Once upon a time (because don’t all
good stories have to begin that way?) there was a twerpy little kid named
Emily, who was in grade two at her local state primary school. After returning
home at the end of the year with an outstanding report card, Emily’s mum
congratulates her and promises, “The next time we all go out to the Hyperdome
for the late night shopping, I’ll buy you a reward.”
So the following
Thursday night, Emily and her parents hit the Hyperdome for the late night
shopping. Emily ducks into Mr. Toy’s Toyworld, where she spots and immediately
falls in love with a plain brown teddy bear. She has her heart set on this
plain-looking teddy bear until she peers at his price tag. Wow, this plain
brown teddy bear costs a whole FIFTY bucks! Impossible, she thinks, no way. Mum
and dad will never buy me anything this expensive. However, the next shock is
when her parents DO buy her this teddy bear! Hugging him tightly on the drive
back home, Emily promises the bear that she’ll take the bestest care of him
ever.
However, remembering
that Emily is only almost seven years old and has not yet acquired a very
extensive vocabulary, she gives this teddy a very boring name: Bear Bear. But
not to worry, because she gives him a much better Cantonese name, which when
translated into English, means ‘beloved bear’.
So Emily begins
grade three at school. Bear Bear is her faithful companion every night,
although he tends to be a bit of a messy sleeper because many mornings when
Emily wakes up, he’s lying on the floor! When Emily expresses her concern that
he might catch a cold during the winter months if he’s not lying in bed with
her, snug and warm under the blankets, Bear Bear reassures her, “Don’t worry. I
can’t help being a messy sleeper! Often, when you roll in your sleep, I roll
too, and plop! That’s when I often hit the floor! But don’t worry about me,
because I’m covered in fur and am well insulated from the cold.”
Sometime during
grade three, Emily returns home from school one afternoon and is told by her
mother, “Oh, by the way, Em, I washed your Bear Bear for you today because he
was getting smelly.” Little Emily
almost has a heart attack. “Oh no, mum! You didn’t stick him into the washing
machine, did you? You would’ve murdered him!” Emily’s mother just laughs,
before scoffing, “Of course not, silly. Remember, I’m a registered nurse,
right? Don’t worry, your precious Bear Bear got first class treatment: I hand
washed him.” Oh, phew.
So life continues
in the Chan household. While Emily does acquire many more teddy bears over the
years, all of which whom are named and loved, Bear Bear holds a special place
in her heart. Indeed, he even gets to go on overseas plane trips with Emily and
her family back to Hong Kong to visit their relatives!
However, disaster
strikes at the beginning of 2007, just before Emily commences her third year at
university, studying a dual arts/law degree.
Collapsing suddenly
one day, she is rushed to hospital and diagnosed with a brain tumour. Sent back
home one week to wait for the operation, on that fateful morning, Emily goes
upstairs to her bedroom, bringing Bear Bear along with her and lies briefly on
her bed, saying that she must do this once more just in case something goes
terribly wrong during the operation. Bear Bear insists on going to the hospital
with her, saying that he would try his best to protect her while she was in the
hospital.
The first operation
is given, the extraction of the brain tumour. Tests are performed, which reveal
the brain tumour to be a benign one, meaning that luckily, Emily will not
require any chemotherapy.
The second
operation is for the insertion of a drain into Emily’s abdomen that will drain
all the excess brain fluids. However, the drain isn’t permanent, must be
replaced and that’s when disaster strikes. The surgeon, when replacing the
drain, accidentally grazes the tumour site with the drain and causes massive
bleeding, which gives poor Emily a stroke. Emily is moved into the I.C.U for a
period of time, and poor Bear Bear gets frantically worried, because he can’t
stay with her to protect her. It takes another three operations before the
problem is finally rectified, but Bear Bear is extremely distressed to hear a doctor
tell Emily’s mother that “Emily will never be able to walk again. At the very
most, she will only transfer from her wheelchair to the car, then the car back
to her wheelchair.”
Emily gets released
into the Brain Injuries Rehab Unit, where she spends the next year there
rehabilitating after her brain injury. For what’s left of 2007, Emily gets around
in her wheelchair with Bear Bear lying in her lap, and she tells everyone that
this bear is her best friend. However, when 2008 rolls along and Emily’s still
stuck in the insane asylum (her pet name for the Princess Alexandra hospital)
things change. “Nope, I’ve been stuck in this crazy place for too long.” She
decides. “This bear isn’t just my best fried, he’s now my BOYFRIEND. And we’re
very loyal to one another.”
