Now all of our things are stretched out of shape, one of the women soldiers complained. When they realized the bear wasn’t nearly as dangerous as he looked, they came a little closer. The screaming women were part of a Polish signals unit. Everything smelled so lovely and sweet, like flowers, and it was all dripping with delicious water. One pair was hanging from his snout and he had a bra around his neck. The bear had at least ten pairs of undies on top of his head. The soldier apologized about a hundred times, but the women didn’t want to hear his apologies. He’d never seen women close up before, certainly not screaming ones, and he thought they were a bit scary.ĭoes that bear belong to you? one of the women shouted at the soldier who was standing beside the bear. The unsuspecting bear had wandered into the women’s quarters. The bear put his paws back over his eyes and started rocking slowly backward and forward. You bad bear, what have you been up to now? And what on earth are all of those things doing on your head? What do you think you are? A clothesline? Then he peeped out guiltily from behind his paws.

He stayed in that position until he heard his master’s voice. Shocked, the bear fell back onto his haunches, put his paws over his eyes, and pretended he wasn’t there. The next thing he knew, a deafening scream was echoing around him. Then he stood up on his back legs and began a thorough investigation. He waddled around the tents until he finally found what he was looking for. He took a left and then a right, and then another left. He didn’t even care that his nose was almost blistering in the sun, because when you’re a bear, nothing is more important than a tasty snack. The bear followed his nose through the camp. So he headed off to explore: when you smell something good, you have to seize the chance. There was a new scent too - one he didn’t recognize. And, of course, the smell of miles and miles of sand. He breathed in the scents that were all part of life in an army camp, like the odor of oil and gasoline.

He shambled past the tents, but didn’t find his master.

The bear’s master was taking a nap somewhere, and the sun was so hot that the bear was close to collapse. It was so much bigger than all the other camps he’d visited. And the bear had never been to this camp before. Its paws scrabbled away, but the faucet was too tight. When the animal reached the water truck, it stood up and grabbed the faucet. If you ventured out into the sun, it felt like you were about to burst into flames.īut even so, one creature still came out into the blazing heat, bumbling along the path between the parked trucks and stopping to sniff at every vehicle. At that time of day, the army camp was like a ghost town.

Soldier Bear by Bibi Dumon Tak