by Mandy Olina
‘I don’t understand most things’, Pandu thought to himself. ‘I must not be very smart. I surely don’t know why it rains. I remember my mom telling me that the world is thirsty at times. It feels like something is missing. But I don’t know where to find it. Because it’s missing. So there you go… that means I must not be very smart.’
‘Why are you sad again, Pandu?’ a blackbird asked before landing on his shoulder.
‘I am worried about the caterpillar.’
‘Why is that?’
‘Mr. Caterpillar said he is going to die.’
‘And what does that mean?’
‘It means we can’t be friends anymore.’
‘Why is that?’
‘Because he won’t share my bamboo leaves anymore. Or sleep behind my ear. Or wake me up in the morning. Or sing happy birthday, to me. We won’t do anything together anymore.’
‘And does that mean you can’t be friends?’
‘I don’t know. Doesn’t it?’
‘If someone were leaving the forest to go,’ the blackbird paused, ‘on a long vacation. Would you still be friends?’
‘Yes!’
‘Even if you were far away?’
‘Even if…’
‘Well, then can’t you also still be friends with Mr. Caterpillar?’
‘Oh… You’re right, Miss Blackbird. You’re right. I’m sorry. I think I must not be very bright. I didn’t think of it that way. But Mr. Caterpillar won’t be coming back, will he? And you see, that makes me very sad. Very, very sad. Like I already miss him, Miss Blackbird,’ the panda said. His eyes filled with large tears as he stared towards the ground feeling miserable.
‘My dear Pandu… what if I flew away from this forest and started a family? And what if I could never come back because I had to take care of my babies, would we still be friends?’
‘Yes. But I would come and visit you and play with the little baby blackbirds.’
‘But what if I was so far away that you couldn’t? Or what if you had your own little baby pandas and couldn’t leave them alone? Would we still be friends?’
‘Yes. Yes, Miss Blackbird. You’re right.’ Pandu said, but tears continued to roll down his cheeks.
‘Pandu, has anyone ever told you what happens when a caterpillar dies?’
‘Yes. You did. It goes away on a long vacation.’
‘But something else also happens, Pandu. Do you know how butterflies are born?’
‘No. But they are beautiful.’
‘Yes, they are. Pandu, butterflies are born out of caterpillars.’
‘They are?!’
‘Yes. The caterpillar goes to sleep for a long time and wakes up as a butterfly. But it’s not like how you and I go to sleep. The caterpillar actually dies, but at the same time it transforms into a butterfly.’
‘Because butterflies are not caterpillars. So the caterpillar has to die, otherwise the butterfly would be a caterpillar?’ Pandu asked.
‘Exactly!’
‘So Mr. Caterpillar will become a butterfly?!’
‘Do you think that will happen?’
‘Yes! Or… maybe… no. No. I understand now. A butterfly will be born, but it won’t still be Mr. Caterpillar. It will just be a butterfly. Will that butterfly be my friend?’
‘I think there’s a good chance it will be, yes.’
‘So I will have two friends then?’
‘Yes you will.’
‘That’s not so bad…’
‘No, it’s not.’
‘Mr. Caterpillar goes on a long vacation and I also get a new friend. I like new friends. Do butterflies eat bamboo?’
‘Some do.’
‘Good. We’ll share my bamboo leaves. And he’ll sleep behind my ear. I’ll take care of him until Mr. Caterpillar comes back. I’ll miss him though. But I’ll take care of his butterfly for him.’
‘I think that’s just what he would have wanted…’
THE BEAR AND THE BOOK
PPart I
‘Now look at it! What on earth could that be?’ the bear thought.
‘It’s all brown, like tree bark. But solid, like a rock. It opens as though it were made of leaves, and there’s all sorts of symbols all over it. It is definitely magical. If only I could understand the symbols! I have to show this to someone! Who could possibly know what it is?!’ The bear just stood there and pondered this question for a moment, recalling all the animals in the forest in his mind.
‘The fox! The fox should know what it is! He always visits the villages around the forest! He must have seen this before! Maybe he even knows how to decipher it!’ the bear realized. He ran quickly to meet the fox, who as everyone knew, was on his afternoon break, dozing by the river, waking up every once in a while to scare the fish.
