• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Hello from Writers@… Would you like As you’ll appreciate, we can’t get around our usual cafes and groups with our packages of literary S p r i n k l e s loveliness, so we’re issuing this edition as an online- with that? only version. Our writers have been just as busy, and are keen to keep amusing and entertaining our readers with snippets and stories. We’ve made one or two changes to make it easier to read on screens, including a third page! Enjoy! A sprinkling of literary delights Freshly brewed poetry & prose Writers@… Dream Picnic My old Ted is long gone: she shamed me into giving him away. I fell for her persuasions even though my heart told me no. My new Ted, like a new dog, is equally special, friend and comforter, but Old Ted will never be forgotten. I get an invitation to a virtual Teddy Bears’ Picnic. I think, at first, that it’s online, but I check it out and it turns out it’s a lucid dream meet-up. Have you tried them? They’re still dreams, but you know you’re dreaming; they’re hyper- real and you can meet up there if you agree a time and place. You’re in control. So I think: I can take as many bears as I like, and then: I can meet Old Ted. It’s zero hour and time to go. I close my eyes, distract myself from trying – just visualise the scene. If flying is about forgetting to fall, then dreaming is about allowing yourself to fall. It’s a trick I learned from a friend long ago, to feel yourself attracted and just let go. Follow that gleam – yes, there, wriggling behind your eyelid like a silverfish. I cling on to New Ted, keep reaching out, kick once like a sleeping dog. When it happens, it’s quick. Rapid eye movement: I’m dreaming. We’ll take a stroll in the woods. I’m wary at first; it’s the smell of the trees that wins me over. It feels so real – where is this? The whole wood is full of bears, yelling, running, squealing, laughing, falling down breathless. New Ted’s paw in my hand, I run along the path, following the stream. Where is Old Ted? We’ll leap over the distances between us. We reach the grove – there are people of all ages, dozens of blankets on the ground. I see him: we cross the stream. I bawl, I weep, I clutch his fur, lift him up, set him down. The three of us hug in a huddle like lost children. We have slid out of reality, but I am in control: this is my dream, my story. We are together again. We are free. Not for boys I watch as the girls spread out the tartan blanket on the grass. The teddy bears are sat all around the edge, as the girls arrange the tea set in the centre. They giggle and chatter as they pour out invisible tea and distribute imaginary cake to themselves and their teddies. All such innocent fun on a lovely sunny spring morning. A tap on my shoulder brings me out of my peaceful trance. It's my pals. I adjust my Stetson and mount my invisible horse and we all gallop of to the woods to run down the Sioux and Apache Indians. As we gallop past the picnic I glance back, it might be nice one day to play a gentle game like that. But no I'm a boy that would be a girly thing to do. I'd get laughed at. Better not mention it. Now twenty years later and with two young daughters of my own, no one gives a second glance as they walk past us in the park. As daddy sits enjoying his imaginary tea and cake and joining in with his daughters and their teddies’ innocent fun. Sprinkles 29 Teddy Bears Picnic June 2020 Who’s afraid… Ka$e placed Big Teddy at the head. Next to him was Mummy Bear, then Li>le Bear and then Baby Bear. Ka$e banged Big Teddy’s paw on the rug. ‘Where is my dish?’ The other bears stared out with their round, plas$c eyes. S$tched smiles on their faces. ‘Well?’ A noisy blackbird squawked in a tree - finding food for its young. Ka$e took Big Teddy and stood him behind Mother Bear. ‘Did you take it?’ Ka$e made Mummy Bear shake her head. She then took Big Teddy over to Li>le Bear. ‘And you?’ Li>le Bear didn’t move. ‘You sure? We will see.’ Ka$e took Big Teddy to stand behind Baby Bear. ‘Where is my dish? Give me my dish.’ Baby bear flopped over on his soP li>le nose. Ka$e sat Big Teddy down beside Baby Bear. ‘I want it.’ The blackbird sounded an alarm – a cat was approaching. The sun faded behind a grey cloud and a fat teardrop of rain fell. ‘I’m wai$ng.’ She made Big Teddy whisper. ‘Ka$e. Come in. It’s going to rain.’ Her mum was calling her. ‘I don’t want to play anymore. I don’t!’ Ka$e shouted at her family of bears. She grabbed them all up and ran inside. Only Big Teddy, the one her father had bought her one night, was leP behind. To sit in the rain. His demanding voice, for once, taken away. Cuddly Bear Cuddly Bear strolled along the woodland path. He was feeling very sorry for himself: His friends had set off for a picnic, leaving him behind. They used to get on so well together when he was a cuddly little bear, but now that he had grown up his friends said he was ugly. They mocked his large black nose and furry ears. They called him names: ‘Bighead’ and ‘Flatface.’ ‘Let’s go for a picnic,’ suggested Cuddly Bear, desperately wanting to stay friends. ‘Good idea,’ they chorused. ‘I’ll bring a pot of honey,’ said one. ‘And I’ll bring marmalade sandwiches,’ said another. ‘What about you, Cuddly?’ ‘I’ll bring a eucalyptus roll,’ he replied. At this, the other bears fell about laughing. ‘That’s not proper picnic food! We’re not eating leaves.’ And off they went, leaving Cuddly Bear all alone. So, our lost little friend, with his head bent and tears in his eyes, wandered deeper into the woods. Eventually, he came to a clearing, he could hear voices and munching noises. He looked all around but couldn’t see anyone. Then he looked up and there, in the trees, he saw lots of animals with big black noses and furry ears. ‘Come and join in our picnic,’ they called. Without hesitation, Cuddly Bear leapt up into the trees. ‘You don’t look like real bears,’ he said. ‘We’re not bears at all - we’re Koalas, just like you!’ Sprinkles contributors: S Baskerville, L Parker, J Stow, L Taylor-Bayes, J Venner, Teddy Bears Picnic Next edition - August 2020 Sprinkles 29 Teddy Bears Picnic June 2020 Time Shi Milly wakes up early. She is very excited. It’s the day of the teddy bears’ picnic in Nut Wood. She’s going with her Mummy and is taking Teddy Edward -of course- because he always comes with her wherever she goes. As they were geng ready for bed last night, Milly told Teddy Edward all about the picnic; how they would take cheese and cucumber sandwiches, and currant buns, how she would carry him there and he would sit next to all the other teddy bears and her while everyone – all the teddies and children and mummies - ate their picnic. Then they would be games, including a hunt for gingerbread men. ‘‘And you don’t need to be frightened of the woods Teddy Edward because I shall be there all the $me and so will Mummy. Anyway, ’’ she’d added, ‘‘there are no real bears.’’ It had taken Milly’s mother a while to reassure Milly about this as Milly was convinced something dreadful would happen to her Teddy and that he would be really, really frightened in the wood. Once Teddy was reassured, Milly had put him in his cot next to her bed, and sung them both to sleep. So on this special morning, Milly eagerly reaches out of bed to find Teddy Edward, to start their day. But where is he? She feels all around, groping in the darkened room for the familiar feel of a furry body dressed in a yellow tee shirt and green corduroy trousers. She peers over to look under the bed, but there is no li>le cot, no sign of Teddy. She starts to get out of her bed, howling for her Teddy, for her Mummy, shou$ng their names louder and louder. ‘‘It’s okay Milly,’’ says a voice. It’s not Mummy. Milly screams. What’s happening? A light turns on, too sudden, too bright. The bedroom is not her bedroom. Where are her pictures, her toys? Where is Mummy? ‘‘Here’s Teddy,’’ says the voice gently, ‘‘let’s get you back to bed’’. Milly snatches her Teddy, hugs him fiercely and pulls the duvet over both of them. She is terrified and hiccupping with sobs. Her carer sits reassuringly close to the bed. She hums a lullaby for Milly, quietly wai$ng. If you enjoy ‘Sprinkles’ you’ll love our latest anthology of crime short stories ‘’‘Red Herrings and Blind Alleys’ Available now from Amazon Paperback £4.99 Kindle e-book £2.99 Teddy Bears Picnic Next edition - August 2020 .

Load more

  3

Copy Link