Week Five: Storytelling

The Innocent Murderer

Once upon a time, over the grassy hill and through the scary forest lived a bear. The bear was known to many others, who also considered the scary forest home, such as Grandma Mattie. She received the name Grandma Mattie from her closest friends because she was one of the oldest in the neighborhood of the forest known as Love Land. Grandma Mattie was born and raised in Love Land. It would be her home until it was time for her to fly with the angels. She loved everyone with the most unselfish heart, as if they were own children. The husband of Grandma Mattie had been deceased for years now. It was terrible how his life ended.  As soon as the two said "I do," he had a heart attack and fell over. The two love birds never had the chance to birth their own mini cubs. Her nurturing tendencies found a way to display themselves every single chance that she got. For example, she would routinely bake many delicious blueberry pies to share with her neighbors every Tuesday morning.

One day a young cub came into town with his head hanging low, his fur extremely dirty, and gooey snot dripping from his nose. Everyone looked down at him like a poor lost boy and with disgust. No one wanted to offer him food and shelter because of the ancient proverb:

"See a stranger, meet a stranger;
Meet a stranger, lose a life.
See a stranger, turn your head.
For you mother always said."

Everyone was too frightened to meet a stranger because one never knew the true intentions of stranger. They all have watched enough LifeTime movies to know that strangers are capable of pure craziness. Grandma Mattie did not mind meeting strangers. In reality, she loved meeting new people. She saw such opportunities as a chance to welcome more people into her loving home.

She quickly offered the cub, who said his name was Jacob, a slice of her famous blueberry pie and a bed to rest his body. They both took a liking to each other in seconds. She began to raise him, school him, and love him, like she would do for anyone else. Neighbors that disagreed with her friendliness towards the cub would voice their opinions about it. Unfortunately, Grandma Mattie chose not to listen.

One day, Grandma Mattie decided to teach the young cub how to fish. Unlike most bears, Grandma Mattie preferred to fish just like humans, with a fishing pole. After some practice, Jacob seemed to be a professional fisherman. One day, he fished for hours and hours because it was just so fun! He noticed that something was swimming in the water with a huge fin on its back. He wanted to show Grandma Mattie the massive fishy swimming so bad that he could hardly even speak.

He pushed Grandma Mattie in so that she could swim with the fishy. The fishy, with the huge fin on its back, began to rip Grandma Mattie to pieces. Her blood and limbs were flying everywhere and Jacob ran into town to get help. Once the neighbors realized what happened, they grieved for weeks. Poor Jacob was felt alone again. No one in Love Land wanted to take him in. They were all too scared of him now. The homeless little cub wandered off looking for another home. Until this day, Love Land has forbidden welcoming strangers into their neighborhood.

Source: Bear

Author’s Note: With this story, I wanted to create a story that was somewhat similar to the Three Little Bears. That story has been on my mind for days. The Foolish Friend was a great story, which can be found in the book of The Panchatantra of Vishnu Sharma, translated by Arthur W. Ryder (1925). I did not want to change it too drastically because I did like the original story line. I changed the animals in the story, how the two characters became friends, and how one character dies. The original story consisted of a king that became really close to a monkey.  No one understood why the king wanted to be great friends with a monkey. The king had everything he wanted under the sun, plus a monkey for a friend. During the king's afternoon nap, the monkey was assigned as a body guard. The king and his wife rested in peace until they were due for their next public appearance. The monkey tried to kill the mosquito that rested on the king. Unfortunately, he killed the king instead.I wanted my story to have a similar ending. Jacob, the little cub, did not understand that it was a shark in the water. He innocently sent Grandma Mattie to her ending.