Bearfooting (Part One)

Excerpted from Fantastic Fables of Foster Flat Volume Two: More Suspenseful Tales with a Twist (https://payhip.com/b/H7NV)

May is a month of unpredictable weather in the North Carolina mountains as are the other eleven months of the year, so it's not all that surprising that the late afternoon thunderstorm caught the mama bear and her cub on the wrong side of the river from their customary shelter. Mama bear with her cub riding on her back was only a third of the way across the river when the bottom fell out. Within minutes the water around them transformed from a placid flow to a raging river of angry, dirty water which swept the cub from her back. Alarmed, mama bear swam after her cub fighting to stay afloat until a tree limb struck her from behind, almost knocking her unconscious. She found herself fighting for her own life as she caught glimpses of her cub floating downstream clinging to another piece of debris, his plaintive cries ripping at her heart.

Lacy Turner and her husband, Nick, were enjoying the last day of their mountain getaway before returning to the normal routine of their lives back in civilization. As Lacy crawled out of their two-person tent, she stood up and stretched, feeling her stiff back muscles complain pleasantly by the move. She watched the sun slowly ascend above the mountain peaks as she breathed in the crisp morning air. It had been quite a night with so much wind and rain she'd been fearful they'd be blown away inside their tent. Luckily, Nick had done a more than adequate job staking down the tent as well as locating it far enough from the stream that had grown into a raging river in a matter of minutes. 

She turned her attention towards the river now that had crested during the night and was slowly returning to its natural state. That's when she noticed the small black package on her doorstep. At first, she thought it might be another camper's furry jacket until it moved.

"Oh my God," Lacy said as she realized the object was alive. She tapped on the top of the tent. "Nick, wake up. We have a visitor," she said before running down to get a better look at the new arrival.

"Honey, I know how much of an animal lover you are. It's one of the things I find most endearing about you," Nick said, trying once again to talk some sense into his wife. "But we're not equipped to nurse a bear cub back to health."

"But we can't just leave the poor thing out here alone," Lacy pleaded.

"You're not listening to me," Nick replied, then realizing how argumentative that sounded, added. "Dear, there's a very well run nature science center back in Asheville that will be able to take much better care of him than we can. It's right on the way home, or at least not much out of our way."

Lacy glanced down at the bedraggled little bear that had hardly moved since she first found him. "Her," Lacy said.

"What?"

"I think it's a female," Lacy replied.

"Whatever." Nick could feel himself growing impatient so took a deep breath.

"What will happen to him after that?" she asked. 

"They'll nurse him…I mean her back to health and then release her to the wild, or they'll give her a home at the center. In either case, she'll have a much better life there than she would with us."

Lacy slowly nodded. "I guess you're right," she finally conceded. "It's just that she's so cute."

Cute now, Nick thought, but wait a few months. By the end of the summer, she'll be larger than our Mastiff back home. What a pair that would be. Instead, he said, "I know, and that's why we want to be sure to get her to the nature center as soon as possible. If you start breaking down our campsite, I'll load her in the back of the pickup. Once we're in cellphone coverage again, I'll call and let them know we're bringing her in."

There's a myth that circulates among the longtime residents of Foster Flat that there's an energy—some say magical others prefer spiritual—but all agree it's a strange energy that attracts the perfect people who are pulled like a magnet to the small mountain town. Could it have been that same energy that awoke our little bear cub just outside the Foster Flat town limits while the Turners stopped to get a bite to eat and to fill up with gas? In any case, he woke to a myriad of strange odors including the delectable scents of food that had his stomach growling and his mouth salivating from hunger. He stood up in the bed of the pickup truck and stuck his nose in the air to get a better sense of the direction the food aromas were coming from. Having made the determination, he scurried out of the back of the truck and started towards the rear of the diner. As he did so, he picked up a second scent that he'd smelled only once or twice before. Humans! His mother had warned him of the danger. Come to think of it, where was his mother? He stuck his nose in the air again and took in a long inhalation. Nothing. Not the slightest whiff of her scent. Then he recalled the storm of the previous evening, his clinging tightly to her back as they crossed the river, then suddenly being swept away from her. The rest became foggy and muddled until waking a few minutes ago. I'll have to look for her…right after I get a little something to eat, he thought as he continued to the rear of the diner where the food smells appeared most robust. 

His head and half his body were well inside the metal trashcan when he heard the screeching of a door in desperate need of oiling, followed a second later by the screaming of one of the short-order cooks.

"Get the hell out of my trash," Elbert Schroder shouted as he grabbed the broom next to the door reserved for just such a purpose. "This is the third time this month I've had to clean up after you varmints, and I have had it with you."

