‘I don’t know what to do this year.’ Martha, my wife shoved all the holiday brochures to the floor with a loud bang that made the dog bark in surprise. ‘There’s not a single holiday that we can afford.
‘Why don't we stay home. Go on days out. See the country around here.’
Hey! That’s not a bad idea.’ She sounded surprised that I had come up with any sort of idea. One day she’ll realise that just because I don’t read too well I’m not completely thick.
When I got the push from my job in New York the pay off was large enough for me to buy a property outside the city. Martha had decided that the children should have a more eco-friendly environment (whatever that means). So we ended up here just outside Fort Montgomery on the edge of Bear Mountain State Park. I have managed to get a job locally loading lorries for a local firm, but it doesn’t pay too well. Martha is trying to get back to ‘old fashioned values’ and that means staying at home with the baby, so our income is limited. We had enough for a few outings, but nothing major like a trip back to New York City, which would have been my choice. There didn’t seem a lot to do out here in the forest. If Martha says it’s good for the kids, then I suppose it is, but I’ve always lived in the big city. The scenery is beautiful, but how much time do you spend looking out the window? It’s just too quiet for me. I miss the noise of traffic.
Sorry. Moan over. It’s good for the kids, that’s the important thing.
The kids enjoyed the first few days of their holidays. We took a lot of long healthy walks in the forest, and found lots of wildlife, but in spite of Martha’s efforts they were losing interest as the week came to an end.
‘You haven’t forgotten you’re in charge tomorrow while I’m at the doctors?’
I wasn’t sure what the problem was, but I hoped she wasn’t pregnant again.
‘A bear hunt!’ Madison, our eight year old shouted making me jump. I hadn’t known she was behind the couch playing with her younger brother.
‘Yeah! Yeah! A bear hunt’ Maddox chanted.
‘Too dangerous.’ I told them.
‘You could do it.’ Martha said when the kids were in bed.
‘What?’ I had been concentrating on the telly.
‘A bear hunt.’
I stared at her.
‘Not a real one’ she explained. ‘You pretend you’re all going to look for a bear. It’ll make the walk more exciting. There aren’t that many bears around this part of the park.’ She switched on her laptop. ‘I’ll work out a route that will give you lots of different things to see and print you off a map.
I smiled.
‘I like it. That’s one thing you can’t do in the city – hunt bears.’
I was going to have to take them on my own as Martha had a doctor’s appointment. I didn’t know what for, but I hoped she wasn’t pregnant. We had enough kids already.
The next day wasn’t warm, but I wrapped up the kids and set off.
‘Are you all sure you want to go?’ I asked them ‘nobody scared?’
They all shook their heads.
‘Are you scared, Daddy?’ Amy asked looking worried.
‘Nah. I’m not scared of anything.’
‘Nor me’ Maddox cried out as he wrestled to get his shoes on.’
I hoisted the baby onto my shoulders and we set out. Maddox grabbed a stick as a walking staff, but spent the rest of the day waving it around gleefully. The rest of us had to duck several times. Luckily it was only a thin branch. Madison skipped all the way, using up plenty of energy. I hoped it would make her sleep well. Most nights one of us had to go and get her a glass of water in the middle of the night. I sleep lightly, so her cries woke me even if I didn’t have to get up. Perhaps it would be better tonight.
Our pre-teen, Amy trailed behind. She was one of those girls who always worried. Finding bears was not something she could anticipate with pleasure. The dog trailed behind. He was showing his age.
‘Oh!’ Maddox had stopped. In front of us was grass which reached up to his waist.
‘Sorry mate. I know it’s going to be hard but we’ll have to go through it.
It was hard work for me, and must have been harder for the kids, but they bravely kept going. Poor Sampson, the dog trailed behind us miserably, he could hardly see over it.
I looked at the map Martha had made.
Next came a river. She had checked on-line. It was slow moving and not too deep. We all took our shoes off and carried them. I hoisted the baby back on my shoulders and off we went. Maddox loved the thrill of crossing a river of foot, instead of a New York bridge.
‘Do we have to? It might be too deep in the middle.’ Amy whined and held back until she was sure the rest of us had crossed safely.
We stopped for a while, letting our trousers and socks dry out before resuming our journey uphill.
Not far from the river another stream gently ran through the landscape. It wasn’t big, but the mud around it was sticky. I caught the back of Maddox’s jumper to stop him in his tracks. Putting the baby down I insisted that Maddox let me take his shoes off before walking in the squelchy mud. Put most five year old boys near mud and they’re happy. When I walked back to pick up the baby she was happily dipping her toes into the mud. Oh well! I blamed Amy for not looking after her sister and handed the baby to her. She had been moaning most of the day, and I was tired. It would give her something to worry about other than bears.
Again we had to wait until the mud dried. It was actually quite fun peeling it off our legs in long strips. I shivered a bit. It was colder this high up, but I could see the forest ahead. It was, as I hoped, warmer in the forest. The roots twirled all over the place and were covered in undergrowth. We all giggled when Amy fell over a tree root and fell flat on her face. It didn’t help her mood.
We emerged from the forest to find it was much colder without its shelter. White clouds overhead spilled their contents and snow was starting to fall. I wondered whether we should go back. To my surprise it was Amy who wanted to continue.
‘Snow on the mountains looks so clean; we can make the first footprints’ she said. It was so nice to see her enthusiastic for once that I pushed my doubts away, and we went on. The forest was denser now, and we found a cave which went deeply into the side of a cliff.
‘Daddy, we shouldn’t go in. There might really be a bear in there.’
‘We’re not scared of bears, are we?’
Everybody except Amy answered in chorus.
‘No, we’re not scared.’
‘Anyway Mummy said there aren’t many around this area, so we should be okay. Especially if we keep quiet.’
We all crept through the cave on tiptoes. Sampson tried his best to warn us by whining in the entrance, but he came into the cave with us.
Then there was a low growl. It was a bear.
I hustled the kids out and we ran for it.
Back through all the obstacles we had come through. The bear was getting close as we rushed up to the safest place I could think of: the bedroom.
‘The door! We didn’t shut the door!’ Madison cried.
She was right. It took all the courage I had to run back down and slam the door in the bear’s face. If a bear can look surprised that one would have.
Shaking, I joined the kids under the covers in the bedroom. All except the baby, who playing happily with a teddy bear and giggling as the rest of us shook.
It was a long time before we were ready to leave the shelter of the bedclothes, but when we did the bear was still outside. Eventually it gave up and padded towards it’s cave.
‘He looks sad Daddy, perhaps he only wanted to be friends.’ Madison said, sadly.
‘Or to eat us!’ Maddox taunted her. It’s amazing how bloodthirsty young boys can be.
I’m not good at stuff like writing so I’m telling this story to Amy who’s going to write it down for me and put the big words in.
Health Warning: Running from bears is not recommended outside children’s books. They can run faster than you can.
The story is based on ‘We’re going on a Bear Hunt’ by Michael Rosen. If you don’t know it there’s an animated version (by the author) on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AvUJM1b57E
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