Elliot Harper
THERE’S A DEAD BEAR IN THE POOL
It’s just floating there, gently bobbing around in the centre of the water. Facedown like the way a human would. The water is strangely lapping in waves against the pool's edge because of the weight of the bear.
I wipe my bleary, sleep-filled eyes with both my hands, but as soon as I do this, my dressing gown falls open, letting in the cold morning air. I quickly grab each side, fold it around my body and tie it up tightly. It helps, but only marginally. It’s freezing out here. The only reason the pool isn’t frozen solid is that my parents keep it heated throughout the winter. That way we can use it, but clearly, the bear had the same idea.
I should go back inside and tell someone really, but I’m stuck in this spot with the cold beginning to creep into my bones. It’s just that I can’t take my eyes of the brown fur on its massive back. For some reason, it doesn’t look real. I feel like I’m watching Netflix or something. It seems too realistic, too sharp to be real life.
I fold my arms around my body to keep in some of the rapidly retreating warmth. I really should go inside. I glance back, but the house is silent and shrouded in darkness. This makes sense because it's way earlier than when everyone else gets up. They won’t start waking up for another hour or so. I’m only here because I couldn’t sleep, and I know that I can smoke a cigarette in peace and without my parents giving me shit about it. No, I’m alone for the moment,
I return to staring at the bear. I’d heard something about this before. It happened to a friend of Tommy’s. He said they woke up one morning to find a huge black bear had drowned in their pool. Most of us didn’t believe him, but then it had been in the news. Something about this winter being warmer than usual, it confuses the bears, and they don’t hibernate like they are supposed to.
It sort of makes sense, I guess, but the part I don’t understand is why has it drowned? It’s not a particularly deep pool. Surely it could just swim out of it? I get that it would want to get inside if it’s warm in the water, but how has it ended up dead? It's as much of a mystery to me now as it was for Tommy’s friends black bear. No one knew why that happened as well, or why it’s happening to other bears in the area, so no one will know why this has happened in our pool.
I wander towards the lounger and sit down. I pull out my pack of cigarettes from my pocket that my parents don’t know about and light one with my lighter. I take a quick, deep drag and blow the smoke out. The plume looks enormous as it billows away in the morning light and mingles with my breathe. The cigarette calms me down a little, so I go back to observing the bear in the pool.
From where I’m sitting, I can see the light beginning to break over the hills. The sun is rising, and with it some warmth. Not that it will help me right now. I’m chilled to the bone, even with my cigarette warming my insides. The lights are on inside the pool, I can see the blue of the tiles, but I barely register it. All I can see is the brown bear and its dark shadow on the bottom.
What happened here? Why did the bear drown? Did it want to drown? That thought stills me for a moment. Did it want to drown? Did it kill itself? Can bears do that?
I shiver and not just from the cold. I take another drag of my cigarette, but it doesn’t help. A vague feeling of dread has settled into my stomach at the thought of a bear committing suicide in our pool. The only issue with this new theory of mine is if it did kill itself does that mean the others did as well? Have things got that bad for them that they are just killing themselves? Or are they just so confused and weak by the fact that they are awake in winter that they’re just drowning in water that wouldn’t usually be dangerous to them? I have no idea, so I do the only thing I can do, and take another drag of my cigarette.
Thirty minutes pass and the silence is only broken by me inhaling on my rapidly diminishing second cigarette and the gentle lapping of water. It’s getting brighter. I can see the colour of the bear’s fur better now. It’s actually a lot lighter than I first thought. It’s a gingery, light brown. I wonder what type of bear this is? I’m not really into nature except when I occasionally watch some on TV, but it must be native to here. I doubt it travelled very far. It would be sad to think that it had. That it travelled over a long distance looking for something and ended up in our pool. How terrible would that be?
Suddenly, the lights come on in the house, bathing the pool and the bear in yellow light. I take one quick drag on my cigarette, stub it out and throw it over the wall. I stand and walk over to the bay window doors which are still slightly open. As I walk, I can see my mum heading this way with a look of concern on her face. I open the door and speak before she can ask me what I’ve been doing, so she won’t suspect I’ve been out here smoking.
“There’s a dead bear in the pool.”