Keep in mind, this is an AU of the main stuff, and in no way affects it. Nothing from the Main Storyline will make an appearance here, other than some characters.
I will be uploading two chapters per week [Tuesday/Thursday], since the chapters are so short.
Thank you for clicking this story, and I hope you enjoy! Please leave a review!
Part Two – Country Bear Hall
When Beary and Jewel opened their eyes, the sun had already been up for two hours. Jewel checked her Country Bear pocket watch and discovered that it was nine in the morning. She sat up and stretched from where she was curled up next to Beary in the trees along the road, across from a dirt path and covered bridge that led to Country Bear Hall.
Their bus ride had been pleasant enough, and no one had asked them any questions, which had rather surprised the young female, whose Uncle was a cop. At least the bus had been clean, and the hour-long ride made comfortable. And the driver had been nice enough to drop them off in front of Country Bear Hall instead of in the town of Pendleton, where they would have had to walk another thirty minutes to get to the Hall, which was outside the small town.
She glanced over at Beary, who was blinking the sleep from his eyes, and gently shook his shoulder. "Hey, Beary. Wake up. I think it's time we got going, don't you?"
"Yeah… Hey, they have bathrooms, don't they?" Beary glanced over at her.
"Oh, just go behind a tree!" Jewel laughed. "They might not even be open yet. There's no point in peeing your pants, you goose!"
"But, Jewel, that's so… gross!"
Jewel rolled her eyes and walked back a few trees. "Not really. My aunt and uncle told me to do it when we're out camping."
"But we don't even have toilet paper!" Beary argued, crossing his arms, trying not to hear the sounds of her relieving herself. He ended up clamping his paws over his ears and humming a tune.
"You are such a big baby!" Jewel yelled back, returning about a minute later. "Now go pee behind a tree."
Beary groaned, not wanting to move from his spot, but he could feel his bowels becoming angry with him. "Ah, man… Fine. This is so wrong. This is nature, not a bathroom! I'll probably step in someone's poop, Jewel!"
The golden cub rolled her eyes and pulled on her backpack. "Just use a leaf to wipe yourself."
"A leaf?!" her male counterpart shrieked, earning stifled laughter from her.
"Yes, a leaf. I checked, and there's no poison ivy back there, Beary, so don't worry." Jewel shook her head, waiting a minute. "Are you done yet?!"
"I CAN'T PEE UNDER PRESSURE!"
"YOU ARE RIDICULOUS! JUST GO!" Jewel shook her head and waited for him to reemerge, which he finally did about five minutes later.
"That was just so… ugh! The proper place is in a toilet, and it smells horrible!" Beary complained, looking very embarrassed as he picked up his backpack and guitar case. "I am never doing that again! I can't even wash my paws!"
"You are such a baby! You're a bear! Just lick them!"
He squealed and backed away from her in shock. "If being a bear means being gross like that, then count me out," he retorted. "Let's go while I still have some dignity left."
"You peed behind a tree. How is that undignified?" Jewel asked as they stepped out onto the road, heading for the small dirt road and covered bridge in front of them.
"It just is! Doing such things is for animals!"
Jewel gave him a sideways look as she leaned forward a bit. "Beary, we are animals."
His ears lowered and he sighed. "Yeah… That's right." His mood brightened suddenly when they passed through the bridge and came to stand in front of the magnificent structure of Country Bear Hall. Just like in all the posters and magazines Beary had collected, there was a big front porch and lots of windows. The front door was huge and had trees carved into it, and the grand Country Bear Hall sign hung high and proud, its letters spelled out in branches.
Beary breathed out a "wow" and quickened his walk, Jewel keeping up his pace eagerly, though they both had to move out of the way when a black car appeared and drove down the same road they had been traveling, the driver giving them an odd look.
.~*The Country Bears*~.
It was just a normal morning. No, really, it was. The birds were singing, the animals making their sounds. An occasional car passed by the Hall on the long stretch of road that started at the highway and ended in Pendleton, none stopping to pay the humble music hall or town a visit.
Then again, no one did these days.
After the band had broken up about ten years ago, tourists would come by the dozens to see the building where the famous county band had once resided. As the years went on, less and less people began to show, until there was no one at all except for the occasional visitor that came about once or twice a year.
The money began to evaporate until there was next to nothing left. Well, Henry still had his business in Nashvill, but since the Bears left, things had been going steadily downhill. If he couldn't find new talent that didn't crash and burn after a few years like the last few had, then he'd have to file for bankruptcy. The board of directors had wanted to sell the company, but he refused. When they tried to overthrow him, he had them fired. Taylor Enterprises was his and Helen's business, and he wasn't going to let it die.
