Jack James and the Tribe of the Teddy Bear

by J. Joseph Wright

  “Hey, speak for yourself,” Pud dissented.

  “Well, you guys, maybe,” she shrugged. “Cheyton for sure. But not me. I don’t know why I was chosen.”

  “I’ll tell you why,” Ayita got up, approached Enola with outstretched arms, and embraced her sideways. “Because you’re the sweetest, nicest Tanakee ever, that’s why.”

  “That’s great,” Takota said. “But it still doesn’t tell me how you got here.”

  Again the group fell silent, motionless, waiting for Cheyton to respond.

  “You should know. You’ve been out there,” he sighed, focused off into nowhere. “It can’t be any better now.”

  “Better than what?” Takota was strangely fascinated.

  Cheyton dropped his head, unable to bear its weight.

  “It was terrible,” Enola continued for him. “From the very first minute of our endeavor, it seemed humans were everywhere trying to capture us. They were right on top of us, as if they knew we were coming. We didn’t know what to do. We weren’t ready for anything like it.”

  She paused and studied Cheyton, then Ayita, then Pud. Wordlessly, they each gave her permission to continue.

  “They chased us so far from the Lost Tribes. So far. But we had to run. We didn’t want to lead them to the others. We felt it was the most important thing to do. If we were going to be caught, at least we wouldn’t show them where to find any more of our kind. So we ran. They starved us. They made us split up several times. Once, we truly thought we’d lost Pud.”

  Enola gave Pud an endearing gaze. He blushed and covered his face.

  “But we didn’t give up. We found him, well Ayita and Cheyton found him. Then we found this place. It was perfect, especially after being on the run for so long, eating rotten scraps out of garbage cans, sleeping in a different cold, wet place each night, not knowing when we’d finally be caught.”

  “But you can’t stay forever,” Takota stated. “Don’t you think you’ll eventually get caught in here, too?”

  “Humans tend to maintain their illusions,” answered Enola. “They see what they want to see, and block out what doesn’t fit into their reality. It’s particularly true here, in this store. All we have to do is play the dead game and pretend to be teddy bears. Even if somebody did spot one of us in action, it wouldn’t be discussed. You witnessed it the other morning. We do have our moments. But they always seem to have a good ending. This, indeed, is the safest place to be right now. You’ll love it here with us. You’ll see.”

  If only it was that simple, he thought. To live out their days in that supermarket, playfully enjoying the menu by night and pretending to be toys by day. What a splendid, carefree time that would be. He could get lost in the idea.

  His focus drifted to Ayita. She wore a wide-eyed glare as if she knew what he was thinking.

  “Movie time! Movie time!” Pud alerted them suddenly. “Tonight’s my pick, too! Come on!”

  Pud prodded them to follow. Takota’s heart began to beat faster when he noticed where they were going. Carelessly, he’d let Pud lead them to the place called, Electronics, where those scary, flat boxes were waiting. Most of them were dark, all except for that one—the haunted one.

  “What’s the matter?” Pud leaned to one side.

  “Don’t go over there!” he warned. “Those things, it’s some kind of evil magic or something!”

  “What’re you talkin’ about?” Pud continued walking. Takota ran to stop him.

  “Didn’t you hear me? Those things are evil!”

  Ayita scoffed. “Are you really that dense? They’re just TVs.”

  “Ayita, be nice,” Enola waved her finger.

  “But I saw something inside that one,” Takota cried. “It was another Tanakee, like me. Only it wasn’t me.”

  “It was too you,” Pud laughed. “It’s not evil magic, see?” he jumped onto the counter and snatched a small device, pointing it at Takota.

  “Don’t!” Takota held up his hands, turning away.

  Pud laughed louder. “It’s not gonna hurt you, silly! It’s a camera!”

  Takota peeked through his fingers. “A camera? Like those things on the ceiling?”

  “The same as looking into a still pond,” Enola said. “It’s truly quite ingenious. Don’t be afraid, Takota. See?” she stood in front of Pud and waved her hands, then pointed at the glowing box. He let his eyes meander to her ghostly twin. He shuddered and leapt behind a cardboard display, peering out slowly.

