The Bear and the Two travelers

years back.. with my hair tied back in a pink band, i lay awake on the cold marbled floor of our yishun flat and watched the late afternoon grow dark. Those days.. hours meant nothin.. and were spent lusting in the purest of childlike play.. they were spent in a time frame of wad means a second to us all now. had i idled longer.. i would hear my dad shuffle his sandals.. making his paced way along the corridor to the mouth of our home. It was truly unnoted how long i spent in these afternoons.. starin at an ant.. lost in its urban world.. running along the slippery floors.. or danced along with the settin sun as it lit the hall with an orange glow. Those days.. i had no assignments to finish, exams to prepare for.. or friends to meet up.. time was at my will.. and i scattered it anyway i wanted. life as i knew revolved ard the world my mother showed me. It was in these golden moments, i wld like to believe, the core of me had its foundations laid.

it is in these memories i hold dear the many accounts of ma reading to me. My favourites grew from rythms to fables, of which which they gradually came to a stand still with the arrival of a crying baby little boy. and so bear with me ya.. as i share with u one of these distant moments. From one of my favourites... Aesop Fables . Well.. the book i had, contain a short list of these fables... many that i still love to read. and reading these fables.. i recall how each fable had a page to itself.. accompanied with illustrative coloured pictures.. depicting much of the story line. This fable i picked was cast in a yellow autumn afternoon.. with the ground covered in browning leaves.. one man clinging to the arch of a tree.. and his best friend lay at the foot of the tree.. shieldin himself from the onward approaching brown bear. I jus never seemed to understand y they were so afraid.. the bear had the warmest of smiles..

well..even now as i read this.. it sends little tickles to my mind.. well.. i hope it invokes something in you too. You can check the rest of them over here.
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/browse-mixed-new?id=AesFabl&images=images/modeng&data=/lv1/Archive/eng-parsed&tag=public


The Bear and the Two travelers
TWO MEN were traveling together, when a Bear suddenly met them on their path. One of them climbed up quickly into a tree and concealed himself in the branches. The other, seeing that he must be attacked, fell flat on the ground, and when the Bear came up and felt him with his snout, and smelt him all over, he held his breath, and feigned the appearance of death as much as he could. The Bear soon left him, for it is said he will not touch a dead body. When he was quite gone, the other Traveler descended from the tree, and jocularly inquired of his friend what it was the Bear had whispered in his ear. "He gave me this advice," his companion replied. "Never travel with a friend who deserts you at the approach of danger."

Misfortune tests the sincerity of friends.