by J. S. Skye
“Lying is bad,” Caboose answered.
“Okay. I won’t lie to them. I’ll think of something else,” Flurry assured the little polar bear. “Maybe we can just sneak out instead.”
Flurry and Caboose alighted from the bed and traversed the hallway in a furtive manner. Step-by-step, Flurry tiptoed down the length of the stairs and peeked out toward the guests gathered at the table. They were unaware of his presence. Flurry turned back to his friend atop of the steps and motioned with his paw for Caboose to follow.
Caboose, however, was not as careful as Flurry. He tromped along, without even attempting to be stealthy.
“Shhhhh!” Flurry exclaimed.
“Oh! Sorry!” Caboose replied, but at his usual volume level.
“Shhhhh! Caboose! You have to whisper!” Flurry shouted to the best of his ability while still trying to employ a whispery tone.
Caboose nodded and continued to descend the staircase. After only a couple of steps, he lost his footing and down he went. The polar bear tumbled, head over paw, the entire flight. Caboose grunted as he impacted each step. The poor cub landed on his belly with all four of his limbs splayed out at his side as though he were a polar bear rug on the polished hardwood floor.
Caboose sat up and rubbed his head. “Ouch!” he loudly exclaimed.
Flurry slapped his paw against his face in disbelief. “Caboose! Now you blew our cover!” Flurry shouted back in frustration. Yet, to his surprise, nobody else reacted. It was as if the others had not noticed a thing. They were still at the table conversing while Flurry’s mama cooked a meal. Flurry wondered how the others did not hear them. The trip from Flurry’s bedroom was so loud that he worried that the neighbors could have heard it.
“Caboose, are you seeing this?” Flurry asked his companion.
“Uh huh! Say have food!” Caboose answered with his cute lisp.
“No! Not that!” Flurry shot back. “They don’t seem to notice us at all! How can this be?”
It was possible because of that remaining miraculous power that resided within Flurry, but he still knew nothing about its presence. If he had known of this fact, he would have realized that he was the one that wished they could sneak out unnoticed. Flurry got his wish. It was as if he and Caboose were now invisible.
As most kids would do, Flurry had to push his luck and see how far he could take it. He waved his arms, jumped up and down, then hollered at them, but to no avail. It was as if Flurry and Caboose were not even there.
“This is really weird,” Flurry concluded. “I’ve never seen this happen …” Before he finished his thought, he quickly dismissed it all and was back on task. “Oh, well! Let’s go, Caboose!”
They both made a beeline for the door. Flurry opened the door, allowed Caboose out first, and then followed after his friend. Flurry took in a deep breath of the crisp, cold air and shut the door behind them.
Now, even though Flurry and Caboose were able to get out unnoticed, it did not mean that the others did not see the door open and close. In fact, it seemed as though the door had operated all by itself. Mr. Snow got up and went to the entryway to investigate. He opened the door again but found nothing.
Fall watched from the table and noticed footprints in the snow that led away from the threshold. Without any explanation to anyone, Fall jumped out of her seat and ran to the open door.
She scanned the snow and saw new tracks being made right before her eyes. Fall could not believe what she was seeing. The young cub knew she had to investigate this. She called out to her parents, “I’ll be right back!” and out of the house she scurried.
Mr. and Mrs. Snow turned to each other with perplexed looks on their faces. “Why is everyone acting so strangely today?” Mrs. Snow asked her husband.
Mr. Snow shrugged, looked out from the window, and saw Fall go around the corner and out of sight. “It would seem that she’s more like her brother than we thought.”
Mrs. Snow then turned her attention to her guests. “I’m so sorry for all of this. I don’t know what has gotten into either of my cubs today.”
“It’s okay. We’re used to it,” Boaz answered. “Flurry is like this all the time. Right, Caboose? Caboose?”
Boaz’s question was met with silence. He and the others looked around for the polar bear’s whereabouts. “Caboose!” Boaz called out.
By this point, Flurry and Caboose were quickly on their way to Flurry’s uncle’s study. They ran up to the door. Flurry rapped at the frigid oak barrier between them and a warm, private library. The sound of footsteps approached, followed by an inconvenienced voice. “Who is it?”