The former board members hadn't cared about music in the end. All they wanted was money, money, money. They forgot about the joy of music, the life it took on. That's why firing them and hiring new members wasn't that hard of a decision.
That's when Reed Thimple III arrived. Thimple was one of the world's most annoying and persistent bankers. He came one day with the news that if Henry couldn't pay the bills, then there was only one solution: The Hall would either be torn down or sold. Unfortunately, a buyer had not been found in time and it was decided that the Hall was to be torn down.
Henry, Big Al, and Roadie were going to be forced to find a new home.
Yet, they still had all the acres Henry's family owned around the Hall. The thing that hurt the most was that even if they'd be able to rebuild their home, the Hall was Henry and Helen's home. To lose it would be devastating, especially since Helen was still in the hospital after her car crash seven years ago, the same accident where Henry lost his son – who had vanished from the wreck. No one knew what had happened to him, and Helen could not tell him as she was in a coma.
Alan Williams sighed as he drove the tractor up the old dirt road that led from the fields back to the barn just as the first lights were hitting the sky. Up ahead, a greyhound charter bus was driving along the road; much to his surprise, it stopped right outside of the Hall. He didn't get to see anymore as he drove the tractor into its shed next to the barn and parked it, turning off the engine. He got down off the red machine and began to walk back to his home, taking his sweet time and taking a nap by a tree for a few hours, until around nine.
While Al was waking from his nap, Henry Dixon Taylor, owner and curator of Country Bear Hall and original manager of the famous band, stood in front of an admission sign that read TOURS ON THE HOUR OR THEREABOUTS, $5. Unfortunately, that price had been crossed out and replaced with $2, which was also crossed out and replaced with fifty cents. Henry sighed, holding the thick black marker, and crossed out that number, too, putting the new price up of twenty-five cents. A coffee can hung from the sign, too, in the hopes that some random strangers would pass by, have pity on them, and put some money in for a donation.
Henry wore a tattered gray hat, which perfectly matched his old gray-green vest and golden tie. His thoughts were distant, belonging to his comatose wife and his lost child, once more trying to figure out the mystery of his son's disappearance.
"Twenty-five cents?" asked a nasty voice that belonged to the notoriously downright mean banker, Reed Thimple, a man with lots of money but no class. "Now that's a bargain. Do you have change for a hundred?"
Henry sighed, shook his head, and turned to look at him. "Hello, Reed," he said with a roll of his eyes. "That joke's a little old."
"So are you," the banker responded, laughing at his own wit. "Isn't that why you like it?"
"I thought you weren't coming back until you were going to tear the place down," the bear responded, placing the black marker in his pocket.
Reed grinned, spinning his cane around. "That's a whole four days away, Henry. Just wanted to see how the fund-raising was going." He stuck his big nose in the coffee can, and tipped it over. A single quarter fell into his grubby hand. "Not too well, huh?"
Henry groaned and headed toward his office, and the banker was right behind him, still talking all high and mighty.
"The people who owned the bank before you didn't mind if I got behind in my payments a month or two. They cut me some slack because they had more compassion than your left toe!" Big Al heard Henry argue when he finally arrived back.
'Oh, great. He's back,' Al thought silently to himself as he walked onto the porch. 'Wonder what he wants this time.'
"Uh-huh. How far behind are you right now?" Reed Thimple asked, his tone sarcastic and just a bit gleeful as he sat in a rickety old chair.
"Uh… Six… years…?" Henry grumbled.
Reed took out a little yellow pad and read some notes. "Six years. 20,000 dollars. Big loans to pay for the hospital bills for your poor wife. Must be tough," the human said, his voice filled with the fake sympathy that angered Al. "You had a good run, Henry, but good things must come to an end eventually. That also applies to lame, junky things like Country Bear Hall. Do you like the sound of crunching wood? I do."
Al arrived on the porch and peered around the corner at the two figures. He knew that Henry was holding back his anger, trying not to clobber the man that so rightly deserved it. Who could blame him if he did? The Hall was his home! And how dare he talk about Helen in such a manner?
Thimple noticed the big gray bear staring and began to walk across the porch towards him. Al quickly disappeared back behind his corner and watched as the man, eyeing him, walked off the porch, heading towards his corvette before turning back. "Oh, and Henry, I almost forgot. Here's your complimentary calendar from the bank. Check out March. She's a sweet one."