A crazy one year,
three months and twenty days after first collapsing with the brain tumour,
Emily is finally released from the insane asylum, and she and Bear Bear are
free to return home!
Life isn’t easy for
Emily back home. She has to endure gruelling physio four times each week, plus
whatever other exercises her mother dreams up for her. However, she continues
to grit her teeth and persevere, telling herself that come the end of another
long day, she can collapse into her bed and be comforted by her beloved Bear Bear,
who’s now getting quite along in his years! Indeed, when a friend of Emily’s
mum comes to visit them in Brisbane
during 2010, she gives some plastic surgery (i.e. sewing work) to Bear Bear’s
arm, saying, “He’s starting to get a little frayed.”
Emily’s mum starts
telling Emily that she must retire Bear Bear soon, but Emily keeps putting it
off and putting it off, until Emily’s mum finally hands her an ultimatum. “Em,
if you let Bear Bear go into a happy retirement now, he can live in the top
shelf of our beautiful display cabinet, but if you keep putting his retirement
off and he starts falling to pieces, I’ll have no choice but to throw him out,
because it’s not sanitary to keep broken things in our home. You might get sick.”
Eep, Emily doesn’t want Bear Bear to get thrown out, ever! So she negotiates
with her mother that Bear Bear will get retired on the 21st of March,
one day after Emily’s next birthday.
With his retirement
imminent, Emily asks Bear Bear, “Is there anything you would like me to give
you before mother forces you into retirement?” Bear Bear ponders this question
for awhile, before answering, “Yes, there is, actually. Firstly, can you please
help me open a Facebook account? Even though I’ll only need three friends: you,
dearest dad and mother.”
“Definitely, I’ll
do that for you right away!” promises Emily. “Anything else?’ “Just one more
thing,” says Bear Bear. “Can we please go upstairs to sleep in your old room
just one more time like we always did before you got sick? Because I have such
awesome memories of us together in your upstairs room.”
So that’s how
things roll. On the 19th of March, Emily and Bear Bear go upstairs
and sleep happily together in Emily’s old bed one last time, just like they always
used to before Emily’s brain injury, then on the night of her birthday, the 20th
of March, Emily and Bear Bear spend one last precious night sleeping together
in her downstairs bedroom.
Come the morning of
the 21st of March, when Emily’s dad goes to work, Emily sits up in
bed to kiss him goodbye and wish him a good day at work. Emily helps Bear Bear
sit up too, and explains to her dad that Bear Bear is being retired this
morning so he wants to give dad a goodbye hug. Dad laughs and gives Bear Bear a
massive hug, “Don’t worry,” he reassures her, “Bear Bear may be getting
retired, but that doesn’t mean he can’t come out of his fancy retirement
cabinet occasionally to spend important events with us, like the State of Origin!”
Emily gets filled with hope. “Are you sure?” she excitedly asks her dad. When Emily’s
mother comes downstairs to help Emily get ready for the day, she affirms what
dad has said. “Yes, Bear Bear will be allowed to spend important occasions with
us. Only afterwards, he must go straight back into his retirement cabinet,
because he’s a very old bear.” Well, fair enough, Bear Bear is turning twenty
at the end of this year! That’s very old for a teddy bear!
Anyways, so ends
the story of Emily and her most precious friend, Bear Bear. After he gets one
more bath, he will be retired and hopefully, live happily ever after.
The end.
P.S. This little piece actually won me the runners-up
prize at the Garden City Creative Writers group! I won this special edition
silver kookaburra one dollar coin! A member of the Garden City Creative Writers
told me that she’d had the coin valued, and that it was worth about thirty
bucks. I said, “cool, I’ll wait until it’s worth fifty bucks, then I’ll sell it
and use the money to shout my parents out to a fancy dinner somewhere.” XD
Only, the parents don’t agree! XD
P.P.S. Jasmine Giddy, I posted this up for you! XD
P.P.P.S. Next post here ... well, considering how the poor Maroons lost to the smelly Blues last night, I'm hardly going to be writing an Origin wrap-up ... oh! Maybe I'll go see Despicable Me2 soon and write a review of that! ;D
