The teddy bear

Before

The bear had been a gift for a baby named Jason Scott but his parents did
not particularly like teddy bears, he was quite large and finally he was white
so his temporary owners presumed it would get very grubby in the hands of a
small child.

All these reasons where how he came to be found at the bottom of a box that was placed on the mat outside Mrs. Hopes Second Chance Emporium.

During

Mrs. Hope often arrived at the store to find offerings on the mat and she always got this delicious tingly feeling while she took items out to be cleaned, priced and then placed in the perfect spot within her store. She found the bear at the bottom of the box and immediately smiled – this was a very special bear indeed.

Mrs. Hope was lucky enough to have had her very own teddy bear when she had been a child. She had named him “Teddy” because that was the best name she could come up with at the time and given she had been a very little girl she can be forgiven.

Teddy went everywhere with Mrs. Hope and even when Mrs. Hopes Mummy had to put teddy in the washing machine because he was very mucky, she would firstly sit in front of the washing machine so that he would know she was there and she giggled as his head went round and round during the spin cycle. Then she would sit next to the washing line while he was hung out to dry with a peg on each of his ears which she was assured did not hurt a bit. She always secretly hated him being washed because it meant that for a few days her wee friend did not smell quite right but after a day or two of rough and tumble he smelt like her best friend once more.

Later in life Mrs. Hope gave away her bear to the most precious person on the planet, her son.

Because Mrs. Hope had loved a bear of her own so deeply, she fully understood the magic that they held in their wee paws and because of this she never turned a bear away when it found its way to her store. I think I mentioned that she always wanted her things to find a home but above that rule was this one - that every bear needed to find its forever home.

She would ask all the boys and girls who found their way to her store if they had a bear of their own. If they said no, she would take them to the dresser that held all the bears and ask them to pick out the one that called to them. Many bears found their way into children’s lives as a free gift from Mrs. Hopes Second Chance Emporium but it was also true that more than one adult found the perfect bear for themselves a few years later than they should have, but joy of joys they found them regardless and that made Mrs. Hope feel like magician.

The bear in question was unearthed from his bag, brushed down so that the cobwebs and grit that had covered him was released and placed on the dresser which held all the other bears. Because he was so white, he really stood out from the other bears who were mainly shades of brown and beige and because of this Mrs. Hope predicted that he would be taken home very soon.

The bear in question was very happy to have been taken out of the bag and placed amongst so many of his fellow bears and after the others explained to him how the store operated, he too waited eagerly to be chosen as someone’s very own teddy bear and he was advised he would be given a name when that happened. Mrs. Hope continued to take children to the dresser and time and time again the white bear was picked up, considered and then put back again.

Each and every time the bear’s heart leaped with excitement only to be crushed again when he was not selected. After a while he found himself in the corner of the dresser where he was not as easy to see by Mrs. Hopes customers and he decided he was fine with that – he didn’t want to get his hopes up again and again only to find that for some reason he was not worthy of being chosen, he would simply stay in the store with Mrs. Hope.

The truth was that the white bear had fallen in love with Mrs. Hope and this love only grew the longer he was left in the store. He adored the way she talked to the bears before she found the right spot for them on the dresser. She reassured all of them that they would find a forever home and she frequently told all the bears about her special teddy and how much she had loved him.

Secretly the white bear dreamed of being her teddy bear but instead he settled for just being as near to her as he could be. He didn’t tell any of the other bears about this secret longing because he thought they would laugh at him.

Mrs. Hope on the other hand was beginning to despair for the white bear, she had never had a bear stay so long in her store but she also knew that the process of the right bear finding the right owner was not hers to question – she just continued to believe that the new owner would arrive even if she had to wait years.

Eventually a boy named Charles chose the white bear but his heart was not really in it. He actually thought teddy bears were a bit silly but the lady in the store made him think that maybe he would like one. Charles took the bear home and put him on his bed – but the love connection between boy and bear just never came. After a while the white bear found himself back in the corner again, this time it was the corner of a wardrobe and he remained nameless.

He stayed there for three very long years and then something awful happened. Charles loved to paint and one day he had a friend over for a play date and they spent a lovely hour or so painting then eventually they grew bored. The friend asked if he could look at his other toys so they could find something new to play with. However the boy had blue paint all over his hands and when he put his arms in the wardrobe the very first thing, he grabbed was none other than the white bear who was not going to stay white for much longer.

After the boy’s playdate Charles Mummy was tidying up when she found the bear which had been discarded on the floor. She looked at his now painted body and realized that the teddy bear was beyond redemption, he would forever be a white bear with bits and pieces of blue paint all over his body.

She considered throwing him away but then she remembered the store where they had gotten the bear from and how the strange lady who ran the store loved bears and she decided she would drop off the blue and white bear to her store.

During … again

She took the bear and some other toys that Charles no longer played with to Mrs. Hopes Second Chance Emporium the very next day and this time the blue and white bear was on the top of the bag and wrapped in a rag so that he didn’t stain any of the other items.

Mrs. Hope recognized the bear immediately and she was dismayed to see the condition he was in – he was very badly stained with blue paint which she discovered would not come off even when she sprayed him with stain remover.

She decided that she really could not sell the bear but she also did not want to put him in the trash – that would never do and so she put him on the shelf at the back of the store above where she opened and sorted all the delightful objects that stumbled their way into her store.

Mrs. Hope believed that she had found her forever bear when she was a child and never imagined she might need a new bear in her life. However, over the next few weeks she found her eyes continually darting upwards while she chatted to herself during her duties and so it was that she slowly but surely fell head over heels in love with the most unlikely of bears.

She discussed the matter with Mr. Hope who suggested that perhaps she should just admit her feelings and take this new if stained bear into her possession once and for all.

After

And so it was that the day came when the now blue and white bear’s dreams came true – he was not just loved in return by Mrs. Hope which was magical enough but she gave him a name of his very own and he believed it was the best name in the whole world – he was named Wilber.

Wilber continued to live at the store and he soon became a great help to Mrs. Hope as he was able explain to the new bears that came in and out of the store that every single one of them would find a forever home. Because he was so badly stained, they all believed him – I mean who could love an ugly stained bear?

Mrs. Hope however always said this about Wilber and he chose to believe her. She told him that you don’t have to be perfect in order to be loved.

I think she had a point.