Beyond the Bear by Dan Bigley & Debra McKinney

Author:Dan Bigley & Debra McKinney [Bigley, Dan & McKinney, Debra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Animals, Bears, Medical, Personal Memoirs, Nonfiction, Biography & Autobiography, Retail
ISBN: 9780762784554
Google: 3BkoJIHQYiIC
Amazon: 0762784555
Publisher: Lyons Press
Published: 2013-04-02T04:00:00+00:00

As the days went by and I became more present, my circle of visitors grew wider. Some brought me recordings, others showed up with their guitars. One played a didgeridoo, which had every pair of shoes going up and down the hallway applying the brakes at my door. Whenever someone new came to see me, I was grateful I couldn’t speak; not only was my jaw wired shut, I was under doctor’s orders not to talk since everything from the roof of my mouth up had a long way to go to be healed. I was grateful because I didn’t have the energy for talking, much less caretaking, a tendency of mine. When one-sided talk stalled and silence turned the room into an itchy sweater, I felt no pressure to fill the gaps. When people broke into sobs, I didn’t have to think of what to say to make them feel better.

Even Maya came to visit. Everyone was excited for me to reunite with my Maya Bird, so named because when she got excited she chirped like a bird. I couldn’t wait to hear the whack of her tail against everything within a two-foot radius, and feel her nose against my skin. When the day came, Brian brought her in on a leash, closed the door, unhooked her, and patted the foot of my bed.

“Up, Maya. Come on, up.” She got all slinky and wouldn’t budge. “Maya, up girl, up. Up!”

Finally she jumped. A dog famous for her full body wag and toothy grin, she stood trembling at the foot of my bed with her tail between her legs. She jumped to the floor. Brian’s chest fell. He lifted her back up again.

“Stay, Maya. Sit. Now stay. Stay.”

She stayed about three seconds, then jumped back down again. She wanted nothing to do with whatever that thing was in that bed. Or maybe seeing me brought back the bear; I’ll never know. I would have been heartbroken, but it’s hard to break something that’s already in so many pieces.

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