It was a rainy Thursday evening when I discovered that my most treasured possession—the teddy bear that I had named Beary—was nowhere to be found. This was a complete disaster! Had I left him behind at Sophia’s house after our last sleepover? Had he fallen down the back of my wardrobe during one of our spirited games of hide and seek?
Despite my thorough searching, there was no sign of Beary, and I had to face the awful truth: he was lost. For comfort, I took my kaleidoscope— Beary’s favourite toy—to bed with me that night. But it was no use. There were tears in my eyes, and I felt so alone. After ages, Dad came and sat by my side.
“What’s the matter, pumpkin?” he asked. I couldn’t help it; the floodgates opened. “Beary’s lost!”
“I see,” said Dad, sitting up. “And what are we going to do about that?”
“We have to find him!” I cried, desperately.
“And how do you think we can do that?”
“Duh, Daddy,” I said, wiping away my tears. “The telephone, of course! I will ring all the people I know who came to the picnic last weekend when he was with me, and ask them if I’ve left him there.”
“It’s a good plan,” Dad said with his hand gently patting my head, “But you can’t ring your friends now because it’s the middle of the night, and anyway, we wouldn’t want to disturb their sleep. Why don’t we give it one more search before we go to bed?”
I did sniff a “yes” consent, and we both went down to look again. However, after delving into our cupboards, under the sofa, upstairs in Mum and Dad’s room and down in the storeroom, we still couldn’t find him.
“There is one more place to look,” Dad said at last.
“The park?” I suggested brightly.
“No, pumpkin, the Lost-and-Found section of the Park Keeper’s home! Pack a little overnight bag, and we’ll go over there now. If Beary is not there, then I’m afraid we’re lost too! But at least we shall have done our best.”
I hopped out of bed to find my best torch and some other essentials to take with me. Soon, Dad and I were making our way through the heavy, pouring rain towards the big park with its Lost-and-Found section.
As we approached the entrance, I felt a sudden peacefulness. I thought about how much fun I had had at the picnic the previous weekend, with laughter, skipping, playing, running, and drawing the five silly animals and birds, but mostly how much Beary had enjoyed it all too.
Suddenly a wild animal leapt into my line of vision, and I squealed with alarm. I quickly raised my torch and trained its light on the weird creature looming in front of me.
The known shape became Beary’s, and a wild shout of laughter transformed my alarm into joy. Beary was quite safe and, if anything, only a little wet through. “Silly Daddy!” I called, floating up to hug him tightly.
“See? I told you we were lost, but now we have been found,” exclaimed Dad happily. It took some time to explain all this to Mother, who was still quite worried that Beary had been lost, and since then, I never go to bed without first saying where in the house I am going to keep both my cherished little animals, because you never know, you see!