This is a story I wrote for CM to read to Maddie tonight. Hopefully the first of many and hopefully to be published some day. I started it before Christmas and then set it aside. After today's conversations in the Cafe, I felt inspired and came up with this. It's long, but hopefully fun.
Maddie and Blue Bear by KYKAT
Once there was a little girl named Maddie. Maddie lived with her Mama and Daddy and sometimes got to spend the day with her Grandma. She laughed and played and generally had a good time. Then one day a box arrived. Lately many boxes had been arriving from all over the world. Maddie’s Mama was expecting a new little sister for Maddie so boxes from Mama’s many friends had been arriving for weeks with presents. Sometimes the boxes had gifts for Maddie too!
Maddie received quilts and blankets, clothes and toys. One box even had a very real looking cat that was curled up on a cat bed. Maddie’s real cats Cricket and Fred gave it a few suspicious sniffs, but decided that it was just a toy after all.
Several days after Mama was allowed to open all of her boxes another box came. In it was a pretty green hat for her new soon-to-be sister Abbie. Wearing the hat and bearing letters was a pretty soft blue bear. He was oh so huggable and had bright eyes. At first Maddie thought that Blue Bear was just another toy. Little did she know at first meeting how wrong she was.
Cricket and Fred seemed to act differently toward Blue Bear than any of her other toys. When Blue Bear was sitting on the floor, first Cricket and the Fred would go up and touch noses with Blue Bear and then stand side by side in front of them. To little Maddie, it look like they were talking to each other, though she could not hear what was being said. Cricket and Fred would always dip their heads a little before walking away from Blue Bear. Blue Bear’s eyes always seemed a little brighter after his conversations with Cricket and Fred.
Maddie loved Blue Bear and their time together. He went shopping with her and Mama and he even got to go to Grandma’s with her. Blue Bear, Cricket and Fred were her best friends. She told them all of her secret thoughts and dreams, knowing that she could trust them.
When her little sister Abbie was born, her friends became even more important to her because Mama and Daddy were busier than usual because of Abbie being so small. Mama and Daddy still made lots of time for her, but even so, life was different. To Maddie, little Abbie looked like one of her dolls. She knew that someday Abbie would grow up enough so they could start playing together, but it seemed to be taking forever!
One night, when Abbie was about four months old, there was something different about the house. Maddie couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but the house just didn’t feel right. She walked all around the kitchen and it seemed the same. She looked all around the family room too! Still nothing. She pulled the cushions off the sofa and looked behind the chair. One by one she inspected all the rooms of the house and could not find a thing that wasn’t exactly like it had always been. She saved her own room for last.
This was the room that felt different. It was colder and darker than it used to be. It just wasn’t right and Maddie was a little scared. She tried to tell Mama but she just didn’t have the words yet to be able to explain. Even Blue Bear looked a little worried. That night when Mama and Daddy put her to bed and left the room Maddie did her best to try and fall asleep. It was no use; she could HEAR something under her bed. Maddie screamed and screamed for Mama and Daddy! She was sure that somehow a monster got into her room! Mama and Daddy came running into the room. “Mama!...Monster!” were the only words Maddie could say. They checked under the bed and in the closet and couldn’t find a thing!
Maddie was crushed. She knew that she heard something and that Mama and Daddy thought it was all in her imagination! She heard it! She wasn’t making things up! Mama and Daddy said to each other when they thought they were out of hearing, “She must need extra attention because of Abbie.” “That’s not true, “ Maddie said to herself. The monster is real.
Maddie was so frustrated that she started to cry. Behind her she heard a soft low voice say, “I believe you Maddie, I heard it too!” Maddie whirled around on her bed. There was no one there but Blue Bear. Though his stitched on mouth didn’t move, she heard Blue Bear speak again, “I know you aren’t making things up, and there is something in this room that doesn’t belong here.”
