"The Bear"

                                                              “The Bear”

    We packed up our kids, their friends, our over-sized dog and headed for cooler country.  It was The Bear’s first camping trip. Indignantly, he rode in the rear of the station wagon, behind a mesh divider. Slobber could cause a lot of screaming.   

    The first two days of camping were uneventful. Oh, there was the usual fighting among our kids. Who was cheating during their games and blame was always passed to the next, regarding the sticky soda cans left behind on the picnic table.  The bees always came and always liked me the best. The “farters” found themselves evicted during the night, searching for shelter.

    Our half-breed St. Bernard was pissed because he had to remain on a leash during the day. He growled at everyone that dared to look at him.  We learned camping was not his thing.  My husband and I invited him into our tent at night and he seemed okay with that arrangement. That is, until the third night.  On this night, God said, “Let there be rain.”  It rained hard and we had leaks in our tent. The Bear did not like to get wet and he became even more pissed.

    On the fourth night, God announced, “Let there be rain and thunder.”  The big lug did not like thunder either. It was that last crack that lit up the sky that caused our one hundred and fifty pound dog to have diarrhea all over our tent. 

    In the middle of the night, we found ourselves, with six kids and The Bear, packed like sardines in our station wagon. We didn’t know who smelled worse!  Omitting ourselves, was it our dog or the skunks that had suddenly appeared?

      It was a long and miserable drive home.


Word Count: 294 Including Title