear found himself taken up, put on a piece of paper and suddenly all went dark. He couldn’t see what was happening, but thought, as he was wrapped up, he was placed into another bag. Nothing happened for a few minutes and then he had the sensation of movement: he heard the door of the shop open and close and he had the feeling that he was outside the shop. Even wrapped up he could feel the fresher air: he could hear noise and talking and then the movement stopped. The paper wrapped around him was moved slightly and he saw a man’s face looking down at him in the bag: the man laughed and quickly wrapped him up again.
The bear had always wished to be out of the shop, but was now beginning to wish he was back safely on his shelf. The movement and the noise frightened him because he had no idea of where he was going or what was happening. And it was also very cold: under his clothes nobody had thought to equip him with winter thermals.
What seemed like a very long time later, and just as he was beginning to feel slightly sick, all the movement suddenly stopped and he found himself taken out of the wrapping. He was in a room on a bed and being looked at by the man and woman. They were smiling and laughing and talking. If only he was better at languages he thought he would be able to understand what was being said. He caught words like ‘Wolfgang’, ‘Amadeus’, ‘Podge’, and then ‘Kurt’: he knew these were names, but how did they know his name?
Before he had time to really understand, he was being wrapped up and it was dark again. Very dark: much darker than before. And he felt very squashed. He couldn’t hear any voices. For some time all remained still, before the movement started again. The movement this time was far worse than before. The noise outside became terrible and went on for hours and hours. He began to feel very sick again. He was becoming very frightened: he found himself wishing he had never been taken from that safe shelf with its view of the street and people.
But, eventually the terrible noise stopped. The movement stopped, started again and then finally ceased. Perhaps, the bear thought, the darkness would end as well. Whatever the future held must be better than being wrapped and shut out of the world like this.
And then, after what seemed like an eternity, he felt he was less squashed. It became less dark and he heard voices again still speaking in that language he didn’t understand. The wrapping was being taken off and he saw again the face of the lady who had looked at him in the shop and the man she had been with in the street. From there he glanced about him.
He was in a pleasant, flower-papered room and being placed on a bed. On the bed were bears, not dressed like him, but nevertheless they were bears. Three were much bigger than he was, but the fourth was his size. He had green fur and wore horn-rimmed glasses on his nose and had an excellent command of the Austrian language. It was this bear that spoke whilst the others smiled. He explained that his name was ‘Professor Green’ and that this was England. It was a house near the sea and he, Kurt, would find many friends here. He would be looked after. He would be safe. He would soon get to know the bears in the house by their names and shouldn’t worry if a large cat came to investigate him. And, if he was very good, he might be taken in the car on holiday to other parts of the country and see places he could only dream of.
And because he was good, ‘Kurt’ did indeed go on holidays with his new best friend who could speak his language and begin to teach him English.
But that is another story . . . !