5. L.Bear-Can-I-Come?

It was the timing that annoyed. You rush to get ready to go out; taxi booked, bits-and-pieces in a shoulder-bag, spectacles located, and coats struggled into. Then it comes in that clear but excited voice of Bear’s – “can I come”. It didn’t matter where we were going or how inappropriate having a bear with you might be. The timing was perfect and the high-pitch of the voice set in such a way as to place maximum guilt on Marvella and I. It took nerves-of-steel to refuse, which is why we almost always gave-in immediately.

It wasn’t so bad if you could explain to Bear why he couldn’t come with us, but sometimes this was difficult. How would you convey to him that visiting a sex-club was inappropriate for bears, he wouldn’t understand what was going-on, and wouldn’t like it anyway? We obfuscated – saying we were going to a place where humans do very human things, and bears would not be welcome. He accepted this, and thought he’d get to know about this later, alongside all the other strange things humans did. No need to rush. 

Or going to work – bears don’t really do this, and there are always a few colleagues who don’t “get” a bear popping-out of a bag unexpectedly, introducing himself with the friendly words “I’m little-bear and in finance, what do you do?” Alpha-males and bosses in general found this particularly difficult, especially if they replied “I’m Maxine”, and managing-partner for E&Y, to which Little-Bear would immediately reply “are you sure, you look more like you’re in illegal waste-disposal”. This seldom went-down-well, though I did try-it-out a couple of times.

Actually, Maxine was an exceptional boss who immediately understood

Bear4