Goldilocks, or the Three Bears, Page 2

average bowl in size, but it was still rather large even for an adult human. The porridge within was steaming, but not excessively so, and it seemed like this porridge had been made second and left out just enough to cool it off a little without it going cold. She quickly took a spoonful of it and tasted it.

  This is just right!

  She smiled as she’d finally found some good sustenance, her hunger instinct rapidly overtaking her as she wolfed down the contents of the bowl within minutes. She suddenly felt stuffed from her stolen meal, though, and held her stomach with her arm as she looked around the house.

  I really should be leaving now. That meal was quite big though and I think I need to rest for a moment. Just a moment and then I’ll be out of here.

  Goldilocks wandered into the next room of the house looking for a place to sit that wasn’t at the dinner table. Her eyes came upon three rocking chairs of differing size, arranged in the same order as the bowls from dinner. One was large, one was smaller, and one was even smaller than that. She barely considered this fact as she approached the largest chair and sat down in it. It was perhaps a little too large and her small body could barely make it rock properly.

  This feels a bit stiff. I need something more comfortable.

  She got up from the chair and sat down in the smallest chair. She felt cramped and even though she could make it rock just fine with her body there was this horrible squeaking sound every time she rocked that she found really off-putting.

  Yeah, no.

  She exited this chair too, the routine of this already hitting her as she quickly made a beeline- as best as she could with her wounded knee anyways- and sat down in the medium-sized chair. It was a great fit for her and rocked just right without making a horrible noise.

  Perfect!

  Goldilocks rocked back and forth for a while, feeling herself slowly become more comfortable as she rocked away the stuffed feeling of eating as much as she’d eaten, and felt herself slowly drifting off to sleep. She snapped herself back to alert as she realized what she was doing and carefully got up from the chair, wincing slightly as her knee pain flared up again from the sudden movement after being in a resting position.

  I need to get out of here now.

  She quickly began to stumble across the house towards the door when she noticed it. Specifically, she noticed an open door leading to a bedroom with three of the softest, most comfortable beds she’d seen in a long time. She stopped moving and stared at them, feeling exhaustion overtake her rapidly.

  Maybe they’ve suddenly moved out or something. I don’t know. I need to sleep now.

  Goldilocks quickly walked over to the medium-sized bed. If experience had taught her anything today it’s that the safest bet she had for immediate comfort was the middle of the road option. She quickly climbed in and fell asleep just as quickly, the medium-sized bed being perfectly comfortable for her.

  Not long afterwards, Goldilocks felt a tap on her shoulder and heard a low voice awkwardly cough. She slowly opened her eyes, trying to process the situation. After a moment she realized what she was looking at and recoiled.

  Standing right in front of Goldilocks were three very large brown bears, they looked like Grizzly Bears to her, looking as unamused as three large bears can look (which is quite unamused in actuality). The bear closest to her was the largest, probably the father, and was looking down at her as his paw remained on her shoulder. The second largest bear was standing off to the side, her eyes locked on the young girl. Goldilocks figured she was a female despite her not having any stereotypically girly features such as a bow or eyeshadow like all the children’s stories she’d read would suggest. Standing next to- and slightly behind- her was a much smaller bear, a cub that was even smaller than the young girl. She was quite obviously the cub of the two other ursine adults in front of her.

  “P-please don’t hurt m-me!” Goldilocks stammered, whimpering and pressing her body back against the wall as the bears watched her.

  After a brief, and incredibly awkward, moment of silence, the mother bear finally spoke, her voice a low grumble.

  “We’re not going to hurt you, little one,” she said softly. As softly as a massive bear can speak at least.

  Goldilocks stopped whimpering and looked up at the bear, perplexity and curiosity overtaking her fear for the moment.

  “You’re… not?” she whispered, her eyes red with tears of fear and shame.

  “We’re not,” said the father bear, whose voice was an even deeper grumble than the mother bear’s. “We were mad at first- and we still kind of are- but we took a look at you when you were lying on the bed before waking you up and realized that you’re hungry and hurt. We can’t in good conscience harm you after that.”

  “Does this mean I can go now?”

  “No,” the mother said, calmly but firmly. “Not until you help us cook another dinner tonight. Since you ate some of ours without asking while we were sorting out a sudden commotion not far from here, I think it’s a fair trade.”

  “I was looking forward to dinner, you know,” the cub piped in softly, her voice quite a lot higher pitched than the others but still with that characteristic grumble. “You could have just waited for us to get home and asked us.”

  Goldilocks blushed a bit and looked down, more tears flowing down her face.

  “I’m sorry…” she whimpered.

  The father gently placed a paw on Goldilocks’s chin and pulled her face up to look into her eyes, a complete lack of malice in his gaze.

  “Look. We’re not happy with what you did but we’ll make this all water under the bridge if you help us with dinner. We’re not going to punish you for what you did even though you kind of deserve it, but we do want you to at least do something for us in return. Is that unreasonable?”

  “No.”

  “That’s settled, then. Feel free to stay for this dinner too,” the mother said softly, walking back out into the kitchen. The cub stayed behind and watched Goldilocks briefly before leaving to follow the mother. The father offered his paw to Goldilocks to pull her up from the bed, to which she accepted.

  “Next time, just ask us, okay?” the father said.

  Goldilocks and the three bears spent the next hour or so carefully preparing another meal as the daylight faded away to night. The bears and Goldilocks shared information about each other and began to slowly bond, the meal slowly turning from a somewhat awkward situation to something a little more natural and engaging for the young girl. After the meal was finished, Goldilocks began to say her goodbyes and walk to the door, but the pain in her knee and the darkness outside made her pause for a moment before turning back to the bears.

  “You know,” she began, awkwardly scraping her foot across the wood floor. “It is kind of dark outside and I have a hurt knee. I hate to impose or anything, but could I stay over for the night at least until the morning? I’ll be gone after that.”

  The father bear chuckled, the noise sounding quite strange coming from a bear.

  “Of course you can stay. While we’re still a little unhappy that this little situation had to happen in the first place, we wouldn’t dare dream of endangering a child and you’ve paid your debt to us by helping to cook dinner,”

  “I’ll pull out the guest bed,” the mother said as she left the room to go to a nearby supply closet.

  Goldilocks smiled softly; gratefully even. While she was still unfamiliar with the bears and felt guilt for what she’d initially done, she was glad things had worked out and that she could learn something positive from all this. The mother bear quickly returned with the guest bed, carrying it like it weighed nothing to her, and set it down near the other three beds. Bedtime quickly approached and all the bears got into their beds for the night. Goldilocks soon followed.

  The bed was the softest, most comfortable bed she’d ever had the pleasure of sleeping in. In the end, despite her own mistakes and bad decisions, this day had been just right for Goldilocks.

  or reading books on Archive.