  “Who is that?” he examined the image. “It looks like you, Enola.”

  “It is me,” she smiled, then turned to the camera. The image in the TV stared at him. “See? I’m coming for you!” she laughed when Takota hid again. Then she stopped. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Come on. Come over here.”

  He shook his head.

  She shifted her weight. “Don’t you trust me?”

  He nodded.

  “Then get over here.”

  Staring at his feet, he sulked to her side. She put her arm around him and pointed to the TV. “See? It’s me and you. It’s not magic. Just technology we can’t explain. That’s all magic really is.”

  He blinked, staring at his own face. “You’re right. It’s like looking into a still pond. That is me,” he waved, this time not so scared about seeing himself wave back.

  Pud let the camera fall onto its pedestal and jumped to the floor. “If you think that’s neat, wait ‘til you see the movie screen!”

  FIFTEEN

  THOUGH JACK’S MOTHER complained on a regular basis about how small and inadequate their new apartment’s kitchen was, she hadn’t lost her ability to whip up some incredible meals. Taco night was the perfect example. She had the table jam-packed with fresh lettuce, onions (both white and green), organic tomatoes, homemade salsa, and her own famous guacamole. All the ingredients to make superb tacos, burritos, tostadas and more.

  “I gotta tell ya’ hon’,” Ben crunched into a stuffed corn tortilla. “You’ve outdone yourself tonight. These are delicious.”

  “Yeah, Mom. Awesome,” agreed Jack.

  “Mmmm!” Lily took a bite of a taco.

  “This is great, Mrs. James,” Amelia held up a burrito and smiled. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” she told the kids, then eyed her husband. “It would be a lot easier to cook if I had my kitchen. I miss it so much.”

  Ben took her hand. “Honey, I promise you. When I finish the O/A, we’ll change the world. Just hang in there a little longer, you’ll see.”

  “Hang in there?” Liz stood, yanking her hand away. “I’ve been hanging in there our whole marriage. My God, I must have been nuts to marry such a delusional man. I’ve got news for you, Ben. It’s kind of hard to hang in there when everything’s falling apart!”

  She stomped out of the dining room, leaving everyone behind in an uncomfortable silence—except Ben.

  “Don’t worry, kids,” he grinned. “She’ll come around. When she sees how my invention will alter the course of history, she’ll definitely come around. It’s hard to appreciate something until it’s completed, sometimes.”

  “Mom’s sad,” Lily muttered at her plate. “She cries a lot.”

  “You know what?” Ben suggested. “Let’s talk about something else, shall we? Anything new and exciting happen lately? Hmm?”

  “Jack talks to teddy bears and thinks they’re real,” Lily giggled. “Mom says he’s goin’ crazy.”

  “Oh yeah, punkin’? That’s very…” Ben choked, spitting up in his mouth. “What?”

  “It’s not a teddy bear,” Jack corrected her. “And I’m not going crazy.”

  “Hee-hee!” Lily stuck out her tongue and ran from the table singing, “Jack talks to teddy bears! Jack’s goin’ crazy!”

  “What does she mean, Jack?” Ben asked playfully. “You…into teddy bears again?”

  “No, Dad. I’m ten. I don’t play with teddy bears anymore.”

  Ben glanced at Amelia. She shrugged.r />
  “You, uh, gonna drop science to become a ventriloquist?” Ben joked.

  “Dad, knock it off.”

  “Then what? What’s going on?”

  “Nothing,” Jack craned his neck, searching for signs of his mother.

  “I see,” Ben leaned in and whispered. “Your mom doesn’t want you to talk about it?”

  “Dad, I’m not crazy,” Jack whispered, too.

  “Mr. James—here,” Amelia handed him her phone. He drank in the information like a sponge.

  “Small cryptid,” he thumbed through the file. “Pacific Northwest…less than three feet tall…thick coat…Furry Forest Baby…Tanakee. Tanakee?”

  “You’ve heard of them?” Amelia seemed shocked.

  “Yeah—well, no,” Ben scowled, deep in thought. “I haven’t. But they sound intriguing.”

