Dribbles - 2. Teddy Bears' Picnic

The little girl slips quietly over to the record player. The thin black record is carefully balanced on her fingertips. Standing on tiptoe she places it in the record player and lowers the arm to rest on thin grooves. As the cheerful notes begin to come from the speaker she hurries back over to the pillow on the shag carpet. Sunlight falls through a dirty window to make sparkle on the dust in the air above the book place like magic to her young eyes.

“Come see!” she calls to her friend looking at the old tire swing in the tree outside.

“But I wanna go play. I don’t want to look at the pictures.”

“It tells us the story. Listen!”

*If you go down to the woods today, You’re sure of a big surprise.

*If you go down to the woods today, You’d better go in disguise.

The two girls huddle on the pillow and giggle at the family zipping up into bear costumes. They listen to the record sing song version of the book and gently touch the pictures of the bears peeking out in the woods.

“I want a hula hoop!” She stands up and pretends to play with the hoop.

“Me too!” Her friend giggles as she stands up and pretends to swirl one around her little waist too.

They fall back down on the pillow and listen as they turn the pages. The mommy kisses the little girl asleep in her bed at the end. The little girl on the pillow looks wistfully at the picture and sighs before closing the book. Running over to the record player, she turns it off.

“Want to go play on the swing now?”

    ~ ~ ~

All grown up now, she follows the tugging hand to bed filled with stuffed animals. Bears of all shapes and sizes mingled with monkeys, kittens, and baby dolls. One bear, a small white one sits in a place of honor on the pillow. Her little girl hops into bed and hugs the special bear close, and then picks up the book at the foot of the bed.

“I want you to read this one.” Her chubby finger rubs on the teddy bear on the worn cover.

The little girl all grown up looks down and smiles. “Are you sure?”

“I want it. Look,” her small hand turns to a page in the beginning, “there’s a little girl in it. She goes on a picnic.”

“Yes she does.”

“Can we go on a picnic?”

She laughs. “Sure. How about tomorrow?”

“Can we bring our teddy bears? It can be a Teddy Bears’ Picnic, just like in the book. You can read us the book again. It's our favorite, you know.”

"I know."

Leaning down, she kisses her little girl’s forehead. “I’d love to.”