Henry sighed, taking the picture and looking at the month of March, which showed a hug building being completely demolished by a wrecking ball. He quickly flipped through the rest of the calendar, only to find that every month featured another building being crushed. Angrily, he ripped up the calendar, enraged at the thought of losing his and his wife's home, though she was no longer here. He had already moved the things from her personal room on the top floor of the Hall to one of the cabins among the acres that belonged to him.
"He took your quarter," Big Al stated, earning a glare from the brown-gray bear. "He did!" Al's ears pricked and his eyes widened slightly at the sound of coins landing in a tin can.
"Oh, like that's gonna help," Reed Thimple said sarcastically as he made his way to his black corvette, quickly driving off.
Al glanced off the porch and his eyes widened in disbelief. Quickly, he got off the porch, grabbing the dreaded "Pardon Our Dust" sign, and approached the Country Bear Hall sign, where a young cub was standing, slightly shocked at the man's rude demeanor.
Two cubs stood in front of the sign, running their paws along the wood engravings and talking to each other. The male had a brown face so light that it almost appeared white in color and hazel eyes. He wore a gray jacket, blue shirt and baggy green shorts. One of his light brown paws was wrapped around a guitar bag case handle, and on his back was a blue backpack. Standing next to him in a green feather-hemmed, purple and blue jacket, blue jeans, and a white t-shirt was a golden bear cub with short golden-auburn hair. She, too, was holding a guitar bag handle and had a red backpack.
Hoisting the sign up, Al spoke, startling the cub. "If you're goin' to stand there, you might as well give me a hand." He then began placing the dreaded sign across the familiar welcome sign.
"What's that?" the male asked, voice filled with confusion.
Al looked at him in confusion. "A sign," the old bear sighed before turning back to his job. 'I would've thought that someone would know what a sign was…'
The female laughed a little at the answer, her laughter fading soon after as she read the sign, too.
"Yeah, but… "destroy"?"
'Ah.' The older bear looked at the cubs with some sadness in his eyes. "Yeah… Well, they're gonna tear down Country Bear Hall."
The hurt and anger that overtook the sweet innocence in the young cubs' eyes saddened Al. The cub turned and looked at the Hall. "Tear down Country Bear Hall?" the girl questioned.
"Yeah."
The male turned around and looking at the gray bear in disbelief and horror. "Tear down Country Bear Hall?!"
The anger in the cub's voice amused Al. At least there were two other persons besides Henry, Roadie, and himself that thought the banker's way of getting the money owed to him was definite overkill. "Uh… Yeah… See now, I thought you meant the sign. I was gonna say, you sure is dumb if you don't know what a sign is. Then I thought maybe you was from like Portuguese or Spainland or somethin'." Al looked up at the porch and saw Henry's disturbed expression. 'Whaddah ya know… Henry can see the same similarities that I can in this male cub…' he thought to himself.'
"Yeah, but-" Beary tried to explain, while Jewel snorted with laughter.
"Right," agreed Big Al. "Well, destroy, as in deconstruct or disassemble in a manner not inclinded to preservation of those parts. In other words, yeah, they're gonna tear down Country Bear Hall."
"Why?!"
"Well, uh, we're in big debt and no one comes see us anymore, so the bank's gotta get their money." Big Al shrugged and returned to hammering.
The male looked in the direction Al had been looking and frowned. "Are you okay?" The female followed his gaze.
Henry was pulled out of his thoughts with a start. "Huh?"
"I asked if you were okay," the cub replied, stopping on the bottom step. "You were staring for nearly a minute."
The female nodded.
Even his tone reminded Al of his deceased sister, Helen. Was it possible?
Henry shook his head slightly, shaking off her memory. "I'm fine, kid. You just… reminded me of someone, that's all," he quickly answered.
"Oh," the younger bear replied as he scratched the back of his head nervously.
Henry spoke again, hoping to make the kid less nervous. "My name's Henry Taylor. What's yours?"
"Beary Barr-" the cub broke off and looked down. "It's Beary… Just…Beary…"
The answer surprised Al. 'Just how many parents would name their cub "Beary"? It has to be him! It just has to be! Helen… Lil' sis… you guided your son home again…'
"And mine's Jewel! Jewel St. Claire," the golden cub introduced.
Big Al blinked, finally taking a good look at her. "Wait, you look familiar."
Jewel grinned and nodded. "My mother used to work here. Trixie St. Claire?"
The plump gray bear's eyes widened. "Well, I'll be. Hey, Hen, look at this! Trixie had a daughter!"
"Well," Henry began, completely distracted, "Beary, Jewel, you paid for a tour, so let's get started, shall we?"
Al watched in amusement as the young cubs scurried up the steps towards Henry. Henry glanced back at Al with a slight smile.
