Panic set in as I tore through Ruby’s bag on the ferry. I didn’t see him anywhere. “Where is Bear?!” I shouted anxiously. “Did you leave Bear at Grammy’s house?!” My daughter was unconcerned.
“Yes, but it’s okay. He will just use his magic and be home when we get there.”
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!
What have I done?! I have done my job TOO well! I did not create in my children a belief that magic is possible, I created in them a firm belief that magic is real and can solve all problems. This was going to become an issue. Because, while magic is of course real and can solve all problems, it is unpredictable! One never knows when, or if, magic will rear its shiny head, and if Bear had not gotten on the ferry with us, there was no guarantee that he would be home when we got there.
I tried to explain this to my daughter, but she was confident in Bear’s magic and love for her. I also called my mother, as she drove away from the ferry dock on her side of the large and expensive lake. “WHERE. IS. BEAR.” I said tersely. Toy Grammy knows full well that there are only two things she must not forget when picking up or dropping off Ruby. Her medicine, and Bear. And of the two, well, let’s just say that there are pharmacies with more medicine over here in an emergency, soooooooooo……
“He’s in her bag! I put him there myself this morning!” protested Toy Grammy.
“Well, he’s not there now!” I cried to the heavens. Ruby was only slightly concerned at this point, so I said, “Grammy is going to check for Bear when she gets home, to see if he snuck out of your bag this morning before you left.”
“Silly Bear,” Ruby said. “Well, that’s okay. Even if he got out of my bag, he will get home in time.”
“Well, maybe, but we’re going to go to Costco for a while and have lunch, and then we’ll go back to the ferry to see if we can find him anywhere.”
“No! I’m going to Costco too and I’ll meet you there!” said Bear. But I guess he was just kidding, because he was not at Costco. And believe me, we looked. First Bear said he would be in a shopping cart, but he wasn’t. Then Bear said he would be at the food tables, but Ruby ran to check every single food table, over and under, and he wasn’t there either. Bear was being very sneaky.
Finally we got a call from Toy Grammy. Bear had indeed crept out of the bag, and she found him sleeping, under the covers of the bed Ruby had slept in the night before. Rassumfrassumfrickfrackin… Silly Bear.
Well, Bear informed us that he was going to take the ferry home, so we finished up at the store and headed back to the docks, where ferry after ferry came, with no bears appearing anywhere. I made roughly four thousand more calls to Toy Grammy to see if Bear had magically disappeared from her house yet, but she was not answering her phone. At this point it was getting late in the afternoon, and we were having dinner guests over at 5, for which I still needed to clean the house, go food shopping, and make dinner. I had not planned on spending the whole day on a bear hunt. I told Ruby we could wait for one final ferry, having at last received word from Toy Grammy that Bear had mysteriously vanished from her house, but if Bear was not on it, we would have to go home empty-pawed.
Bear had informed us that he would have to be in disguise to get across on the predominately human skewed ferry boat, and as that last boat pulled in, we saw a blue bag roll across the deck in a spy-like manner. A ferry employee noticed the bag too, so she picked it up and walked off of the boat with it in her hand.
We were all standing there on the edge of our seats, and when Ruby ran up to her, the woman asked, “Is this yours?”
“Maybe,” said Ruby, still unsure if Bear had actually managed to disguise himself as a blue puddle like he’d said.
She opened the bag, and, wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, there was Bear!
He’d managed to magically get across the ferry on his own, in a blue Aldi’s bag that he thought made him look quite like a puddle (although I wasn’t convinced for a moment), and the two best friends were happily reunited.
So there was much happiness, especially thanks to my wife, who got home before we did and cleaned the house, set the table, and made most of the dinner, and lessons were learned. Mostly, never get on a ferry without opening the suitcase first.
🙂