Bear Bob's Story as told to Edward Summer

Chapter One
Masa
 

"Now I lay you down to doze,” sang the small cotton bear softly.

     "No," Teedie protested, squirming. "No."

      "Now I lay you down to doze,
     And pull the covers to your nose."

     Teedie was not interested.

      "Lulla-lee, Lulla-loo,
      Little Teedie, I love you."

     Teedie sat up and shoved the bear under the pillows.

     Teddy stuck his head out from between the pillows, turned and stared at Teedie.

     "I hate my father," Teedie said. "I hate him."

     Teddy sighed, trying to think what to say. "He'll come back to you. He will, I promise." The bear stared out the window at the night.. The glow of the gas street lamps did not reach the backyard. Stars sparkled in the black, cloudless sky.

     "I hate him."

     Teedie pressed his face down into the pillow.

     It was just then that something twinkled in Teddy's glass eyes. Was it a reflection of the gaslights in the room? Or was it something else?

     "Do you know my name?" Teddy said

     "Yes," Teedie replied, sullenly. "Yes. It's Teddy, after me. I know because I named you."

     Teddy said nothing.

     "That is what you call me," he answered at last. "That is your name for me."

     "Yes. Of course. Yes." Teedie said. He buried his face in the pillow again.

     "But I have another name, too. One that only two people in the whole world know."

     "What is it?" Teedie asked, interested at once. "Tell me."

     "If I told you, then there would be three."

     "Tell me."

     "It is a special, special secret." Teddy looked over at the small boy whose wet, red eyes peeked up at him from the white feather pillow.

     Teedie sat up. "I'll never tell. Cross my heart and hope to die." He made the sign of a cross on his chest.

     "We'll see," Teddy looked into his eyes. "We'll see."

     "No! Tell me! Tell me! Tell me, now!" Teedie had stopped crying and was sitting up.

     "Will you go to sleep afterwards?" Teddy looked at him sternly.

     "Yes! I promise!"

     "Hmmmm." Teddy pushed and shoved part of the bed quilt until it made a little mountain. He settled himself back against it, pressing and shaping it until he had a comfortable chair. "Hmmmmm. Where shall I begin."

     Teedie settled back against his pillow, pulling the covers up to his chin. He stared at the bear, waiting.

     "It began a long time before you were born," Teddy began. "It started when your mother was a little girl, and your father was a little boy almost as young as you. It was when your mother lived with her parents in the big house in Georgia.

     "When this story began, it involved a person that she had never met, a person whom she had never heard of, a person that she never even dreamed of. But it was a person that someday, she would meet."

     "Who?" asked Teedie.

     "His name was Masa. But that was not his real name. No more than Teddy is mine. Masa."

     "What a weird name!" Teedie wrinkled up his nose.

     "Not where he was born. And that was very, very far away! Very far east. Very far south! Across the ocean, past the equator, in a country you've never seen."

     "Where?"

     "Africa, Teedie. He was born in Africa."

     Teedie's sad blue eyes opened wide.

     "When his real story begins, he was a little boy, just like you, but a little bit older. He was ten, with skin as black as the night sky." The stars twinkled through the window glass. "I didn't meet him until he was nearly twelve. Meet him!" Teddy laughed. "I guess you could say that.! I didn't meet him until he was grown up, but perhaps he was a man long before that."

     "What do you mean? Is twelve grown up?" Teedie was a little annoyed.

     "I will tell you what he told me." Teddy closed his eyes for a moment.

     Teedie waited, but Teddy didn't say anything.

     "C'mon, Teddy!" the boy demanded. "Tell me!"

     Teddy was silent.  His head was bowed, his paws over his eyes.  Slowly he raised his fuzzy brown head, eyes still covered. Teedie knew that something strange was happening.

     One at a time, the bear dropped his paws from his eyes.  The shiny, brown glass beads had become dark and deep as time. Teddy stared straight ahead, looking far, far away. He was very, very silent and didn't move at all.

     Finally, he spoke. But it was not with his own voice. It was with the voice of someone else. It was a voice larger, stronger, older, wiser than the tiny cotton voice of the bear.

     "I had no name until the ritual was over,"  said the mysterious voice.

     "What's wrong, Teddy? Why are you talking that way?" Teedie was a little frightened.

     "They call me Masa," the mysterious voice continued, "but that is not my name to be. Not my secret name, my manhood name."

     The tiny bear sat upright, gaze fixed on some other time and place.  The boy scrunched under the quilt, pulling the edge up over his nose so that only his fascinated eyes peeked out.

"They call me Masa," the mysterious voice said once again.