Adrenalin pumped through the bear cub's body as he started to pull himself out of the trash, lost his balance, and fell to the pavement with trash cascading all around him.

Time to leave, he thought as he saw the big man with a stick in his hand advancing on him. He ran in the other direction, still smacking his lips, enjoying the taste of the discarded cinnamon rolls. He continued running, feeling better having at least partially filled his stomach and enjoying the freedom of being alive despite being on his own. He didn't slow to a walk until he was well inside the town limit of Foster Flat.

The bear cub meandered through the neighborhood outside Foster Flat proper, visiting two or three trashcans along the way. While he remembered his mother warning him to stay away from anywhere that the human scent was strong, the lesson didn't make much sense to him at the moment. After all, where else would you find such delectable food so readily available? No need to climb a tree for the berries, or spend all that time trying to corner a fish in the stream. All you had to do was flip off the lid of the containers which were abundantly available to discover what treats awaited inside. By the time he'd made it through the outskirts of the town, his stomach was full, and it felt like the perfect time to take a nap. He found an outcropping of pine trees between two of the houses with a thick layer of needles that made a most comfortable bed. Despite the many human odors all around, he was asleep within minutes. 

By the time he awoke several hours later, the sun had set, and a nearly full moon had risen with beams of light filtering through the trees above. At first, the cub was disoriented and thought he was back in the lair that had been his and his mother's home, but then remembered the cave's floor wasn't nearly as soft as the one beneath him now, but that wasn't the only hint that alerted him to his new environment. His mother was absent, not only her physical presence but also her smell. The rush of memory cascaded over him. He was on his own in a strange place surrounded by the one smell his mother had warned him to stay away from. He felt like turning back over and falling back to sleep, but after a minute or two, his stomach once more alerted him to its growing empty nature. Time to find some more of those delectable food cans that the humans put out so conveniently. 

It didn't take long to fill his stomach once again, this time without anyone interrupting him. The best time to scavenge for food was at night when humans were safely behind their closed and locked doors. Safe for them, and more importantly, he was safe from them as well. So, now what? He was now well-rested and well-fed. It must be time to go exploring. Maybe he'd be lucky and find he wasn't as far away from home as he'd initially thought. Perhaps all the strange smells were masking his ability to detect those smells of his homeland. 

As he left the safety of the pine trees, he remembered another lesson from his mother. They'd come upon a trail with a hard surface where his mother stopped and lifted her nose in the air, but he'd been woolgathering and hadn't paid much attention, continuing to walk to cross to the other side. Suddenly, out of nowhere a massive object moving at an incredible rate was upon him, followed a second later by a blast of noise that threatened to burst his eardrums. He leaped back just in time to avoid being smashed into roadkill. He turned to his mom for comfort but instead received a thrashing the likes he'd never experienced from her. The lesson was obvious. Such trails were dangerous and best avoided, which he did now. 

Instead, he strolled along the side of the road keeping a good six feet between him the pavement until there wasn't anything but pavement as he entered into Foster Flat proper. As he strolled down the street, an assortment of smells surrounded him, many of which he didn't recognize. Then suddenly up ahead he saw a form that set his heart to racing— a giant black bear standing on all four staring back at him. Could it be his mother? It indeed was the right size. As he took a few steps forward, he sniffed the air again but couldn't detect anything like his mother, nor anything like a bear. Maybe the wind was blowing in the wrong direction, he thought, but then realized there wasn't even the slightest of breezes. The buildings seemed to be blocking it. 

He continued to walk cautiously towards the bear when he noticed several yards further up the road another form, this one a bear standing on its rear legs. As he approached the first bear, he stopped to sniff at it but still, even this close, couldn't detect any familiar scent. Growing more confused by the minute, the bear cub strolled on to the second bear, circling it, ready to jump out of the way if it tried to attack him, but he needn't have worried. Both bears seemed frozen in place. He came within a few inches of the second bear's rear legs and sniffed again. Still nothing. That's when he spied a third form farther up the road. This bear was sitting on its haunches with a second smaller bear about his own size sitting in front of the more massive bear. A mother and her cub, just like he and his mother. Surely they could help him. 

He trotted towards them, continuing to sniff the air as he went. Though he still couldn't detect any bear smells, he did begin to pick up the subtle odors that reminded him of his home. As he drew near, he noticed several sprigs of dry grass and a small pile of leaves upon which the two bears rested. The smells of home made his heart ache even more for his missing mother. At the same time, it was nice to find this tiny fragment of home in this strange land. He curled up next to the still bear cub and fell asleep.

