(short story) Bearing the Brunt

[Tessar]

Hello! This is a little story I had to write for school, so I thought I would share it as I THINK it's one of my 'oker' works .

I had to look at a picture from a book, and write a short story about it. The picture I chose was of a truck, mostly stuck in the mud, with two men, and one bear pushing it out!

Bearing the Brunt
by Anthony ~*~*~*~

Inspired by a picture from ‘Our Peaceful Kingdom’ named ‘Bearing the Brunt’ on page 26.


"Well, Dan." Gaddoc said, tipping back his floppy, cloth hat and surveying his most pressing problem with the air of one who has seen much worse, but is still affected by the least.

"Well what, Gaddoc?" Dan grunted, his rubber boots squelching in the mud as he ran a hand through his tousled brown hair and resisted the urge to kick some thing.

"It seems to me, that we are in a pickle." Gaddoc finished at his friends prompting.

Leaning against the back of his camouflage truck, Dan couldn't help but nod in agreement as he ran over the events of that day.

To begin with, their load of frozen fish had gotten to them an hour after it should have, and without so much as an apology. Secondly they had gotten lost on the road to Fishy Fish and Other Frozen Delights, seemingly having taken a wrong turn right from the start. Thirdly, Gaddoc had gotten another one of his not-so-brilliant ideas and suggested that they cut across country until they were on the road they wanted. And now... now they were stuck in the mud a mile from the road they had left, and twenty or so miles from where they needed to be.

Gaddoc was, for all his hemming and hawing, almost as slow as the lazy drawl he spoke in, although since he was not intelligent enough to think of anything to add to most conversations, many thought him a man of plain sense and few words. His being a man of few words was certainly truth, but his wit and intelligence sparkled about as brightly as the frozen gray fish carcasses loaded in the bed of Dan's truck.

"What we need, is something to pull us out of this." Gaddoc finally said, after several moments.

"Thank you, captain obvious." Dan growled, "I'm sure I never would have thought of that. But seeing how it's such a wonderful idea, why don't you go find us something to do just that?"

Dan was really a decent fellow, most of the time, but Mondays in tandem with Gaddoc were often a strain on his will power and sanity, with one or the other generally giving out before 5 o'clock in the afternoon. Today appeared to be an eception though, it wasn’t even noon yet, and his world was already turning unusually hostile.

"Or perhaps something to push?" Gaddoc felt compelled to add after another short, and painfully silent, moment.

Dan could only stare at Gaddoc. Or, to be more specific, slightly down and to Gaddoc's right, where no more than twenty feet away, a shaggy brown bear ambled along towards them, savage visage filled with a lusting hunger. Or, to be more specific, it's normal perpetual frown.

Ever the nature lover, Dan scrambled on top of the mired truck with the enthusiasm of a gazelle being chased by a lion, and uttered a squawk more suited to a gazelle that has just been caught by said lion.

Gaddoc's own reaction was slightly different. Giving his friend a perplexed look, he shrugged and kicked a clod of dirt off the toe of his own boots.

And then he saw the bear too.

The bear, I am proud to say, did not have a similar reaction to the sight of humans. It did not go and hop on top of a truck while uttering strangled cries of 'get you ugly fur ball!', as the ever resourceful Gaddoc was now doing.

Instead, it ambled along, pausing here and there to sniffle at the ground, feigning interest in the various dead leaves and animals that tend to litter wild areas. Namely wild areas with trees, mud pits, and helpless trucks that have shipments of frozen fish in them.

Finally, the bear looked up at the terrified men and said in business like tones, traced through with an admirably American British accent, "Oh do shut up, you're being rather an annoyance, and I do trust that you don't want me to call the Woods and Mires Home Safety Association?"

"Did that thing just speak?” Gaddoc gapped.

"Yes you insufferably insignificant deranged do-dad, I did" the bear said pompously, hoping that the humans wouldn't realize he had no idea what he had just called them.