Teefr - A New Adventure by Edward Summer, Chapter Nine

Teefr
a new classic
by
Edward Summer

Chapter Nine
Hide and Seek

hat a weird place," said Tony breaking into a run. The sky was becoming cloudy and threatening.

"Yeah, but Mrs. Seel was really nice!" Ginger raced after him. The sky was becoming dark and threatening.

"Hey! Wait up!" yelled Fred, who was already far behind.

Tony stopped until Ginger caught up with him. He whispered something in her ear. Ginger glanced back over her shoulder at Fred who, she thought, was waddling in their direction like a little duck..

Just as Fred reached them, Ginger and Tony simultaneously shouted, "Not it!" and ran home at full speed.

"No fair!" Fred screamed. "No fair!" He ran three or four angry steps then stopped. "No fair," he whispered. Giving up, he walked slowly toward Tony's house.

"Someday," he said to Teddy, "they'll want to wait for us! We'll do something they can't, right?"

Teddy started to agree, but caught himself just in time. He endured the long walk home in silence. Fred even banged the poor bear's head against the cement steps as he stretched up to open the back door.

The door slammed shut behind them. Samantha trotted over. "Meowrrrppp!" she purred as she rubbed against Fred's legs. Do please scratch me behind the ears, she hinted. I've had a hard, panther day! Too many grasshoppers to chase!

But Fred was not interested. Teddy, however, was treated to a wet, sandpaper lick as the cat tried to convince him to scratch behind her ears. Teddy didn't move.

Hmmph! What's with them? Samantha thought. People just don't appreciate the honor of petting a panther these days! She ambled off haughtily in another direction in search of a good nap.

"C'mon, Fred." Tony was sitting on the main staircase about halfway up to the second floor. He stood and walked the rest of the way, waiting at the top for Fred to follow. Fred could hear Ginger giggling.

"You've got to count in the bathroom," Tony said.

"Why?" Fred asked.

" 'cause that's the game!"

They had to walk past the bedroom door on the way to the bathroom. As they passed, Ginger stepped out and pulled Teddy out of Fred's hand.

"Hey!" Fred tried to grab Teddy back again. "Gimmee! What did you do that for?"

"No," said Ginger. "You're getting too old to carry that dumb bear around all the time. It's just a crutch."

"He's not a crutch, he's a bear!"

"Forget it. You're too young to understand. Leave him on the bed until later." Ginger flung Teddy into the bedroom. Teddy careened off Ginger's bedpost and landed upside-down half against Ginger's pillow and half against a stuffed gray donkey that was barely sticking out from under the pillow.

Tony led Fred away from the bedroom. Fred looked over his shoulder several times and walked quietly to the bathroom.

"Here." Tony pointed to the toilet seat.

"No."

""All right, I'll put the cover down. Okay, now?"

"Well...."

"Just do it, jerk."

Fred knelt down on the floor, folded his arms, and leaned his head against the toilet seat cover.

"Count!"

"One.... two.... three....

"To a hundred!"

"Awwwww."

"Count!"

"...four...five...six...."

Tony and Ginger ran out of the bathroom, past the bedroom, and down the stairs at a gallop.

On the bed, Teddy blinked and tried to get himself right side up.

"Here, let me help you," said a voice. It was the gray donkey.

"Sorry I fell on you," said Teddy, still in a head stand.

"Not your fault," said the donkey. Using his long gray ears, he pushed the bear lightly and Teddy flopped over onto his back. The donkey pulled himself out from under the pillow and wobbled to his feet.

Teddy sat up and began to pat himself, smoothing out various lumpy places.

"Good thing cotton doesn't shatter," Teddy remarked.

"True," said the donkey.

Teddy stood up and stretched as Samantha jumped up onto the bed. Samantha found herself staring right into the eyes of a grey donkey.

The great black panther, home from the veldt, and ready to nap, Samantha was thinking happily. Oh, no! What's this? The cat found herself staring right into the eyes of a gray donkey almost as big as she was! Samantha sniffed the donkey's ears, then turned and looked at Teddy whom she recognized. The cat backed carefully away to a corner of the bed, licked one paw, and lay down in a sphinx-like pose. When in doubt, Samantha said to herself, nap. And she did.

