The Wonderful Roundabout

by Mandy Olina

the most. He would sniff around them for a few minutes, pretend to smell something stinky, and would then fake a dramatic death scene, at the end of which he would fall as though lifeless next to the child. Minutes after Bear would act this out, the child would get up, not believing his luck, and run away. This started a rumor in the village that there were poisonous flowers in the forest whose smell could take out even a bear. As such, most children were forbidden to smell any type of flower they might encounter.

  Fortunately, Krinkle loved flowers and did not believe in such nonsense and was busy putting together a bouquet of forest flowers. Once in a while she would stop to throw some crumbs down for the birds. As luck would have it, not even a few moments had passed when the owl made her way to a branch above Krinkle and started hooting to make her presence known.

  ‘Feathers!’ Krinkle called. ‘What are you doing up there? I’ve got yummy brownie crumbs for you! Come taste!’

  The owl flew down to a rock that gave her a perfect pecking angle for the crumbs. She had a soft look in her eyes and it was obvious that she cared for the child. Krinkle sat next to her, gave her a hug and started gently patting her brown wings.

  ‘I missed you, Feathers! I couldn’t come see you yesterday because mommy took me to see Aunt Mary’s ponies. Three ponies she has, and a big ol’ shepherd dog. I think she likes big animals. But I like small animals. Like you, Feathers! Tell me a story, Feathers! I want to hear a story! Tell me a story!’

  The owl looked curiously at her as though she understood but had no idea what she was talking about. She turned her eyes to see if there were any other animals in sight, and even flew away briefly to scout the area from above. Luckily, Bear was right under a big tree branch so she didn’t notice him at all. Then, she came back, turned her head one more time, took a deep breath and said in a low, rough voice.

  ‘What story, would you like to hear today, Krinkle?’

  ‘I want to hear a story about… about… about a princess and an owl and a pony. I lost my book, Feathers! I lost my book with the princess story. Tell me the princess story, Feathers!’

  ‘Very well, Krinkle. But you should go looking for your book. It is a priceless thing to have.’

  ‘I will, Feathers. Right after you tell me the story.’

  The bear by now was both shocked and amazed. He couldn’t believe how good the forest had been to him that day. Not only did he find a book, but it was a book about a princess, and someone knew how to read it! And not just someone, but one of the animals in the forest. His jaw dropped in amazement and he barely took a breath. All he wanted was to hear the story unfold.

  THE BEAR AND THE BOOK

  P PPart III

  Once upon a time, in a castle far-far away, there lived a beautiful princess. So beautiful was she that when she was born…’ No sooner had Feathers started the story than a voice was heard.

  ‘Krinkle! Krinkle! I know you’re here somewhere, Krinkle!’ a woman called. ‘There you are!’ She pushed some leaves aside with her hand and appeared from behind an oak. ‘I searched the entire river bank for you!’

  ‘I’m sorry, mommy!’ said Krinkle and ran into her mother’s arms. ‘Feathers was telling me a story!’

  ‘Oh, Krinkle! You and your talking owl again. Come on home. I made tootsie rolls!’

  ‘Tootsie roooooolls!’ Krinkle squeaked and started jumping up and down, with a wide smile and her missing tooth showing.

  ‘Let’s gooo!’ she said and started pulling her mother’s hand.

  ‘Byeeee, Feeeeatheeeers!’ was the last thing she said before she disappeared behind the oak.

  ‘Oh… My… How she always leaves me like that,’ the owl sighed.

  ‘Miss Owl?’

  ‘Pardon me? Who said that?!’

  ‘Don’t fly away, Miss Owl, I only mean really, really well!’

  ‘Bear?! Is that you? Come out from behind that tree, please, I can see one of your feet.’

  ‘Here I am!’

  ‘Well… Good. So what? You heard me talk to the little girl, right? Big deal! Just don’t tell anyone! It isn’t anyone’s business!’

  ‘Miss Owl! Miss Owl! Miss Owl! You can speak human! That is the most wonderful-est thing in the world!’

  ‘Bear, please, don’t bore me to death using poor grammar. Tell me what… Do you want to keep quiet about this?’

  ‘I want to reeead!’

  ‘I beg your pardon?’

  ‘I want to read, Miss Owl. I want you to teach me how to read, and if you do I won’t be saying nothing to no one!’

  ‘Please, Bear, in all the years I’ve been in this forest, never have I heard something so silly. How could YOU possibly learn to read?’

  ‘Just like you did!’

  ‘Preposterous! I’m an owl, Bear!’

  ‘So?’

