Forest Dance

Jackson used to collect wood from the forest to make furniture. That’s why he had to find fine and solid wood for this purpose. Oak, teak, and cedar trees were present in different parts of the jungle and were considered best for furniture making. He had to go deep inside the forest to get good quality wood. That forest was deep and dense, full of animals like bears.

Once he fell ill so he asked his son, Jake, to go into the forest to collect wood for his business. The next day Jake went into the forest. He had accompanied his father many times before but it was his first solo trip. He was a tall and sturdy boy and knew where to go for the best wood. He decided to go to the southern part of the forest. He set off early in the morning long before the sun rose. He was driving a cart for the wood to be put inside on his way back.

His day was going perfectly as he reached his destination in time and started selecting the appropriate trees. He first marked them and started to cut with his saw. The first one was an easy task because the tree was not very thick but even it took him 1 and a half hours. The second one was a thick oak tree with approximately 1 foot diameter. He knew it would take more than 3 hours to fall.

He had cut the tree till sunset and now was ready to go home after a tiring day. Suddenly he saw large shadows emerging from between the trees surrounding him.

He felt his heart beating out of his chest but he could not assess what it was. When they came close enough he saw it was a mama grizzly bear with her 3 cubs who were looking hungry. He knew he was about to be preyed on by the mama bear.

He felt himself trapped from all sides. His legs were like stone and were not moving at all. He felt fear like none before as the mama bear was approaching close to him. He was sure to be dead in a few minutes. He stood silently and recalled the trick “ how to avoid a bear attack”.

On the other side, Mama Bear was also not sure of him as a creature and was thinking about him as a tree or bush. She was looking for some food for her cubs. The fallen oak tree was in between Jake and the Family of grizzly bears.

All of a sudden Mama Bear stopped and started climbing up a tree. A cub followed the mother but Mama pushed the cub down as she wanted the cubs to stay on the ground. Jake was still standing motionless.

Then to his surprise, he saw Mama Bear pull down a beehive. She threw it down and a gushing sound of thousands of bees snaped Jake out of his motionless form. He forgot all about the mama bear and his wood.

The only thing he wanted to save him from was thousands of angry bees. Before he could comprehend his thoughts his body started to run. He didn’t have to look back to know where the bees were as his brain was making him imagine the bees were right on his heel.

After a marathon when he stopped, he noticed he had escaped the bees and the ‘traumatizing’ forest as he called it later. He hitchhiked home. first, he was scolded for not bringing wood by his father. But when Jake told him what happened, Jackson was glad that Jake was okay.

The next day he had to go to collect his cart and wood but with a plan for bees and bears.

Originally published in Medium