“It’s me, Uncle!” Flurry replied.
“Me, who? Don’t you have a name?” the voice shot back.
“Your favorite nephew, Flurry!”
There was a long pause before the voice muttered, “Why me? Can’t I have a moment of peace?” The male inside then replied, “Go away! I don’t have time for cubs!”
“Please?” Flurry beckoned.
“No!”
Flurry and Caboose sat in the snow and wondered what to do. Flurry then decided to knock again, but there was no answer. “Fine! I’m going to keep knocking until you open the door!” At that moment, Flurry got busy knocking.
The door burst open in haste. An elderly-looking teddy bear with gray fur and a wooden cane stood before them. His fur looked worn from many years of use. Flurry always assumed that it was because his Uncle was well-loved and likely received many hugs over the years. The elderly bear looked down at Flurry who had not stopped knocking, despite the door no longer being within his reach. “Would you stop it? You’re driving me crazy!” the grumpy bear shouted. “This must be a record for you! It only took you two seconds!”
Flurry giggled, ran up, and hugged his uncle’s leg. “Uncle Vinegar! I missed you!”
“Yes, yes, that’s great. Now, what do you want? I have important work to do.”
“Nothing.”
“Nothing? Then why are you wasting my time?”
“I wanted to show Caboose your study. Can we look around?”
“No! Absolutely not!”
“Please?” Flurry looked up at his uncle with the cutest little eyes.
Vinegar sighed and gave in. “Oh, all right, but only for a few minutes, and then you two have to go back home. I’m sure my brother is wondering where you are.”
“Yay! Thank you, Uncle!” Flurry and Caboose quickly entered the building. Vinegar closed and latched the door behind them.
“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I was in the middle of something important.”
He paused a moment to mutter to himself, “Unlike entertaining you two,” then continued with his ordinances. “You may look around, but don’t touch anything!” Vinegar sternly ordered as he bent down and peered at Flurry through his spectacles.
“Of course, Uncle. Don’t worry! You can always count on me!” Flurry tried to assure his uncle.
“Uh huh, that’s what I’m afraid of,” Vinegar murmured with a hint of sarcasm to his statement.
Vinegar’s fur was completely gray with the exception of his snout, chin fur, and his bushy eyebrows, all of which were white. His cane looked like a twisted tree branch, and despite the need for one, he was close to the same height as Flurry’s papa. Flurry was too young to gauge the exact height in feet or inches. However, Flurry did recall that his papa stood as high as the light switches at his mother’s house, when Mr. and Mrs. Snow had come to visit him in Middleasia.
Like Flurry, Vinegar, too, had a blue scarf wrapped around his neck with snowflakes at one end. These snowflakes were the trademark of the Snow family. Despite being the brother of Flurry’s papa, Vinegar looked like he could easily be more than ten years older than Mr. Snow. In fact, Flurry thought it looked like there could be at least a ten year gap between all three siblings. Flurry’s father was the middle brother.
Vinegar began to walk away, but then turned to ask, “So who’s that fella you have with you?”
“Oh! That’s my friend, Caboose,” Flurry replied.
Vinegar whispered under his breath as he commenced with the work he had piled up on his desk which sat in the northeastern corner of the study. Without even looking up from his work, Vinegar adjusted his reading glasses and asked, “Isn’t a ‘caboose’ the last car of a train? How did he get a name like that?”
“My mommy named him … oops, I mean my new mommy, in Middleasia.”
Vinegar did not reply, but that did not bother Flurry, because his focus had shifted to something more pressing. Caboose was now missing, and Flurry had no idea where he had gone. Flurry looked all around but could not find Caboose anywhere. He quickly looked under the furniture and behind the bookshelves in a frenzy. Flurry worried that Caboose might get them into trouble.
Flurry went up and down the small corridors created by Vinegar’s stacks of old books and maps. Vinegar had an extensive collection that could almost rival a library. Well-known as a historian and archaeologist many years ago, he was an avid record keeper, and his map collection came from his love of cartography. Some of the maps he had collected on his own, while others were acquired through his youngest brother’s adventures.
