If I were to tell you that my family's move was the first time I met a Care Bear, I would have been lying. If I were to tell you that the first reason why I met a Care Bear was because I thought the world was out to get me because my father was about to marry a lady I didn't like, and the move to a different district just so my father could be closer to that lady, that would be a lie too. I was really 5 when I became best friends with a Care Bear. It was a week after my birth mother died. I loved her until the end.
The house we lived in was a quaint little thing. The perfect definition of 'townhouse' is what my father would say about it. There was a sunflower field just to the right of our house. In the summer sunflowers would nearly blind you with their yellow-ness. It is in the summer, that our events take place. Why? Because the sunflowers are an important part of this story.
"Clairinda! Clairinda Bennett where are you?" my nanny Madame Gertrude shouted. I never really liked her. I wasn't really sure why, Amanda our housekeeper then and now, thought it was because Madame Gert was so rash with her choices. Amanda always took my side even if it was against my father's.
"There you are Clairinda." Madame Gert said upon looking in my room. I sat on the floor alone, just staring at my teddy bear Klutz in my arms. Some say that I had no idea what had happened after my mother died. But I was smarter then most kids, of course I knew what had happened. My name means 'bright' in Latin for a reason.
"Come here now child." Madame Gert said scooping me up. The lady was so old it groaned as she arched her back up with a healthy weight 5-year-old in her arms. "Old Madame Gert is going to take you to the sunflower fields. Maybe we can pick some sunflower seeds for a nice loaf of bread."
I didn't agree or disagree with what Madame Gert wanted me to do, the easiest word to describe the state I was in was depression. The old nanny sat me down at the edge of the sunflower feild and I just sat there. Madame Gert kept going on about how the sunflowers looked so lovely and she tried to get me to talk, but I looked straight ahead. But then I heard the sound of something thud to the ground and saw something green move behind several sunflower plants. Madame Gert heard the sound too and stopped talking.
"What in the world was that?" she asked.
"Can I go see?" I asked, looking at at my nanny. She looked back at me. Those where the first words spoken for two days, it would have been natural for her to look at me the way she was.
"Do not go to far. I'll shout for you every now and again but if you can't hear me anymore you have to come back. Understood?"
I nodded my head. I stood up and carefully walked into the field. My nanny watched me until I was out of sight but still in earshot. I used my ears to listen to the sounds of the field. My ears pricked up like a wolf's ears would when it heard something. I moved quicker and faster. I didn't stop until I ran into something green and furry. The impact made both of us fall down and when I looked to see what it was, I screamed. The creature looked at me and screamed back. But then we took a better look of each other.
"Who are you?" I asked with a tilt of my head.
"I'm Oopsy Cub. I'm a Care Bear. Who are you?"
"Clairinda Bennett. My housekeeper nicknames me Claire though. I like Claire better though."
The Care Bear creature named Oopsy laughed.