by Kate Tenbeth
“Oh hi there Mike,” said Burly casually, lifting a paw in welcome.
Mike was confused, everything seemed very peaceful, not what he was expecting at all. “Burly? Are you alright?”
“Never better,” replied Burly peering over his sunglasses. “You were right, this is a beautiful island, very quiet, I’ve had a wonderful birthday.”
“Daffodil seemed to think there was a problem and that Grum was in trouble.”
“Oh well, you know how it goes when Grum’s around. I’ll tell you about it later.”
“Mike!” yelled Grum and hurtled up the beach towards them.
“Aren’t you going to introduce your friends?” asked Mike as Tara and her father appeared.
“I’ll do it!” said Grum eagerly. “Mike - this is Tara and this is her dad - he’s a detective.” Mike raised his eyebrows but didn’t say anything. “And that’s King down there - he’s very crabby.”
King waved his front claws. “Do a different joke!” he demanded. “I’m sick of that one.”
“Tara - this Mike the angel,” continued Grum. Tara bobbed a little curtsey to Mike. “And these are my brothers Grimly and Gripe.” The brothers looked awkward. “Oh - and this is Tyre - he helps Mike look after injured animals.” Tyre raised his cloth cap politely to Tara.
“Mum said you were in trouble,” said Grimly. “Told us to come and get you.”
“Oh I’m fine,” said Grum. “No trouble here.”
“Mum’s never wrong, you know that,” said Grimly and folded his arms.
Detective Finn quickly changed the subject. “Grum has told us all about you - we were just waiting for you all to arrive so the party can begin. Can you play football Grimly?”
Burly grinned and winked at Mike. Mike laughed out loud. “Well Burly, as everything is so wonderful here I’m going to pop back and get Max and Daffodil and then we can start the party properly, what do you think?”
“As the birthday bear around here I think that’s a great idea. You go and get the others and I’ll get things organised - oh, can you bring back a guitar? Apparently Detective Finn is a good musician and you know how much I love music.” There was a shimmer of light and Mike disappeared. Burly took his sunglasses off. “Grum, Grimly, Gripe - get a camp fire started - without burning the beach down please. Detective Finn, can you get some games organised? Tara, you and King get out the plates and plastic cups. Tyre and I will go and get the food from the van.”
A few minutes later Mike appeared. He not only brought along Max and Daffodil (Daffodil had a saucepan in her hand just in case) but also the deer with the sore throat that liked peanut butter and Sprocket his owl. “Whhooooo,” commented Sprocket as he looked with interest at everything that was going on. The bright balloons had been tied to bushes around the camp and bobbed in the breeze. The little fire crackled yellow and orange flames into the darkening night sky and all around was a buzz of activity.
“Happy Birthday Burly!” shouted Max. “Look, I’ve got you a present!” and he handed Burly a large present wrapped up in colourful paper with a large bow on top.
Burly had never had a present before, not one that had been properly wrapped anyway and he held it for a while, just looking at it, not realising there was something inside. He thought it was beautiful just as it was. Eventually Max had to take the gift back from him and show him how to unwrap it, and to Burly’s amazement and delight inside was a large jar of his favourite honey.
Groblins don’t have birthdays and Grum hadn’t really understood what all the fuss was about until Max had sat down explained to him why birthdays were so special. He’d thought a lot about what Max had said and, much to everyone’s surprise, produced a gift for Burly. It was an odd shape and wrapped rather randomly in large palm leaves. Burly held it in his paw and looked at it for a long time before opening it. Inside was a very large hairbrush.
“It’s to make your coat shine even more,” explained Grum taking it from him eagerly. “Look, you use it like this.” And he started to brush Burly’s fur.
Burly smiled widely. “It’s wonderful, Grum, thank you.”
“That’s your real birthday surprise!” said Grum.
“It’s a brilliant surprise,” replied Burly happily. He loved his hairbrush.
Burly did receive other gifts. King gave him a large and very beautiful sea shell that he’d been saving for a special occasion. Tara made him a long necklace of bright flowers and hugged him tight, and Detective Finn gave him his binoculars. Burly held them to his eyes and looked through them with great interest. “They’ll be very useful in the forest, thank you,” he said politely.