‘Jonas! Jonas Fox! Wake up, Jonas Fox!’
The fox slowly proceeded to open an eye, as if out of mere pity. One of its paws was touching the clear water and no fish seemed to be in sight, though the river was usually swarming with friendly families of tiny fish.
‘Yes, Bear? Why do you have to wake me during my break?’
‘I found something!’
‘You found something. We live in the forest Bear, we find something new every day. It’s not really worth waking me up for.’
‘I found something really new, Fox! Look at it!’ The bear pulled out the book and fluttered its pages in front of the fox.
‘Oh… one of those things. What do you want with it?’
‘What is it?’
‘It’s a book, Bear.’
‘What is a book, Fox?’
‘It’s something that humans look at. Sometimes they mumble when they look at it. Children do it mostly. I have no idea what the point of all of it is. It’s strange too; sometimes it makes them happy, other times it makes them sad. It makes you crazy, I tell you. You should really get rid of it.’
‘But I want to know what it says, Jonas!’
‘Why do you care what it says? Do you want to just stare at something and then be miserable? I’ve seen that happen to a little girl once. The one that used to pet me before her parents saw her. She cried for two hours after looking at one of those things. She kept saying something about a love story, I can’t speak human very well, so I don’t know what exactly, but it seemed to make her really sad.’
‘A love story… Do you think there’s a love story in here?’
‘I don’t know, Bear. Could be anything.’
‘I love love stories! Can you read it, Fox?’
‘I can’t, Bear. No animal can. Only humans can read. And not all of them can either.’
‘Is there one that does nearby?’
‘What do you want to do, Bear? Go meet a human with a book in your teeth? He’d probably shoot at you.’
‘I want to see what’s in here, Fox! I want to read the story!’
‘What if it’s not a story?’
‘What else could it be?’
‘I don’t know… That’s a good question. What else could be in here?’
‘Fox, I’m going to learn to read. You listen to me! I’m going to do it!’
‘Fine by me! Go learn to read! I have to go back to sleep. I have some hunting to do tonight and this conversation isn’t helping me any.’
‘Thank you, Fox! After I learn to read I’m going to tell you the story!’
‘Great, Bear. Now go somewhere else, please.’
‘Goodbye, Jonas!’
So the bear went off to think of a plan. He stopped in a clearing by the river bank and started throwing rocks into the water, waiting for an idea to jump out of it.
Strangely enough, that day he didn’t have to wait long at all…
THE BEAR AND THE BOOK
PPart II
As the bear stood by the river bank wondering how on earth he could learn to read, seemingly impossible obstacles came to his mind.
First of all, none of the animals he was friends with spoke human. Jonas Fox only sp
oke a little but he would never take the time to teach it to someone else. He thought that since he had learned it all by himself, so should others. A poor way of looking at the world, indeed.
Of the other animals, the only one known for speaking human was an old, grumpy owl who lived in a tall fir-tree. So grumpy was she, that very few animals ever exchanged pleasantries or any other form of conversation with her. In fact, nobody really knew if the owl could speak the language. What if she didn’t? The rumor that she did was older than the bear himself, and in years not one shred of evidence to support the claim had ever appeared.
As luck would have it, though, as Bear was getting ready to leave the river bank and head for his favorite berry bush, a little higher on the trail, he heard a rustle of leaves and an unusual high pitched sound. A child laughing. A little girl, to be more precise, that went by the name of Krinkle.
It was Krinkle’s laughter that earned her the nickname Krinkle. Perhaps not the most common nickname for a little girl, but suitable nonetheless. She had just woken up after dozing on the river bank where she had been skipping stones through the water. Her hair was up in two ponytails, but it still went down to her elbows. She was also missing one of her front teeth. Krinkle lived in the nearby village and was getting ready to enter her first year of school. She knew that part of the forest better than her own backyard, and snuck out almost every day through a hole under the fence to go to the riverside and feed the birds and fish. This kind and joyful activity made her many friends among the small creatures of the forest. Surprisingly, the grumpy old owl was among them.
When Bear heard her, he quickly hid behind a tree. He loved children, but knew the effect he had on them. Whenever they saw him, they’d yell and scurry away, climb a tree or, which Bear always found amusing, pretend to be dead. Bear actually enjoyed the ones who would play dead