Just Right

It was so terribly cold. Snow was falling, and it was almost dark. The temperature on her phone read -6, but the real feel was -12 with wind chill.

               Cora put her gloves back on and slid her phone in her pocket. She didn’t think the cold weather was necessarily a bad omen, but his tardiness felt like one. Tristan was supposed to have picked her up ten minutes ago. It was only their third date, and she didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but her toes were icicles, and she felt abandoned.

As she stepped back into the warm bus stop, she removed her gloves again and sent him a text. A voice in her head said she was being needy; it told her to be cool, but she was literally frozen. He texted back a quick apology and said he was on his way. She didn’t know if that meant he was already on the way or only just leaving his apartment. When the 6:50 bus screeched to a stop, she considered getting on it for the warmth. Cora didn’t need a third date. Third dates were for romantics.

She wanted a third date, though. A little romance sounded nice, but she didn’t want to entrust romance in someone who couldn’t make it on time.

The bus doors breathed open, exhaling warm air. She didn’t file on. She committed to not checking the time and accepting his presence whenever he made it. She didn’t have to wait very long, but she did have a surprise as he came strolling down the sidewalk.

“I know this is unusual,” he said before he was even less than six feet away from her. A small brown bear hung over his shoulder like a fur scarf. Its eyes were wet and glassy like it had been crying. “I saw this sad bear hanging outside of my apartment. I tried to cheer him up before I left, but nothing worked. Do you want to help me?”

What could she say? She wasn’t heartless, and the bear did look very sad. She’d never looked into more sorrowful eyes. She nodded her head. “What about an ice cream cone?”

Tristan looked skeptical. “It’s freezing outside.”

“I know, but when I’m sad and need cheering up, I like ice cream.”

Tristan shrugged and asked the bear if he would like an ice cream cone. The bear gave no indication of his desires. “Okay,” Tristan shrugged. “Worth a try.”  

Cora led them both to her favorite ice cream place. She tried to hype it up on the walk to build excitement in the bear. Her favorite flavor was dulce de leche, and she described the creamy sweetness in as much detail as her creativity could afford, but the bear did not get excited. Before they placed their order, they tried asking the bear his favorite flavor, but he didn’t give them any indication. They chose raspberry, figuring it was closest to what the bear might eat in his natural habitat.

“How do you think the bear wound up by your apartment?” Cora asked when they sat down at a small table inside. Heat pumped in from the vent above them, and it felt good on Cora’s cold hands.

“I’m not sure. I didn’t see any other bears around, but my neighbors aren’t great about securing their trash, so maybe it was looking for some easy food.”

“I didn’t know bears ever came into the city,” Cora shrugged.

“I didn’t think they did, but I also didn’t think bears could look so sad.”

Tristan and Cora both looked at the bear, then, who didn’t seem to have any interest in the ice cream. His eyes still held all the sadness of the world, and Cora wished she could feel it for him. She was no stranger to sadness, so she’d built up a tolerance for it. She’d suffered several losses in her life, from her mom to her grandpa to a pet hamster she loved dearly. Her grandpa was the hardest loss to tolerate, and she’d lost him in college when she most needed his wisdom. She knew how to trek through those dark periods that came with grief, like swimming in mud, but she could do it. The bear didn’t seem to be swimming in mud, it was more like he just realized that he was a small blip in the gigantic universe.

“What about a balloon?” Tristan suggested as the raspberry ice cream melted down the side of the paper cup.

Tristan slung the bear back over his shoulder, and they wandered into the nearest party supply store. Balloons for almost every occasion greeted them, but they definitely didn’t have a balloon for the very specific occasion of sad bear.

“A goldfish?” Cora offered. “Cause bears like salmon, so goldfish are adjacent?”

“Let’s try it.”

Tristan offered the cashier two dollars in quarters, which he dug out of his wallet. On the way out of the store, Cora tied the balloon around the bear’s paw. She was a little scared, looking at his sharp claws, but he didn’t even flinch or roar. He accepted the balloon on his limb as if it’d been there his whole life, which meant he didn’t show any improvement in his mood.

“What would you want, if you needed cheering up?” Cora asked Tristan when they were back outside. The goldfish balloon wavered in the cold breeze like it was swimming in the sea. It made Cora smile, but the bear was still unamused.

“One time, when I was a kid, I was sad because we had to give our cat to a cousin when we moved to a new apartment that didn’t allow pets. My mom felt so bad she took me to a mattress store because I wanted to try out the different kinds. Maybe the bear would like to do that?”