"Did you see that sniffy thing that was in here last night?" Teddy asked the donkey.

"No, but I heard it."

"Well, it was scary! Do you think I should tell Fred about it?"

"Would he listen?"

"I don't know. I always listen to him when he talks to me! Shhhh. I hear somthing. Maybe somebody's coming. Quick! Play Stuffed!"

The donkey and the bear flopped down on their sides. The vibration disturbed Samantha, but she decided not to open her eyes and returned to her jungle dreams.

"...thirty-six...forty-nine...sixty..." Fred counted. He raised his head to see if anybody was looking. It was hard work counting all these numbers.

"ONE HUNDRED!" All around the base is it!" Fred walked to the door and looked into the hallway. It was empty.

Slowly, Fred walked into the bedroom and looked longingly at Teddy. Pretending not to care, Fred sauntered around the room, stepping over mounds of toys. He glanced about, looking for Ginger and Tony, then wandered over toward Ginger's bed.

"Hi, Teddy," Fred whispered sadly. "Sorry you can't come with me, but maybe next time." Then in a louder voice, he said, "Are you there?"

Fred knelt down to look underneath Ginger's bed. Suddenly he stood up again.

"Oh, never mind." Frustrated, Fred stalked out of the room.

"Why didn't you talk to him?" the donkey asked Teddy as soon as Fred was out of sight.

"I was nervous," Teddy said. "I'm out of the habit of talking to people. These days, I'm just into listening."

"I can understand. You wouldn't catch me doing it."

"C'mon, then, let's go talk to him."

"Go talk to him? How?"

"We'll walk, of course."

"Off the bed?" The donkey raised his gray ears high in the air. His round, white eyes opened wide in terror.

"Sure! We'll climb down." Teddy began to walk across the quilt toward the edge of the bed. "I wasn't named Theadore Rosebear for nothing. Haven't you heard of San Juan Hill? Teddy and the Rough Riders?"

"I don't think so. I've never been to San Juan Hill, wherever that is."

"Cuba. 1898. Colonel Roosevelt in a dark blue shirt with yellow suspenders. 100 degrees in the shade. First, one cavalry charge, then a second! Up the hill!" Teddy's mind was flooded with memories. He paused, recalling thick gun smoke drifting down a hillside and blocking the sun. "Anyway, come on. Let's go! Say, I've forgotten, what is your name?"

"Dunkey. Dunkey Hotie. But you can call me Dunkey. I've told you before!"

"Okay, right. Dunkey." Teddy peered down over the edge of the bed. "Just remember, going up San Juan Hill was the hardest part. Coming down? Hardly worth thinking about."

"True. Maybe." Dunkey toddled toward Teddy. "It's just that I've been in Ginger's toy chest for so long. The stuffing sticks in my joints."

Stuffing. Joints. Samantha heard vaguely in her sleep. "Purrrr." she thought out loud, panthers don't have those problems. She rolled over on her back, and fell finally into a deep sleep.

Douglas Calder sat behind a large mound of papers and an even larger mound of books contemplating the mysteries of the Athapascan and Tlingit Indian languages when he heard a knock at his study door.

"Come in,." Douglas said. He looked around his research materials.

There was a long pause as Fred struggled to open the heavy door far enough to squeeze half of his face through.

"Did they come in here?" Fred said, as he stuck his head past the door frame.

"Who?"

Fred heaved against the door and finally pushed himself into the library. He walked over to Tony's father's desk with his eyes locked on a small , shiny toy soldier standing next to a tall pile of books.

"Did who come in here? Douglas asked again, distracted.

"We're playing hide and seek." Fred stood on tiptoes and took down the soldier. It was an ancient Roman soldier with a mirror-shiny brass shield.

"No, Fred. No one came in."

An ancient Roman toy soldier with a shiny brass shield. "Why is it so shiny?" Fred rolled the toy back in forth in his fingers so the shield caught the reflection of the Tiffany shaded ceiling light above the desk.