As Mimi Rawlings parked her bike in the bike stand and reached into its basket to retrieve her bagged lunch, she noticed a late-model automobile driving down Main Street and pulling into one of the thirty-minute parking places just a few doors down from her mom's gift shop. She glanced down the street a little farther to the large town clock. Not even 8 AM yet. It seems like the tourists start showing up earlier every year, Mimi thought, shaking her head. Don't they know that nothing opens for another hour, well, except The Apothecary a couple of blocks away that opened for breakfast at 6 AM? It was one of the few things she liked about helping her mom open Narnia, the gift shop where her mother spent so much of her time. Mimi enjoyed the quiet mornings before the surge of out-of-towners descended on her town. She realized how essential the tourists were to the success of her mother's business, but that didn't mean she had to like them. 

Mimi finished locking her bike to the stand and started walking towards her mother's store when she noticed the new additions to the street and her heart soared. The new Bearfooting Bears had been placed along Main Street since the last time she'd been downtown. These sculptured bears had become an annual event and a major fundraiser for several of the nonprofit organizations in the area, but what Mimi enjoyed most about them was the creativity exhibited by the local artists who decorated them, often using resources from the area. 

Before entering Narnia, Mimi paused long enough to watch a small girl, probably no more than four or five-years-old dressed in a bright pink pinafore dress exit from the fancy auto and rushed over to the closest sculpture, a mother pair and her cub, her arms outstretched preparing to hug one of the bears. Oh, how cute, Mimi thought as she watched on, fondly remembering her first times with the bears during her preschool days. Despite having grown into a skeptical teenager, when it came to the Bearfooting Bears, she retained that childlike innocence that this small girl was now demonstrating. 

Mimi started to turn to enter the store when a sudden movement caught her eye. Had that been the small cub that had moved? Surely they hadn't ruined the Bearfooting Bears by automating them, had they? Just as quickly as she had the thought, Mimi realized there were two small cubs, one that continued to lean against its mother and a second one that was very much alive and scurrying away from the little girl. The girl's mother let out a bloodcurdling scream that sent a chill up Mimi's back but that her little girl ignored as she chased after the frightened cub.

"Missy Ann, you stay away from that dirty animal," the mother shouted. She looked around frantically for help. Spying Mimi looking on, she shouted. "Is that your filthy animal attacking my daughter?"

Is she talking to me? Mimi wondered. Her next thought was to straighten the woman out. The animal isn't all that dirty, it's certainly not mine, and it looks to me like it's your daughter doing the attacking. She opened her mouth to reply, but then closed it again, remembering her mother's warning earlier in the week. 

"Not every smart-aleck remark that comes to mind needs to be spoken." 

Instead, she answered, "No ma'am, my mother won't let me keep a bear cub for a pet. Would you?"

The woman ignored her comment, turning back to her daughter. "Missy Ann! Come to me this instant," she shouted with enough vinegar in her voice that even Mimi was tempted to comply.

Missy Ann stopped in her tracks and watched as the bear cub rounded a corner and disappeared down a side alley. 

"What kind of town is this that would allow a wild animal to threatened my poor little girl. Your mayor will hear about this." This last remark was directed to Mimi who shrugged. She was more concerned with the baby bear than either the woman or her daughter. Ignoring the two tourists, Mimi ran to the alley to see if she could see the cub, but by the time she arrived, it was nowhere to be seen.

Magina Martin, the chairperson of the town council, banged on the desk in front of her for the third time. "Please, everyone sit down and shut up. Mayor Etheridge has the floor." She emphasized her demand with three more forceful raps with the gavel and a stern look that threatened to peel the paint off the meeting room walls. 

"Thank you, Madame Chairperson," the mayor replied, remaining standing as the other people around him finally sat down. "As I was saying, as the person representing the fine merchants of Foster Flat, we must take today's report of a wild animal on our Main Street seriously. That's why I called this emergency meeting and invited Bo Rawlings here along with his niece, Mimi. As I'm sure you all know, Bo is one of our most respected citizens and an avid hunter and sportsman. Mimi is one of the only people who live in this area who has actually seen the beast." He waved his hand in the direction of the two Rawlings, then waved Bo back into his seat before he had a chance to finish standing up. "I'll have both of them speak in just a moment, but first let me share with you just a few of my thoughts about this matter." Mayor Etheridge ignored the groans that came from several of the other citizens in attendance. 

