WINNIE THE POOH IS A WORK WRITTEN ORIGINALLY BY A. A. MILNE
It's always a sunny day, when Christopher Robin comes to play.
Can't you hear? It's not the birds chirping, or the flowers suddenly growing a mouth to sing with, or the angels descending from Heaven: it's Christopher Robin's laughter, which makes everything bloom and the sun shine brighter.
It always happens when he's around Pooh, and Piglet, and Tigger, and Roo…
Eeyore watches from his thistle patch, as he slowly munches.
It happens around everyone—but him.
He swallows and, shaking his head, opens his mouth to let a few more thistles in. He is not angry at him for it. He can't blame him. They are all very fun, and nice, and good-looking, and cheerful. He wasn't fun, or nice, or good-looking, nor cheerful. At all. In fact, if he was him, he wouldn't like to be around the likes of him, and would stay as far away as it was possible. The only thing he could do around him was spoil his good mood. Some are born with it—that was his case.
Why am I even here?, Eeyore sometimes wondered, those days when he was sure that he brought the cloud which ruined a perfect sunny day. He supposed there was a lot of space that needed filling and he could do. Or perhaps Christopher Robin took him for something he was not back in the day and doesn't have the heart to tell him to go away. He has such a big heart…Sure, it must be that. And if he was a decent donkey, he would just step away and stop bothering everyone. Many times he has thought of it and actually walked for some time, but, for one reason or another, he went back to his precarious house, telling himself that he wouldn't go very far on his own. How selfish from him, right?
Christopher Robin must leave his friends now. He must go to that place, 'school', again. That is why he is wearing those grey clothes he despises so much. Eeyore hears him promise Pooh he will be back at snack time.
Their eyes meet for a second. Christopher Robin waves his hand at him and tells him goodbye before rushing away. Eeyore doesn't have the time to say anything back, nor he wants to, frankly. Act like you don't exist. It will be the best.
But Christopher Robin doesn't come back for snack time.
Pooh is confused and so is Eeyore, a little bit. Christopher Robin is not the kind of boy who breaks his promises. Something must have happened.
Lying with his head outside of his house, Eeyore rises his eyes to the sky and finds that a layer of thick clouds has covered the sun, and the birds have gone silent, and the flowers have retracted.
And he says to himself: yes, something has happened.
Though he believes in the inevitability of destiny and his own inability to do something about anything, he still appreciates Christopher Robin enough to at least try. The least he can do for someone who is always polite enough to ask: 'How are you, Eeyore?', and say: 'Good morning, Eeyore, how do you do?', and look for his tail when it's missing and show concern when his house is torn down.
He has overheard Pooh and Piglet talking about Christopher Robin not being in the Hundred Acre Wood, so he heads towards his house. The door is closed and he pushes it with his head, without knocking first. Not that he doesn't have manners: it's just that he doesn't expect Christopher Robin to be there.
But he is. He is lying on the bed, silent.
"Christopher Robin?"
The boy turns a little bit. "It is you, Eeyore?"
"Yes."
You probably expected Pooh, I'm sorry.
Christopher Robin turns his back at him again. Eeyore doesn't take it badly.
"Are you ill?" He asks instead.
"No…" Christopher Robin replies, but that sounds like a sickly voice.
"Should I call Kanga? She can give you a medicine."
"She's got nothing that could help me."
"Then you need Owl. He will know what to do."
"Don't."
"Sure. He will start talking about his Uncle Albert again and make your headache worse. Tigger's bouncing will be better."
"I don't want to bounce today."
"No bouncing? That means you are very ill. You need honey. Pooh will give you some."
"I don't want to see Pooh today. I've...got the blues...and he won't understand...and I don't want to make him blue too."
Now that is very bad! Wait, what is the blues? Eeyore is honestly confused by this response but supposes he cannot ask. Christopher Robin sounds like he is making a big effort talking already.
"If you don't want to see Pooh, then you surely you don't want to see me." He says after a long pause. "I'm leaving you alone."
He is heading towards the door when Christopher Robin turns around again.
"Please, don't. Don't go, Eeyore."
Eeyore stops and turns around.
"Come here. Please." Christopher Robin says to him, gesturing at him to approach.
Eeyore obeys and when he reaches the bed, Christopher Robin lifts him and places him by his side. He wraps his arms around him and starts caressing his fur, his gaze lost. Eeyore wants to know what kind of sickness the blues is, that has him like this, but in the end, he says nothing. He doesn't want to make it worse.
His silence encourages Christopher Robin to speak.
"Today I tripped and fell in Gym class."
Silence. Christopher Robin sighs.
"For the whole class to see." He remarks.
"Are you hurt?" Eeyore asks. Perhaps by blues he means bruises?
"Absolutely. I just got a tiny scratch on my knee...The teacher told me to stop running like a duck, and the boys laughed at that. They called me Christopher Duckling. They have been calling me that for the whole day."
His voice breaks and finally he shows some emotion, seconds before he buries his face in Eeyore's fluffy back.
"I felt so ridiculous!" He sobs.
This is shocking. The most shocking thing Eeyore has witnessed in a very long time. It almost seems like a logical impossibility that Christopher Robin can feel sad, or inadequate, or do something wrong.
There are many things Eeyore could say at this moment. 'You are not ridiculous', 'Don't listen to them', 'We all have accidents from time to time', 'The story of my life'…But he feels that none of them is important and will not help Christopher Robin. He says nothing at all. All he does is rub his head on him, gently, and let him embrace him and fill him with tears and a little bit of snot. He does not mind about it. After all, Christopher Robin is having it so much worse.
This goes on for what seems like an eternity, until Christopher Robin moves a little away, cleans his tears with the back of his hand and looks at Eeyore with watery, shinning eyes. He lets out a long sigh, which sounds much different from the one uttered before, and kisses him on his head.
"Thank you, Eeyore…" He says with a soft voice.
"I did nothing. I wish I could do something." Eeyore sadly said.
"You did. You did a lot." Christopher Robin replies.
He did? He did! Now that he looks, Christopher Robin looks much better now! Though he still sighs and sobs a little, he is able to draw a smile and seems more willing to move. He won't stop caressing and kissing him, and Eeyore caresses him with his head and kisses him back. Christopher Robin embraces him once again and closes his eyes, the sobbing and hiccups now gone, and when Eeyore realizes, he has fallen asleep. He closes his eyes and joins him, until Mum comes and tells Christopher Robin it's dinner time and reprimands him for sleeping at this time.
"I love you." Christopher Robin sweetly says to Eeyore before rushing towards the dining room, from where they are impatiently calling him.
Eeyore thinks a lot about those three words on his way back home.
He goes through the door, back to the Wood, and he meets a clear ember sky.
Realization makes him go through a miraculous transformation: his lips curve into a smile.
Perhaps…He is not as bouncy fun as Tigger, or smart as Owl, or resourceful as Kanga, and will never be the kind of good friend Pooh is…but…
I love you.
He will never think of going away again. Christopher Robin needs him after all. He might get the blues again, and he must be there for him.
I love you.
How could have he thought of doing such a thing? He loves him too, and always will. And knowing Christopher Robin loves that pathetic, ugly, useless donkey back...
THE END