Bruin, The Big Bear- a short story by Helen Jones

Bruin, The Big Bear

¨If you´re naughty the Big Bear will eat you¨!

I hear these words every day, Humans bringing their little ones to my doorway, often wailing or dragging their feet resisting the hand holding them. Other children, I have picked up this word, bring me sweets and put them in my mouth. Toffees, I think would be my favourite if I could eat them.

I have become a Famous sight in Cardiff, or so I hear people say

¨Oh that´s The Bear Shop¨

 but it is not mine, nor does it sell Bears, I like that people talk to me.

Sometimes the Shop Owner comes in with a little blond girl who has no fear of me, but hugs my leg and whispers into my old fur

¨Hello Bear, I ´m sorry that you have to be here´

I stand here day after day, no longer remembering quite how long it has been. Before this shop I stood silently in the Hall of a big house, which looked out over tree covered hills with my companion, Little Bear, oh where is he now?

I stand still, mouth open as if roaring, arms out stretched with my big paws open, my claws no longer growing. At Midnight, when all is dark, and with fewer people passing the closed door, my arms relax and the aches can subside for a few hours. I have little company, save for a few mice that emerge from the dark basement of the building. They ask me about where I came from and how did I get here. My memories are fading, but sometimes I see pictures in my mind of a faraway place, with many trees, that I have heard the shop owner call Russia. It is not good to dream too often of my freedom. 

My World now is watching out from this doorway, moving objects that follow each other along, causing noise and smoke. People in and out of the shop, sometimes standing next to me while another takes what they call a photo. 

 I am not shut in, but neither can I pass through the open door, my huge back paws are anchored to a wooden plinth, I no longer feel the pain. The world outside is so loud and no signs of others like me, so very different from my place of memories. Nor I would eat the naughty children!

Notes

My Grandfather had businesses in Cardiff and surrounding towns. His main shop was on the corner of St. Mary´s Street. The USP of his shop was the huge stuffed Bear looking menacing from in the doorway. The Bear did indeed become a landmark and was often used to scare children into behaving!  Little Bear as we called him was in another of the shops until he retired and came to live with us. I would just like to think they had been friends. Bruin, or Big Bear still lives in Cardiff but now in another shop.