My daddy the bear

Chapter 7: Every child ever stole one sweet from a shop

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Although people try to deny it or stigmatize it as an abomination against the most elemental principles of morality, it's still an absolute truth that they grabbed some candy from the shop and shoved off for home to not pay. Some chatterboxes blabber around that it's quite easier to steal sodas and chips since these are the ones that are out of the shopkeeper's sight. The one who gets to steal sweets and chocolates, right in front of the shopkeeper's face, should be granted with a Nobel Prize. But, after all, the aim was the same: take away that one candy that allowances could not cover up. And the one who was actually seen stealing, he or she would not live to be part of those chatterboxes.

   Stealing sweets had no boundaries to make up that junk that left the tongue in a non-tongue color, but it expanded along with social fields people had to deal on a daily basis: labor, scholar, personal... And, depending on these belongings' worth, these thefts were capable of hurting as much as words. Seeing it from this point of view, it was necessary for Mom and Dad to spank their little brat every now and again.

   God no! Stop of setting Bonnie straight! Fortunately it did not cross Frederick's mind to do such a thing. He did not even think about a way to punish Bonnie, because, after some days trying to contact Fox and ask him where he'd taken Bonnie to, he had already given up. Where was he even supposed to start searching? He could not ask Chyna nor Bailey for help since it was pretty obvious what their reaction would be: how dared you do such thing!? They would not stop bugging out and bickering.

   Now more than ever, Frederick was feeling like his heart had sprung a leak and started draining down the purity he had achieved to build up after his farewell. Yes, that leak was not going to be sealed with just saying that he's in a better place. That was just not enough. That thought persuaded him to go back to the fridge and look for more precarious solutions; at this far, any kid who looked at Frederick would say he had no neck at all, but rather the puffiest, brown scarf ever created. This curtain called Mallory, which he had already opened up, allowed him to see beyond what his blue eyes were capable of. He could now see, but now he had to act.

   With his remorse higher than his hope for fixing this, he walked into his bedroom along with a familiar-size, chips bag and sat down over the bed, just like Bonnie did every night he had a nightmare. He propped his knees up as close to his chest as he could. This silence was so overwhelming and palpable that, somewhere down the line of that noon, it started pricking on his heart. No matter how indifferent, grumpy, sulky, shabby or ruthless he were, Frederick was already accustomed to see that purple fur ball cooking his breakfast all by his lonesome, or watching him bouncing on his bed like trying to poke the ceiling, or seeing him taking all his plushies to the living room and pretend that they all enjoyed watching his favorite cartoons.

   That was Bonnie, such a brave kid that had the holy skill of looking at the positives, even though his Dad was never around to hold out a paw to pat his head and say how proud he was of him. How powerful were those words over somebody? They were monumental! Otherwise, Frederick would have never been able to recompose himself at home. Chyna knew how badly words were capable of healing, as well as how they could open wounds and doom somebody toward killing oneself.

   Chyna gave to Frederick the chance to be watched over and look the colorful side of his surroundings. It was not easy, but he powered through and made it. That was how he realized Mom used to give life a warm smile.

   Not seeing Bonnie around was not pleasant anymore. He was alone. So alone. That was not good, and less for somebody who could not get back on sanity after becoming a widower and being cheated four years long. His loneliness and the crunch inside his snout made him want to eat more, as if his bites were not big enough to hamper a weeping coming up. Why the hell am I crying for him!?

   He could not bear the torture of being sat down and keep wishing that Bonnie would appear right in the doorway of his bedroom, so he got up and headed toward that drawer where Chyna found some of his drawings. There was, now stained due to some used napkins, that one with Frederick, Bonnie and Mallory together over the lawn down the sun. That one did not hurt him that much like before, but he did not expect to find more stuff like that in the first drawer. Of course, it was obvious that if Bonnie already felt this way toward Frederick, he would not limit himself from drawing what he wished would have been his family.

   Inside that drawer there were plenty of food wrappers; naughty Bonnie huh, stealing some of Frederick's food and hiding the vestiges inside a sunless spot. Under those plastic wrappers he digged up a thick, yellow paper with the shape of a house: its edges were composed by tongue depressors, and on top of it there was a small picture of Frederick when he used to go to college. Where did he get that from? Better not to ask. And right where the door was supposed to be, there was a dedication printed on paper to the greatest dad ever.

   Of course, it was obvious that nothing that it explained had merely happened, and that the redaction and semantics were too advanced for Bonnie to have written them down on paper. This was no reason to dismiss Bonnie's intention, which was to dedicate it to his eat-it-all Dad. Mostly of the kids of his classroom made the dedications to their mothers.

   Under that yellow house, there was a white paper with the drawing of a round, brown ball with blue eyes and a huge smile with the shape of a number three laid down. On bottom of it, with letters like daddy long legs, there was the legend "Frederic, my dad". Indeed, without the k at the end of his name.

   No, he could not watch this anymore without wanting to look for a way to stop that unbearable pain in his chest. He felt no more tears to let go, well it looked like his empty calories had suctioned them off. It was not believable that, during four years, Frederick did not realize how much Bonnie cared about him.

   When he sat back down on his bed, Frederick brought with him Bonnie's dedications and homemade gifts just staring at them and studying his present and Bonnie's new present. Like a mischievous twerp, he had stolen Bonnie's opportunity to fulfill his apparent dream: having Frederick accepting he was his dad. After all, stealing was not as hard as it seemed.

   Oh, but what was this? Frederick was feeling that presence again, that one he had named as Mallory, but why was it around here? Now what did it want? Could not it see that Frederick was busy feeling sorry? It seemed that these questions, which Frederick actually never thought, worked for nothing, because he knew that she, or it, was here with him. But now it was not the same, she did not seek for making him know how much he suffered and damaged himself for eating like hell and being locked into this dark house. Now he was feeling as though she placed a warm paw on his heart and sealed that hole where the rest of his sanity was draining out. This sentiment was so... so warm, almost as if the sun itself had come down and opened his blinds to let him see again. What was this feeling? How to figure it out? He did not find any way to know it, but suddenly he remembered it was not too late yet. If... if he pressed onward hard enough, he could apologize for having stolen one kid's destiny and paying him with what he desired since the day he was born.

   Some days later, Frederick had to go out and wait for Fox outside of the building he worked at to talk to him face to face. Fortunately he did not run away like that one time Frederick thought it about Bonifacio. Ugh, so gross remembering that dumb! On that day, Frederick with his rusty car drove all the way toward VixenToon House.

   From a distance the placed seemed quite friendly. Nobody could arrive right away from the high road, but one had to drive a little into the woods to find that huge, church-looking house. He parked the car and was immediately met with the view of hundreds of children playing around over here and there, just having so much fun. Or... at least they seemed to be enjoying it. All of them knew mom and dad were gone, and that sooner or later somebody that liked them a lot would take them toward their new home. What had these children done to deserve being in this enormous house and not into mom's arms or playing horsey on dad's back? Frederick and Chyna, despite the dark nights they had spent, were still able to feel Mom's warm hug. There was just no comparing, that was the warmest thing of all.

   When he walked in, Frederick talked to the doorman, which was a gray cat. When he thought about Bonnie, he hesitated about giving away that name for him to be recognized; did they allow Fox to sign Bonnie up with the name "Bonnie"? This cat started typing away on his keyboard as old as VixenToon House's façade.

   "Bonnie... He was adopted this morning."

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