Marc Backhaus

The Small Bear Cub´s Story

There is a story I want to tell you that nobody knows about. Not even I know about it right now, but when I have told you the story I will know it as well as you. It all starts with a small bear cub who lived in the woods that were never green. They were merely blue. At least that was what the small bear cub thought whilst it grew up in the blue woods, that it was a shame to not live in a green forest like everybody else. Several incidents during its time as a very young bear made it think this way. First of all, there was a group of other small bear cubs who came from the green woods across the hill, and they had kept laughing at the small bear cub's blue home ever since they first played together. But since the small bear cub had found noone else to play with in its own forest, it continued to play with the other cubs even though they kept mocking it for the blueness of its forest. Another incident was that when the small bear cub asked its mother and father why their home forest was blue, they always answered that there were some things in life that could never be changed and would just have to be lived with. Then they talked about something else and the small bear cub had no more opportunities to ask the questions about their blue forest that were mingling about within its little furry head. The final and at the same time third incident that gave the small bear cub its opinion of shame of its blue woods was the time when the humans came. They had already come to all the other woods around, they had even come to the other small bear cubs' green forest across the hill several times and taken some trees. But when they one day crossed that hill and came to the blue forest, they immediately turned around again and left. They would never come into the blue forest to take its blue trees. The small bear cub wondered why for a very long time and came to the thought that the humans liked the green woods but hated the blue woods and would never acknowledge its trees and take them to make beautiful things out of them. So if everyone hated or was ashamed of the blue woods, concluded the small bear cub, why should it be proud of it?

One day, when the sun was shining brightly and the birds were singing as loudly as they could, the small bear cub was at its saddest. It began to wail a little melody, but since all bears are very musical and cannot but have some groove it was quite a remarkable and swingy wail. It began to stick in the small bear cub's head and it began to sing it every day from that one sunny day on. Noone heard the small bear cub, because it did not want everyone to know how sad it was. It rather longed for happy times and wished for its forest to be green like everbody else's so that it would no longer be sad and noone would be ashamed or hateful of it anymore.

When the winter came, a long time later than that sunny day, there was one morning when the small bear cub was woken by the thundering of enormous thumps and clashes everywhere. It immediately sprung from its bed and jumped out of the cave to see what was going on, but in the blue forest all was still and nothing moved. Yet the terrible sound of things falling to the ground and things smashing other things was everywhere. It was so loud that the small bear cub had to hold its little paws over its furry ears so as not to get a headache. Then it ran to the edge of the blue woods, where the hill started, and climbed up the hill. There it could finally see what was going on: The humans had brought huge machines that they were driving in and they were driving all over the other small bear cubs' green forest, cutting down every tree that was in their way. The other small bear cubs as well as basically all animals that lived in the green woods across the hill came running out of their home forest and fled into the blue forest. At that moment, the small bear cub wasn't so sad about not having humans in its blue forest anymore.

When all was over, the blue forest was full of animals. Everyone from the surrounding green woods had fled to the blue woods for shelter, as their homes had been destroyed and taken away by the humans. They all praised the blue woods for being so blue so that the humans would not come here, and it was the first time that the small bear cub had heard anyone say anything nice about its blue home at all. It was quite happy but also a little sceptical, because the animals could have noticed the niceness of this blue forest before their homes were destroyed, but nevertheless it began to sing its melody, only this time with a more happy note to it. 

To this day the blue woods have never been found again. After having taken all the green trees, the humans did not come to this area anymore. No other green trees grew back. Noone can say what has happened to all the animals in the blue woods and the small bear cub, or whether the forest has grown or not. Only one thing remains. And that is that when the last humans checked the area they had destroyed again without their loud machines, because now they were checking if there was anything else to take away from under the ground, they wore highly sensitive headphones to sense any movement of oil or water under the solid earth. But they heard neither oil nor water moving. All they heard was the small bear cub's swingy wail melody. And it so stuck to their heads also that they took it with them to the villages, towns and cities, where they sang it and soon all humans on earth sang it. And for some reason, they called it the Blues.

All rights belong to its author. It was published on e-Stories.org by demand of Marc Backhaus.
Published on e-Stories.org on 31.03.2014.

 
 

Comments of our readers (1)

Show all reader comments!

Your opinion:

Our authors and e-Stories.org would like to hear your opinion! But you should comment the Poem/Story and not insult our authors personally!

Please choose

Artigo anterior Próximo artigo

Mais nesta categoria "Infância" (Short Stories em inglês)

Other works from Marc Backhaus

Gostou deste artigo? Então dê uma olhadela ao seguinte:

Man and Bear 2 - Marc Backhaus (Guerra e Paz)
Bad year 2021 - Rainer Tiemann (Histórico)