"Roman armies had huge battles on foot in open fields. The soldiers carried shields like these, and they would all line up. The shields acted like a gigantic mirror, and reflected the sun into the faces of the enemy. It made them too blind to fight."

"Wow!" Fred wiggled the shield as if to blind Tony and Ginger when they came out of hiding. He looked around the library. Every wall was lined with bookshelves. But what Fred liked the best were the showcases at the top above a high shelf that ran the perimeter of the library.

The cases were filled with thousands of toy soldiers which Douglas Calder collected. They were his second passion in life, next to studying history. Even though they were toys, these solders from every period of history had a presence and dimension to them that Douglas found soothing. He kept them in perfect order in their locked cases, arranging them by historical period and by nationality: Romans in one case, Napoleonic soldiers in another, Chinese foot soldiers in a third, and so on, through every war and country. There was a wonderful set of hand-carved Masai with spears and feathers right next to a battalion of plastic Storm Troopers from Star Wars. But unlike real history, with its dates and periods, the collection had no boundary in time or space, reality or imagination.

"Aren't you going to search for Tony and Ginger?" Douglas interrupted Fred's reverie. He wondered what Fred thought about as he looked around staring as only a small child can stare, eyes wide, mouth open even wider.

"Oh, yeah." Fred walked toward the door.

"Fred, the soldier, please."

"Sorry." Fred returned it to the desk. Standing on tiptoes, he balanced the toy which promptly fell over.

"I'll fix it, Fred."

"No. I want to." Fred stretched, grabbed the solder and finally managed to set it upright. Satisfied with his efforts, but sorry to leave the room, Fred took one last look around and moped reluctantly to the door.

"I think I'll look in the kitchen." Somehow, Fred knew that Tony and Ginger were in the basement, and he didn't want to look there.

"Good idea." Douglas picked up his book again.

Outside the study, Fred hung his whole weight on the door handle, then leaned backward to pull it shut. It took three tremendous tugs. What a game I could have, he thought, with all those soldiers! Even with half of them. He wandered through the back hall. With hardly a sideward glance into the half-opened basement door, Fred walked to the kitchen broom closet and stood there pondering whether anyone would said "boo" when he opened the door.

Paw by paw, inch by inch, Teddy lowered himself down the bed quilt to the floor. From Teddy's twelve-inch-tall point of view, it was a very long way to the floor.

"Colonel Roosevelt was riding a horse named Texas. I was safe in one of the saddlebags, and I could peek out as we bounced along. There was a blue polka-dot bandanna trailing from the Colonel's hat. I think he was more afraid that I would fall out where the other Rough Riders would see me than he was of the enemy! There were Mauser bullets whizzing around us everywhere, but Texas just kept going." Teddy spoke haltingly as he lowered himself, letting go with one paw, while he hung on with the other, then gripped lower with the first.

Dunkey peeked over the edge of the bed in disbelief. He had wrapped his ears around his eyes so he didn't have to watch.

"Finally, he got off the horse," Teddy chattered on. "The bullets were just too thick! I was still in the saddlebag, though. But then he got impatient and remounted and rushed up Kettle Hill. It was just us: Theodore, Texas and me with one orderly. We took that hill! Then we raced down the other side and up onto San Juan Heights! It was great! Bully great!"

"I suppose," Dunkey said nervously.

"Coming down San Juan Hill afterwards was the easiest part." Teddy dropped to the floor without a sound. "C'mon. Your turn."

"Nope. Uh, uh. Nope."

"C'mon. You can do it."

"Well, how? I don't have anything to hold on with."

"Use your mouth, dummy."

"I don't know about this." Dunkey knelt down at the edge of the bed. He grabbed a big mouthful of quilt and lowered his body off the edge. "Thinss inss not gnnnna wrrrkk!" Dunkey mumbled through his clenched teeth. Speaking, however, loosened his grip. Dunkey plunged silently off the quilt and landed on his tail.

"How was I supposed to grab on again?" Dunkey asked a little angrily.

Teddy shrugged. "Well," he said, "At least nothing broke."

