Polar bears - Northern's trip

One day the vet stopped by and he said: "Since we have two bachelors here, the quarters are rather small, and we don't want two bears fighting over one female. You, Northern, will be going on the trip." "Where and why?" "There is a nice zoo in Midwest with more polar bears. You are going for a visit." "Why?" asked Standa. "For how long? Is he coming back?" "They are not too many of you, polar bears. We don't want you to get extinct. So we would like to have polar bears at least in the zoo's." "When is he coming back?" "I don't know, but he is coming back." "May I come too?" "Not this time. You will have to wait for your turn." Northern panicked: "What shall I do? How I will introduce myself? What do they expect me to do?" "I don't know," said Standa. "My mom told me to wash my feet and everything will be O.K.." Next day Northern left for Midwest zoo. For next two weeks people in the radius of two miles couldn't sleep for Standa's roar. He threw rocks into seals quarters. Luckily he didn't aim well. After two weeks he resigned, he ate, slept, watched people and seals, and did nothing. After a month or so Northern came back. "How did it go?" "I don't know." "Did you wash your feet?" "Of course I did." "So what happened?" "Nothing happened. I guess she wasn't interested." "I think her parents are going to have cubs, though." Northern wasn't as playful as before for a while. He was thinking about differences between male a female bears and females personality in general. She was smaller, not so masculine as he is. She wasn't as much fun as Standa, maybe, because she slept a lot. The bears continued to have a good time; they developed a new games like playing an airplane, walking around on their hind legs with a wide spread arms and whining. Children liked to watch them. Standa pretended to be an old gander, craning his neck and hissing like real goose. Northern imitated his she bear laying on her side and muttering: "Don't you see I am asleep? Stop sniffing me." "What is her name?" "I already do not remember. Something like Kim, Kam ... oh, Kamchi, like Kamchatka, Kamchi for short. I called her Kimchi and she didn't like it. She said she is not any cabbage." "You even didn't remember her name." "Who cares?" Copyright (c) Marie Neumann Pottsville, Fall 2009