Vinegar loved to read rather than having to be around others. He much preferred to stay cooped up in his study with his nose buried in a book. A day between the pages of a good book was a day well spent, in Vinegar’s opinion.
Flurry scanned the maze of literature. He knew that Caboose could be anywhere, and Flurry did not have any idea where else to start. Flurry did not even notice Caboose slip away.
Flurry panicked and was about to lose hope when he finally spotted Caboose near Vinegar’s desk. How did he get all the way over there? Flurry thought to himself.
Flurry gasped when he saw what was about to transpire. Caboose tugged on one of the maps in the middle of a large stack of documents. Flurry knew where this was going to lead, and with a horrified look on his face, Flurry waved his arms back and forth and screamed, “No! Caboose! No!”
It was too late. The stack of maps crashed down on top of and around Caboose. Before anyone could even say “oops,” Vinegar stood over Caboose with his paws firmly planted upon his hips. Vinegar looked exceptionally angry, so much so that Flurry expected to see steam come out from his uncle’s ears. “What are you doing? I told you two not to touch anything! This is the opposite of not touching anything! You haven’t even been in here for five minutes, and you’ve already made a mess! Get out! Both of you! Out, now!”
Vinegar grabbed Caboose by the fur on the back of his neck, carried him to the door, and tossed him out into a snow drift. He then looked back inside at Flurry and motioned with his paw for Flurry to get out, too. Flurry’s head drooped as he slowly shuffled out the door. Flurry turned back and began, “I’m so …,” but the door slammed shut and latched before Flurry could finish his sentence. “… sorry?”
Flurry beat on the door. “Uncle! Uncle! I’m sorry! Uncle?” Flurry waited for a moment, but he did not receive an answer. “Let’s go, Caboose, I guess he isn’t going to let us back in. Time to go home.”
Caboose nodded his head, shook off the excess snow from his fur, and followed Flurry back up the path to reunite with their friends back at the house.
CHAPTER 3
CABOOSE’S MAP
Flurry and Caboose trekked up the hill in the direction of Flurry’s home when they were met halfway. Their journey was obstructed by none other than Flurry’s sister. She awaited their approach with her paws at her hips. Before Flurry could even react, Fall authoritatively asked, “And what do you think you’re doing?”
Flurry’s quick wits kicked in as he shot a glance at Caboose and bellowed, “Yeah, Caboose! What are you doing?”
“I’m not talking to him!” Fall snapped back. “I’m talking to you, Flurry!”
“Oh!” Flurry’s mind raced as he tried to think of an adequate excuse. “You see … Caboose needs his ecersize so I went with him so he wouldn’t get lost.”
Though Fall was tempted to correct her brother’s mispronunciation of “exercise”, she simply responded with, “Oh, really?”
“Yep! Uh huh! Yeah, that’s right!” Flurry grinned uneasily as he stood with his arms behind his back in his feeble attempt to look innocent.
“If that’s so, then what were you doing at Uncle Vinegar’s study?”
“Studying!”
“Studying for what?”
Flurry stumbled over his words in his scramble to try and find the best answer. “Uh … we had to study how to ecersize the right way. You don’t want to pull a muscle.”
“You don’t have any muscles! You’re a teddy bear! Flurry, stop lying!”
“Caboose did it!” blurted from Flurry’s mouth while he simultaneously raced past his sister at top speed. “Come on, Caboose! Run!”
Caboose and Flurry frantically dashed up the path to escape Fall’s interrogation, but she chased after them. “Stop avoiding me, Flurry!” she shouted, but her brother did not respond. Flurry moved as diligently as his little legs would take him. Fall darted out ahead of him and with an outstretched arm, she hollered, “Stop! If you go any further, I’m going to tell Mama and Papa on you!”
Flurry froze in place. Caboose did not expect such a sudden halt and crashed right into Flurry, which toppled them both to the ground. When they stood back up to dust off the snow, Fall noticed something stuck to Caboose’s backside.
“What’s that?” Fall asked.
