We, that is: Sue; Hannah; Sarah and
me, were on holiday in London. We had walked through Hyde Park, along
the side of the Serpentine and had come to Peter Pan's statue. We
all sat down on bench to eat sandwiches for lunch when Sarah saw a
bright eye peeping from behind the left foot of Peter Pan. Hannah
saw it too, then Sue saw another and then I saw two more. What could
they be?
Sue, who is the most courageous of
us all, got up to investigate.
“Don't get too close,” advised Sarah,
as Sue crossed the path to the statue, “they may be rats.”
“Or mad dogs,” added Hannah helpfully.
Sue bravely advanced ignoring all
the possible dangers our daughters could imagine.
“You will not believe what I've found,”
she called from behind Peter's statue.
“Is it dangerous?” I asked.
“Is it alive?” shouted Hannah.
“Is it dead?” breathed Sarah turning
a little green.
“No to all three. Come and see.”
We looked at each other. Sue was renowned
for her bravery and was well known for removing spiders from the
bath.
“Better go,” said Hannah.
“Should we?” asked Sarah, undecided
between food and possible danger.
“We're coming,” I called packing our
half eaten lunch back in to the bag and pushed the girls ahead of
me across the path.
“Hurry up or they may escape,” urged
Sue.
We peered round the base of Peter
Pan's statue to see Sue pointing at two small shapes nestling among
the bronze figures of fairies and lost boys.
“Teddies!” declared Sarah.
“Twins,” added Hannah.
“Who's are they?” “Where did they
come from?” “Can we keep them?” came thick and fast.
“Hang on a moment,” I said, “Teddy
Bears don't grow on trees. They certainly don't grow on statues.
Someone must have found them and put them here to be seen by the
person who lost them.”
“What's that?” asked Hannah pointing
to small piece of card sticking out of a crevice in the statue.
Sue pulled it out. “Its a note. 'Please
look after these bears'” she read, “'their names are Dandelion and
Burdock and they need good homes, but more importantly they need
to go on adventures.”
“Homeless Bears needing adventures?”
questioned Sarah.
“Does that mean we can take them?”
asked Hannah.
“We could certainly give them an adventure,”
said Sue,
and we did.
