High atop on her cloud watch post, Wish Bear was gazing through her star-o-scope down at the Earth below Care-A-Lot. She turned the magical instrument every which way scanning the cities below for anything that may have great significance for the cause of a caring wish. It was not too long before her eye fell upon one particular house in a city in Ohio where when she magically enlarged the star-o-scope's focal view she looked through the windows and watched a particular scene that was just taking place between two sisters.
"But why not?" said six-year-old Erica Charney to her teenage sister Eleanor. "Come on, please!" she begged.
"For the last time I'm telling you no!" replied Eleanor in exasperation.
"Well, what about tomorrow?" asked Erica pitifully.
"No!" said Eleanor irritably.
"What about the day after tomorrow?" Erica tried again.
"No!" repeated Eleanor once again.
"What about -" Erica started.
"No, no, and no again!" Eleanor said almost shouting this time.
"But why not?" asked Erica close to tears now. "Why won't you take me to the zoo?"
"Because I just don't feel like it is why," replied Eleanor angrily. "And why do you want to go to the stupid zoo so badly anyway?"
"Because I heard about the new baby polar bears being born yesterday and I really want to see them," said Erica helplessly. "Don't you want to see them, and the penguins, and the dolphins, and the chimps?"
"No, I don't," said Eleanor. "There are so many better things I'd rather do then be dragged around some smelly old zoo by you just to look at animals all day long! Why don't you just go ask Mom to take you?"
"I did," Erica said weakly. "And she said she was too busy... again... You know she's always too busy."
"Well, go ask Dad then!" said Eleanor.
"You know I can't," said Erica began to tremble. "You know he sleeps all day and the zoo is closed at night."
A look of pain briefly flared into Eleanor's eyes, and then she quickly turned onto her little sister again. "Well, I guess you'll never get to go to the zoo then, so just go take a nap or something, I don't care!"
"But I don't want to take a nap!" exclaimed Erica now very upset. "I'm not even tired!"
"Then just go get tired!" said Eleanor. "And I wish you would sleep as much as Dad does, so then you wouldn't be such a pest to me all the time!"
"I am not a pest!" Erica exclaimed with tears beginning to trickle down her cheeks at last.
"Well, you shouldn't act like one then!" Eleanor retorted. "And then maybe Dad wouldn't always be so drunk all the time!" she added hastily.
It was then that Erica had finally heard enough. She turned around rapidly and rushed away from her sister with her tears now pouring out from her eyes. She hurried up the living room stairs so quickly she nearly tripped over a few of them. Then she ran into her bedroom and slammed the door closed behind her. She then leaped onto her bed and grabbed onto the stuffed white teddy bear that was on her pillow and clutched at it as hard and tight as she could as she sobbed into its thick pure white fur.
After a while as her sobs began to calm down somewhat she turned onto her side on her bed and held her white teddy bear close to her face so that she was looking directly into its shiny black bead eyes and she began to speak to it just as though it were her one and only friend in the world, which was hardly a stretch to say it was.
"Perry..." she began as this was the name she had given to the white teddy bear which she had for her whole six years. "No one around here cares about me at all anymore! Mommy doesn't care about anyone or anything but her work and her phone now! And Daddy only ever cares about that yucky whiskey he drinks all the time that makes him sleep all day and then be all mean and angry when he wakes up. And Eleanor never cares about any of it, or how I feel at all! I just wish I had a caring family like those people on TV have! I wish someone could care about me again... I wish... I wish you could care too!"
High atop the clouds in the sky far above, Wish Bear had heard every word of Erica's to her teddy bear Perry. And now having heard the wish from her, and with her heart full of sympathy and care, her tummy symbol of a shooting star began to glow brighter and brighter until it made a copy of itself which shot out and went forth down from the clouds towards the house far below.
The beam of pure white light burst through the window of Erica's bedroom, without making a sound or a mark on the glass, and slowed slightly as it neared its target. It then touched down onto the tummy of the pure white teddy bear which Erica held cradled in her arms, which was rather wet with the tears that had been shed on it. Then the light melted itself into the teddy bear's fur, becoming one with it, and then the light began to flare out through its paws and middle and nose. The light turned a gleaming bright shade of pure silver and took on the outward shape of brightly gleaming silver heart shape that embedded into its tummy, paws, and nose, and then the light slowly dissipated itself as it sank in once again into the white bear. Then the bear's eyes suddenly became ignited with bright silver sparkles shining out of them from within.
The bear blinked rapidly for a few moments and then turned its head towards the tear-stained face of its child owner. Then it reached out and touched its forepaws with the silver hearts embedded in them to her wet cheeks and tenderly rubbed at the them.
Erica instantly felt the warm and soft touches on her face and opening her eyes, she became quite startled to see Perry looking directly into her eyes with the new silver sparkles that weren't there just moments before. These sparkles were something she had never seen in the eyes of anyone else at all. As they seemed to shine like a candle's flame and burn with the very purest of sympathy, love, and caring she had ever seen in her whole life.
"Perry...?" she muttered softly.
"Yes, Erica?" asked Perry with a sweet smile forming on his furry lips.
Erica was so shocked to hear Perry speak, in a soft and slightly squeaky voice with an overlying sweetness to it, that she bolted upright on her bed so quickly that he fell backwards and out of her arms. He laid for a moment on the bed a few inches away from her still as before, and then he slowly sat upright himself and continued to look into her eyes with his ever sweet smile.
"You... just... talked!" Erica said slowly with her mouth agape.
"Of course I can talk," Perry said simply.
"But you never talked to me or anyone before now," Erica said as she continued to stare without blinking at the white bear in front of her.
"No, that is true," Perry said softly. "I don't know why, but before I just wasn't able to. But I've still always been listening to you. And I remember everything you've ever told me. Now I am at least able to tell you how much I care about you, I always have. And your Mommy and Daddy and Eleanor care about you to, they just forgot they did."
Wish Bear, standing at her cloud post had watched the entire scene take place with Perry coming to life with the formation of his tummy symbol. And then she had promptly alerted the two nearest Care Bears she could find, Tender Heart and Cheer Bear.
"You must come with me at once to Earth," she had said urgently. "I'll explain on the way there."
So then the three of them had got into a cloud car and had flown down to Earth and to the house in Ohio and up to the window of Erica's bedroom. Erica and Perry were both startled to hear the soft tapping at her window, and even more so when they turned to see the cloud car in front of it with the three Care Bears in it. Wish Bear smiled and gestured towards Erica and then the window to show for her to open it.
Erica went to her window and opened it, and then Wish Bear said, "Hello Erica, and Perry. I was watching you both in Care-A-Lot and I heard your wish."
"You mean you granted my wish... and you brought Perry to life!" Erica exclaimed in astonishment.
"Well, yes, I suppose I had helped to make it happen in some way," replied Wish Bear. "Though I admit Perry is quite unique to already have a tummy symbol on him, and not to mention to be a former teddy bear. Anyways, he now has to come with us to Care-A-Lot to learn and train to be a proper Care Bear like us."
"But must I really leave Erica?" asked Perry. "She needs me, you know."
"Yes, I know," said Wish Bear. "But neither have to worry. You will soon be seeing each other again, after all caring is what us Care Bears are all for, and as long as you and Erica care about each other, then you will see each other when you need to. Now come, time is urgent."
So Perry climbed into the cloud car with the other Care Bears, and then while waving and blowing kisses to Erica he called out to her as they flew up, "Till we meet again you are in my heart!"