"Look at my tail! It's ruined! Bent like a pretzel!"

Teddy bent the tail back into something resembling a drunken snake. "There! Perfect!" Teddy said. "You stay here, I'll check things out."

Teddy waddled toward the bedroom door. He navigated around the obstacle course of toys and clothes all over the floor.

"Well, I don't know...." Dunkey mumbled trying to turn far enough around to see his tail. "Looks pretty crooked to me!"

Teddy peered around the door frame. "All clear. Now, when I say 'okay,' you follow me downstairs."

Dunkey hobbled over to the doorway. Teddy walked out into the hall. Without bendable knees, Teddy looked like a bow-legged sailor trying to stay steady on a boat in stormy water.

They had to travel several feet along the soft carpet that ran the length of the upper hall to the top of the staircase where a new carpet took over. Teddy made his way along the carpet and stood, wobbling uneasily, at the head of the stairs.

To the little bear, the staircase was dizzyingly high. Each step came up to his chin. He sat down with a thump so that his feet stuck out of the edge of the top step. Rolling clockwise, Teddy balanced his tummy on the edge of the step. By rocking back and forth and pushing with his hands, Teddy slid off the edge and dropped down to the next step. He landed neatly on his feet, barely scuffing his chin upon the carpet on his way down. He glanced up at Dunkey's nervous and disapproving face, which was thrust between two railings of the banister.

Teddy smiled. But Dunkey glowered at him. He did not approve of this whole adventure. Teddy shrugged and proceeded on to the next step.

The basement door had always seemed particularly huge to Fred. Even though it was not nearly as heavy as the door to Tony's father's library, it took much more emotional effort to open: So much effort that Fred preferred not to open it at all. Better to keep it shut. Who knew what might be there in all that darkness? It's not worth the trouble.

But here he was staring up at it. Unfortunately, the doorknob was easy to reach. If only it had been three feet higher up, it would have been totally impossible to turn, and Fred would have had no problem.

"I think," Fred said out loud, "that Teddy can see real good in the dark." He turned and headed off toward the stairs that would take him up to the bedroom and his bear. "He can. I know it."

Teddy was about to navigate the fourth step when he heard Fred coming.

"Uh oh!" Teddy crawled back up onto the third step. "This isn't working out exactly as I planned!"

"Some plan," Dunkey muttered.

"Never mind! Just play stuffed! Quick!" Teddy's arms and legs stiffened, his eyes glazed over, his body became rigid and he flopped over onto the stair. He was now just a stuffed bundle of toy bear.

Dunkey did the same thing. His gray, tubular legs buckled under him and he collapsed into a heap with his long ears dangling over the edge of the top stair.

Fred started up the steps, happy to have a reason to bring Teddy. He stopped suddenly, nearly stepping on Teddy's arm.

"Teddy?!?! What are you doing here? Didn't I leave you in the bedroom?" Fred's mind raced over the events of the last half hour, of Ginger throwing his bear onto the bed and all that followed. Fred looked at Teddy quizzically. "Well, anyway, I think they're hiding in the basement. So we've got to go down there. We'll be able to see better... together."

Fred cradled Teddy in his arms with the bear's head facing backwards. As Fred walked down the stairs, Teddy waved goodbye to Dunkey. Dunkey mouthed silently at Teddy, "Some plan!" Then Dunkey waved an ear at Teddy for good luck.

Fred pulled the basement door open. It creaked ominously. He searched for a light switch, but it was much too high for him to touch. There was, however, a flashlight within reach, and Fred took it down from the shelf. He flipped it on. There was a flashlight just within reach.

As Fred stepped onto the top step of the long staircase, he settled Teddy into the crook of his left elbow so that Teddy now faced forward. The flashlight pointed down, illuminating the next step.

"Can you see okay?" Fred asked the bear. "Good," he answered himself.

Not much to see, Teddy thought. It's too dark even with the flashlight.

"Don't be scared!" Fred urged Teddy in a hushed whisper.

Fred placed his other foot down next to the first. Then, a step at a time, boy and bear descended into the shadows.

To be continued....