Cora shrugged. Neither her nor Tristan had any reason to say no to suggestions, no matter how strange, because they both wanted to help the bear, whose face was stained with melancholy. Tristan knew the feeling. Cora was the first ray of sunshine he’d had in his life in a long time. Ever since his ex-girlfriend had broken up with him over a year ago, he hadn’t quite been able to recover. Despite the fact that Cora made him happy, he’d considered standing her up for their third date. It was easier to withdraw from others, even if it meant further unhappiness because he was too afraid of being disappointed again. When he saw the bear, he thought it’d be a reason to ditch Cora, but after she texted him, he felt guilty leaving her out in the cold.

“Surely they don’t allow bears?” Cora asked as Tristan pulled the door handle to the mattress store. Warm air gushed out from inside and hit their faces and hands.

“Only one way to find out,” he said, boldly walking through the doors and into the heated building behind Cora.

A soft aroma of pine greeted them as though they’d entered a forest. Cora looked at the bear, who seemed to perk up slightly. Although his eyes still shone with unhappiness, he lifted his head off Tristan’s shoulder and looked around. She wondered if he was homesick, and the pine revived him slightly. If the mattress store didn’t do the trick, she would suggest taking him to the forest next.

“Welcome to Just Right. What kind of mattress are you looking for?” a sales associate dressed like a forest ranger asked them without even flinching at the bear hanging over Tristan’s shoulder.

Cora and Tristan looked at each other. Cora mouthed to Tristan that he should answer. He knew about the different mattress types from his childhood memories, after all.

“Soft,” Tristan said. “Yet firm. I think our bear would like firm.”

Cora bit her lip. She wished he hadn’t drawn attention to the bear. She felt like it was some sort of fluke that they hadn’t been kicked out, and if they didn’t mention the bear then he didn’t exist to anyone but them.

“You might like our Hibernation model then,” the sales associate said, still not acknowledging the bear in any way. “Follow me.”

 The associate led them to the back corner of the store and pushed his hand onto a grey mattress with a waffle knit top.

“Put your hand on that. You can feel that it’s firm from a simple touch.”

Tristan put his hand down first. Cora wanted to pick up the bear and use his paw to test the mattress because she wanted to get a reaction from the associate, but instead she put her hand down and pushed into the cushiony top. 

“Too soft,” she said.

“I thought it was too firm,” Tristan said. 

“What about your bear?” the associate asked.

Cora held back a gasp as Tristan gently removed the bear from his shoulder and set him down on the mattress. His weight immediately made an indent in the top, and his claws looked like they were going to pierce through it. Cora was kind of curious what was inside to make it feel so soft. The bear circled around once, and then three times like a dog before he settled down.

“I think he likes it,” the associate said.

Cora and Tristan were speechless.

Just then, they heard a roar. Cora knew it hadn’t come from the little bear on the bed, but she didn’t know where else it might have come from so, she didn’t think to turn around to see the big bear ambling toward them. Before she realized what was happening, the big bear swept up the little bear in her arms.

“Oh, it didn’t occur to me that might be your son,” the associate laughed as if it was an ordinary occurrence for a mother and baby bear to be in a mattress store. “This is the owner, Mama Bear, by the way.”

“Right,” Tristan said. His eyes were wide with wonder as he looked at the bears, completely lost to the moment in a bear hug. He never fully understood the definition of the phrase until that moment.

“He looks happy now,” Cora said. The bear’s eyes lost the sheen that had made him look so desperately sad all day. Now the corners of his mouth turned up and his ears were perked to match.

“What do you think about the Hibernation model? It seems it’s fit for a bear!” the associate asked and clapped his hands together like he was finalizing a deal. The bears remained locked in a reunion hug.

 “I don’t actually need a mattress,” Cora muttered. 

“It was too firm,” Tristan said. “I like a soft mattress.”

The associate looked ready to sell Tristan on a softer model, but the mama bear laid down on the Hibernation with her son. She curled around him and closed her eyes.

“I think it’s time for us to go,” Cora said.

As Cora and Tristan exited the store, the lights turned out.

“I guess we didn’t exactly cheer that bear up,” Cora said. “Nothing like a mom to do the cheering.”

“Yeah. That’s okay,” Tristan said with a small smile. The dim parking lot lighting reflected in his glossy eyes. “It’s still kind of early. We deserve our date after all that.”

“That’d be nice,” Cora said.

They took a seat in a high-backed booth at the diner near the store and ordered warm foods. Coffee, soup, and freshly baked apple pie, which was all just right.