“What’s what?” Flurry answered.
“That!”
“What?”
Fall did not have the patience to argue with her brother, so she marched over to Caboose and pulled a large piece of paper from his hindquarters. “It looks like a map,” Fall said as she examined it.
Flurry quickly snatched it from her paws. “Give me that! It’s ours! Or at least I think it’s ours.” After a brief inspection of the parchment, Flurry was not as sure of his previous statement. “Caboose, where did you get this?” Caboose shrugged in response. Flurry had a sinking feeling in his chest. “Uh oh! This might be one of Uncle Vinegar’s maps!” A look of terror took hold of the cub.
“Maybe it got stuck to you when you knocked the pile of maps down. We should take this back right away, before Uncle Vinegar notices that it’s missing. Hurry!”
Flurry sprinted back down the hill, but he was hindered by his sister’s voice. “Stop! Don’t you want to see what it is first?”
Flurry halted his departure and thought about it. He was certainly curious, but he also did not want to agree with his sister. He pondered how he could agree without looking like he was complying with her. “No, that’s okay. We should take it back, unless Caboose wants to look at it.”
Flurry turned his gaze toward Caboose and winked. He expected, or at the very least hoped, that Caboose would play along and agree to look at it. Flurry should have known better. It was inevitable that Flurry would get upset when Caboose answered, “Huh?”
“You know, the map. Did you want to look at it before I take it back to Uncle Vinegar?”
“No, sank you,” Caboose replied.
“Here!” Fall exclaimed, as she ripped the map from Flurry’s paws. Fall opened the faded document. Her face looked intrigued. “Wow! Look at this, Flurry!”
Flurry stood there with his arms crossed, unwilling to budge.
“Fine! Suit yourself! I’m going to go there on my own, and all of the goodies will be mine!” she taunted.
“What goodies?” Fall now had Flurry’s full attention. “Let me see that!” he shouted as he snagged the map back from his sister. “Ooh! It’s a map to the land of sour pies.” Flurry still could not read, but he knew the word “sour” and the word “pie” from the package labels at his mother’s house.
“No silly! It’s the land of the Sourpie,” Fall corrected.
“So what? Same difference!”
“No, it’s not! For starters, it’s one
word, not to mention that the ‘s’ is capitalized. It looks more like a proper noun than a food.”
“Whatever that means! You’re starting to sound like Drizzle! What’s important is that they have pie. If they have sour pies, they likely have sweet pies, too. I bet they have all kinds of pies. It’s a land full of pie! Yum! Yum!” Flurry grew even more excited.
“Flurry! I was kidding, just to get you to look at the map! There aren’t really any goodies!”
“Sure! You say that now!” Flurry’s distrust was easily deduced.
Fall grunted in frustration. “I can’t believe you’re my brother!” Fall shouted right before she sighed, plopped down on the cobblestone path, and pouted.
“I know. I am pretty awesome!” Flurry giggled, but Fall was not amused. “Come on, Caboose! Let’s go get some pie!”
“Wait a minute!” Fall was swiftly back to her feet and stood in Flurry’s path once again. “You can’t just leave! Mama and Papa will be wondering where you are.”
“They won’t even notice. They don’t care about me. It’s clear that they love you more,” Flurry passionately replied while he fought back tears.
“Flurry! You can be such a brat! That’s not true! Mama and Papa love both of us equally!”
“Nice try! You aren’t fooling me!” Flurry turned and began back down the path; in the direction the map seemed to be pointing him. Caboose followed closely behind while Fall trailed at a distance. She continued her attempt to talk Flurry out of his foolish idea.
“Flurry! What if something bad happens? What if you get hurt or lost? Shouldn’t you tell Mama and Papa where you’re going?”
When it was clear that she was being ignored, she shouted, “Stop, right this instant! I’m going to tell on you!” Fall had tried everything she could think of, but Flurry discounted her every word. The boys traipsed out of the village and beyond the great arch that stood as a landmark and gateway at the edge of the southern border to and from the land of Mezarim. After a number of hours they were about to venture beyond Christopher Kringle’s territory.