Maddie’s eyes were as big as saucers when she asked Blue Bear. “Did you really just speak to me?” “Of course I did,” said Blue Bear. “Why haven’t you spoken before?” Maddie asked? “Cricket and Fred didn’t think you were ready yet,” answered Blue Bear. “Cricket and Fred talk too?” Maddie was incredulous. Blue Bear chuckled and said, “Cricket and Fred have talked to you all along, you just don’t speak cat.” “I can understand them perfectly and they agree that something just isn’t right”
Cricket and Fred’s behavior with Blue Bear suddenly made sense to Maddie. Blue Bear then said, “I know you are scared and a bit confused, but you can go to sleep now. Cricket, Fred and I will watch over you and make sure you are safe. We will figure out what to do.”
The three friends watched over their Maddie all through the night and kept her safe. The next day they talked and talked and tried to figure out what was in the room, how did it get there and what to do about it. That night, they suggested that maybe Maddie needed to change her sheets and blankets. Maybe whatever was under the bed was attracted to her Dora the Explorer blanket.
Whatever it was, it was good at hiding. Cricket and Fred explored under the bed and all they saw were dust bunnies and a random sock. Their keen noses could tell that something HAD been there. They looked around the bottom of her closet and it seemed to be the same.
They needed a plan. They needed more information! Cricket stationed herself at the best window of the House…the one where the birds often come to roost. Normally Cricket was only interested in watching the birds and telling them how tasty they looked! The birds in their turn like to tease her with the fact that they were always outside and that she is an indoor cat! Today she decided to talk to the birds and see if they knew anything. It wasn’t long before a chickadee landed on the windowsill and began preening herself. Cricket, lowly raised up and in her sweetest voice said, “Excuse me, do you have time to talk?” This startled the chickadee so much that she almost fell off the sill and had to flutter her wings quite a bit to get her balance back. The chickadee, her composure regained, answered, “What would you want to talk to me about?”
Cricket explained what was happening in the house and asked if the chickadee would go to the other houses and ask the other cats and dogs if the same things was happening in their places. The chickadee liked Maddie because Maddie always smiled at her and would sometimes take stale bread outside for the birds, so she agreed.
That night, Maddie insisted on having the blue blanket off of the couch when she went to bed. It might provide extra protection. The Dora blanket was banished. Even so Maddie was still afraid to go to sleep. Once Mama and Daddy left the room, Blue Bear sang her to sleep. His soft low voice was beautiful and comforting and his bear song helped her to drift off and dream of green forests and sparkling streams.
The next morning Cricket waited for her new friend the chickadee to come back with news. The chickadee was true to her promise and she visited the other windows and talked to those cats and dogs who would listen. It seemed that other children’s rooms in the neighborhood had also been invaded. Under their beds were only dust bunnies and toys and random socks as well. The other cats and dogs could smell something different, but no one had seen what was causing the strange sounds.
What to do, oh, what to do. Blue Bear decided that maybe if they made Maddie and her room smell different that maybe the monster wouldn’t want to come and look at her. Fred said, “I could lick Maddie every night. That would make her smell different.” “Our tongues are too rough, Fred. Maddie’s skin is very delicate,” Cricket countered. Blue Bear said they needed help. “It is a well known fact that cats are psychic,” said Blue Bear. “Cricket, Fred, we need for you to really concentrate on the need for protection for Maddie. You need to stare at Mama and Daddy and think about what we need, until they start thinking of it too!” If you concentrate hard enough, Mama and Daddy will think it is their own idea.
So Fred and Cricket stared and stared and thought and thought. That night Mama and Daddy got the idea that they could make a spray that would make Maddie smell different and that she would be safe from any monsters that might have somehow gotten into the house. Mama went to the kitchen and found a spray bottle. She mixed a little of this and a little of that and added a drop of vanilla and a hint of lavender and voila! Monster repellant!
That night at bed time, Maddie sprayed her bed and herself well. She smelled sweet. Like to cookies Mama sometimes bakes. She sprayed some under the bed for good measure. That night as she settled down into her bed with Blue Bear, and listened to him singing his bear songs, she knew that she would be safe from monsters forever.
Coming soon…more adventures of Maddie and the Blue Bear.
