Curled up in her warm bed, Abigail opened an eye and yawned. She’d slept all night, she hadn’t woken up once, was it morning? Stretching out a paw she yawned again.
‘Abigail, are you ever getting up?’ shouted Patrick from downstairs.
Turning over Abigail sighed happily, it was so nice to be back home.
‘There’s almost no breakfast left,’ shouted Preston, ‘I’m just about to eat the last piece of toast.’
Abigail threw off the covers and jumped down onto the floor. ‘Coming!’
As they sat at the table, the doorbell rang. Patrick clambered down. ‘That will be the shopping.’ Padding down the hall he pushed the switch that raised part of the gate and opened the letter box. Leaning forward he pushed another switch and a deep voice said ‘Just push it through onto the path, thank you.’
‘Works well,’ said Preston with a sniff, ‘we need to record some more voices. No one will ever guess that bears live here.’
Patrick nodded. ‘Come on help me drag the bags in.’
There were boxes of cake all over the kitchen. Lemon cake, orange cake, chocolate cake… They all stared at it. ‘Perhaps we can put some in the freezer,’ said Patrick doubtfully, ‘if there’s room.’
The tiger was nosing in another bag. ‘Chocolate… it’s full of chocolate in here.’ There was a crunching noise.
‘Don’t eat it now that can go in the cupboard,’ said Preston without looking up. He peered into another bag. ‘Ooh look at all these sardines… tuna…. and…’ his eyes widened. ‘Salmon!’ He shook his head. ‘Thank you Abigail, that’s.. um.. very thoughtful of you.’
Abigail sat up straighter, she was a very kind bear.
Patrick had opened the freezer and was pushing boxes of cake inside.
‘Don’t squash them. And leave a lemon one,’ said Abigail quickly. ‘For lunch.’
The house was very warm and Abigail still felt a little tired, it had been very exciting going to the supermarket but making sure she’d found things that everyone liked had been quite hard. She thought she might have a little nap. Padding into the lounge she climbed up onto the sofa. It had only arrived a week ago and was very comfy. Squishing down one of the soft cushions with her paws she closed her eyes. Just five minutes…
‘She’s asleep,’ whispered Patrick, peering round the door. ‘Let’s go and wrap it up now.’
‘Wrap up what?’ said Grigs loudly.
Preston put his paw over the tiger’s mouth. ‘Ssshhhh!’ He shook his head. ‘You’ll wake her up. Come on let’s go upstairs I’ve hidden it under my bed.’
They stood in Preston’s bedroom. On the bed, on top of the blue blanket that was exactly the same colour as the polars scarf was a box. ‘What is it?’ Leaning forward Grigs sniffed at it. ’Doesn’t look very interesting.’
‘It’s a proper phone,’ said Patrick excitedly, ‘so if she wanders off again and gets lost she can call us and tell us where she is. Or.. ‘
‘We can call her,’ added Preston, bringing out another box, ‘to see where she’s gone. We’ve got one too.’ Pulling out the instruction book he held it up and Patrick pushed his paw down.
‘Not now, we can work it out when she’s opened it. We’ll need another phone to call.’
Sighing heavily, Preston put the book down. He rubbed his paws together. ‘I suppose so.’
Abigail was having a wonderful dream, she was surrounded by cake, it was warm and comfy and she just had to reach out… just a bit further…. There was a loud thud. ‘Ow!’ She sat up and rubbed her head. How had she fallen off of the sofa? That was very annoying and now all her fur was ruffled. She hated ruffled fur. Getting to her paws she padded out into the kitchen and opened the fridge. Perhaps a snack. Behind her Patrick cleared his throat.
‘Abigail… we’ve got something for you.’
‘It’s a present!’ said Grigs excitedly, ‘we’ve got you a… agghhh.’
Preston held his paw tightly over the tigers mouth again. ‘Presents are a surprise, you’re not meant to tell her.’
‘Grrr..orrryyy.’
On the table was a small box, covered in blue sparkly paper and with a big bow on top.
‘A present?’ said Abigail, ‘for me?’
Climbing up onto the table in excitement, she put down her glass of orange juice and reached out towards it. Picking it up she shook it hard.
‘Don’t do that!’ said Preston. ‘Careful!’
Abigail ripped off the paper in one and the box fell onto the table. Opening it up she looked inside. ‘It’s a … small black thing.’
‘It’s a proper phone,’ said Preston, ‘we’ve got one too.’
Patrick nodded. ‘If you get lost you can call us.’
‘But I don’t get lost,’ said Abigail. ‘I only have adventures. Why would I call you?’
Preston had spread out the instructions and Patrick leant over his shoulder.
‘Your scarf’s in my eye,’ said Preston. ‘I can’t see.’
‘We need to turn it on, ours too.’ Patrick pointed to the paper, ‘let’s go through all the buttons first.’
‘Let me.’
‘No I know how to do it.’ There was a ripping noise. ‘You’ve torn the instructions!’
‘Didn’t!’
‘Did!’
‘Well let’s look on the laptop, I’ll find them on there.’
‘Thats the wrong page those are cameras not phones!’
Picking up her orange juice Abigail clambered down quietly from the table and padded back out towards the sofa. She’d leave them to it. Presents were overrated. For a bear all you really needed was a comfy cushion and a piece of lemon cake..,
Tales by a bear 