A
Farewell to Porridge
In the late autumn of that
year we lived in a house in the forest that looked across the river to
the mountains, but we always thought we lived on the plain because we
couldn't see the forest for the trees.
Sometimes people would come to the door and ask if we would like to
subscribe to the Saturday Evening
Post or buy Fuller brushes, but when we would answer the bell,
they would see we were only bears and go away.
Sometimes we would go for long walks along the river and you could
almost forget for a little while that you were a bear and not people.
Once when we were out strolling for a very long time, we came home and
you could see that someone had broken in and the door was open.
"La port est ouverte," said
Mama Bear. "The door should not be open." Mama Bear had French blood on
her father's side.
"It is all right," I said. "We will close it. Then it will be good like
in the old days."
"Bien," she said. "It is well."
We walked in and closed the door. There were dishes and bowls and all
manner of eating utensils on the table and you could tell that someone
had been eating porridge. We did not say anything for a long while.
"It is lovely here, " I said finally. "But someone has been eating my
porridge."
"Mine as well," said Mama Bear.
"Darling," said Mama Bear, "do you love me?"
"Yes, I love you."
"You really love me?"
"I really love you. I'm crazy in love with you."
"And the porridge? How about the porridge?"
"That too. I really love the porridge too."
"It was supposed to be a surprise. I made it as a surprise for you, but
someone has eaten it all up."
"You sweet. You made it as a surprise. Oh, you're lovely," I said.
"But it is gone."
"It is all right," I said. "It will be all right."
Then I looked at my chair and
you could see someone had been sitting in it and Mama bear looked at
her chair and someone had been sitting in that too and Baby Bear's
chair was broken. "We will go upstairs," I said and we went upstairs to
the bedroom but you could see that someone had been sleeping in my bed
and in Mama Bear's too although that was the same bed but you have to
mention it that way because that is the story. Truly. And then we
looked in Baby Bear's bed and there she was.
"I ate your porridge and sat in your chairs and I broke one of them,"
she said.
"It is all right," I said. "It will be all right."
"And now I am lying in Baby Bear's bed."
"Baby Bear can take care of himself."
"I mean that I am sorry. I have behaved badly and I am sorry for all of
this."
"Ça ne fait rien," said
Mama Bear. "It is nothing." Outside it had started to rain again.
"I will go now," she said. "I am sorry." She walked slowly down the
stairs.
I tried to think of something to tell her but it wasn't any good.
"Good-by, " she said. Then she opened the door and went outside and
walked all the way back to her hotel in the rain.