Chapter 2
Making friends
George was very nervous. It was a long time since anyone had visited the caravan. He was hoping there would be some children. George like it when children came to stay. Grown ups didn’t usually bother with him and they left him on his high up shelf.
He heard the keys turn in the lock and then he heard the door of the caravan open slowly…
He put one leg over the edge of his high up shelf so he could get a better view.
Suddenly he heard a child’s voice. Then he heard another child’s voice and then another.
After that he heard the voices of the children’s daddy and mummy. The children were called Mia, Millie and Lois. They were very excited and ran about laughing and jumping on the seats. As Millie was jumping excitedly up and down she noticed George, he was looking down.
Millie stopped and stared.
Millie looked at George and George looked at Millie. He thought that Millie had a kind face. He hoped they could be friends.
‘Mia look!’ she shouted, ‘a bear… let’s play with him. Get him down Mia, get him down!’
Millie’s mummy said that the bear looked a bit old and dirty and that they were not allowed to play with him.
The girls were very sad.
‘Mummy can we give the bear a bath and then we can play with him?’ the girls said.
They felt sorry for the bear, he looked lonely up there on the high up shelf. Mummy said that she would, and she took George down and put him on top of the settee to look out of the window. George was very excited.
After they had unpacked all their cases, mummy took George very gently and gave him a bath in the washing up bowl.
Mummy looked closely at George. He wasn’t a very handsome bear. He had one eye missing and his other eye was very scratched.
George thought that mummy had a very kind face. He loved having a bath. The water was warm and there were lots of bubbles.
George liked bubbles. The last time George had had a bath it was in a washing machine. George got very dizzy in the washing machine. That was the time he lost his eye.
Mummy washed George very gently and dried him with a towel. After that George was put outside on the line to dry.
He was very uncomfortable with a peg on his ear, but he loved being out in the sunshine after being in the caravan for so long.
He could not hear anything out of his ear with the peg on, but in his other ear, if he listened carefully, he could hear the sound of children playing on the beach and he could hear the sound of the sea.
George loved the beach – he could not go in the sea; sea water was not good for his fur but he loved to climb rocks and build sandcastles and lay on a towel on the beach.
After he was dry, George was taken off the line and he was given a packet of his favourite snack. They were called Pom Bears.
George was so happy. He felt a little tear trickle down his cheek. It wasn’t a sad tear; it was a happy tear. George was a happy bear.
He felt clean but most of all he felt happy because he heard Mia’s mummy say that after dinner they would be going down the beach.
‘Can we take George to the beach? Millie asked.
‘Yes, of course you can,’ Mummy replied, ‘as long as you keep him out of the water.’ Millie and Lois promised that they would be very careful and that they would look after George.
Millie gave George a huge cuddle.
‘You’re coming the the beach; you’re coming to the beach!’ she shouted.
He smiled.
George felt, clean, happy and loved.
Chapter 3
George goes to the beach
Ramblings of a retired teacher 