Daffodil handed him her saucepan. Burly grinned. “Why thank you Daffodil,” he said. “I can make my porridge in that.” Daffodil briskly nodded by way of reply.
Tyre stepped up. “I ‘ad bought you a present, ‘onest Burly,” he said. “But someone,” he glared at the deer, “ate it.” The deer flicked her ears and looked around innocently.
“It doesn’t matter,” replied Burly. “I’m just really pleased you’re here - that you’re all here.”
“Whhooooo,” commented Sprocket.
It was getting much darker now and twinkling lanterns were set up around the camp, the fire blazed and crackled and the party began. Mike and Daffodil rolled up their sleeves and started cooking piles of food for everyone and wonderful smells soon filled the evening air. Detective Finn suggested a game of volleyball and Max helped him set up the net. Burly, Tara, Max and Tyre were on one team and Detective Finn and the three Griff brothers on the other. Detective Finn even took his coat off so he could play. The brothers, once they understood they could hit the ball as hard as they liked threw themselves into the game and it became fast and furious. Tara and Max ran around quickly while Burly returned the high shots.
King sat on the deer’s back so he could have a good view and Sprocket hooted encouragingly whenever a point was scored. Everyone raced around and had a brilliant time until Daffodil shouted at the top of her voice - “Food’s ready!” and then, panting and arguing about who had scored the most points, they made their way to the camp fire.
They were all hungry and it didn’t take them long to eat all the wonderful food - burgers, hotdogs, fungus dips, baked potatoes, crispy fried earwigs, peanut butter, snails, ice cream, baked cockroaches, roasted marshmallows... Afterwards, as they all sat around the crackling camp fire feeling full, a bit tired from running around and very content, Detective Finn picked up the guitar and started to play a song. Max grinned, turned over a couple of the sandcastle buckets and used them as drums to accompany him and the result was surprising good.
They sang quiet songs at first and then more lively ones. Even the groblins who didn’t like music very much joined in the singing. But the best song of all was when they sang Happy Birthday to Burly. Burly looked around at all the smiling faces of his friends and happiness filled his heart. He wiped away a tear with a large paw and Tara climbed up on to his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Happy birthday Burly,” she whispered to him. “Why are you crying?”
“Because I’m happy,” said Burly.
“I do that sometimes,” replied Tara. “But do you know what makes me laugh instead?”
“Tell me.”
“The conga.”
“The conga? What’s that?”
“It’s a sort of dance. I do it at all my birthday parties. Dad?”
“Yes Tara,” replied her father.
“Can you do the conga song?”
“An excellent idea! I’ll play it, you and Max show everyone what to do.”
Tara scrambled down from Burly’s lap. “Now everyone, stand up.” They all stood up. Her father started playing the lively music and within seconds everyone’s feet and paws and claws and hooves began to tap.
“Right you have to hold on to the person in front of you and start to dance - you sort of kick your legs out, here
I’ll go in front and show you. Max, you come behind me.” Tara ran to the front with Max right behind her and they started doing the conga with King bringing up the rear, clinging determindly onto Grum’s shirt. Singing at the tops of their voices they conga’d around the camp fire, along the beach and back until, laughing and exhausted, they fell in a big heap.
Burly lay on his back and looked up at the bright stars above with a big smile on his face and knew that this was the best birthday he’d ever had. He was a very, very lucky bear.
THE END
Message from Kate:
Thank you so much for reading this story about Burly and Grum and I do hope you enjoyed it - I know I had a lot of fun writing it! There are two more Burly & Grum tales:
Beyond the Forest is the first book and you can find out how they met and became friends.
Burly & Grum and The Secret City is the second book and you can join them on an adventure in the forest!
If you would like to know more about Burly and Grum, you can visit their website at https://www.burlyandgrum.com.
Because you have kind enough to buy this book, I will give a donation to the Born Free Foundation and if you’d like to know a little more about how your money will help, please go to: https://www.bornfree.org.uk/animals/moon-bears
Thank you!