  ‘I… Well I can’t teach you!’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘I can’t!’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘You wouldn’t learn!’

  ‘Yes, I would! Please, oh please, I want to learn to read the princess love story if it’s the last thing I do!’

  ‘I can’t teach you, Bear!’

  ‘Yes you can!’

  ‘No! I won’t!’

  ‘You’re just being mean!’

  ‘So what if I am?! I can be any way I want!’ the owl said and started flapping her wings.

  ‘Oh no!’ The bear realized that this might be his only chance to ever learn the story so, impolite as it was, he said:

  ‘Either you tell me, or I tell everyone you can speak human and every animal in this forest will come looking for you to learn how to speak human themselves. Now… I may be wrong, but I think some of them won’t ask nicely, like I just did.’

  The owl froze in mid-air, then slowly descended towards the ground.

  ‘Bear, you silly animal. I can’t teach you to read.’

  ‘Then I’ll tell!’

  ‘No, Bear. I really can’t.’ she said in a low voice. ‘I don’t know how to read.’ The owl continued, obviously ashamed of her own statement.

  ‘Oh…’ The bear paused and pondered for a moment, while the owl remained motionless, her head hanging down.

  ‘Why... don’t you learn then?’

  ‘Excuse me?!’ asked the owl, awestruck.

  ‘Yes! We’ll learn how to read together!’

  ‘Lovely plan, Bear, but how?!’

  ‘Your little girl can teach us!’

  ‘Krinkle?!’

  ‘Yes, her, whatever her name is.’

  ‘Krinkle can’t read Bear. That’s why I tell her the story. She just looks at the pictures.’

  ‘So how do you know the story, then?’

  ‘I made it up…This autumn she’ll go to school and learn to read and see that I’m nothing but a dumb animal.’

  ‘Don’t say that, Miss Owl. You can speak human! That’s wonderful!’

  I used to belong to someone, Bear. I wasn’t born in the forest. That’s how I learned human. I could speak it before I could even properly speak our tongue. It just happened, it’s not something I did.

  ‘Yes it is, Miss Owl. Mitsy the cat doesn’t speak human. Or Rufus the pooch. You’re the only animal I ever heard of that does. You’re magical, Miss Owl!’

  ‘Please, Bear!’ said the owl, blushing.

  ‘If Krinkle learns to read, do you think she’d teach us?’

  ‘She would, yes. She’s a lovely child. Much better than my owners used to have.’

  ‘So let’s ask her, Miss Owl! Pleeeease!’

  ‘Very well, Bear. I will ask her and we will learn to read. But please promise me you won’t tell anyone!’

  ‘I swear on my honey that I won’t, Miss Owl.’

  ‘Good, Bear. Now can I go to my nest and rest, please?’

  ‘Yes, Miss Owl! Have a wonderful time nesting!’

  ‘Bye, Bear!’ the owl said flapping her wings. As she flew away a warm smile spread across her beak. She realized that the best moment
s of her life were perhaps yet to come.

  THE BEAR AND THE BOOK

  PPart IV

  ‘Be quiet, Bear! She’ll hear us!’

  ‘Miss Owl, one of your claws is poking my nose. Please be still.’

  ‘I can’t see her.’

  ‘Of course you can’t see her, you’re a night bird. I can see her just fine.’

  ‘So what do you want me to do?! She always sleeps at night.’

  ‘I want you to tell her! Tell her to teach us to read.’

  ‘I can’t Bear. We’ve been over this. Now shush so I can hear her!’

  Now you may have already guessed what happened. Feathers never told Krinkle she couldn’t read. The shame of the little girl finding out was too much for her to bear. Instead, she had taken to Bear’s idea and decided to learn. Her plan, in fact, was to learn before Krinkle could, and let the truth remain hidden forever. So when Krinkle started attending school, Bear and Feathers would hide below a window in her house every afternoon to spy on her homework and learn everything at the same time as she was. What they wanted most was to learn the alphabet. Bear would take a good look at what Krinkle was drawing on her notebooks every day, and then copy the symbols into the ground using a stick. They found a hidden clearing in the forest where they could do this undisturbed.

  Sometimes the work was overwhelming. They had to bring water so that the ground was moist and fit for writing in every day. Then they had to wait for the ground to dry. It was already autumn so several rains had fallen and threatened to erase all their work. To save it they stood in the rain for hours, holding umbrellas made of leaves over the letters. They’d both caught a cold and then nursed each other back to health with tea and forest medicine.

  In all truth, it was the first time for either of them to be working on something so hard or so closely with someone else. As far as they remembered, they