Fred the Bear

“Grandma, tell me the story about Allegra and the bear,” the little voice whined. Mollie still felt hot, and her face was blotchy red. Just a virus, the doctor said. Nothing to do but treat the symptoms and wait it out. Her parents had to work, so that meant Grandma time whenever she couldn't go to school. I sighed and tried to get comfortable on the bed beside her.

   “Again? You’ve heard this story so often that you could probably tell it to me. Allegra was my best friend at boarding school.”

"It's my favorite story," Mollie said.

"As often as I have to tell it, it's a good thing I like it too," I said with mock severity.

   “You had to sleep at the boarding school? I wouldn’t like that. I like my own room.”

   “Yes, well, I was there because my mother and father, your great grandparents, were killed in a car accident when I was very young, and I didn’t have my own room.”

     “Who took care of you if you didn’t have a mummy and a daddy?”

      “I had a guardian, our solicitor, Mr. Pike. I stayed with him and his sister because I had no other family. They were kind, but they were older, and they weren’t used to children, so they thought it was best for me to go to boarding school.”

Her eyes were almost closed.

     “And then I met Allegra and went to her house for Christmas one year, the end.” I whispered, preparing to extricate myself from the narrow bed. My legs were cramping.

    “No, no, you forgot the train and all the other parts.” Mollie’s eyes snapped open.

I sighed.

    “You win. I should have known you wouldn’t miss a thing.”

She giggled and snuggled against me.

 As I recited the tale yet again, I was transported back to the age of twelve and a cold, dreary December day in 1936, feeling the scratchy upholstery of the train seats, watching the landscape through the rain-streaked window. Allegra and I looked alike in our ugly mud-brown school uniforms, though she had tossed her regulation hat onto the luggage rack and had daringly undone the top button of her blouse.

    “Allegra was an aristocat?”

    “No, silly. That’s your Disney movie. Her family were aristocrats. They were rich and had a big, old house and her father was a Lord.”

    “Did the Lord’s house have little towers?”

    “You’re thinking of Disney and Cinderella's castle this time. Too many movies!”

I tickled her and she wiggled, laughing.

    “It was just a large house with a curved stairway going up to the front door. The entrance hall was huge, with black and white tiles on the floor, and pictures of dead people everywhere.”

     “Eww. Did they look nasty?”

     “They weren’t dead when the pictures were painted. The pictures had been painted a long time ago, so all the people in them were dead by the time I got there. And then I saw…”

Her little body quivered with excitement, as we said in unison:

        “…the bear!”

 I had gasped with fear as I saw the huge, hairy form with gleaming eyes looming in the corner of the shadowy hall. Allegra followed my gaze and started to laugh.

      “That’s Fred. He’s a grizzly bear, the family mascot. Come and meet him.”

Up close, I could see that he was stuffed and quite ragged, with patchy fur. His glass eyes glared over my head. He must have been almost six feet tall, rearing upright on a small plinth. Allegra hugged his waist.

         “Family tradition to hug him when you come home. That’s why his fur is so worn down. Go on, give him a squeeze.”

I put my case down and cautiously embraced him. It seemed disrespectful treatment of a once magnificent animal. He smelled musty and I sneezed.

         “You passed the first test. Not everyone wants to touch him,” Allegra said. “Let’s get changed for dinner. I’m starving. It’ll be so nice not to eat those horrible school meals for a while.”.

         “Why did you have to change your clothes just to eat dinner, Grandma?” said Mollie. “Were they dirty?”

         “No, it was just an aristocratic custom. Luckily, Allegra and I were about the same size, so she lent me some clothes as I had very few. I felt quite lady-like in one of her dresses. No sitting down in front of the television, because television didn't exist then. It was all very formal.”

"No television back then?" said Mollie, as if I was referring to the pleistocene era.

"I wouldn't have liked that at all!"

I had followed Allegra nervously down to the dining room. It was only family this evening, but I stared at the beautiful china and silverware which sparkled in the candlelight, overawed.

         “Just copy what I do,” Allegra whispered. “Good evening, papa. This is my friend Sara.”

