Adventures with the Bears | Swing Dreams and Syrup Schemes

Written by Keela Garrigues

Allie’s eyes peaked out from the under the covers as she watched Momma close the bedroom door, having pretended to still be asleep for the kiss goodbye.

As soon as Allie heard the garage door close, she jumped up, pulled the covers off Bella and Zoey, and ran downstairs to the kitchen.

By the time Zoey and Bella made it downstairs, pancake mix was spilling off the counters and dripping off Allie’s ear.

“What are you doing?!” exclaimed Bella, “It’s 7am, why did you wake us up so early?”

Allie, too busy to notice her sisters had entered the kitchen, flipped a freshly baked pancake onto a plate with freshly cut strawberries.

“Allie!” yelled Zoey, louder than Bella, “Hellooooooo…”

Finally catching her attention, Allie spun around and gave them the biggest smile.

“Today is the day, I’ve mapped it all out for us. We’re going to the park. Alone.”

“Alone?? What do you mean ‘alone’?” a skeptical Bella asked.

“Alone. Momma has been walking us there, but we’re big girls now, and big girls do big things,” remarked Allie, setting down a big pile of pancakes at the table, “but first, we eat,” syrup pouring over the edges of the plate.

Zoey, feeling unsettled at the thought of going to the park without Mommy, pushed her plate of pancakes away.

“What if something happens to us? What if a big bird swoops down and grabs us? We’re little!”

Allie grabbed a hand drawn map from her pocket and laid it out for Bella and Zoey to see, it was full of scribbles and hard to read.

“Birds won’t see us. See… right here, we follow the trees. We start at Sarah’s house, and then climb the fence over here, jump over to Leigh Anne’s yard, then over to Aubrey’s, and walk along this house right here. Before you know it, we’ll be in the park.”

Bella, still skeptical, offered a back-up plan of setting up a picnic in the backyard. Safe. Close to home.

Allie grabbed her backpack, put on her sunglasses, and walked to the front door.

“Today is the day. Either we do this together, or I’m going alone. But I’m getting on that swing one way or another!” and swung open the door.

Peaking around the edges of the house, Allie stepped out first to make sure it was safe to move forward, followed by Zoey, then Bella.

Sarah’s dog started barking and startled the bears, but soon calmed down when he saw who it was. His barking distracted the birds and helped them get to the next house.

Zoey spotted an orange tabby cat, JJ, across the street and ran over to give it some pets.

“No time, we gotta keep moving!” directed Allie.

Zoey ignored her plea and continued playing with her feline friend, while Bella noticed some neighborhood kids up ahead selling lemonade and rushed over to buy a cup.

“Come on, I want to get to the park while it’s still light out!”

Bella grabbed her lemonade and ran back to join her sisters, and JJ, who now also decided to join in on the adventure.

Just a couple more houses to get by, and we’ll be there! Allie thought to herself, proud that they had made it this far. They turned the corner and spotted a sprinkler with more neighborhood kids running through it.

Allie, feeling defeated, dropped her bag and watched Bella and Zoey run ahead to run through. She looked down at JJ, and sighed, “we’re so close… so close.”

Zoey looked over and noticed Allie wasn’t playing with everyone else, so she motioned to Bella to get back over to their sister.

“We’re sorry, Allie, we didn’t realize there would be so much going on today, but we’re ready. Lead the way!”

Allie lit up, put her backpack back on, and walked bravely the rest of the way to the park. As they entered the gate, the sun was shining down on the swing that she’d been thinking about all morning. She ran over, jumped up and swung her little heart out.

Bella and Zoey ran around the park tiring themselves out.

By the time Momma got home from work, the bears were sound asleep on the couch, exhausted from their adventure. Little did the bears know; Momma knew all about their journey. The neighborhood had their watchful eyes on the bears and were sending pictures all along. She smiled as she kissed each one on the forehead and tucked them into their blanket.

They may feel big, but they’ll always be her little bears.