The Odd Adventures of Mr. Sanders and David Wallace
Chapter 6
Being a bear in a Human body is a real trick, but just try being a Human in the body of a bear! As you can probably imagine, it would take some getting used to on both sides. David Wallace awoke from his sleep in the cave and cautiously trundled down the mountain toward town. To his delight, he came to a cabin which was mostly abandoned. Whoever had been living there had up and left, leaving a warm plate of vittles for him to chow down on. Just as he was finishing up, the angry hikers saw him and gave chase. He gave them a run for their money and then leaped into their nearby car. The car had the engine running, so David Wallace took the opportunity to make his escape by hitting the gas and taking off. As he got onto the main road heading toward town he almost caused several accidents by veering this way and that, not to mention getting some shocked looks by distracted drivers. His journey back to the “City of the Big Shoulders” was just beginning….only he was going WEST instead of EAST and instead of winding up in a Chicago Zoo ended up in the Angeles National Forest in the San Gabriel Mountains. It was just as well because Mr. Sanders and his wife were headed that way, too, for their vacation. After wrecking the car, Wallace bailed and started walking parallel to the highway. He tried thumbing it, but it looked ridiculous, so he kept walking (on all fours because he found he could get around faster and he didn’t feel as clumsy). Night fell and seeing lights in the distance, he headed toward them. It was a Rest Stop. As one trucker slept in his cab over pete, Wallace climbed into the back where he was able to find a load of mattresses. He curled up between two stacks on a soft one and fell asleep. He awoke only when the truck came to a stop. He got up, looked around and went to the back of the truck. The doors had been closed but now they were opening and a very startled Truck Driver found himself face to face with a bear. Wallace did his best to calm the poor man, but the trucker wasn’t having it. He took off running! Somehow, Wallace got across the 210 Interstate and wandered into the city of Glendale. He was hungry again…and HOT. He spent some time in a swimming pool and then went searching for food. By that time, he had gotten some unwanted attention and was being followed. He saw the helicopter and headed for a house that had some nice food smells coming from it. Sanders loved the vacation home. It had lots of room and was far enough away from LA proper that it suited him. It reminded him of…..of…. “Darn, there’s that nagging memory again..” He pulled out his cell phone to call Geoff and walked toward the garage to get the bags of food out. Wallace came around the corner and headed straight for Mr. Sanders. They both looked up at the exact same moment and froze, just a few feet apart. They stood there, man and bear and as it sometimes happens when magic is involved, the strange comet stuff covering both man and bear…dissolved. (Some say it was partially because of the chlorine that Wallace got on his body from the pool.) To some sharp people living nearby, they remembered that there was a flash of light, a shriek and a helicopter passing overhead. David Wallace, a man in his mid 30’s, 5 feet, 9 inches tall and a bit overweight, turned around and high tailed it outta there and back into the house. The Bear, Mr. Sanders (so named by some hikers who happened to see him from the safety of their car) watched the man go and as the last remnants of humanity left his consciousness, he smiled and went back to being a bear. Part of this was caught on the 6 O'Clock News that evening. Epilogue: To make a long story short, “Mr. Sanders” didn’t go all the way back to Colorado. He didn’t know how. After all, he was just a bear. Instead, he made his home in the Angeles National Forest in a cave in the San Gabriel Mountains. David Wallace ran back into the house, out of breath. Connie looked at him with concern. “What’s wrong?” He said nothing. He just repacked the clothes, left the food behind and with Connie protesting every step of the way, drove the rented car back to LAX where they boarded a plane back to New York. The End