The Bears got word that someone was arriving home at the Airport. "We wanna go see!", exclaimed all The Bears in their best Stuffed Bear whining language. But no one was listening.

Complainer Bear, or "C. Bear" for short, was the best complainer, so The Bears decided to appoint C. Bear to represent them. So they all sat there on the bed, counting texture spots on the wall, until someone came into the bedroom.

All the Bears just sat there. T. Bear, with his happy smile and outstretched Bear arms, just smiled. A. Bear, with his red "Atlanta" T-shirt, just kept quiet and tried to look as wise as possible. O. Bear, with his "Out" sweatshirt, pretended he was still counting spots. Not one Bear said so much as a word.

C. Bear, with his "Lover" sweatshirt, looked like anything but a lover. C. Bear is a little bit shopworn on the best of days, and his expression this day was particularly dour.

"Why, C. Bear", the Person said, "How grumpy you look today! Whatever is the matter?"

But C. Bear just sat there looking grumpy, until finally the Person got an idea, picked C. Bear up, and carried him out to the car.

C. Bear got to see other cars, and trees, and planes and stuff, and then he got to see a bunch of ordinary looking People at the airport terminal. But C. Bear's expression was still dour. This is not what he had come to see.

Then, one of the people got into the car. C. Bear was sitting low under the dash, waiting to see if anybody would notice. When a special someone did notice, everybody started laughing and hugged C. Bear. This made C. Bear happy, and he smiled a bit. Not a bad day, after all, for a bear who just sits around counting spots all day.

© Alex Forbes, La Parola February 1994