  “If you think that’s wild, check this out,” Amelia ran her finger along her phone’s touch screen, scrolling to let him read the rest.

  “Department of Defense…vanish into thin air…mind control…interdimensional being!” he slapped his hand over his mouth.

  “What are you guys whispering about in here?” Liz made her return to the dining room.

  “Uh, she was just showing me her new phone,” explained Ben. “These things are getting more and more amazing all the time.”

  “Uh-huh,” she scrutinized each of them. “Who’s done?”

  “Thanks, Mom,” Jack handed over his dinner plate. “That was great.”

  Liz picked up some used dishes, took them into the kitchen, dropped them into the sink, and started the tap. The sound of running water allowed Ben just enough cover to get out a surreptitious question.

  “So, you think you’ve identified one of these Tanakee creatures?”

  “We think so,” answered Jack. “At Winmart.”

  “Winmart? What the devil is it doing there?”

  “It’s…living there, pretending to be a teddy bear.”

  “Well if that doesn’t beat everything!” he exclaimed, then hunched down, wincing.

  “What was that?” Liz raised her voice.

  “Nothing, honey,” he spoke up. “I just said I’m helping you clean up, that’s all.”

  He got up and gathered the rest of the dishes off the table.

  “You guys sure it’s at Winmart?”

  “Yeah, why?” responded Jack.

  Ben squinted, tapping his temple. “Call it a feeling, but that part about the Tanakee being interdimensional—I mean, my machine works on an interdimensional level. I wonder if there’s a correlation. We have to investigate this. Tell you what, let’s go to Winmart right now.”

  “But isn’t the store closed?” Amelia said.

  “Jack’s mother works there,” suggested Ben. “Maybe she can get us in.”

  He tossed a worried glance across the pass-through at Liz while she cleaned the dinner dishes in the other room. Then he huddled with the two kids for one last secret message.

  “You two wait here while I make sure it’s okay with her.”

  He carried the plates and cups to the kitchen. When he’d finished placing the load in the sink, Liz sighed and shut off the water.

  “Tell me this is one of those times we’ll look back on someday and laugh about,” she said. “We’ll remember this time in our lives as just a-a stupid little bump in the road, right? Tell me it won’t always be like this.”

  “Liz, you’ve got to know it won’t. You’ve got to know.”

  “I don’t know anything anymore. I don’t know where we’re at, and I don’t know where we’re going. I don’t know you, and I’m not sure if I even know myself anymore.”

  “Honey, please,” Ben sounded desperate, something Jack wasn’t used to hearing from his father. “You’ve got to believe me. When this technology I’m working on is completed, the world will never be the same. We won’t need money. No one will. It’ll be the end of homelessness and hunger. Forever.”

  Liz laughed breathlessly through her sobs.

  “You’ve been saying these things for so long. When will it end?”

  “Soon, I promise.”

  “You can’t keep saying that. You can’t keep skating by on a promise while your family falls apart.”

  “Shhh,” he tried to calm her.

  “No! I won’t be quiet! You need to understand what you’re doing to this family. Do you even care that your daughter cries herself to sleep? Do you know your son is having delusions? Do you realize the depths of depression you’ve sent me into? We’re suffering, Ben. And you come in here and act like it’s all a big joke!”

  “I think I should go,” Amelia hurried out of the dining room.

  “Hold on!” Jack followed. “What about Winmart? Dad said he’d go with us.”

  Amelia stopped at the front door. “Your dad’s not going anywhere tonight.”

  “No, no, NO!” Liz stormed out of the kitchen and up the stairs, Ben three steps behind. “I won’t listen to this anymore!”

  “Honey, please! Wait! Please, just wait!”

  He got halfway up the steps and stopped.

  “Change of plans, guys. We’ll go check out your little critter first thing tomorrow, ‘kay?”

  “See,” she smiled. Ben ran to the top of the staircase, then down the hall.

  “Maybe we should go by ourselves,” suggested Jack. “I’d hate for it to be missing tomorrow.”

  “To tell you the truth,” she admitted. “I’d feel much more comfortable having your father with us. I really got the creeps today.”

