The Zoo Polar Bear - The Call of the Wild

Jimmy O’Connell

Each morning in the polo bear section of the zoo, just before opening time, Mother polar bear would comb Baby polar bear’s white coat, while Daddy polar bear rested in the cave.

One morning, Baby polar bear told her he had a dream the night before, but was confused because he did not understand what it meant because it made him feel both sad and happy at the same time.

In his dream, he told his mother, he was swimming in a vast, wide sea of crystal blue water, and the water was everywhere as far as his eye could see. The sky above him was the bluest blue he had ever seen. It was so beautiful, he said, he almost cried. And on the ocean were huge slabs of white rock floating; and in the dream, he swam in the water and caught fish and lay on a slab of white rock to rest under an open sunny sky.

And coming towards him from over the horizon was a gigantic mountain of white rock, and the closer it came, the bigger it became. And in the dream, this huge floating mountain came steadily towards him and made him both happy and frightened.

“What does my dream mean?”

Mother polar bear continued to comb his white coat as she explained. “Even though you were born in this zoo, you are not really from this place. The dream is reminding you that you come from the open sea and the floating white mountains. It is telling you what you truly desire, and where you will eventually return. And when you return to that place, you will meet other polar bears and our Ancient Mother Polar Bear, the mother of all our ancestors.”

“I hope I have that dream again,” said Baby polar bear.

“You will,” said Mother polar bear, “because now that you have begun to remember, you will never forget; and now that you have begun desiring, you will never be fulfilled until you are swimming in the open sea under the crystal blue sky above and the white mountains as your home.”

While Mother polar bear was explaining Baby polar bear’s dream, the visitors were arriving and waiting for the polar bears to perform for them.

The next day Baby polar bear kept watching Daddy polar bear. He noticed that for the first time, Daddy polar bear did not take part in the performance for the children. He just sat on the highest rock and continued to gaze for the longest time out over the lake where the sea lions played and the pelicans swam and out beyond to the distant horizon.

In the evening, when the zoo was closed to visitors, Baby polar bear came up to his mother, who was resting beside the cave, and said: “I think I know why Daddy polar bear is sitting on the high rock and looking over the lake and gazing beyond the horizon. He must have had the same dream I had.”

At this his mother sighed and a deep sadness came over her. For she knew Daddy polar bear was old, and before polar bears die, they sit and wait for the Ancient Mother Polar Bear to call them back to their real homes, to the open seas, and the crystal blue skies; and she knew that because, it is said, The Ancient Mother comes sitting in majesty, on the floating white mountain.

Jimmy O’Connell is a member of Inklings Writing Group, who meet on Tuesdays at 11am in the Annebrook House Hotel.