BRADLEY AND EGGBEATER

The other day Carl and I were playing a game in which I chose three words and Carl had to tell me a story with them. I saw a painting on my wall with a bear, a tree, and the word olive. Carl started the story timidly, and then as he went on, it grew with vigor and confidence. The story was about Bradley the bear. Bradley was nice to humans, even though the other bears in the pack didn't like them. Bradley was bullied and kicked out of the pack by the mean leader named Eggbeater. Eggbeater sent Bradley away without a second thought and Bradley was left to meander the forest alone.

One day Bradley came upon a house in the woods, he peeked in the windows and saw a family around a dinner table, he saw a plate of rich, green olives. He had never had an olive, but he knew he wanted one. He started scheming about how he could knock on the door and invite himself in to get an olive. As he was thinking, he looked up in a pine tree and saw an olive at the very top. He started to climb and climb, higher and higher, past the very tippy top branches until he almost reached the olive.

He reached up his paw and put it right into the middle of the olive, only to discover that it wasn't an olive at all, but a beehive full of the most delicious honey he'd ever tasted. It was golden and sweet. The bees didn't mind, so he took the whole hive down, still full of honey. He wanted to share it with someone, but he didn't know who, since he didn't have any bear friends, and humans were scared of him. He really wanted to share this wonderful thing he'd found though, so he headed back to the bear pack. He went straight to Eggbeater and shared the honey. Eggbeater felt sorry and Bradley forgave him. The end.

I said, "Carl, that was such a nice story." and then I took a closer look at Carl. He had a tear running down his cheek. I was a little confused, and he tried to quickly brush it off.

"What happened?" I asked him.

"I didn't think Bradley would have the courage and kindness to go back," Carl said. "It's just so touching."