"As you all know, we're heading into a most important time of the year for Foster Flat—tourist season. So much of the continued prosperity of our fine town depends on these next six months. The last thing we need is for the word to spread that it's not safe to walk the streets of Foster Flat. Why such a rumor could be devastating to our economy. That's why I say we need to nip this matter in the bud…in the bud I say."

There was a growing mumbling of consent from this last comment, followed with several "hear, hear," and "that's right."

"And how do you propose we ‘nip this in the bud,' Mayor?" Magina asked the gavel raised once again preparing to subdue the others.

"We hunt down the vicious beast I shoot it before it has a chance to accost any more of our fine visitors," Etheridge proclaimed.

"What!" Mimi shouted before she realized what she was saying. "That's ridiculous. It was just a small, frightened bear cub."

Magina's gavel crashed down with persuasive authority. "You'll have your turn to speak, Miss Mimi, but you do not have the floor at the moment."

Bo Rawlings patted his niece's knee as he stood up. "Magina…Mayor, if I may?"

Magina glanced over to the mayor who nodded his assent.

"Yes, Bo. You have the floor."

"Mayor Etheridge has already shared his proposal with me prior to this emergency meeting which is one of the reasons I agreed to attend. Y'all know me to be a pretty simple, straightforward kind of guy, so I'll give it to you straight. We may indeed need to resort to shooting this animal who's taken it upon itself to visit our streets…"

"You're not serious…" Mimi started but stopped when her uncle placed his hand on her head and squeezed it not so gently. 

"…But I think such actions are premature. I recommend we first do our best to capture the beast and return it to the wild where it belongs. After all, we have over twenty statues of bears lining our streets for the twelfth year in a row. What kind of public relations nightmare would occur if the word got out that we'd killed a small, innocent bear cub that has stumbled into our town?"

"Why it would show that we take the safety of our citizens and visitors seriously," Marcus Warren stood up, ignoring Magina's stern look and the raising of her gavel. He was a large man, easily over six feet who looked even more imposing in his outfit of camo, complete with military-style boots. "Listen, I'm not the only one at this meeting who depends on the tourist trade this time of year. My Army Surplus and Gun Shop makes over two-thirds of its revenue in these next six months. Beergut and I will be happy to take it upon ourselves to hunt this varmint down and eliminate the threat," he said as he slapped the man sitting next to him on the back with enough force to make Beergut wince in pain and move his chair out of his range.

At this remark, Mimi's hand flew into the air where she waved it back and forth. The chairperson's gaze flitted to her, and then away, so Mimi added her second arm as she bounced in her seat. "Okay, let's move on," Magina said, continuing to ignore the teen. "Do we have a motion…"

"Excuse me, Madame Chairperson," Bo interrupted. "I believe you said that Mimi would have an opportunity to speak as well. She is the only one here that has actually seen the animal."

"Well…" Magina started as she glanced at the Mayor again who shrugged. "Okay, but just for a minute. We do have other business that needs our attention."

Bo nodded to his niece who stood up but then stood there frozen in place.

"Go on, Mimi," Bo encouraged her. "Say your piece."

Mimi nodded, took a deep breath, then let the words pour out. "Our recent visitor that y'all are so scared about is more afraid of us than we have any right to be afraid of him. He's a small bear cub, probably just a couple months old…"

"Yeah, but cubs grow up fast in these parts," Marcus interrupted, then shut up when Magina threatened him with her gavel.

"Sure they do, and that's why we need to do whatever we can to find him and get him back where he belongs," Mimi added. "As far back as I can remember, every year at this time, our little town has invested time, effort, and money in our Bearfooting Fundraiser. In the process, we've become known as a ‘bear-friendly' community." Mimi glanced around to see several people nodding in agreement. Bolstered by this, she continued. "Killing a small, innocent cub who's done nothing wrong other than stumble into our town and spend a night curled up next to the closest thing to a mother that he could find…well, it wouldn't be right, and it certainly isn't who we are. Least that's my view. Foster Flat is ‘bear-friendly,' and we need to stay that way." With that, Mimi nodded to the chairperson that she was finished and sat down as several people in the audience applauded.

Magina pounded on the table in front of her again to silence the crowd. As she did so, Bo stood up. "Madame Chairperson, I'd like to make a motion that we do everything in our power over the next week to capture the cub. Since we don't know where it comes from, I further recommend we take it to the nature science center in Asheville once we apprehend it. I volunteer to head up this effort."

The motion was rapidly seconded and passed by the council members unanimously.

Excerpted from Fantastic Fables of Foster Flat Volume Two: More Suspenseful Tales with a Twist (https://payhip.com/b/H7NV) Part Two coming tomorrow.