The Lord had a reddish face and a huge, bushy, white mustache. He beamed at both of us. Her parents seemed ancient to me. Allegra liked to tease her mother about being the surprise baby, causing her mother to remonstrate in flustered embarrassment. This evening, her mother was smiling approvingly. Allegra bounded up to her older brother Robert. From his lofty age of twenty, he reacted with good natured affection as if she were a puppy. I had not met any young men of my own age at that point and had a crush on him for years.

     “What about dotty Cousin Dorothy?” asked Mollie who never forgot a detail.

      “They were all eccentric, but Cousin Dotty was truly a little strange. She would cry for anything, happy or sad.”

She had dissolved into tears when Allegra introduced me.

      “Oh, the poor little orphan,” she wailed, much to my embarrassment.

       “Yes, Dotty, but her parents died years ago, so you can turn off the waterworks,” boomed the Lord, as I thought of him. He had been in the army and always spoke as if he were addressing a parade ground.

        “Tell me about poor Fred,” said Mollie. She loved animals.

       “His lordship said his younger brother Cedric shot Fred in the Yukon when he was out there prospecting for gold. Cedric woke up to see a big shadow looming over his tent and pawing through the opening. He wrestled with Fred, then grabbed his gun and shot him. He brought him home as a souvenir of his trip since he didn’t find any gold. He had scars from the encounter for the rest of his life.”

       “He probably left food scraps out and poor Fred was hungry. He should have stored all his food safely. It wasn't Fred's fault,” Mollie said. She had watched a lot of animal documentaries.

I did not tell Mollie that Robert had snorted at that story.

         “From what I’ve heard of Cedric, I’m sure he found Fred as is in a second-hand shop or flea market somewhere and made the whole story up. He more than likely got the scars from an encounter with one of his lady friends’ husbands, not with a bear.”

The implications of this version had completely gone over my head at the time, but I do remember Allegra’s mother making frantic hushing motions at her son as the Lord’s face grew dangerously flushed. Dotty was weeping again.

          “Poor cousin Cedric. He came to such a sad end," she sobbed.

Allegra and I were listening in fascinated silence, the adults having forgotten we were there.

His Lordship had shouted across the table at Robert.

         “Young man, I will not have family members discussed with such disrespect at this table.”

          “There’s no disrespect in telling the truth. Uncle Cedric was a liar, conman and womanizer all his life. I will grant that he was very charming and persuasive. I remember when he brought Fred back here. We all believed him. I worshiped him as a child. His stories were so exciting that he kept me enthralled for hours. As an adult, I was very disillusioned when I realized he'd cheated me at cards and persuaded several of my friends to invest in a non-existent diamond mine in South Africa.”

"Oh, Robert, don't tell me you were gambling," said his mother, clutching her chest.

            “What?” thundered his Lordship. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Robert shrugged.

             “You wouldn’t have believed me. He was your brother, but he bamboozled you like everyone else. As Dotty said, he did come to a sad end, but it was to be expected.”

I could tell that Allegra was bursting with curiosity, but afraid to say anything in case the adults shut the conversation down. Fortunately, Dotty had no such inhibitions.

           “I heard that he fell downstairs, trying to pursue a burglar and broke his neck,” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks. “He was heroic to the end.”

            “I hate to disillusion you, but he was climbing down a fire escape from a girlfriend’s apartment when her husband came home, and he slipped and fell,” said Robert. At that point, much to our disappointment, Allegra’s mother stood up and announced that we should retire to the sitting room.

            “I don't think Cedric deserved to find any gold after what he did to Fred. What happened to Allegra?” said Mollie. She was finally beginning to look sleepy. Her eyelids drooped again and she yawned.

              “We went on to do different things after school, but we kept in touch for years. She was always a good friend to me. She died a couple of years ago. I miss her.”

            “What happened to Fred?”

             “Poor Robert was killed in the war and Allegra’s family had to sell the big house. I am sure Fred was sold along with all the other things that were in it. Maybe he found another home and another family to tell stories about him. What do you think?”

There was no answer. Her breathing was even, and she was in a deep sleep. I was sleepy too now and could not be bothered to try to climb out of the cocoon of the bed without waking her. I drifted off to sleep with warm memories of Allegra, and Fred, drifting through my mind.