  He agreed. “Yeah, you’re probably right. We might need Dad around just in case something strange happens.”

  SIXTEEN

  IN A LITTLE NOOK built inside the electronics department, the humans had put tremendous care toward making a relaxed setting, complete with windows looking out onto fake vistas, decorative wall art, imitation plants and, most importantly, a nice, soft sofa. It might have been a little cramped in there for more than two people, but for five Tanakee it was just right. Even with Pud doing a cannonball against the backrest onto the cushion, the couch had plenty of room for all to sit and watch the seventy-five inch LED, 1080p, HDTV in comfort. Takota didn’t know what all that meant, but Pud made it sound important.

  “Uh-uh,” Pud yanked the gadget they called the, ‘remote control,’ out of Cheyton’s grip. “My turn.”

  He pointed it at the screen and pressed a button. Takota squealed in horror. He saw a humongous lion, roaring and pouncing with its fang-filled mouth open wide. Pud laughed uncontrollably. Takota relaxed a little, realizing, as Enola had shown him, it was an illusion, a trick of light and color trapped behind glass. The scenes were so convincing even Pud went quiet, enthralled at the panoramic view of a vast wilderness. They were all captivated, none more so than Takota. He was reminded of his home by the massive trees, the elegant, soaring birds, and the sun-kissed summits on the horizon.

  “What! Hey!” clicking the remote, Pud drooled at what showed up next on the screen. Larger than the couch, hovering in space was a giant slice of steamy, bubbly pizza. He jumped down and nearly pushed over the TV trying to get his hands on the fictional treat.

  “Come on, Pud. Let’s get on with the movie,” Cheyton became impatient. “We don’t have all the time in the world, you know.”

  “Yeah, the movie!” Pud hopped onto the sofa again, then clicked the remote. The presentation began with lighthearted music and shots of stuffed animals quite similar to the ones the Tanakee had been hiding amongst. They sat on shelves in what appeared to be a young boy’s bedroom.

  “Christopher Robin has toy animals to play with,” an unseen man said. “And they all live in a wonderful world…”

  “Not this one again,” Ayita let out her irritation. “Do we seriously have to watch this?”

  Pud sat in a trance. Ayita wiggled from her seat, scaled to the top of the backrest, and dropped to the floor, storming from the tiny room.

  Takota wanted to
keep watching. Something made him surrender to Ayita’s moody allure, though. He abandoned the others and ventured to find her.

  “Ayita? Where are you?”

  He thought he heard her. When he turned he saw humans, and on the spot played the dead game, though it was hard to get his thumping heart under control. Who were these people? What were they doing there after closing time? He thought about his friends watching the movie. Certainly they’d be caught.

  He decided to do something. Sneaking on all fours, he crept behind where the people were standing, which, curiously, was on top of a display table. He didn’t question what they were doing. He just knew he had to distract them long enough for the others to make their escape.

  He leapt and landed on the stand in front of the two intruders, waving his little, furry hands and hissing—one of the scariest noises he knew. The people didn’t move. Something was wrong. They didn’t have arms. Or feet. And their faces were featureless, with a bump for a nose and no eyes or mouth. He stepped away. Still not sure of what he was seeing, he stepped again and tumbled backward onto the floor. He rubbed his rear, coming to terms with how dumb he’d been. Those things weren’t real people. He picked himself up and glanced around, glad Pud hadn’t seen what he’d just done. Then he decided to get back to searching for Ayita before someone caught on.

  He checked the grocery area twice, gobbling a bag of M&M’s for an energy boost, and found no sign of her. Then he investigated Kid Kastle, the Lost and Found, and the out of the way areas—paint, automotive, hardware. He felt no closer to her than when he’d started. Finally, he wandered to the toys, hoping to find her in their improvised home up among the fake bears, dogs and bunnies.

  “Ayita?” he whispered. Without an answer, he grew impatient. “You up there?”

  Rumbling caught his ear. It sounded close, and getting closer. The aisle was empty except for a bunch of dolls and action figures, staring like the eerie undead. He thought he heard the noise coming from behind and jolted in a half circle, assuming a low, combat stance, ready for anything. Again, nothing came.