An Enchanted Place and Time

He said hello and felt awkward and unhappy suddenly, because it was a sort of goodbye they were saying and they didn't want to think about it. So they stood around, and waited for somebody else to speak.

Pooh brought the chocolates and bitter tea with him...such a generous heart was to be found behind all that fur!

"You are a faithful servant, bear", said Christopher.

Pooh (or bear-Christopher always liked to call his friends different names) was very happy, even though he didn't quite understand. Pooh thought: how wonderful it would be to have a Real brain which could tell you things. "But what is meant by 'real'? ", he asked himself, assuming Christopher could read his thoughts. "And what do you mean by "faithful" ? "

And he took a stick and touched Pooh on the shoulder, and said "Rise, Sir Pooh de Bear, most faithful of all my Knights".

But Pooh was saddened by this and kicked the ground.

"Am I a Knight amongst Knights?"

And now it was Christopher's turn to misunderstand.

"The night is also a sun"

"Am I your child, then?", said Pooh, equally confused.

Pooh wondered if there was a place where what he said would be finally understood.

"There is one such place!", said Christopher excitedly. "I shall take you there".

And Pooh wondered to himself why everyone didn't live there if this place really existed.

"Oh Pooh, you're so mistrustful! "

Pooh, or Bear as his friends liked to call him, held out a paw but Christopher hesitated. "No, no clinging on!"

Pooh was saddened by this and wondered why Christopher's voice was so hard today.

And then seeing this Christopher tilted his head so that his chin rested on his neck and said the same words again, but this time in a hushed voice and ever so gently: "No dear Pooh, no clinging on". And even though he still didn't quite understand and never would, he knew that Christopher meant well.

Christopher Robin was going away. Nobody knew why he was going; nobody knew where he was going.

Pooh gave Christopher a 'going-away' present (although he didn't want him to 'go-away') . He was always helping Christopher like that. It was a blank piece of paper. It's a comforting sort of thing to have, said Christopher, folding up the paper, and putting it in his pocket.

~

And they walked side by side, listening to all the things you can't hear.

Christopher Robin told Pooh many things. And they laughed together, each making the other one happy. And by-and-by Christopher Robin came to an end of the things, and was silent, and he sat there looking out over the world, and wishing it would not stop.

~

But Pooh was thinking too, and he said suddenly to Christopher Robin,

"I think I know you now".

~

Then he began to think of all the things Christopher Robin would want to tell him when he came back from wherever he was going to, and how muddling it would be for a Bear of Very Little Brain to try and get them right in his mind. "So, perhaps," he said to himself, "Christopher Robin won't tell me."

~

The he wondered if being a Faithful Knight meant that you went on being faithful without being told things. "But that boy was so tricky! How could he trust him to always look out for me", Pooh thought to himself.

~

Finally they came to the place that Christopher had mentioned, but Pooh was disappointed since it looked like any other old place to him. Then, suddenly again, Christopher Robin, who was still looking at the world with his chin in his hands, called out "Pooh!"

~

"Yes?" said Pooh

"When I'm--when--Pooh!"

"Yes, Christopher Robin?"

Pooh waited for him to go on, but he was silent again and he could never really understand him when he became silent.

"Pooh, when I'm--you know--when I'm not---will you come up here sometimes?"

"Just me?"

"Yes, Pooh."

"Will you be here too?"

"Yes, Pooh, I will be really. I promise I will be Pooh."

"That's good," said Pooh.

" Pooh, promise you won't forget about me, ever. Not even when I'm a hundred."

~

Pooh didn't understand figures very well and thought that Christopher was already seventy or sixty at least, the way he was always talking about serious things.

"How old shall I be then?"

"Ninety-nine"

Pooh nodded.

"I promise, " he said.

"Pooh, whatever happens you will understand, won't you? "

~

For once Pooh was silent and thought that this one time he could say that it was Christopher Robin who asked too many questions, not him. But he let it pass because he didn't want to hurt his friend.

~

"Understand what?", said Pooh.

~

And then Christopher noticed how tattered Pooh's red waistcoat was. But it's fading colours made it all the more beautiful, like a rose that is dying. He took off his blue raincoat and gave it to Pooh. Still with his eyes on the world Christopher Robin put out a hand and felt for Pooh's paw.

~

Then he turned his back to Pooh and walked away, so that Pooh wouldn't see the tears welling up inside. Pooh asked, "Are you sad now?" but he didn't hear him.

Pooh walked with his slouched shoulders to a nearby tree and sat under it, with his back against it. He felt sad and funny at the same time. And then he came to understand that this most ordinary of places was truly enchanted. For this is where he first met Christopher, and this is where he last saw him..and this is where he would return, when he came back from wherever he was...

.

.

.